IMMIGRANTS AS CONTRIBUTORS TO LIBRARY PROGRESS
I should prefer to let Miss Antin's personality and accomplishments bear home to you the point I had hoped to make; and silently let what she has said to us possess our imaginations to the end that our interest and will-to-do will be vigorously stirred. Fortunately, this will happen in spite of my words.
A little girl with a fairy book in her hand gleefully remarked: "I can tell what kind of stories are in the book by the continents." Would that we could so tell the stories of our peoples! Yet the story of immigrants in this country is not unlike that of the "Ugly Duckling;" and Miss Antin is living proof of the swan-like qualities. We, as a nation, have persisted in hatching the odd egg; have been apparently proud of the duckling's ability to swim untaught, like other ducks; and were duly troubled, when because of his unlikeness, he was not acceptable to closer acquaintance with cock and gander in the barn-yard. We have witnessed, with but feeble protest, his struggle to feel at home, his association with wild ducks and all it entailed. It seems as if the winter of his agony is enduring. He's had a stirring within as of something better to come! The question is will we make greater effort to recognize the swan-like qualities and to give freedom for their development? In this direction lies progress.
As contributors, I shall not single out great personalities from among our foreigners. They will belong to history. Nor do I mean only the well educated groups. They are generally accorded recognition. But I do name the masses who earn just consideration slowly.
First of all, immigrants have kept us alive in every generation. Shall we say on the "qui vive" in some localities? All agree that living is no minor art, so to stimulate life is a contribution. Frank Warne in his book, the "Immigrant Invasion," tells how the distribution of immigrants previous to our civil war practically determined the outcome of that struggle, by giving to the North balance of power in Congress because of larger population, which was made up of able-bodied men who replaced Federal soldiers and kept shops and farms going to furnish supplies to the army. It is interesting to note that Mr. Warne ascribes the trend of immigration to the north and west very largely to what was read in the old countries about life in different parts of America, mentioning "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as the one product of literature most influencing distribution.
Cold statistics tell us that New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and California have the greatest number of foreign born. With this as a basic fact we naturally suppose that in these states, at least, public libraries will be found catering to and helping to Americanize and to educate these citizens-to-be; because, if for no other reason, we proudly call ourselves the "university of the people." If the truth were told through questionnaire, or otherwise, about twenty-five out of one hundred libraries throughout New York state are sufficiently alive to the problem to supply books to attract and interest foreigners. Yet for twenty years, at least, the task of assimilating the almost overwhelming influx of immigrants has been acute in the states named and in many localities elsewhere. A gentleman working for the education of foreigners in American ways has said that he thought libraries seemed most indifferent to their opportunities. While another, a foreigner, devoting himself and two fortunes to bettering conditions for immigrants, thinks that public libraries, when they do work sympathetically—I mean that in the broadest sense—with the foreign born are the only organizations which accomplish with real altruism the implanting of American ideals and the developing of better citizens. This, he believes, is done when we appreciate and build on the natural endowment of the individual or race.
Since the national government has been facing this stupendous problem, commissions and organizations galore, official and philanthropic, have sprung into existence as aids. So many are there in New York City alone, a possible list would bewilder one! Yet in how many reports of such work when educational assets of communities are being cited, is there mention made of libraries as a force in educating the immigrant? Through libraries, however, more than through most educational agencies may self-expression and development of natural gifts be realized by individuals of all ages and nationalities. Where does the trouble lie? Have we been open-minded or eager enough to discover the excellent contributions foreigners bring to the end that we respond to live issues, thus building progressively?
Old habits can be changed to new compunctions. There is no standardized method of discovering or of spiritualizing men, of holding intercourse with aliens or of receiving what they bring; but we can develop sympathy and understanding, by knowing the people as individuals, their countries, literatures, languages, arts, great national characters—in a word, their histories, even to economic conditions. Thereby do we come to an understanding of reasons for immigration of the present day and of aspirations for life here. Thus equipped mentally for further sympathetic appreciation, first hand observation of conditions will help; or if that is not possible, an imaginative putting ourselves in the immigrants' places from the time they leave their old world homes with all their worldly goods in their hands and, in spite of homesickness and fears, with courage and hope in their hearts—with them as they exist in their steerage quarters and with them when they pass through the portals and mazes of Ellis Island, in the main uncomprehendingly but always trustfully. I can not attempt here to draw the detailed picture; but if you cannot see it for yourself, Mr. Edward Steiner gives it graphically and faithfully in his "On the Trail of the Immigrant." At last, the Federal government accessions the immigrant. He is passed on, properly numbered, to be shelf-listed by states, cities and towns, coming finally to libraries and other institutions to be cataloged. It remains to us then to decide for our own work whether there shall be one entry under the word "alien" or whether his various assets shall be made available by analytical entries.
