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Special Libraries, 1931 Special Libraries, 1930s

7-1-1931

Special Libraries, July-August 1931

Special Libraries Association

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This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Libraries, 1930s at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Libraries, 1931 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Vol. 22 July-August, 1931 No. 6 F

PROCEEDINGS of the TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE At Cleveland, June 10d12, 1931

A NEW INDEX OF INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY by Col. Leonard P. Ayres

LABOR AND UNEMPLOYMENT

by Whiting Williams a

VG AHEAD-The Place of Commercial Research by Randolph Eide

- -- --.

Entered ns Ircond clnsa matter nt thc Post Olllcc, Pmvidcncc, !L I., under thc Act of 3lnvh 3, 1879. Acc~ptuncrfor mulling at apcrinl rate of poatngo pruvl,io,~l for In srcrlsrn 1103, Act ol Octnllrr 9, 15:' authorlzcrl October 22, 1017 Raw $6 00 a yenr. Ford~n$5.60, rvW cr~pi(r3fl renu. l4* SPECIAL LIBRARIES A$SOCIATION Official Magazine - Special Libraries Edilm RUTH SAVORD Librarian. Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. Now York. N. Y. Asson'aU Edilora for thls Proceedlnp Number ALTA B. CUFIJN Libranan. F~IcralReewe Bank of Cleveland REBECCA B. RANKIN Libranan, New York Municipd Reference Library -AM ALCOTT Libranan. The Boston Globe A full Editorial Baud is to be announced in the September hue.

Adraiinng Manauer M. DOROTBY HOWARD Officers for 1930-1931 Prluidcnl Diraclora MARGARET REYNOLDS TVI.LI,IAM ALCOTT Ltbrnrian, Firat Wisconsin National Bdnk Librnr~nn The Boston Globe Milwaukee, Wlaconain P.' 0. Box 189 Boston. Maaaacbusotts

JESSIE CALLAN L~brnrian SL Lauie Public Lbrary Libmrinn Bwmer and Lake Erie Railroad S~.'LO;IE, M~saouri Plttnburgh, Penmylvnnln ELEANOR S. CAVANAUGH MRS. LOUISE P. DORN Libranan. Standard Stat~t~mCompany, Inc Llbranan. Detroit Ediaon Company New York Detroit, Michigan ANGUS FLETCHER L~brenan,Brdish Librnry of Information Trcclsura New York ELIZABETH 0. CULLEN Editor oJ "Spedal Libraries" Dureau of Rallwny Economics 1024 Trnnsportation Building HERBERT 0. BRIGHAM Washmgton, D. C. Librarinn, Stale Librnry Providence, Rhoda Island Scndary MRS. MARY H. BRIGHAM Officers for 1931-1932 Elected at the Cleveland Convention June 12,1931.

l'ies-Preside1118 New ~ork.N. Y. JOSEPH CONFORTI ELEANOR S. CAVANAUGR J,ilrnrian, Pm Ic's Gru Licht Q Coke CO. ~Eicago,~llinols Librarian. Stnndnrd Stntisth Co., Inc. New York, N. Y. hIRS. LOUISE P. DORN Lihrian Detroit Ed~sonCompany betroit, Michigan FREDERICK A. ROBINSON Librnrian. Hydro-Elcetrlc Powor Cammiadon Trroaurer Toronto, Ontnrlo, Canmdn ELIZAl3ETII 0. CULLEN Bureau of Bnilwny Bconomien hlARCARET REYNOLDS 1024 Trsns~iortationBldg. Wnshmpton, D. C. Librarian. Wrst Wisconsin Natlonnl Dank Milwaukee, Wisconsin Grnaral Oiiicr STANDARD STATISTICS BUILDING 346 Hudaon 8t~t New York Secrdary REBECCA B. RANKIN PRINTED IN THE U. 5. A. CONTENTS

ADDRESSES Address of WelcorneLitrda A. Easfman ...... 203 A Welcome-Nell G. Sill...... 203 Response--Joseph A. Conforti...... 204 Museums and Their Librarie-Lewis B. Williams...... 207 Labor and Unemployment-Whiting Witliams...... 2Q9 The Steel Industry-John JV. Love...... 217 The Agricultural Situation-0. S. Powell...... 222 The Money Market-David C, Elliott...... 228 A New Index of Industrial Activity-Colonel Leonard P. Ayres...... 234 Planning Ahead-The Place of Commercial Research-Randolph Bide...... 240 President's AddreskMargaret Reynolds...... 247

CONFERENCE The Cleveland Conference (Summary)...... 205 Heard at the Convention...... 246 Our New President...... 249 Reports of Officers and Comm~ttees ...... 252 Reports of Local Associations ...... 264 Reports of Groups...... 274 Business Session...... 277 NOTES AND DEPARTMENTS Editorials ...... 250 President's Page...... 251 D~gestof Business Book Reviews...... 281 Little Lesson in Mnemonics...... 283 Eventa and Publications...... 285

OUR SEPTEMBER ISSUE , Addresses at Group Sessions Proceedings of the Groups Report of the Membership Committee Message from Miss Bradley, Membership Chairman Local and Group Officers for 1931-32

Special Libraries Published Monthly September to Apr~l,bi-monthly May to August by THE SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION Publication Office, 45 Richmond Strut, Providence, R. I. All payments should be made to Special Libraries Association, 345 Hudson Street, New York, N. Y. SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 Institutional Members

California Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco Library, Cambridge California State Library, Sacramento Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Francisco Sprmgfield Standard Oil Company of Californ~a, San Massachusetts State Library, Boston Francisco Metcalf & Eddy, Boston Technical Book Company, San Francisco Social Law Library, Boston United Fruit Company, Boston Connecticut Michigan Hartford Public Library, Business Branch, Detroit News, Detroit Hartford Detro~tPublic L~brary,Detroit Phoenix hIutual Life Insurance Company, General hlotors Corporation, Detroit Hartford University of Detroit, Detroit Yale Unwersity Library, Sew Maven Missouri Delaware Kansas City Power B: Liglll Company, Kansas du Font de Kernours, E. I., ll'ilmington C1ty Illinois New Jersey . Bgllesby & Co., H hl., Chicago Bakehte Corporat~on,Bloomfield Chicago Tribune, Chicago Combustion Utilities Corporation, Linden Comnlonwealth Ed~son Company, Chicago RIontcla~rPublic Library, Montclair Ehzabeth RIcCormick Memorial Fund, New Jersey Bcll Telephone Company, Newark Ch~cago Kewark Publlc Library, Business Branch, Illmois Chamber of Commerce, Ch~cago Newark Illinols State Llbrary, Springfield Public Service Corporal~on of New Jersey, Insurance Library of Chicago Ne\\ ark 1Iitltlle \Yest Tjtilitics Company, Ch~cago R C A Radiotlon Co , Inc., Harrison Museum of Scier~ceand Industry, Ch~cago Sianda~dOil Development Co , Elizabeth People's Gas Light and Coke Company, Unitcd States Rubber Company, Passaic Chmgo New York Indiana Alexander Hamilton Inst~tute,New York Lincoln National L~feInsurance Co Fort , American Dankers' Assoc~ation,New York \\'aye American Electrx Railway Association, New Maryland York American Geographical Society, New York Consolidated Gas, Electric Light & Power Co. American Institute of Accountants, New York Baltimore American Museuni of Natural History, New hlaryland Casualty Co., Baltimore York Massachusetts American Society of Mechanical Engineera, New York Baker L~brary-Harvard School ol Business American Telephone & Telegraph Co., General Administration, Boston Library, New York Boston Elevated Railway, Boston American Tclephone & Telegraph Co., Law Rostun Globc, Boston Library, New York Ch~~stianSc~ence Mon~tor, Boston Association of life Insurance Presidenta, Edison Electric Illuminating Co., Boston New York Federal Reservc Bank of Boston Baker & Taylor Co., New York First National Bank, Boston Bankers Trust Co., New York Insurance Library Association of Boston Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, New York Jackson & Moreland, Boston Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES

