The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: I shall ask you to rise as an expression of thanks and appreciation of Miss Antin's address. (The audience remained standing for a moment.)
The next speaker will discuss the subject of immigrants as contributors to library progress. It gives me very great pleasure to introduce to you Mrs. ADELAIDE B. MALTBY, who is in charge of the Tompkins Square branch, on the lower East Side, of the New York public library.
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?