Somewhat of all this we must know to appreciate what the immigrant can contribute to life here, and to library progress, if we are wise enough to call it forth or make opportunity for its expression. It is vain to hope for the assimilation of the alien as a result of conscious benevolent effort. We too often forget that each of the hundreds of thousands is a human being! With a sense of the finest they can bring with them, we should have an increasing knowledge of how they live here, what they think and how these elements can be influenced by books and personal contact. The pressure of a congested neighborhood goads to thoughtful search for remedies.
No one will go far along these paths without realizing how avid libraries must be to reap the benefits of such diverse gifts, rather than to suffer from the dregs. We must correlate books and people as never before to attain progress.
"If we once admit the human, dynamic character of progress, then it is easy to understand why the crowded city quarters become focal points of that progress." As an earnest of what is being done in many libraries elsewhere, may I tell of our work in New York, of that only because I know it best. What has been done in one place and more, can be done in another through interest, desire and adaptation.
The necessity of having the library near the people for whom its use is intended is, of course, recognized. This is more especially true when the people are foreigners. The New York public library has forty-one branches and all that are located in districts where foreigners live have, beside English books, collections of books in languages native to the residents. By so doing we believe that we convince of our friendship those adults who do not and even those who may never read English. This is a fundamental necessity, opening up various possibilities for imparting American ideas and ideals. The less English the grown people read the more they need knowledge of true American ideas to help keep them in touch with their children, who rapidly take on ways and manners strange to their parents, many of whom are uncomprehending, reticent and often sad. We go still further. We have assistants of the nationalities represented in the neighborhood, whose special duty it is to make known to their peoples the library privileges, also to know their people individually as far as possible and, of course, the books. Right here may I say that a foreign born assistant imbued with respect for her own countrymen and with true American ideals can in her enthusiasm do more to make real citizens than many Americans. This cannot be accomplished if, as happens with so many young foreigners, their own people as we see them in this country, are held in contempt. It were pity to scorn the strong qualities they possess, these "Greenies," as they call themselves. They live daily too close to the vital facts of existence to develop self-consciousness or artificialities to any great extent. We talk of simplicity. They have it. Courage, singleness of purpose, happiness in modest circumstances and astonishing capacity for work are elements of everyday life unconsciously developed. Their wealth of imagination, fostered by their own folk-lore and early traditions, could not be more wonderfully illustrated than it has been just recently in New York. The majority of us think of New York and other large cities as vast factories with the machine-like and vicious qualities of human nature uppermost, so it is most refreshing to contemplate "Old Home Week in Greenwich Village" and the "Henry Street Pageant."
"Old Home Week" successfully recalled Greenwich Village history in a dramatic way to its residents—American, Irish and Italian—and aroused a new sense of fellowship in sharing the district's activities.
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Henry Street Settlement, a pictorial representation of the history of the neighborhood from the days of the Indians to the present time was given by its residents—men, women and children—before an assemblage of spectators from all parts of the city and representative of all its activities—civic and social. The last living picture, or episode, was of all the nationalities that have lived in the last fifty years in Henry Street, once the center of Manhattan's fashionable life. The Irish, the Scotch, the Germans, the Italians and the Russians appeared. They sang the songs and danced the dances that contribute so much poetry to the life of the city, while onlookers marveled at the temperamental qualities which made it possible for foreigners to reproduce with unconscious realism historical scenes of a city and a country not their own!
Such neighborhood pageants as this and the celebration in Greenwich Village, exert a wholesome and a permanent influence in our municipal life. In both these events the libraries of the neighborhoods took part. The library aimed to show that folk-songs and folk-dances are kept alive by folk-stories. The contrast between old New York and the present time was shown by the use of historical scenes—lantern slides—and a story; in the one case reminiscent of early Dutch settlers and in the other a poetic interpreting of the spirit of service in municipal life. Those planning the pageant felt that this was a direct help in making atmosphere or in inducing an interpretive mood in participants. Festival occasions like these bind together by national ties the people and institutions of a neighborhood and are rich with possibilities for the library. To a delightful degree they broaden our understanding of the folk-spirit.
So it seems natural to have stories in the library told by foreigners in their native tongues. From time to time we have groups of Bohemians, Germans, Hungarians, Italians listening to old world traditions and tales. Knowing the original and the translation enhances the value of the story in English for narrator and listeners. Through these story hours we are reminding the foreigner of his unique contribution to life here, and are showing our respect for his best. For a simple example, our picture books and book illustration in general do not express life as vividly or realistically as Russian, Bohemian or Swedish artists do. Having some of these in our juvenile collections has been a distinct contribution to establishing sympathetic relations with foreigners.
