Part 37
After the election of the legislators in 1900 the Columbian Club sent circular letters to each one, setting forth the merits of the two bills the club had prepared and upon which its energies were concentrated, namely: a bill creating a state library commission, and a bill authorizing common councils of cities and governing bodies of communities to levy a tax not to exceed one mill on the assessed valuation of property for the establishment and maintenance of free reading rooms and libraries.
Similar circular letters were sent to each of the 75 newspapers published in the state. All women's clubs were importuned to co-operate, and also all public school officials, teachers and educators of the state. The press responded right royally with one single exception, and book lovers and educators of high and low degree lent their willing assistance. Representatives of the club again appeared before the 1900 annual state teachers' meeting, and secured an official endorsement from that body for the proposed library legislation. The state teachers' association, in addition, advocated a law requiring that three per cent. of all school moneys be set aside as a fund for school libraries, to which the club women gave their aid and which also became a law.
At the convening of the legislature in January of this year the leaven had begun to work, thus paving the way for the successful lobbying by the official representatives of the Columbian Club.
The first step was the selection of a conspicuous legislator to stand sponsor for our bills. In this we encountered an embarrassment of riches in capable legislative material, but finally selected Senator S. P. Donnelly, who cheerfully assumed the duty, and exerted the full force of his wide popularity and marked ability from the time of his introduction of the bills until the final vote upon them.
The club members held frequent conferences with the educational committee of both houses of the legislature and other legislators specially interested in educational matters, and made plain to them the inestimable benefits of the bills we championed.
And in this connection I desire to make graceful acknowledgment to the library workers of Wisconsin, as it was while a resident of this state I received from them my first library inspiration; and particularly do I desire to acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. F. L. Hutchins, whose personal communications and generous supply of library literature enabled us to fully present our subject and to meet all objections raised by some of the legislators.
Every member of the legislature, with the exception of one in the lower house, was buttonholed, and the consequence of that oversight was manifested on the final voting day.
In the meantime the club requested the home papers of the legislators to continue to urge favorable action; and the club women from all parts of the state, by letters, personal visits and petitions to the legislators, did likewise.
The instinct of partisanship, a peculiarity of all legislative bodies, was not manifested in the least.
On the day for the final action in the Senate Committee of the Whole the Columbian Club was notified and attended in a body, the courtesy of the floor being extended to us.
Imagine our consternation, when the question was submitted to an aye and nay vote, at not a voice being raised in its favor save Senator Donnelly's. For a few moments silence so profound that it was almost palpable prevailed, when presently Senator Kinkaid, who was in the chair, without calling for the nays, solemnly announced, "The ayes have it"; and delight supplanted our agonized distress as the pleasantry at Senator Donnelly's expense and ours dawned upon us.
The bill was then placed upon its final passage, and the senators, who hesitated in their support on the ground of economy only, announced that they would vote in favor of the bill, but desired it expressly understood that they did so because they were intimidated by the presence of the Columbian Club. The best of spirits prevailed, and our bill providing for a state library commission of five members, two at least to be women, passed the senate unanimously, the president of the state university and the superintendent of public instruction to be _ex officio_ members and the other three members to be appointed by the governor; and the law appropriated $6000 for the purchase of travelling library books and the maintenance of the commission for two years.
The bill was sent to the lower house to take its course in that body, but we were denied the privilege of practicing intimidation there. Immediately upon its arrival in the house a member moved that it be made a special order of business and be immediately placed upon its final passage, and that a polite message be sent the president of the Columbian Club that the house would perform its solemn duties without the assistance or coercion of that club.
The bill passed the house unanimously save for the solitary negative vote of the member whom, by an inexplicable oversight, we failed to interview, and who announced he so voted for that reason.
This library commission bill was by all odds the most conspicuous matter before the legislature, and the enrolled bill submitted to the governor for signature was elaborately prepared and adorned with the club colors by the attaches of the legislature.
The commission has been in existence three months, or more properly speaking, less than two months, for the necessary preliminary work did not enable us to get before the public until May. Already we have been invited to assist and direct the formation of six libraries and to select books for the penitentiary library, have placed in circulation 10 new travelling library cases in addition to the 15 cases donated to the state by the Columbian Club, and have 20 more cases in preparation.
While the law provided for the appointment of at least two women on the commission, the governor appointed three, two of whom are members of the Columbian Club; and our superintendent of public instruction being a woman, we have four of the five members, and what is more especially to the point, they are all club women.