New York Ohio Blacknian Co , Se\\ York Ohlo Oil Co., F~ndlay Ihit~shLll~rar} ol Information, Sew York Procter Br Gamble. Cincinnati nrookly~lEd~son Company, Brooklyn 13rookmire Economic Service, Seu York Oklahoma Child Study .Assoc~at~on,Sew York Cleanlr~ress Inst~tute Library, Sew York I!. S Bureau of Jlines, Bartlesl ilk C~nsolid~rtedGas Co or Sc\v York Uolicrry. Henr) L S; Co., Sen York Pennsylvania Elcrtric Bond S. Share Co., Sew York Federal Reserve Ihrik ol Sen York Armstrong Cork Co., Lancastcr Ford. Bacon S. Davis. Sen Sork Franltlm Ins~~tutc,Philadelpli~a General Electrw Co , Marn I.~Ilrar!, IIoughcon, E.F S: Co , Plirladelpl~ia Schenectatly Jones & Lauglilrn Stccl Cornpan!. . Prttsllurgh Goldman Sachs 'l'ratl~ngCorp . Set\ Sork i\Iellon Institute. I'ittsburgli Grant Co . \\'. T , Scv York Xew Jersey Zmc CO., Palrii~rto~i Grosveno~Library. RuRalo Pennsylvania lluseuni of Art. Ph~ladelphia Gunrant! Conipany oi Sew Sork Pliilatlelpli~aCollege oi Pharniacy and Science, I-1,lskins & Sells, Sew Yorlc Philndclphi.~ Iriclustr~alIluok Co~iipany.Sew Sork Pliilatlelpliia Cornpan! . PIItsburgli 11rrlustri.il Relnt~onsCounselors Sew York Pliiladelpli~a Electric Company. Pliilndelpli~n Intcrnat~onnl Telephone S. Telegraph Co., I'li~laclclphia Rapd l'm~is~tConipany. Pliila- Ue\\ York delpliio John Pl~ceJoiies Corpora(ron, Sew York Provident llutual Lile Insurance Co , Ph~la- lI~(;r.lu-Ilrll Publishing Company, Sew Yolk delphia I\Ierchants Assucr.~tion of Seu York School oi F~ne--Irts, Cni\ crsrry or I'ennsyl- hle~ropol~tat~I.ile Insurance Company, Sen' vanla I'li~ladelpliia York \\ cstingliousc Electric Research Libra1 ! 13. I\lun~c~palIZelerencc Llbrary, Se\v Sork 1'ittsl)urgll S,~tional.Aniline k Chemical Co., Sew Turk \\'yonitssing Tr,ttlc School, \V! oni~ssin~ Sarional :\utoniol~~leChaniher oi Commerce, St\\Yolk Rhode Island Sn~ionalC~ty 1:inancial Lil~rnry,Seu York Sa~~onalIll\ cstors Corporation, Kew Yo1 k Sen Jcrse! Zinc Conipa~iy.Sew Sork Seu York Tclcphonc Co~iipany,Sew Yolk Wisconsin Sen York Ti~nes,Tlie. Sew York Sol 111 America11 Conipany, Ken York L'or~ 01 Seu York Authority, Tlie, Sen York 1'1 Ice \\ atel house & Co , Se\\ York Putnani's Sons. G. P., Seu York R~ilway& I.t~lit~esInvestmg Corp., Kes York Reni~ngtonI

'New members pinrd sinec hat isuc of Sprciol Librarir~. Special Libraries

Vol. 22 JULY-AUGUST, 193 1 No. 6

Address of Welcome

By Linda A. Eastman, Librarian, Cleveland Public Library T is a real pleasure to welcome this and in the power that goes with in- 1 Association to Cleveland. I have telligent cooperation. And I do want heard so many addresses of welcome to assure you that all of the C!eveland which were panegyrics of the cities in librarians are absolutely unanimous which they were given, that I am not in welcoming this group to Cleveland. going to inflict anything of that sort on We want you to see our libraries, just you, I assure you. as many of them as you can We want We Clevelanders are, I think, very to welcome you to those. Even our loyal to our city, and we hope that you Main Library, as some of you know, is will have a chance to form favorable really a congeries of special I~braries. opinions of it whde you are here. We believe in special libraries in Cleve- There are two things which have been land. We have been able to foster and said about Cleveland that I should like cooperate with practically all of the to speak of, because I think they may special libraries here, and we hope that be significant to this group, as they are there will be more of them as time goes to me. on. It has been said by, I believe, those I do hope that we will be a great help who have been studying the city and in some ways in making your stay here social relations of the various cities of pleasant. If we can be of service to the country, that Cleveland is the ex- you in any way, do let us know. perimental station of the nation. And The proffer of service to such a self- it has also been somewhat noted for its contained and perfectly efficient group spirit of cooperation. I think it was as this group is, I think does seem Mr. Duffus who wrote an article in The rather presumptuous, and as I said it, Nation two or three years ago, in there occurred to me something I read which he said, "The good Clevelander a day or two ago, about a darkp preacher does not think of going to bed at night who prayed to the Lord that he m~ght without asking himself: Have I co- be of service to Him. He said, "Oh, operated today?" Lord, Oh Lord, let me help you! Let \Ye are modest enough to admit that me hqlp you, if it's only in an advisory not all Clevelanders are quite so good capac~ty." as that. But we librarians especially Anyway, we are glad to have you do believe most heartily in cooperation with us. A Welcome

By Nell G. Sill, President of the Cleveland Chapter WISH that you would visualize Several generations ago, almost every I in my place this morning the whole house that you entered had hanging on splendid group of workers that make up its wall, in a conspicuous place, an old- the Cleveland Chapter. It is in their fashioned motto, embroidered, \,an- name that I am coming at this time with ously worded, but most often having just an old-fashioned welcome. the simple word "\ITelcome," or if the 204 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

embroiderer was very ambitious, "Wel- lye of the Cleveland Chapter are 'come to our Home." These mottoes opening the door of our house to you. were very painstakingly worked out by We know we have put time and effort the busy housewife in bright-colored into this welcome motto of ours, ant1 wool on a perforated cardboard. we hope that you will find it expressive I remember the process, for my mother of that same whole-hearted hospitality had a piece of the cardboard left. I that was in the homes of long ago. liked to experiment, so the method was If there are some things that have taught to me by making a picture of a been overlooked in the details that would little red church; up through one hole, be to your pleasure and profit, we hope across two, back, and over in the op- you will let us know about it. As posite direction, making a cross stitch, individuals we are inviting you to our and thus the design was worked out. business homes, the libraries, some tiny alcoves and others of more or less pre- They were not marvelous works of tentious quarters throughout the city. art, those mottoes, but into them went Every corner of these has been swept the effort and the sentiment that were and dusted. Every activity IS In full characteristic of the homes in which swing for your coming. 111 my own they hung. As one writer of that period library the whole walls and the ceiling said, in writing of Hannah More, "She have been cleaned and pairlted, sorne- was given to interior adornments, and thing that hadn't happened in fifteen the fruits of her needlework were thick years. in the house, homely handiwork but \Ylien the week is over, I know that well seasoned with the true flavor of we shall have received a great deal of rustic life." personal and of professional value from Cordiality ancl hospitality were never your being here. \Ye hope that you lacking in those homes. The best will find the time has been well spent that the house afforclcd was none too and will go away feeling that Cleveland good for the guests, whoever they might is one of the most beautiful, the most in- be. teresting, and themost hospitable of cities.

Response

By Joseph A. Confortl, President of the Illinois Chapter

S 1)ehalf of the delegates who \la\-e tends to delegates ancl vioilors. TJic I conic LC) Clc\.elantl to pal-tlcipate in delegates of the Special Lilmries Associ- this Twent! -Third -4nnual Conference of ation are fortunate indcerl to be al~leLO thc Special Librar~esAs~~c~ation, I cor- enjo! these pri\,ileges. dially thank hIis3 Linda Eabtman and Appreciation and tlldnks in the high- MISSScll C. Sill fr~rthe graclous words est clcgrec \\-oulcl not be sullicient to of welconie 'Their addl esses reflect re\vard those lilxarinns who b. their the true spirit of tlie people of CIe\~elxicl, unt~r~ngand unceasing eifo~ts lidye and glj-e us assurance of a most delight- prov~deda program and a conference so ful tme ac are to enjo). during our supcrl) in character and so appropriate Ilrief stay here. to this time or economic readjustment 'The people of Clevelaritl have every as our .Drorrram -, is. right to be proud of tlie many in- \Ye are especially happy to meet in dustries, c~vic~nstitutions, magnificent Cleveland when we remember the liigh t~uilclings,ancl cultural activities which place hliss Llnda X Eastman holds in have made Clevelar~done of the most the de\'elupnlent of public and special progressive c~tiesin the Cn~tedStates. libraries in the United States. To be Cleleland is a convention city, not only librarian of the Cleveland 'ublic Library bccause of its t~eautybut because of the in itself is a great distinct~on. We fur- fine and hearty hospitality which it es- ther honor Miss Eastman, because she is July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 205 the leading woman librarian of the libraries, and even now are constantly entire world. Although small in stature providing new developments to serve she is great in professional ability and the general public in the same way that executive capacity. It can truly be the special libraries now serve their own said that the Cleveland Public Library patrons. I feel sure that when the is a monument to Miss Eastman. Her delegates leave Cleveland Friday, they foresight and ability have made this will go away convinced that this con- public library the most modernly ference has been one of the best con- equipped and best public library in the ferences ever presented by the Special Unitad States. Libraries Association. Special librarians cannot emphasize too often their indebtedness to the Again most heartily do I thank those public library systems for their gener- librarians of Cleveland, the citizens ous codperation at all times. of Cleveland, and all others who have In the early days, public libraries made it possible for us to enjoy these assisted in the development of special three days in this beautiful city.

