The library should serve in this way not only the schools of the city, but also the country and village schools in the counties in which they are located. Through the country schools more good can be accomplished, frequently, than through the city schools. Country boys and girls are more eager to read than city boys and girls. They have more time for it and will read better books. The library should have a direct relation with every school and every teacher in the county. Of course, the county should pay for this service, but it should have it whether it pays for it or not. The city cannot afford to withhold it. The city depends on the country for its prosperity and life. The children now in the country will make up a large part of the population of the city twenty or twenty-five years from now.
In many places the public libraries are doing all these things to some extent; in no place to as great an extent as is possible. By using to the best advantage the opportunities here suggested, public libraries may double their usefulness.
Yours sincerely,
P. P. CLAXTON,
Commissioner.
New York City,
April 4, 1913.
The Negro American is being helped greatly by public libraries wherever he is given reasonable encouragement to enter them. Often in the North, he is not made to feel welcome in these libraries and in most of the public and private libraries of the South, he is rigorously excluded. It would seem that a statement from the American Library Association to the effect that the color line in literature is silly, is much needed at present.
Very sincerely yours,
W. E. B. DU BOIS.