Yes, it is true that the Italian laborer loves Dante and Italian classics. It is relatively true of other nationalities. If we take for granted that we should know and libraries should have, French and German standard writers—and this largely because their literature is older, more translated or their languages better known—may we not also take for granted that literary history is still in the making? Should we not bestir ourselves to know latter-day masterpieces, if such there be, and the older literature which has helped mould or inspire writers of them, in Swedish, Finnish, Bohemian, Polish, Hungarian or any other language spoken by the people surrounding us? Perhaps the need of realizing what these literary contributions may mean can be emphasized by the fact that in one week, June 2 to June 9, 1913, thirty thousand souls, nearly five thousand daily, passed the man at the Eastern gateway. Eighty per cent or thereabouts are going beyond New York City these days.
Is the Hungarian's enjoyment of Jokai or their patriot poets for Hungarians alone? One can better appreciate how to sustain effort and enthusiasm in a person or a group of this nationality if one knows that much of their best poetry came almost from the cannon's mouth on the field of battle; and if one has seen the glistening eyes and heard the voices of kerchief-capped girls and boys in trousers to shoe tops as they sang in ringing tones "Esküszünk!" and then heard their national song in English for the first time. At home they may not celebrate their Independence Day, March 15; but when they are invited to, here, in the library, they do it with much genuine feeling and true sentiment, which I believe leads them to appreciate and adopt as their own our Independence Day. Through such as they, perhaps, patriotic sentiment and feeling may once more be evident in our Fourth of July celebrations.
If we try to think of a library without the contributions of writers of other nationalities, we must face almost empty shelves in some classes of knowledge. This makes us realize more clearly that immigrants have rich possessions by right of inheritance while these are ours only by adoption. Some of the newcomers to our shores may have lost their heritage temporarily; but they will warmly cherish as a friend the library that restores to them this valuable possession and for us that friendship is preeminently a contribution.
There are other special ways in which the library seems happily successful in forming such friendships. With adults it comes through our co-operation with neighborhood associations, or organizations working for the benefit of foreigners, such as the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. who conduct in our lecture rooms classes to teach English to foreigners. In these instances it is our pleasure to supplement with books the copies treated. The book work is, perhaps, most marked in connection with the English classes where we have opportunity to watch progress and needs of the individual more carefully from the time when an eager pupil may ask, as one did, for a book called a "Woman's Tongue" wanting Arnold's "Mother Tongue" to his reading of Hale's "Man without a country," perhaps, or Andrews' "The perfect tribute." There are also many semi-social, semi-educational clubs, or associations, which hold their meetings in the libraries. The Slavia is a Bohemian club, which has as its only meeting place the Bohemian department of one of our branches. Its members have done much to help form a splendid Bohemian library. Several Hungarian associations work in co-operation with three branches, where are collections of Hungarian books. A large Polish society gives its educational lectures twice a month in one branch and its advice in the selection of books; but perhaps the "German Association for Culture" best illustrates my point. They state: "We are working for culture, and we aim to give the Germans in America and the Americans a better understanding of our contemporary German literature and art. We are bending our efforts more particularly for our members who as artists, poets, writers, etc., are producing valuable works. And we want to help as much as possible those talented artists, poets, etc., who are not yet known." Their distinction is that they succeed! Even in the et ceteras!
As concrete instances of other possible contributions by foreigners to library progress, I want to tell of the discussion of one City History Club chapter and the action of a settlement organization. The membership in both is composed of foreign-born young men from sixteen to twenty years of age, and both groups interest themselves in present day civic welfare. The Settlement Club wrote to the mayor, comptroller, library trustees and several daily papers a dignified plea for increase in library appropriation and in salaries. The year's closing meeting of a certain City History Club was a discussion of the city budget, the club members representing New York's mayor, aldermen and comptroller. The main contention of the majority was that cutting the appropriation of the public library meant seriously handicapping one of the city's most efficient servants and they ended with a warm appreciation of service rendered by library assistants and a vigorous plea for better salaries. This was later reproduced for an audience of representative citizens by the City History Club as a token typical of their work. Both these happenings came as complete surprises to librarians. It seems as if in their eagerness to "get on" young foreigners, especially, seek and use every possible public means for advancement. They soon appreciate what good service means and how to get it. They make us feel toward what ends they are tending and suggest definitely our part in the building for civic betterment.
To sum up, immigrants do bring very rich contributions in arts and literature. They bring many capabilities, that of acquiring intellectual cultivation being not the least among them. I am not blind to the seriousness of the problems they create, having worked among them about ten years; but the conviction strengthens that knowing and understanding their racial and social inheritance and first hand contact with groups of individuals stimulate to broader thought and living. It is not an argument! It is a suggestive statement! Immigrants can contribute to library progress.
The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: We will now have a paper from Mr. CHARLES E. RUSH, the librarian of the St. Joseph public library, on