The Cleveland Conference

The annual conference of S. L. A. at as host for the next 24 hours. Begin- Cleveland in 1931 added one more to the ning immediately with a dinner and lengthening line of helpful and worthy reception on the great sleamship which, meetings of special librarians. Atten- leaving Cleveland late at night, arrives in dance exceeded expectations. The pro- Detroit the next morning, the hours gram, dealing with problems of the were crowded full. Detroit members current business situation, presented joined the steamship passengers for some of the Nation's highest authorities breakfast, buses conveyed members to in the field of economics. Rarely has Detroit special libraries for a forenoon such an attractive group of speakers of inspection and conference, and lunch- been assembled for a library meeting. eons and social functions followed one another quickly until the day was over. The plan of starting general sessions at 9:30 in the forenoon, instead of at The conference opened auspiciously 10 o'clock, gave a substantial and wel- with an address of welcome by Miss come increase in time. Meetings began Linda Eastman, Librarian of the Cleve- promptly and ended promptly. There land Public Library, an ex-president of was an air of efficiency about them. American Library Association and its oliicial representative at this meeting. While only three days, Wednesday Her messagewasmost hospitable,and was to Friday inclusive, were announced for expressed in her unassuming way. Special the conference,- the program actually librarians were pleased with her sincere extended over five days. Tuesday was praise of their work and with her hearty devoted to meetings of the Executive yet simple welcome. Miss Nell G. Board and the Advisory Council, of Sill, Cleveland Chap~er'sPresident, like- which the latter drew an unprece- wise pave a greeting in a charming, old- dented proportion of members, com- fashioned way. Joseph A. Conforti of prising the chief executive officer of each the Chicago Chapter made a well-es- Chapter and Group, and the Chairman pressed response. of each standing committee. Only one Lewis B. Williams, President of the Chapter was not represented. Board of Trustees of the Cleveland And on Friday evening, when Cleve- Museum of Natural History, in his land had given of its best in every way, address showed an appreciation of the Detroit Chapter came forward to serve important place of the library in the 206 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 museum. Whiting Williams, well-known itself was a splendid affair, graced by author and consultant on labor problems, the presence of all the program speakers, gay? the main address of the session with K. Dorothy Ferguson of San Fran- whlch for its understanding and human- cisco as toastmistress. ness could scarcely be surpassed. He was at his best, and his listeners were As usual, afternoons were devoted to enthralled while he pictured the world group meetings, and most of the groups in its present economic depression from held three such sessions. The News- the standpoint of the laboring man and paper Group on Thursday afternoon woman. It was most informing and, invited members of the Association to a given in an understanding way, was filled with humorous glints. visit by bus to Akron, 37 miles distant, as guests of the Akron Bcaron Jolrrnnl and the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation. The Thursday morning general session program was devoted to a three-fold discussion of the econonlic crisis from The social program of the Conference the standpoint of industry, the farm, and was admirably arranged. There was finance. John W. Love, special writer something for every day. On Wednes- and industrial editor on the Clevclaml day, an informal dinner was given at the Press, gave an exposition of the steel luxurious suite of the Cleveland Cham- industry and its position and importance ber of Commerce in the lofty Terminal in the present economic state. The Fed- Tower; on Thursday, the annual dinner eralReserveBank of Minneapolis sent its was held at the Hotel Cleveland; on specialist on agriculture, 0. S. Powell, Friday, there was a scenic ride about to explain "The Agricultural Situation." Cleveland and its beautiful suburbs. Equally to the point as the first two speakers was David C. Elliott, Econo- Cleveland Chapter outdid itself in the mist of the Midland Bank of Cleveland, plan and program of the Conference. who with the aid of charts, exposed "The Money Market in Relation to Nothing went amiss, nothing jammed. Business." The session was of high From beginning to end, from arrival educational value, and the facts pre- and registration to the moment of sented on business matters were up to farewell, everything moved along like a the minute. well-oiled machine. It was a worth- while, dignified, friendly, and helpful The third general session on Friday Conference. Cleveland Chapter supplied morning was another rare treat, be- the material from its own membership cause Col. Leonard P. Ayres, Vice-Presi- for the working committees. Miss Rose dent of the Cleveland Trust Company L. Vormelker, thrice Secretary of S.L.A., and one of the brightest stars in the made an ideal chairman of the general economic firmament, was the speaker. conference committee, and with Miss His subject was "A New Index of Alta B. Claflin, former Vice-president Industrial Activity," and it summarized of S. L. A. and former President of and brought to a close the entire program of the Conference, which had Cleveland Chapter, as Chairman of the centered around the industrial and Program Committee, a great team was economic situation in the present era of in charge, supported enthusiastically and depression. intelligently by every member of the Chapter. There was another valuable contribu- tion to the conference program, which The Conference was confronted with came not in the general sessions, but at an unusual situation caused by the the annual dinner on Thursday evening, resignations of the Secretary and the when Randolph Eide, President of the Editor of the magazine. Immediately Ohio Bell Telephone Company, spoke after the election of the new President, on "Planning Ahead: The Place of the Executive Board met and appointed Commercial Research." The dinner committees to secure successors. July-Auguat, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Museums and Their Libraries

By Lewis B. Williams, President, Board of Trustees, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

HEN the invitation to appear in The ancient libraries and cabinets of w this presence was first presented to seventeenth and eighteenth century me I experienced all the classic reactions Europe were largely private treasures- of those in whom the senses of dignity the marks of an intellectual curiosity and vanity have both been subtly associated with vanity or power. They stirred. That I was cast in any other satisfied the acquisitive instinct, and role than that of an hospitable town- distinguished the owner from others in welcomer never troubled my conscious- his society. There was little in their ness. Whatever the topic, the text was purpose or use designed to stimulate a doubtless-"Hail and Welcome!" Great- generous diffusion of knowledge. The er kindness was never done than that modern use and relation of libraries and which Miss Vormelker did when she museums is only part of the newer mani- sent to me the detaded program of festation of the practical ordering of this Twenty-Third Annual Conference. our public benefactions. This new point Then came realization that the part of view approaches the abstract in its was that of a layman venturing into a relentless but beautiful demonstration field highly developed technically, and by equation :- speaking to a group of professional workers broadly trained in that field. This was rather a terrifying discovery. The curious and the beautiful things I have no souvenir of knowledge that of the world added to man's recorded you may take with you from this first effort to understand, yield an increase in session of your Association-no memento social culture and happiness. . . . . of an expert interpretation. To reconi- mend my few words upon a trite and The problem of the scope of a museum well-worn thesis I have nothing to offer library is as broad as the starry firma- save the experience of a layman who ment. The relation of selection to the has spent ten years in liaison between primary collections and research of the a group of deeply interested donors and museum, and the budgetary limits of a devoted band of skilled museum the trustees are the only necessary and workers who are striving to transmute sound guides Ah! but when we come private generosity into a vital educa- to use, we are at the very heart of the tional resource that will enrich the lives worth and meaning of any collection of in this community. Let that be my books. To my lay mind the library prologue and apology! is the greatest supplement of any museum, Without its intelligent direc- If we start from such widely diverse tion the usefulness of the museum is points as layman and professional, with restricted and incomplete. Museums no knowledge of libraries and little of are but storehouses except the recorded knowledge of its specialized library is museums on my part (but with a burn- available to help man toward the in- ing interest in each from the date in boy- terpretations and meaning of collections. hood when I founded both in the attic Thus do we put life into mere objects of my country home), then I am sure and develop the understanding which there will be no danger of misrepresenta- enhances the degree of beauty in each tion-therefore, no right to your money object of art, or gives dignity to the back on your part-and I, at least, shall study of the history of life upon the have had a good time. earth. 208 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-Auwat, 1931

All great educational museums for the But I assure you that in the museum people are inarticulate except as they world I should be timid only if the have at their center an ordered and museum were without an adequate understanding knowledge of all that has library at the heart of its organization. been recorded or interpreted within the special field. So a museum is but a dull and sorry thing if there is no one to tell Andrew Keogh, Librarian of Yale the story of life, or history, or art, and University, speaks simply and nobly the place and meaning of each thing when he says, "A library is an instru- 'therein. How can the museums, or ment of learning and power." In those who give them life and meaning worthy degree museums for the people to the people, be the great teaching are instruments of learning. But next agencies that they are meant to be, ex- to the intelligent devotion of a trained cept as both definition and interpreta- staff 1 should place the service to that tion rest upon a scholarly, organized staff of the specialized library as the use of special library facilities? Around contributing factor of greatest and most a carefully chosen library can be built constant service toward the building of a real museum, and the happiest and power for usefulness in museums. wisest of directors and curators are those whose high library ideals have been most nearly realized. The museum If such a statement appears to ignore the riches and importance of collections, whose library does not keep pace-or, better still, lead In pace-among its let me plead again that collections must working resources, will not grow into be interpreted and published; purchase the place of fullest meaning in public and discovery must be planned; growtl~ in skill and knowledge of museum usefulness. workers must be stimulated; the popu- larization of the museum must be In all that has been said we have not grounded in scholarship; and all these referred to public use of museum libra- great considerations can only find their ries nor reciprocal library relations. vivid inspiration and sound relation as Those large fields of service may be they take their source from the recorded taken for granted. It is the wise use scholarship of an ably directed museum by a museum staff of adequate library library. material that really reaches and stimu- lates the public. This is the paramount use. \Vho of you in the happy post of And at the end, no matter how doubt- custodian of such a library would not ful you may be about the validity of any- feel that he was at the pulsing heart- thing I may have said, let me hope at in control of a great central station of least that I may convince you that your power? From this source under your coming to Cleveland is an event which control would come that energizing aid does great honor to a city devoted to to intellectual effort, the real stimulus educational effort. We are, moreover, to understanding. as a city, jealous enough of our 110s- pitality and its name to hope that your I know that what I have tried to say sojourn among us will bring to you a has been redundant. Mayhap it smacks reward of happy and stimulating re- of those platitudes which pass with some collections of this your Twenty-Third as "the sage counsel of timid souls." Conference. July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES Labor and Unemployment By Whiting Williams