Woman's clubs may with propriety, I think, lay claim to some credit for library laws in Idaho, and yet it is significant that the reason for their power lies in the fact that the women of our state have in their hands the wand of progress and civilization, the most powerful and bloodless offensive and defensive weapon on earth--the ballot. In the hand of the frailest of our sex this powerful weapon can strike as deadly a blow at evil or as strenuous a blow for good as it can in the hands of the brawniest of fighting men; no moral wretch of whatever size and strength but what the very gentlest of our number can cancel his registered will on election day; for an aspiring public servant to dare oppose a righteous cause means sure defeat--for womanhood inevitably arrays itself against the hosts of error.
The women of our state, marshalled under the leadership of women's clubs, stood in an unwavering and united array for all our library laws and every other law that stood for good; and there were, all told, 15 bills affecting education enacted into laws at the last session.
Whatever of inspiration and encouragement the success of women's clubs in Idaho may give our sister clubs in sister states, the success of woman's suffrage there at any rate will help to silence the scoffers' sneers and help put this ballot-sword, forged in the workshop of right and justice, in the hand of every woman.
In the absence of Mr. John Thomson Miss Neisser read Mr. Thomson's paper on
HOW TO SECURE A STATE LIBRARY COMMISSION.
I am asked "How to secure a state library commission?" I answer:
_Ask for it._
_Urge it on the legislature._
_Strive persistently._
Without these three methods, there is little hope of getting a library commission or the passage of good library legislation.
Pennsylvania has been behind every other state in the Union in the matter of library legislation and principally because hardly any effort was made to procure the assistance of the legislature. Outside of a dog-tax paid over for the support and maintenance of public libraries, under an act approved in May, 1887, no real step was taken in this state to secure the benefits of the public library movement until 1895. In that year, it was sought to pass an act to authorize all cities and boroughs of the commonwealth to levy taxes and make appropriations for the establishment and maintenance of free libraries. Unfortunately, this bill was stoutly opposed and was finally amended so as to affect only cities of the first class. The most important subsequent legislation was the approval by the governor in May, 1899, of a bill providing for the appointment of a free library commission and defining its powers and duties. Under this act, the governor had power to appoint five persons, who with the state librarian, constitute the free library commission--the state librarian being _ex officio_ secretary of that body. The commission has power to give advice and counsel to all free libraries in the state and to all communities which may propose to establish them, as to the best means of establishing and administering such libraries, the selection of books, cataloging, and other details of library management; and the commission has certain powers of general supervision and inspection. The section closes with the following words:
"The commission shall also establish and maintain out of such sums as shall come into their hands, by appropriation or otherwise, a system of travelling libraries as far as possible throughout the commonwealth."
Legislature adjourned without making any appropriation and the commission found itself in the position described by Dickens when Mr. Pickwick and his friends were authorized to travel where they liked, make such investigations as they thought good, and generally to promote science at their own expense. The commission was authorized under the powers conferred upon it to purchase books, provide book-cases, print whatever matter seemed good to it, and generally develop a travelling libraries system throughout Pennsylvania _at its own expense_. Nothing daunted, the members of the commission met in the state library on April 25, 1900 and organized, and being absolutely without funds, efforts were made to secure contributions from benevolent friends of the movement and $2800 were raised from 29 persons who generously placed in the hands of the commission sufficient funds to enable it to start the work. In a recent circular issued by the commission, the secretary calls attention to the fact that Ohio already had more than 800 travelling libraries and an appropriation of $5000 per year with which to carry on the work. Michigan has many libraries and an appropriation of from three to five thousand dollars per year. Wisconsin has six or seven hundred travelling libraries, and New York nearly one thousand. Every state of any importance in the Union has established and is maintaining travelling libraries on from three to five thousand dollars per annum. A few travelling libraries only at present have been sent out in Pennsylvania. These are now in use, but the commission was afraid to undertake much work, as it did not know how soon its funds might be exhausted, and it might find itself unable to grant the applications for travelling libraries which are steadily coming in.
