(Whereupon, at 12: 20 p. m., the subcommittee was recessed subject to the call of the chairman.)

(The following communícations were subsequently received:)

STATEMENT OF HON. EUGENE J. MCCARTHY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, H. R. 2858, a bill to promote the development of public library service in rural and suburban areas of this country, is legislation to serve a real need in these areas of the United States.

In our rural and suburban areas, where public-library services are nonexistent or inadequate because of lack of municipal or other funds to provide and maintain them, these services can be established or improved by this bill. It is estimated that 26 million citizens of this country live in these rural areas and rapidly growing suburbs that are now without local public-library service. The establishment and maintenance of the libraries that this bill will make possible will be wholly under the administration of the States in which they are located, and the Federal financial support will undoubtedly promote greater interest and support in the development of rural and suburban public libraries in these States.

The Federal funds to be provided by this bill are to be allocated to the States on the fair basis of their rural population compared to the rural population of the country as a whole, and the States' ability to pay is to be the criterion for their matching of the Federal funds. Therefore the bill will provide a public-library service where it is most needed and least able to be provided without some Federal aid.

While this bill will not eliminate the deficiencies in public-library service throughout the country, it will begin a fair and an equitable program to eliminate these deficiencies. The individual States will be stimulated to do even more themselves to improve their rural and suburban public libraries.

In our country, where we depend upon an educated and informed citizenry to discharge their democratic political responsibility, this bill will do much to promote and assist these citizens.

STATEMENT OF JOHN R. LONG, JR., MAYOR, SPRINGFIELD, TENN.

I have served for the past 8 years as mayor of Springfield, population 6,506, the county seat of Robertson County, Tenn., which county has a population of 27,024.

With an alarmingly rapid increase in school enrollments in this area, and the State of Tennessee as a whole, each year an increasingly larger portion of our tax dollar is required for schoolhouse construction, maintenance, and general school operation. This fact, added to the ever-increasing demand for additional city and county services in a rural area, and the additional fact that local government, generally, is restricted to the property tax as its primary means for raising local funds, all combine to make it impossible for many rural cities and counties in Tennessee to allocate adequate funds for public-library purposes. With the preemption by the Federal and State governments of almost all available tax sources, the local governments, city and county, must of necessity depend on outside help from State and Federal taxes.

The library-services bill, now being considered by your committee, is an excellent example of temporary outside help which can stimulate more interest in and a better understanding of the need for local public-library service in the rural areas of Tennessee, and the Nation as a whole.

In Tennessee there is a wide disparity between the 4 metropolitan counties and the 91 rural counties in their ability to support public services such as schools and public libraries.

More than one-third of the State's population and a large share of its wealth is concentrated in these four counties. The average median income in the metropolitan counties is $2,280 as contrasted with $1,304 in the rural counties. Furthermore, library service to a scattered population costs more than such service to a concentrated population. Thus the rural counties in attempting to provide public libraries for their people are faced on the one hand with less financial ability and on the other hand with higher operating costs.

The State library has done a great deal to expand and improve library service in the rural counties through its regional library program. Its nine regional

centers furnish to groups of counties bookmobile service, books, and other materials to supplement those owned by the counties, and the advice and assistance of a staff of professional librarians. The regional library program is supported entirely by funds appropriated by the State legislature. Each participating county must provide local funds for the operation of its local library and branches.

The regional library service has earned strong grassroots support. Although real progress has been made, it is only a small beginning. We do not have enough books to meet the demand. It is not possible to furnish other materials such as records and films. The regional-library centers are so understaffed that they cannot provide needed on-the-job training for local librarians, develop cooperative programs with groups and organizations, or carry on activities which would inform readers about the services of the library and promote its use.

Nevertheless many rural people who have never before had access to books are now able to get the books they want. Because of the bookmobile service countless numbers of people living in small rural communities are reading books which enrich their lives and make them better citizens. They ask for and get information on such subjects as how to build outside fireplaces, stunts and skits, sheep raising, arthritis, Chiang Kai-shek, citizenship, and retarded children. They read such books as A Man Called Peter, The Big Fisherman, Conservation of Natural Resources, War in Korea, House Wiring Made Easy, Crusade in Europe, and I Led Three Lives.