EFORE I get into my talk, I want in my opinion; ought always to be told to take advantage of this chance to everywhere the moment he begins to makeB something of a protest on behalf subject himself to the educational forces of my particular specialty. I feel that of his country, that as an educated there are two classes of books-books person heisexpected to be ambidextrous, made up of paper and ink, and books he is to be made equally at home in the made up of flesh and blood. The diffi- study of books of paper and ink and culty that I have in mind is that I feel in the study of books of flesh and blood. that most librarians, and also most The reporter was told at this point that JIr. college professors, make the mistake of Will~amshad a paper, and later told thnt assuming that you have to depend upon he had not, so a cons~derableportion of Mr. Willlanis' address is omitted From oneor the other, rather than, as I believe notes taken during the address we have ought to be more common, depending the followrng suniniary of the omitted upon both. portion: In other words, I have in mind many Several factors have helped to "cushion" uneducated men who feel as if the whole the force of the present industrial situation upon the wage earner. Relations between world of books is more or less closed to employer and employee have been better them, but who have developed a tre- during this depression than during any mendous amount of intelligence and other. The staggering melhod of employ- information and wisdom as the result of ment and the promise to employees thnt they would be called back to work as soon their ability and their long life training as possible, has tended to lessa~ithe long in reading the other kind of books, the lines of unemploved men at tlie Iactory books of flesh and blood. They have doors-the men have stayed away from made of themselves exceedingly in- tlie doors because they have the promse of their managers that ihey woultl be telligent, trained men, by applying them- callcd back to work. selves to the reading of that kind of book. The stenographic report continues: On the other hand, I have in mind the The second surprise that I got was other men, the better educated men- the number of men who wcre able to the more formally educated men, I tell me that their wage rates had been should say-who assume that because maintained. There is a connection be- they are able to read books and to tween those two, because if a super- digest the books, they must therefore intendent, looking out his plant window, perforce concentrate on the paper and sees a thousand men outsicle his gate ink kind of books for the increase of and real~zes that lie can get any of their learning. them to work for him at pract~callyany What I should like to see the libra- amount he wall ts 10 offer, L-hecllnnces rians and college professors and teachers are that he will find it very, very clifli- in the schools develop is a nluch greater cult to keep even the most sacred prom- measure of emphasis upon the ability of ise he or his associates map have given an educated person to use both types of to the President in the White House books. In my opinion, the educated Conference of combining the staggering man is the man who can use either of of work with the maintenance of wage those books at will for the obtaining of rates. his information and the increasing of Those two together have undoubtedly his intelligence and wisdom. helped very greatly to cushion the un- Along with the understanding of the employed man against the impact of the uneducated person that he must, of recent joblessness. course, restrict himself to the left hand A third factor you will be interested of understanding of his human beings, in is the increased amount of savings his fellow human, the educated person, that I found among the workers, the 210 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-Auguat, 1931 increased number of men who were even American sport known as keeping the looking for jobs with the help of the wolf away from the garage door. old "flivver." So I came to the con- I speak of that not at all to be amus- clusion that the American worker today ing, but to bring out the fact that up feels that the retention of his tires and until the crash of 1929, what I like to his self-starter under his feet is almost speak of as the famous October Mourn, as much of a demand upon his self- the American worker had come to feel respect as the retention of the very roof that he must endeavor to the utmost above his head. of his ability to retain himself upon a With that is connected also the fourth gasoline standard of living. That has a thing, namely the lengthening, the sur- vefy! very great importance, in my prising lengthening of the economic oplnlon, in all thought that is to be wheel base of the ordinary American given toward the working of our way family, due to the increased number of back into something like the conditions women wage earners. If Father or that we have known at least in 1928, if John has lost his job, the chance has not in 1929. been enormously greater in this depress- I cannot be just to myself as an ion than in any other that Mother or investigator and as a person who be- Maggie still carries on. lieves that we cannot possibly think It is all I can do to resist the tempta- about economic well-being for any of us tion to make a digression into all the here in America, except as we think first interesting influences and results that about the problem of economic well- change of the bread winner may have being of the worker, without adding one upon the whole social and moral out- further cushion, with which you may look of the American family, because not agree. That is this. There is just my opinion is that the leadership in no question whatsoever that any care- the home tends to follow the pay check ful observer must say that, to the cush- in the pocket, and the shifting of the ions I have named as helping the work- pay check, therefore, may be expected man to get through these conditions, to have some very great results upon must be added nothing less than pro- the whole outlook of the American in- hibition. There is just no question but stitution of the family that the absence of the saloon, in spite This way in which the women have of the presence of the speak-easy, has been carrying on has led undoubtedly resulted in an enormous help to the toward the increase of savings and the great mass of the working man in increase of the use of automobiles and weathering the storm of the recent de- the retention of the "flivver" by even pression. the unemployed man. I say in spite of the speak-easy. I They tell a story of one of the Van supposed previously, when a man said Sweririgens here in town. He was once to me a town that had had a thousand reproached by a woman for paying such saloons now had a thousand speak- high wages to the building trades men easies, it was just too bad, and repre- that were finishing the Hotel Moreland sented a total loss and the situation was up here on the Heights, because she as bad as before. said she saw every morning, parked out- As a result of my investigations, while side of this establishment, such beauti- wearing old clothes last summer, how- ful cars of the carpenters and the ever, I say to you there is no connection painters and all the others. Where- between the speak-easy and the saloon, upon this particular Mr. Van Sweringen or practically none. Time after time, is reported to have replied that he working men in various cities said to dldn't agree with her diagnosii, that me, "It is just as bad as it will ever be probably the man's wife was working a or ever has been. You can get the par1 of the year at Halle's Department stuff anywhere." He would always add, Store and his daughter and son were "Of course, they got to know you." probably taking a part-time job after Well that is some limitation, believe school, all for the purpose of enabling me, particularly in times of unemploy- the family to play properly the part in ment, because during unemployment that well-hown indoor and outdoor a man is free to wander about the city July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 211 at will. If he is known in only one ous defects, prohibition has done this, speak-easy out of all the thousand, the and it is a thing of enormous economic situation as compared with the old significance: It has very largely taken days of the saloon bears no resemblance. the weight of the liquor traffic off the After loafing a day in the speak-easy necks of the hundred million-odd who district of Homestead, Pennsylvania, have had daily to choose and who must with which I was familiar, because I today choose between shoes and booze, had been a working man in the big steel and has put the weight of the liquor plant in 1919, I came to this conclusion: traffic very largely upon the neat, nicely- that all the speak-easies of Homestead, pressed lapels of the few odd million Pennsylvania, do not today in an entire of our fellow citizens who can perfectly twenty-four hours do the business done well afford to have all the saloons and by any one, during a single morning, all the booze they care to. of the dozen or so saloons opposite each But if it is true, it is a fact of enormous of the great steel plants, when the six social significance that will affect every o'clock whistle blew for the ending community in which you work or live finally of the thirteen-hour shift, when or have your being for it is significant all of us with pick and shovel would to the manufacturer of shoes and of rush out across the street, fairly shoe- radios and of gasoline and of rubber horn ourselves in through the door and tires and everything else, because in inch our way up to the bar, there to be days of mass production every one of served by any one of half a dozen sweaty, those manufacturers and every one of shirt-sleeved "Hunkies" or Lithuanians us dividend earners or salary earners is with our order of one or two editions dependent upon the consumption of of what is known as a "blacksmith and those things, not by the few odd millions helper," a "blacksmith" being a big but by the hundred million-odd. whiskey like that (indicating) and helped That is, in my opinion, what has down by a big beer like that, before we happened, and that is what is going to wiped our mouths and worked our way be given increasing importance, because through the crowd again. of the fact that in beating our way back The saloons used to be runways of the to a kind of level of living in which worker, almost putting their hands on millions of consumers can be well his shoulder as he walked by. They enough off to keep going millions or were attractive and well lighted. We thousands of assembly lines in our great had reason to thank them for the mass production factories, then we are warmth and courage and enlightenment not going to overlook a tremendous they gave to the man addressed with crumb in the economic cupboard, such jobless news in that district back in 1919. as is represented by that shift of ex- Today, on the contrary, the speak- pend~turesof the hundred million-odd easy is likely to be far removed, at one over into new channels. side, where you have to go with, not In that connection, I can't but stop a malice, but at least a thirst aforethought, moment to tell a story 1 think is going and where instead of bright lights you also to give us increasing change in our have dirt and grime and dinginess, and whole point of view, with an increased instead of sociability you find the con- emphasis upon the economic factors of versation stopping every time the door the prohibition problem. opens, when everybody looks up to see I have in mind the time I stepped up whether the law, a policeman, or some- to a big steel worker out in Pueblo, body else, is coming in. Colorado, and was introduced to him So I can only say that I expect to see as a young fellow who wanted to write very careful thought given to what has an article about "Prohibition and the happened, in connection with all the Worker." attention that we are increasingly giv- The first thing he said to me, as he ing to the ways back to something like looked me over, was, "What the hell the old standard of living and of con- right have you got to write about a suming and therefore of producing; subject like that?" because what has happened is, in my I flushed, but knew I shouldn't get opinion, that in spite of the very obvi- angry, and said "What do you mean?" 212 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

