The development of our present line of tactics, including the presentation of lectures emphasizing the possibility of increased wages through practical reading, the formation of classes in the study of English, the promotion of special foreign entertainment programs and exhibitions, the extension of the library habit to adults through publicity directed to their children, the publication of daily news for workers by means of special library papers and the general press, the creation of more effectively printed library advertising done in many languages, the co-operation with individuals and societies promoting educational, social and recreation centers, etc., will open a new era in library service for foreign laboring men.
A great number of specialized and technical industrial books may not often be found necessary in library collections, since the great need among this class of readers is a large supply of trade journals and more elementary mechanical books for the unskilled workman, the student mechanic and the future tradesman.
On the other hand life as well as livelihood must be considered and met. All men must live while they are earning a living and in these days they must be trained for vacation as well as vocation. The tendency today is to place too much emphasis on the daily struggle for livelihood and to neglect the hours of life during leisure time. In defense of the "man in the yards" the crying answer returns, "but what of the man whose soul-deadening toil leaves little or no time for leisure or whose daily labor kills all mental and physical desire for leisure, rest and improvement." This cry will return again and again until all labor shall be so equalized that all men will have more of what life offers and less of what it demands. Those who work on specialized labor done under intense strain and through long hours are destined to become weakened, brutalized and almost incapable of showing intelligent interest in social-betterment. Even "family life," the first school of morals, is a closed book against the man who comes home dead-tired late at night.
Consider some of the perils through which the working boy must pass from year to year, such as economic waste in un-educational trades, stinted physical development, early maturity, suppression of the spirit of boyhood, indifference towards knowledge and efficiency, personal weakness, and delinquency. The dire results due to these perils are well illustrated by the following replies made by a number of Chicago factory children when asked why they quit school:
"Because it's easier to work in a factory than it is to learn at school."
"You never understand what they tell you in school and you can learn right off to do things in a factory."
"They don't call you a Dago."
"You can buy shoes for the baby."
"Our boss he never went to school."
"School ain't no good. The Holy Father he can send ye to hell, and the boss he can take yer job away er raise yer pay. But the teacher, she can't do nothing."