The number of rural counties participating in this program has increased from 4 in 1940-41 to 66 in 1954-55. But there are still 25 rural counties which have not joined the program. A few of these counties are operating small public libraries but in 15 of them there is no public-library service at all. Most of the counties without library service are the small, poorer counties where many of the people have had no opportunity to come in contact with a public library. Although the State library carries on a continuous effort, through use of films, publicity, personal visits, and talks to organizations, to interest these counties in organizing a public library many people find it difficult to become vitally interested in a service which they have not experienced.

If they could actually have the experience of using a good public library through a demonstration, they could understand what it could mean to them and would be eager to support it with local tax funds. State funds for demonstration purposes are not available, since the entire State appropriation is needed to operate the regional-library service.

This is a project for which Federal funds could be used to great advantage. We do not want our public libraries permanently supported with Federal funds. But we think that use of Federal funds for the purpose of stimulating local interest through a demonstration of good public-library service would be of lasting benefit.

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT H. MOLLOHAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to express my support of the measures you are presently considering to assist the States and local communities to extend and develop public-library service in rural areas. At the present time such service does not exist or is inadequate to meet the needs of thousands of rural communities throughout the country.

As you are aware, H. R. 2971 and the similar bill H. R. 2865, which I have introduced, would authorize an appropriation of $7,500,000 a year for a 5-year period to provide Federal aid to the 48 States, on a matching basis, for further development of the library service.

This sum, gentlemen, represents an expenditure of $37,500,000 over a 5-year period-a modest investment for the vast returns it will provide. This is a bargain price indeed to pay for educational advantages for an estimated 30 million Americans for whom libraries, today, do not exist.

In the State of West Virginia, where the library commission completed one regional demonstration in 1953, the success of the undertaking has created widespread and enthusiastic support for this legislation. It will do for the people of my State and many others, what they are eager but financially unable to do for themselves.

I am sure there is no need for me to emphasize to you gentlemen what easy access to books means to each of us in the performance of our own responsibilities.

It also means added skills for our trained workers, added know-how for our businessmen and industrialists, progressive knowledge for our scientists, technological advance for our farmers, in fact, all the enlightened understanding that is basic to a progressive society and fundamental to the preservation of our American way of life. Indeed, what lies between the covers of a book could well mean the difference between the strength or weakness of this Nation in periods of great emergency. I most respectfully urge your favorable consideration of this legislation which at the cost of a minimum expenditure will produce benefits of immeasurable value to our Nation.

Representative PHIL LANDRUM,

AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE ASSOCIATION, INC.,
Chicago, Ill., May 25, 1955.

House of Representatives, Washington 25, D. C.

DEAR REPRESEntative LanDRUM: I had hoped to be in Washington this week to add my testimony in favor of the library services bill but a serious conflict prevented. I would, therefore, like very much to have this letter placed in the record if this is still possible.

As editor of a farm magazine with a rural coverage of 400,000, and president of the American Country Life Association, which is a national organization in existence since the first American Country Life Commission, I would like to express a strong conviction that we should increase library activity in rural communities at this time.

There are several reasons for this. One of the most pressing reasons is that the need for serious educational reading is increasing with the rapid development of the more superficial information media, such as television, radio, and other mass communications. I believe it is the experience in most communities that the appetite for serious reading is stimulated by the other communications. This is fortunate because we know the serious limitations of radio, television, and even newspapers in encouraging people to think for themselves and make independent decisions. With our powerhouse of rapid-fire communications, which have a tendency to hysteria and propaganda, we need to do everything possible to encourage self-education and analysis.

The stimulation of library work has always been an uphill job in rural communities. I believe that modest Federal funds, carefully placed with no thought of domination from the national level, could do a tremendous amount of good. In recent years the American Country Life Association has studied the problem of the changing rural community brought about as the result of the movement of literally millions of urban workers to live in the country. As a result, we have in many States rural communities where half to two-thirds of the residents are either part-time farmers or urban workers. These people have moved to the country to get away from crowded cities and to give some of the advantages of open country life to their children. I think this is a wholly commendable desire and should be encouraged.