He said, "Anybody can see it is per- land that forbids my passing the hat fectly safe that you ain't had no ex- among you guys, but there ain't no law perience that justifies your tackling against your putting a hat at the bottom a subject like that. I bet you a dollar of this little platform." you was never in a saloon a dozen times Then he went on talking. Finally in your life." He lost on that. his temperature got so high he blew up. Then he said, "I bet you $4 you was He said, "I spend my time bringing to never good and lousy drunk in all your you guys here the thinking of the best born days!" He wouldn't have lost economic theoreticians in the world," on that. "So what right have you to as he put it (they like to use big words) talk about it? Me, I used to take "and I have distributed among you guys eighteen shots of good whiskey every literature that cost twelve good dollars day in my life, come into the plant, to print, and yet you have the nerve to stand up against the hot furnace, and send me away with a collection that sweat it out of me, never the worse for doesn't amount to any more than forty- it except my old woman and me never five, fifty, fifty-five cents. How the had no money. Last week, now that hell do you suppose a guy is going to Colorado has been dry for a year, we live on fifty-five cents?" sat down and figured out how we paid I would have come back with a differ- for the house and were just about ent story, if at that every listener had ready to pay for the flivver, since Colo- gone down and drawn a dime or a nickel rado has gone dry, and then.we got mad or a quarter out of his pocket, but not a about the people sitting in their clubs, hand moved to a single pocket. It is just that never had been in a saloon in their too bad lives, and never knew what it done to I found the same conditions in various the working man, and say, 'I see Jim other places. I am perfectly sure that Millionbucks is drinking more than he it would not have been true last summer. did before prohibition, and I see his And I am perfectly sure we wouldn't wife is drinking more too,' and then have had as little unrest and rioting they say, 'Ain't prohibition hell?' They and bread-line stuff as we have had in don't know anything about it." this country during the past winter if Now of all these cushionings I am it hadn't been for those cushionmgs talking about, I believe the fifth brings I am talking about-the staggering about a hnal surprise, namely the very of work, the maintenance of the wage small amount of progress that I found rate to the extent, it hasbeenmaintained, the agitators making among the workers. the increased amount of savings as a Everywhere I go among my friends I result very largely of coijperation be- am accused of being a conserlrative, tween employer and employee, the because I refuse to tell them how ex- increased number of women workers, cited I an1 about the radical menace. and prohibition. I listcned everywhere. I spent hours But I want also Lo say that all of out at the Public Square listening to the those things, I believe, represent a agitators and watching the reaction of new development, which it may be we their listeners. Some of them were per- shall later come to adjudge almost as fectly good agitators, clever fellows and important as the invention and ap- good talkers, and fine reasoners. But plication of steam itself, in the way of that doesn't make much difference. making economic and social history. \J'hat is the result of their arguments In other words, those gains are not upon their hearers, unemployed men? indicative merely of an increased I don't see any particular result. For kindliness on the part of the employer. instance, one fellow out there, after If they were, then they would have a talking to them about what a wonderful very tentative and tenuous foundation. siluation they had in Russia and what They represent, on the contrary, the a terrible mess of a situation we had in acceptance here in America of this new America, and what a particular loss idea, namely that you cannot possibly and complete flop capitalism is as com- have profitable mass production except pared with Russian state capitalism, as you have prosperous mass consurnp- finally sa~d,"There is a law in Cleve- tion. Practically all of our recent eco- July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 2 13

nomic history, I believe, in terms of in- result of this new idea, every effort has dustrial relations, in terms of my sub- been made in the contrary direction. ject of labor and unemployment, has But I am only talking of these gains been shot through with this new, aston- in the whole situation for the purpose ishing idea, that the classes cannot of helping to place a proper evalua- possibly hope to get their dividends by tion upon certain ways out of it, be- the exploitatior~of the masses, much as cause I should be absolutely false to Mr. Marx would like to have it so. my whole understanding of the situa- On the contrary, here in America tion if I were to give you the idea that we believe that you cannot possibly for a moment these gains represent have the selling of enough things to run a sufficient approach to the whole your assembly lines to make your problem. In order to make it absolutely dividends for the classes, except as you sure that you won't forget that, I am devote yourself all the time to ways and saying it is not enough. means for maintaining up to a maximum I will have to tell yon the story, I the buying power of the ordinary every- think, of the jokesman on the New day mass citizen. York stage who told how he lo\red So those things that I talked about statistics. I-Ie said, "I dearly love and others are things that are worth statistics. I like to watch charts and taking very, very seriously, as factors all that sort of thing. It is wonderful! in our present, and factors of enor- I get a great kick out of them. I got mously greater value in the future, a beautiful kick the other day in read- just because they represent not a nice ding that in this country we spend sentimental increase of kindliness on for perfumery, nothing but perfumery, the part of a few. If that were the the sum of umpty-urnpty dollars and answer, then the bestowers of that forty-nine cents. Isn't it wonderful! kindliness and friendliness might also They spendall thatmoney for perlunlery. be those who take it away, so that we But I have to tell you conficlentially could not count upon it. There is no that every time I come up on the East question whatsoever that here in Side subway in the lush hour, I say America all of the factors of our future to myself, ' ' It isn't enough !" economic history are bound to be I tell you that simply to make sure based most of all upon the acceptance that you get my point, that all that I of that idea, the ~naintenance of the am talking about isn't enough. \Ye buying power for the mass citizen. cannot save our souls that way. \Ye Now that has made, I think, very, must some way or another- find RIOI-e very great history. It has made, for jobs, because if there is any one funda- instance, the average employer from mental that I have secured in my Maine to California lean upon his em- various years of reading the book of ployment department, get its help in human beings, at thc job, on the job, trying to meet the necessitics of the it is this: that in all the world there tnarket situation upon the employer, simply is no substitute for a man's while at the same time making ,every or a woman's job. effort td maintain the maximum And there is a perfectly good and buying power on the part of his own exceedingly fundamental reason for that. industrial group of employees. The trouble is that most people assume That is very different as coinpared that a man's job is nothing escept an with the history of things in 1921 and economic entity, that its purpose is 1922, when during that great dc- simply for putting some money in his pression those same employment and pocket with which he can go ahead and personnel and welfare departments live his life and find his real satisfac- were practically thrown out on their tions. ear, right out of the window. People That misunderstanding is at the were saying, "Of course, it is very nice base of most of the talk that goes on for us to do these things for our em- about "people ought to have more ployees when we can, when we have the pleasure." Most people completely money, but we haven't the money now miss the point of the spiritual meaning of so there is nothing doing!" Now as a the man's job to the owner thereof. 2 14 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August,193 1