When it is asked how to secure a state library commission the second question how to secure an appropriation with which to carry on the work of the commission is necessarily involved. In the case of Pennsylvania (just brought to a happy issue,) the active interest of many of the leading newspapers throughout the state was sought and obtained. The editors of these papers were written to in person and a statement describing the scope and needs of the library commission and the amount of the appropriation hoped for was forwarded to each. With one or two exceptions, the editors printed much of this material as news, and a considerable number added editorials urging the importance of the movement. More valuable help could not have been secured. The smaller papers, which of course draw their material largely from the papers published in the larger cities, followed suit, and practically reprinted the same matter. Copies of the papers containing these articles were secured, and marked copies were sent to the representatives from their own neighborhoods. In this manner nearly three hundred of the newspapers throughout the state were communicated with, and their assistance had a great deal to do with the final granting of the appropriation. In this way information was laid before thousands of citizens who would otherwise have been uninformed on the matter. Beyond all this an explanatory letter fully detailing the position of the commission was sent by one of the commission to every member of the legislature and the secretary of the commission issued the excellently prepared circular (above referred to), several copies of which were sent to every member of the legislature and to others. The result has been that an appropriation of $3500 has been passed by both houses, and there is no reason to doubt that the bill will receive the governor's signature when the time comes for him to sign the appropriation bills for 1901-1902.
It would be waste of time at a round table meeting like this to dwell upon the benefits of the travelling libraries movement. The free library commission of Pennsylvania has determined to do its utmost to develop the movement throughout the state, and if a practical answer is to be given to the question, How to secure a state library commission?, I would say, Recognize the importance of the movement, strive early and late, through the newspapers, by means of circulars and by personal interviews, to interest the members of the legislature, and persevere unintermittingly in impressing your needs upon those who have the power to grant the necessary legislation and appropriation. Work early and late and do not stop working until you have secured what you want.
Mrs. BELLE M. STOUTENBOROUGH spoke on
WHAT WOMEN'S CLUBS CAN DO TO FURTHER THE WORK OF THE LIBRARY.
I trust you will pardon me for adding the word "Nebraska" to my topic. Six years ago last October the Nebraska Federation of Women's Clubs held its second annual meeting at our state capital. Some two weeks before the meeting Mrs. Peabody, a name familiar to every librarian in this room, who was at that time our president, wrote me: "I am very anxious to bring the travelling library movement before the women of our state. Will you talk for 15 or 20 minutes on this topic before the Lincoln meeting?" If she had asked me to talk on the study of comparative anatomy, I should have been just as familiar with the topic, but in the reference room of the Omaha Public Library, I held a consultation with Poole's index, and succeeded in finding just one article on travelling libraries; it was in the January _Forum_ of 1895, and if I am not mistaken, it was a brief history or sketch of the traveling library movement in New York. Here was my opportunity; what had been done in New York, could be done in Nebraska, although upon a smaller scale, by the Federation of Women's Clubs. I shall not forget how I trembled as I stood before that large audience and made my first plea for a travelling library. However, the secretary, in reporting the meeting, was kind enough to say that the audience at once caught the speaker's enthusiasm, and a committee was appointed for the formation of plans for a federation travelling library. A hundred dollars was subscribed, and sixty books purchased and sent out to eight clubs that first year. I know it seems like a small beginning to-day, but it was serious, earnest, and full of possibilities, and to-day the work is an educational factor in our state. I believe that these books which have gone out to the club women have not only enabled them to pursue certain lines of study, which otherwise it would not have been possible for them to have taken, but they have created in the minds of other members of the family a desire to possess good reference books. These books are sent out from my own home. The clubs receiving them are at no expense except in paying express charges for their return. The work is supported by voluntary contributions, and as to the salary of the librarian, she is paid over and over again in the thankful letters which she receives from the people who are using the books.