On the other hand, this migration does call for a decentralization of our community services, such as schools, churches, and libraries. I sincerely hope that you and your colleagues will do everything possible to further passage of the library-services bill and insure this important contribution to self-education in our country at this critical time.

Very truly yours,

PAUL C. JOHNSON, President.

OKLAHOMA PUBLIC EXPENDITURES COUNCIL,
Oklahoma City, Okla., May 25, 1955.

Hon. PHIL M. LANDRUM,

House of Representatives, Washington 25, D. C.

DEAR MR. LANDRUM: My attention has been called to the fact that the Education and Labor Subcommittee, of which you are chairman, is this week holding hearings on S. 2083, and similar bills, to authorize a 5-year, $37.5 million program of grants-in-aid to the States "to promote the further development of public library service in rural areas.'

As coordinator of the National Conference of State Taxpayer Executives, comprising the directors of taxpayer organizations in 37 States, I would appreciate your inserting in the record of the hearings this statement of the conference position.

In its annual meeting in April, the National Conference of State Taxpayer Executives reaffirmed its "opposition to any new or expanded Federal enterprises, grants-in-aid programs, or similar activities" at this time.

Moreover, though there has been no opportunity for any of our organizations to analyze either the need or the financial capacities of the States to provide such library services, it would appear, in view of the close relationship, that the position which we have taken in opposition to Federal aid for education is equally applicable to these proposals, at least until the report of the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations is made public. You may recall the testimony which some of the State taxpayer groups presented recently before the full Education and Labor Committee on pending school-construction proposals.

Under these circumstances, the NCSTE desires in this way to record its opposition to the Federal aid for library services proposals now under consideration by your subcommittee.

Respectfully yours,

STEVE STAHL, Coordinator.

STATEMENT OF LUCILE NIX, STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Atlanta, Ga.

I am Lucile Nix, chief library consultant, State department of education, Atlanta, Ga.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I appreciate this opportunity and privilege of talking with you about rural library service and what the passage of the Library Services Act can mean to the rural people in my State and throughout the Nation.

I was a country girl myself, having grown up in a small town in northeast Georgia that had no public-library service and did not have until State aid stimulated and helped in the establishment of such service in very recent years. I know personally what it is to be hungry for something to read and to be limited to the few books and magazines that a father and mother with six children could buy.

Nearly 27 million people throughout the United States are still without the services of a public library. These people are not concentrated in any one section of the country. Many of them are in your State and in mine. Many of the Nation's rural people migrate to city centers. Many boys and girls grow up in one State and move for one reason or another to other parts of the country to work and to rear their families. The problem of reaching these people with library service becomes a nationwide one, the concern of all of us regardless of whether we live in the city or the country, in the East, the West, the North, or the South.

Many citizens of my State have worked untiringly in the past 10 years to establish rural library service where none was available and to expand and improve existing library programs. Lay people as well as professional librarians and educators from every district in the State have recognized the need for the improvement and extension of library services to the rural areas of the State. Scores of these interested persons have worked hard in many planning and evaluation conferences, determining needs, outlining programs of action and exploring ways and means of putting books in reach of every Georgian.

It was through the efforts of all of these people that the first State aid for public-library service in Georgia was secured in 1944. Regulations governing the distribution of the funds were set up so as to give every county in the State an opportunity to qualify for a portion of the money. Since many of our counties are small and have limited financial resources they have been encouraged to pool these resources and to establish multicounty or regional library programs composed of 2 to 4 or 5 counties. Special establishment grants, from State-aid funds and continuing regional allotments of State funds for materials over and above county allotments for materials have served as a stimulus to this cooperative sharing of personnel, bookmobiles, books, and other library resources. Within the last 10 years, 28 of these regional library programs involving 77 counties have been established. Our experience has shown that these larger units of library service are more efficient and more economical. The advantages, as we see them, are:

1. Provision for the employment of staff members with specialized skills. 2. The availability of a large reservoir of materials.