I can but say how that works out belief and self-importance in the scheme by repeating how Evan Pugh was a of things without which man cannot live. teacher of that to me. Old Evan was So that prayer for the daily job is: a repair man in a mine in Wales. The "Establish Thou the work of our hands; repair man is the least important, yea, the work of our hands estab- least skilled, least responsible person in lish Thou it." Is that an economic the mine. But the time would come prayer? Not at all. It is a prayer when Evan and I would have to hurry that goes to the very bottom of men's and finda rock that had fallen on the souls, because if that work there can rail. That closed up traffic in that establish the value of my hands, it part of the mine. Evan took himself establishes the value of me. very seriously and would make a diag- nosis as to what caused the falling Therefore, we have to talk about through of the rock. And as he went not so much unen~ployment insurance up to see where it came from, he would and a lot of those things until we have scare me out of a year's growth, by the absolutely done all we can to get the way he would exclaim. We realized jobs themselves. My great complaint, that not until we did our job, and got therefore, of most people, and most that big rock off the rail, could the very educated people especially, is that they important fellows do their jobs. I assume that they are talking about the could see the pride with which Evan real thing when they are talking only about substitutes, because unemploy- put out his chest and took up his tools ment insurance and a lot of those and started back, crying over his things are not the real things. They shoulder, "Well, they be seeing now. They can't run the old mine without don't constitute the heart of the problem, except in so far as they may you and me now, can they?" possibly be made helpful in the pre- That is true with everybody's job. vention of unemployment. That is what a job does for a man. I am for everything and anything Since time began there has never been that will help prevent unemployment, a thing that could compare, one, two, but I also say that we haven't the right three, with a man's job, in helping him to assume that we have done everything to understand how he becomes im- that we can to clear the boards so that portant to other people and other we can now begin to talk about the people become important to him. substitutes. So when a man's job is gone, his In the time remaining, I must say money is gone, yes, but the spiritual that I think there are at least two or right for the man to take himself three things that can be done in order seriously is also gone. So until we can to make sure that we have provided solve the problem of getting more jobs, every man possible in the world, and we can't be sure of anything because in America particularly, with the job unemployment,very largelyfor thespirit- which is the answer to his prayer. ual rather than the economic reason, is the One thing, is, for instance, more destroyer of more human fiber, the maker co6rdination anlong the leaders of of more bitterness, the instiller of more business. Everybody is unhappy hatred, the bringer about of more about the absence of the leadersh~p unrest and challenge to the entire shown. But, after all, I think a great economic system than all the other many people feel we haven't been set things put together. up for that and we ought properly to So that the great prayer of the consider the possibilities of setting workers of the world, as I have found it, ourselves up for it, making that kind is this: "Give us this day our daily of leadership more evident (such co- job " That prayer is infinitely greater ordination of business men in particular than the prayer for the daily bread. trading areas as the New England The daily job does give the where- Council, for instance,) as could be done withal for filling the stomach with the if the Sherman Anti-Trust Law were daily bread, but enormously more im- changed. I expect to see some change portant, it also gives the bread of self- made in that direction if we are going July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 215 to go farther toward a larger use of "What is the matter? Why don't we different kinds of centrcllized planning. enjoy th~ngsof that sort? Get out of Another thing is that we ought to go the way! Let's see if we can't get a enormously farther in directing our better man!" attention toward the possibility of Of course, I should like to preach inventing new products, the making througl~outthe country the damage of of which will give en~ployment to the the ordinary, small-town, interior- men who have been laic1 off through the viewed citizen. I have in mind, for improvement process, through the im- instance, stepping off the gangplank at provement of mach~nesand methods. Barranquilla, Colo~nl~ia,South America, Finally, I believe that we Americans three years ago, and seeing as never in haven't the slightest right ill the world nly 11fe before so nmny grand, spiffy to assume that we have done cvery thing autolnobiles, direct from Detroit, the we can do to increase the numbcr ol first hour off the boat. There are no jobs in America until we have as people roads down there, and all the new become enoimouslv more internationallv auto~nobiles run around in circles in rninded. the same town, praciically in the centre. Just think of it! When 122,000,000 But you co~dclget off the boat right people today earn a national income of now and never see any of those new nearly $00,000,000,000, which is almost auton~obiles from Detroit. Because equal to the national income earned by they aren't making them in Detroit? all the other billion and a half people in Oh, no. Bccnuse coffee is bringing 10c the world, think what that means in or 12c a pound less in the world market terms of their star~dard of living as tll:ln back in 1920, when I was there compared with ours! So I am not Ant1 yet men like Borah and editors at all unwilling to say that in my like Hearst can stand up and make opinion one cause of the recent de- their fortunes politically and otherwise pression has been our old friend the by saying, and getting away with it, to American movie, a benevolent cause, all the peoples of the United States, because unlike any other invention of "You don't have any rig11 1 io be bothered recent times the American movie has about these peoples in Europe and bee11 carrying to all the people of the Africa. They are all low-brows and world the daily message of the contrast shysters and dishonest people. They between their type of l~vingand that don't even speak English. They have we enjoy-at least in the movies. nothing Lo do with you at all." That I have in mind being approached in may be a perfectly good way of get- a liussian v~llageby an old woman, ting votes or subscriptions, but I say who came up and said, "Are you it represents a kind of economics that really Americans?" we simply must do away wilh if we "Yes," we said, "what about it?" are going to answer that prayer of She said, "All these few years I have man lor the daily job. been seeing about you wonderful people Thai same sol-1 of thing has a bearing, in the movies, how everybody enjoyed I think, also finally in cormection with everything, bath tubs and telephones, the Russian situation. I suppose I and all sorts of things. And finally I ought to mention Kussia, because they said, 'It can't be. There is no such say that modern conversation in America people. It is jusl propaganda. It can't today, like all Gaul, is divided into be possible.' Now I see you. I said three parts, the length being provided to myself, 'I sllall never see an Ameri; by unemploytnent, the width by pro- can in the flesh. They don't exist hibition and the depth by Russia. 1 But here you are. I shan't sleep a believe that Russia today is gradu- wink this night." ally being de-Bolshevized really by the That is happening all over the world. necessities we have been talking about So the revolutions and other things of or the wish of the ordinary man to have that sort that have been taking place the satisfaction of his daily job, from are very largely the result of the banging the very botLom of his soul. of the table while millions of dozens of I believe unless man does have that people say to their political leaders, satisfaction there in terms of work, in 216 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 terms of value of then~selves as in- body might think they weren't as good dividual units in the scheme of things as a miner as this other fellow. I have a result of what they do, you cannot found men sitting at magnificent desks, possibly have an efficiently operated at the heads of railroads, worried be- industry, with the result, as I see it, cause somebody might think they were- that Russia is finding that up against n't as good railroad presidents as some that compulsion day after day she is other men. From the top to the bottom making concessions in the direction of that is the thing that makes the common what we have been talking about here. denominator hold steam That wish So little by little they have gotten of the man to believe in h~mselfis in my away from the old communistic idea. opinion the mainspring of the entire There is no such thing as communism industrial system and all the social and at all in Russia today, but the state economic appurtenances that are added capitalism is gradually working toward thereto. The moment any of us begins the American capitalism. American to feel that through our work we capitalism through centralized planning haven't a right to take ourselves seriohs- is working somewhat in the direction ly, all the money in the world wouldn't of Russia As a result I expect to see keep us at our work. the success in time of thc Five Year Plan In all of that you have a very irn- and other five year plans as an enter- portant part in your community, and in prise, but a success purchased only at the everything you write and every report cost of the success of the Bolshevistic that you make, because after all the real philosophy which it is supposed to de- remuneration that every worker wants monstrate. is an amount of appreciation-and under- But as that comes about, then we standing of the value of his service. shall see, I believe, a drawing of the I have in mind talking to a fellow in teeth of the fanaticism of the whole the glue factory of Swift Er Company. Russian scheme, with the result that we He said, "I'm going to give up being shall probably find that as the plan superintendent of the glue house." works out we have more to gain from I said, "Why?" the increased ability of the Russian He said, "People don't understand. citizen to consume and to enjoy a When I go lmck to my college corn- higher standard of living, than we have mencement reunion, everybody says, to fear from his ability lo become an 'What are you doing, Jack?' He says, inc~easingly efficient producer. 'I am Vice-president of Such-and-Such But all of that means in my es- a company.' They say, 'What are you periences, that we ran trust after all to doing, Jim?' and he says he is President the goodness of the individual, and that of some company. Then they ask me, we shall see that what we have been 'What are you doing, John?' and I say, work~ngon here in America more and 'I am superintendent of the glue fac- more is the application of a combined tory.' " social, economic, and spiritual motive I said, "What do they say?" through the increasing measure of satis- I-Ie said, "Well, not much, but it is faction that we have been able to ar- plenty." range for men to enjoy in their work. I said, "Well, what do they say?" AII~if Russia and other countries can "Oh, all they say is 'Oh,' and then work out efficiently in the direction of they change the subject." men's energies, we are. going to be If tomorrow we were to begin to say, rr~rcedto come to very much that same "Oh," and change the subject, when objective. people said they were nurses or libra- So I want to speak a word for these rians or teachers or whatnot, there isn't books I have been talking about by say- enough money in all the world to keep ing that I find this wish of every human them on their jobs. being to believe tha~through his work And whether we say, "Oh" or "Is he demonstrates his right to his self- that so?" or "Isn't that fine?," that is respect is the common denominator. I your job and my job, because you are have found men at the bottom of the interpreters to great multitudes of mines who were worried because some- people of not simply the facts, I hope, uly-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 217

not s~mplythe factors, not simply the namely, the wish that somebody may mechanics, but the real spirit, the reat say of us what somebody said back in soul of the business world in these Ecclesiasticus, about those people who special Ilnes. were out on the street making things. He said of them, "All these put their So I want to say finally that I am trust in their hands; and each be- optimistic about our possibilities to keep colneth wise in his own work. Without going with emphasis on the individual, these shall not a city be inhabited, and with emphasis on more coordination, men shall not sojourn nor walk up and because I trust the ordinary human being down therein. They shall not be sought so thoroughly, after having tried to get for in the council of the people, and in as close as possible fo the reading of the the assembly they shall not mount on very inmost contents. I find that all h~gh...... But they wlll maintain of these chaps I have run into have the fhicof the world; and in the handi- exactly the same desire you and I have, work of thelr craft is their prayer."