In 1897, the Nebraska Library Association succeeded in introducing a bill in the legislature, creating a library commission for travelling libraries. It passed the lower house, and went into the senate, where it was "lost to sight, though to memory dear." In 1899, nothing daunted, the Nebraska Library Association was there again with its library bill. It passed the lower house, but it never reached the senate. Last June, the National Federation of Women's Clubs was held in the city of Milwaukee. Mrs. Buchwalter, of Ohio, the chairman of the program committee, planned for a bureau of library instruction or information, and this bureau was located in an upper room in the Milwaukee Public Library. The presiding genius in the room was Miss Stearns; I always think of her as the pioneer travelling library woman of the northwest. A clubwoman from Nebraska was in attendance at that meeting and instead of spending her time listening to the program, she passed the greater part of the week in that upper room, and there she learned the work which is being done by women's clubs throughout the length and breadth of our land in this library field, and she went back to Nebraska determined, if possible, to secure legislation for free travelling libraries in the coming year. It was a strange coincidence, that last October the Nebraska Federation of Women's Clubs again held their annual meeting at our state capital, and as before, the same woman who had presented six years before to that meeting, a plan for a Federation travelling library, was there to present a plan for free travelling libraries and a state library commission for Nebraska. The plan was formally and unanimously adopted, and a committee was appointed to co-operate with the Nebraska Library Association to secure legislation. In all this work, we never had any one who assisted us more ably than Mr. Wyer, the librarian of the state university, who was never too busy to advise us or to see a man that we could not reach, and he it was who drafted our bill and saw it through. To make a long story short, the first thing we did was to send out circulars suggesting that "a library day" be observed in the clubs; this library day was generally discussed throughout the state. Then we sent a petition which was circulated, not only in the towns, but among the farmers and their wives; and finally one March morning I received the following telegram: "Rejoice and be exceeding glad"--and I have been rejoicing ever since, for house bill no. 20, carrying with it an appropriation of $4000 for free public libraries, for free travelling libraries, and for the state commission, had passed, not only the lower house, but the senate. It received the governor's signature, and it means we are to have travelling libraries in Nebraska.
Miss FREEMAN: Mrs. Morris, of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission and the General Federation of Women's Clubs, will be unable to be with us this morning on account of illness. We are, however, fortunate in being able to hear from Mrs. Youmans, the president of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs.
Mrs. YOUMANS: I cannot possibly fill Mrs. Morris' place, but I should not like to have this subject discussed without Wisconsin being represented.
We may gather from the deliberations of this association, that Wisconsin keeps a prominent place in library work among the states of the Union. If this is so, and I do not doubt it, it is, as we all know, due to the enthusiasm and energetic efforts of the Free Library Commission, and this commission will assure you that its members have had no more enthusiastic allies than the club women of the state. Work for libraries was the first work undertaken by Wisconsin women's clubs--the first work outside of their regular literary programs--and since the organization of the federation in 1896, it has been one of its most prominent lines of work. I suppose there are few clubs among the 150 in the federation that have not done something, sometimes important and sometimes unimportant, for the library movement. They have established libraries and free reading-rooms; they have helped to support libraries; they have made donations of books and money; they have sent out travelling libraries on their errands of usefulness; and they have also sent out travelling reference libraries especially for the uses of the study clubs. The federation at the present time is making a special effort toward securing as many of these travelling reference libraries as possible. The club women in the interior of the state have very inadequate reference facilities; we have now only six or seven of these reference libraries, and we feel comparatively rich that we are soon to have half a dozen more.
A great many of the public libraries in Wisconsin are due directly to efforts of club women. The public library of Waukesha is due directly to the efforts of a little coterie of club women; they started seven years ago, with prospects that could not possibly be called brilliant. They kept the library going for seven years from one month to another, in some way securing the money, and finally the burden was taken from their shoulders by the city council. Now, the library is not large; it is not, from a technical point of view, fine; and it certainly lacks many things that we hope to have in the future; but it has 2500 volumes, generally read and much valued by the people, it has become established as a regular necessary part of the municipal life, and I think it is sure of a regular though moderate support from the public funds. In a city a few miles north of here a woman's club has a fund of $500 towards a library building. It does not intend building a library with that sum; it does not intend to go on earning money by rummage sales and private theatricals; but it does expect to use that money and to use the interest of the members of the club as a center for developing library interests in the vicinity.
This work is illustrative of what is being done all over the state, and it is not so much the money that the club women collect for the libraries, nor the books they may secure, nor even the direct work that they do; it is the feeling that they disseminate as to the value of public libraries. The club woman, in her club work, finds the need of a good library; her associations and connections are such that she learns to value books more than she ever did before; she learns, too, that for the intellectual life of her vicinity it is necessary to have a public library; she helps to develop the public spirit that demands a public library; she helps to bring out an atmosphere in which public libraries germinate and grow and flourish. This, it seems to me, is the most important part of club work among club women. This is what they are doing in Wisconsin, and what they will continue to do.
Mr. HUTCHINS: I have been watching for years the work of the women's clubs and their enthusiasm for libraries. They are accomplishing a great deal, and there is just one thing I would like to say to the club women of the country, "Plan a study club, and in a few years you get a public library. Plan a library, and in a few years you get five study clubs."