3. Better facilities for reaching a greater number of people with a wider variety of library services.

4. An expanded base for securing adequate funds.

We have accomplished a great deal in Georgia but even so more stimulation is needed because there is more, much more yet to be done. State aid for rural library service has been increased from $100,000 in 1944-45 to $500,000 in 1954-55. In addition to the above funds for materials the State is now paying the salaries of 81 local librarians employed in county and multicounty library programs. Local financial support for library service has increased from $483,898.92 in 1943 to $1,520,576.99 in 1954.

Such progress is phenomenal in many respects, except that in the State we still have only 0.7 of a book per person and with all local and State funds we are still spending only $0.64 per capita per year for all public library operating costs. What has been accomplished is good but is not yet good enough.

There is a great need for more and better trained librarians, more bookmobiles, more books and other library materials, and more and better services. The number of bookmobiles in the State has increased from 25 in 1943 to 51 in 1955. Yet approximately one-half of the 159 Georgia counties are still without bookmobile service and must rely on limited library service through deposit stations in schools, country stores, and private homes. Good, yes, but by no means adequate.

We have proof in our State that once people in local communities know and understand what a good library program can accomplish in a community they are willing to help finance it to the extent that they are financially able and to take advantage of the services it offers. I could cite many examples to show the interest that people have taken in rural library service development in Georgia, but shall confine my remarks to only a few at this point.

In the summer of 1949, the State home-demonstration agent attended a rural library conference at which the problems of extending the service to unserved areas of the State were discussed. Many people present were convinced that demonstration bookmobiles would provide a partial answer. Shortly thereafter the State home-demonstration council offered to the State agency a gift of such a bookmobile. Rural farm women in 86 different counties raised the funds for the purchase of this bookmobile. They made their contributions by holding barbecues, pie suppers, cakewalks, and a wide variety of moneymaking projects. This demonstration bookmobile traveled over 16,000 miles in 76 counties in the State during its first year of operation and in the past 4 years has helped to stimulate the purchase of 12 new locally owned and operated bookmobiles.

In one south Georgia area local civic clubs took the leadership in raising money for a regional library bookmobile. Hundreds of individuals as well as clubs shared in this project. Among them was a small boy who with other children contributed his nickels and dimes to the project. The day that the shiny new bookmobile loaded with new books, and supervised by a professional librarian was to visit this child's community school, he was sent as a lookout to watch for its arrival. As it came into view he rushed back to his friends calling, “Come on, fellows, yonder comes the bookmobile I bought." It is "his" bookmobile that is now visited in the summer months by boys and girls whose home are 50 miles away from the headquarters library and who must themselves walk as much as 2 miles to get to the nearest bookmobile stop where they can borrow as good books for children and young people as are obtainable in the largest city library in the country.

Rural adults who have access to good library service require and use such service as extensively as do their urban neighbors. Some of these rural readers have made their borrowed books pay off in hard cash. Librarians in almost any county can cite instances of farmers who have improved their crops and livestock by using scientific methods recommended in the library books.

One 15-year-old boy in Oglethorpe County, owner of an auto-repair shop, depends on monthly visits of the bookmobile to furnish him with advice on his trade. A cabinetmaker in another county gets hints from the bookmobile on how to improve his product. Still another Georgia bookmobile patron, owner of a thriving apiary, is an avid reader of the latest books on beekeeping.

One of our regional librarians reports an annual circulation of 397,768 books in 1954 in a 4-county area. In commenting on the use of books in this region she has this to say:

"397.768 circulation. What does that mean?

Wide area of reading? Yes. Many books? Yes. One would never have dreamed these rural people would read so much, when they were at last given the opportunity. This implies a human value that is not to be measured; it is the resource of having a regular and dependable supply of reading matter, of professional advice and information about what is available, and free choice concerning subject matter and area of interest. If we may judge by our 91⁄2 years of experience it seems certain a