The Steel Industry

By John W. Love, Industrial Editor, Cleveland Press

HE purpose of this talk is to sum- holding its national convention in Cleve- Tmarize the main currents of de- land this week, with an exhibit down at velopment in the steel industry over the the Public Hall. When this Associa~ion last four or five spectacular years. If was last 111 Cleveland, in 1922 or 1923, after most of them are mentioned they they were talking about the savings seem to be swirling in futility, it would which electricity was making in the readily be admitted that steel is not steel process. It was figured at that alone in so missing its goals, but that time that something like $2.50 a ton perhaps it is only one facet of a general could be saved by changing a rolling industrial disillusionment. That we mill from steam drive, with its compli- must leave to the social philosophers, cated sets of belts and shafts, over to but I think all of us will agree that electricity, with powerful motors on practically the whole of the industrial every train of rolls. philosophy so popular only three years ago is now being liquidated, or, more Now these elertrical engineers are accurately, has been frozen. realizing that they have in fact stepped We have not consolidated prosperity, up the industry to a new plain of speed, some of our new financial tools have that they have established an equili- broken under the strain, our new tech- brium which did not exist before. By nologies have produced overwhelmmg installing electrical drives they found surplus output, the new era turned out they had a flesibility which steam never to be just another old era, only more so, had. The steam engine is itself about and now we are back where we started as flexible as the eleclric motor, but in the year 1921 or the year 1893. steam power is not nearly as flexible by the time they get it to the machine. Let us see how the steel industry has Such was the adaptability of electric fared in the recent boom and collapse, current that they were about to con- beginning with the technical changes it nect up rolling mills with one another had been going through. in entirely new ways, and construct Probably the greater number of tech- what amounted to virtually a new auto- nical improvements in the industry matic and continuous machine. lately have been concerned in one way or another with electricity. It hap- By assembling these trains of rolls in pens that the Association of Iron & series, they were able to construct Steel Electrical Engineers has been machines which would roll steel sheets 218 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 from the bar to the finished product The whole steel industry is running without the ir~terventionof any human about 40 percent of its capacity this labor. Formerly the steel sheet was week, and the sheet capacity of the passed back and forth between the rolls country 1s employed in n smaller per- by men with long tongs in their hands. centage than that. Obvioi~slyit will be These laborers were highly skilled. The necessary to find many uses for steel United States Steel Corporation at- sheets which do not yet esist, such as tempted three times to make thc pro- for highway founclations and cheap duction of sheet automatic, and on the dwelling houses and so on. The en- third failure announced that it was im- gmeers did their work con~pletelyand possible. The company which achievecl they rclcnserl something the sales clc- this impossibility was the American partment of the stc;el incluslry was un- Rolling Mill Co. of Mickllclown, O., prelrarecl fr~r. But other industries were which built the new machine at Ash- doing substantially the same thing, and land, Icy., so very secre~lythat hardly we had what was known as general anybody in the steel industry sits- overproductior~,cven tl~oughthere were pected what was going on. tnillions of people who had not yet been Others, however, were working on the able to buy these things thnl the new same idea or parts of it, with the result machines were able to make. 'That is that two or three other interests had another of the things we shdll leave to attained something near enough that the social philosophers. the Armco people hacl to compromise \Ye have discussed sheet, let us look with them or buy them out. now at tul)ing. For generations there By the time the company was ready had been just two ways uf making a to license the process generally it had tube. One was to roll up a plate and already licensed about as much capacity fasten it togethcr along thc seam. The as there was a market for. They went other was to punch out the center of a on licensing, however, until some eight bar. Thc liomans ilsccl the first method or nine of these gigantic mills hacl been to make lead pipe for their famous bath built, including one now under con- rooms. 'I'he British used the second struction in Cleveland Each of these method in hollowing out logs for a machines with their shelter and their London water systenl. Both funda- accessories and the electrical power they mental schemes were employed in the have to have behind them, plus the steel industry. Pipe was manufactured additional capacity they make necessary by forming plates, or skelp, mto tubing in the other departments of the works, and then welding the seams by pressing costs between $7,000,000 and 510,000,- them together hot. Seamless tubing 000 with the result that some $60,000,- was made by piercing a I~illetancl driving 000 worth of new sheet capacity came the metal out to form a tube. For suddenly upon the market before the more than 40 years these two processes market was ready for them. In fact the worked side by side without much com- market never could have been ready petition. The weldccl pipe had its for such a gigantic potential as was field and the seamless tube its field. released upon America by the new con- In the last few years not only have tinuous sheet process. two quite new principles of tube manu- The sheet makers had already their facture been developed, but strange trade association and the incliviclual things have been happening to the two firms were swamped with the production. old methods, welding ancl piercing. Prices broke down in the sheet business Let us take welding first. before 1929, and naturally they have It had been nearly 30 years since a shown no signs of recovery. Some of man named Otto Parpart, in a shop on the smaller sheet plants have closed the west side of Cleveland, discovered down, those which could not afford the that he could weld a tube by the use of high priced new equipment. Only the electricity. When he rolled a sheet into other day the Empire Steel Co., pri- a tube he found the current would jump marily a sheet maker, went into re- across the lap instead of going around ceivership. the long way. It took nearly all this July-Avt. 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 219 time for Parpart and his successors to electrical pipe welding installations were master the details of a new and very built One was constructed by the complicated technique, but mastered National Tube Co., subsidiary of the it was in the hands of several different United States Steel Corporation. groups of engineers. Another was erected by the Youngs- About 1926, the A. 0. Smith Co. town Sheet Sr Tube Co. in Youngstown, of Milwaukee began to trouble the both different not only from the other mar~ufacturers of pipe by getting two but different from each other. It most of the orders for thc large sizes. was said of the Youngstown equipment It was ascertained that Smith had a that so last was it that tube came out method of making pipe by welding it at the rate of 600 feet or so a minute electrically. The Company was attain- -but only for a minute--it would ing such speed and economy that no then break down. If that was ever other manufacturer could meet its true they have corrected ~t,lor the prices on pipe 18 inches in diameter Youngstown company is now getting It made its tubing by grouping a a good share of the new welded pipe number of mechanjcal welders along business. One or two other companies the length of the tube. Not only was the have been working on the same thing. tube just as good as the old-fashioned Now we have the pipe industry with pipe but it was twice as long, and this at least four very large and powerful made for economy in laying it. aggregations of new machinery and While A. 0. Smith was approaching without a market to keep it going more the problem of large tubing in a new lhan lialf the time. It is true that tile way, a man named Gustav Johnston pipemakers have been busier than the applied electrical welding successfully sheet makers, because they had the to the production of small tubing. benefit of an outbul-st of new business, Instead of arranging separate welding amounting to a boom, in the transpor- machines along the length of the tation of gas and oil long distances. It tube, Johnston pushed the tube through is difficult to say what made the gas the machine and it came out wclded. A boom possible, whether the discovery of Cleveland capitalist bought this machine new gas supplies or the fortuitous for a million dollars without seeing it. provision of the pipe to carry it. One All he saw was the completed tube without the other would have been coming out: of a slot in the shed which insufficient. But it is not by any housed it. This capitalist sold it to means sure how long he new market mother capitallst for something like will last, and such as it is, this bonanza $8,000,000, bul his second capitalist demand is not keeping the new pipe naturally was allowed to look it over mills much busier than the rest of the in more detail. sadly depressed steel industry. In the testimony in the Youngstown Thus came the Johnston pipe welding Sheet Sr Tube case last summer the process into thc hands of Cyrus Eaton officers of the company expressed their and the Republic Stecl Co. Around fear that the new high speed welding it and R few other ncw techn~cal of tubes woulcl turn out to be just like achievements Eaton built the $350,000, the high speed automatic production 000 Republic S~eelCorporation. of sheets-a considerable demand for Confronted with the production of just long enough to get far more com- large pipe by two new high speed panies into the business than could make processes, both in the hands of companies money. which had never made much oil well While the electrical engineers were and gas pipe before, the older companies busy designing new ways of making in that field were greatly disturbed. welded tubing, the old time seamless They too put their engineers to work, mills were not asleep. The small mills and fortunately for them they found went over to more or less continuous that Otto Parpart's original Cleveland handling devices. The large mills got invention was old enough to be available larger, until by a general overhauling to all, free of patent claims. Around of the process it was found that tubing it as a fundamental, several other of very large size could be pierced from 220 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

a billet about as easily as it could be processing into gas at the mine and its rolled up from a plate and welded to- distribution by pipe line. This would gether by electricity. This was the complete the decline of the railroads, anti achievement of the National Tube the government would doubtless have Co., the Corporation subsidiary, and to take them over to keep them running. between the two new methods in its It is plain to any observer that the possession, including electrical welding, technical end of steel production de- National decided to scrap all the old veloped very much more rapidly than pipe-making methods it had previously the marketing. Indeed, is this not true used. Pretty soon, if not already, of nearly every other industry? In National Tube will no longer be making fact it might be said that the mastery ,pipe by the old fire welding or pressure of technique was nothing to the solu- welding processes developed before the tion of the problem of how to dispose of Civd War. surplus, but here we are getting over I said earlicr that two other ancl into social philosophy again. entirely novel methods had been worked Let us go back a bit into the history out for making tube. One is spiral of the organization of the steel industry. welding, theother the expansion mcthod. Prior to the Spanish American !!Tar the The American Rolling Mill Co., the industry was in the hands of a large same which worked out the continuous number of small ancl large companies. sheet process, has recently clesigncd The whole picture had substantially machinery which makes a tube out of the appearance of thc in depend en^ a spiral sheet coiled together and portion of the steel trade today. fastened by welding along the seam, It was without form, and void. in much the same way that the paper Then the spirit moved over the waters tube is made for shipping calendars and the agglomeration known as the and other printed matter in the mails. UnitedStatesSteel Corporation emerged. The expansion method of tube manu- It was completed in 1901. Since then facture consists of taking a seamless about 40 percent of the industry bas tube with thick walls and then pushmg been in the lla~~clsof the Corporation out the walls until you get a thin- and GO percent with the independents. walled tubing of the rcquired size. Judge Gary, the founder and so This is a specialty, but ~t may have long its chairman, developed the policy possibilities we do not pet apprehend. of price maintenance and stability. All these methods together are break- This policy was best exempl~fiedduring ing down the old non-competitive and after the World War. In the distinctions which used to separate one period of high prices the Corporation pipe business from another. The stuck to its schedules and took care of distinction between pipe and tubing its regular customers at prices lower is about gone. than those most of the independents were getting. Thcn when industry declined Markets have fused and melted down in 1921 the Corporation maintained together, and nobody can say just prices on the other side It did not where the market of onc process leaves engage in price cutting as that tcrm is off and another begins For the present ordinarily understnod. It held an um- they are in flus, ancl here again it is brella over the industry. imperative that new industries be de- The Corporation was itself the product veloped or old industries greatly en- of great prosperity following hard upon larged to take all the new stuff that a great depression, the MclCinley pros- this machinery is capable of dumping perity following the depression of 1893- upon the world. 97. The country did not sce anything The possibilities of pipe lines are comparable to that depressionuntil 1921. only beginning, apparently. Powdered As soon as we began fighting our way coal is already being moved a short through that post-war decline we per- distance by pipe line. The next genera- ceived the outlines of another steel tion may get most of its fuel that way, corporation developing. This was to either the shipment of powdered coal have been a union of the Youngstown through mains under pressure or its Sheet & Tube Co., the Lackawama Jdy-Aug~at,1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 22i

Steel Co., the Midvale Steel Co., the what happened. In resisting this merger Cambria Steel Co., and the Steel & Tube Eaton carried on the most bitterly con- Co. of America. The federal trade tested legal battle of the generation. commission advised the promoters not While he was winning the battle he to go ahead with it. Bethlehem, al- lost the war through the outflanking of ready the largest independent, stepped his lines by an enemy which neither in and bought Lackawanna. Youngs- of the contestants were prepared to town took the Steel & Tube Co. of resist. This enemy was the decline America. Some of the independents in the stock market. Eaton had have always suspected the man who weathered the 1929 collapse, but the first mentioned it to the Federal Trade long and fierce clecline which began Commission was none other than Judge last summer was too much for him. Gary. At any rate the Gary umbrella Eaton had to part with control for a had to be sufficient for the independents time, at least, of his great financial for several years after. struclure of steel and public utilities. About 1926 the spirit of union again Technically it is possible for Youngs- began moving over the steel industry. town Sheet & Tube to start all over It is a strange and little known fact that again its efht to merge with Bethle- the man who first proposed a consolida- hem. All it needs to do is call a meet- tion of independents on a grand scale ing of the directors, and if any stock- after the federal inlervention was Hugo holder complained this time that he did Stinnes, the German iron genius. The not have enough material on which to first man to accomplish anything irn- make up his mind, the directors couid portant was Cyrus S. Eaton, Cleveland ship him a truck load. But for some cap~talist,lately from the public utility reason, maybe obscure, maybe plain business. Eaton believed that methods as day, the directors do not proceed. successful in light and power could be ap- Can it be that the virtue has gone out of plied with equal merit to the highly com- mergets? Had the union been effected petitive steel industry. He began with between Bethlehem and Sheet & Tube, the acquisition of the Trumbull Steel it would have been possible for some of Co., and in the course of three or four the stockholders to have sold out at years he had combined Trumbull with $100 a sharc more than they could get Republic, Central Steel with United now. Arithmetically the consolidation Alloy, and finally these and the Union would have been worth literally hun- Drawn Steel, and Donner Steel atld dreds of millions more than the two Interstate Steel, and Bourne-Fuller together are now. Naturally only a few Steel into a grander Republic Steel of them could have obtained such prices, Corp. but many musl have looked forward to Eaton seems to have had In mind enjoying the subsianlially higher values for the steel industry a sort of four- that consolidation was supposed in those system consolidation not unlike that days to assure permanently. proposed for the eastern railways. There is nothing to stop a merger now, U. S. Steel would, of course, remain nothing but the desire to merge and at around 40 percent of the industry. that seems to bc gone for the time being. Bethlehem would stay Bethlehem, The companies struggle along as they second in the east. Eaton's Republic, did before, and Eaton's Republic is third in the industry, would become having its owl hard times. the independent colossus while Sheet The steel industry seems to have saved & Tube, in which Eaton was the nothing from all its improvement in largest stockholder, would be the stem technique. Individual shareholders are of another consolidation in which in no wise ahead through all the new would be grouped various companies. processes the industry has developed. Finally, possibly the whole of the steel Competition is as bitter as it was in industry would be assembled in these 1921. four groupings. On the financial side, consolidation But while Eaton's back was turned has apparently but pooled the weak- Bethlehem and Youngstown took steps nesses which esisted before. It may be to consolidate. You well remember that one or two individual concerns now 222 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 consolidated might have found their This is the first depression of the sort way into receivership by this time. If which the Corporation has had to ex- so, the misery is diluted and spread perience. The depression of 1921 was over the whole group. Consolidation more difficult for the steel industry in has done nothing for competition, ab- some respects, up to now, but it looks solutely nothing. as if the summer would be as hard as The U. S. Steel Corporation adheres any period in 1921. This depression to its old policies of price stability, but resembles 1893-97, before the Corpora- under the new hand, that of James A. tion was formed. In 1893 and following Farrell. To those of Gary, Farrell has years the steel companies cut wages added a new principle, the maintenance right and left, and I suspect they will do of wages. How long the Corporation so again. can adhere to it remains to be seen. Engineering technique has but in- This is the voluntary maintenance of creased production beyond the capacity one element in the costs, something no of the world to absorb it. Financial great corporation ever assumed in the technique has but created consolidations history of industry. It has pegged their authors could not control. Neither labor for part of the industry, buL for has approached a solution of the dis- only a part. Three considerable inde- position of surplus, and that, perhaps, pendents have cut wages openly, per- remains for neither the engineers nor haps more of them furtively. Farrell the financiers, but for the social phi- complains of it, but can do nothing. losophers.

The Agricultural Situation

By 0. S. Powell, Statistician, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

T is a real pleasure to be here this I should like to deliver an optimistic, morning to talk about the agricul- rosy address, if the farm situation per- turalI situation, although it is somewhat mitted it, but I must beg that question. of a novel experience to speak on this The farm situation for some time to topic to librarians. Usually in talking come will reflect the industrial situation. about agriculture, we are talking to Other speakers on your program, much people who have farms that they are Ixltcr able than I to discuss that phase wondering whether to sell or not, or to of business, will tell you what is hap- railroad esecutives who are wondering pening and is going to happen to general what the tonnage of agricultural prod- business. You can count on agriculture ucts will be, or to country bankers who following general business. Consump- are wonder in^ what to expect in the way tion of farm products will increase at of agricultural income and perhaps are prof lable prices to the farmer only when wondering what advice to give to their the buying power in the cities and the farmer customcrs. buying. power abroad returns to more Assuming that your interests are per- normal volume. haps more general than those special At the outset it must be recognized interests which are ordinarily served by that there is no one agricultural situa- discussing the agricultural situation, tion. There are as many agricultural and also assuming that you are inter- situations as there are farmers. Con- ested perhaps in discussing more the ditions surrounding dairy farming, wheat interpretation of data to become more raising, cotton growing, cattle shipping familiar with methods of handling ma- are very different. There is not even terial of that sort, I am taking the a single set of circumstances affecting liberty of discussing the topic from that all of the wheat growers or all cotton point of view. growers. July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 223

We find wheat farmers in certain parts reason for this is that farm products are of Kansas claiming that they can pro- usually in weak hands. Farmers are duce wheat profitably and sell ~t at a compelled by financial circumstances price of less than 50c a bushel. We find and the perishable nature of some farmers in North Dakota, who quite products to market the greater part of obviously carinot produce wheat profit- their output when it is harvested or ably at considerably higher prices. Even finished for market. If consumption in a single community we find very demand will not absorb the supply, the different problems. One farmer will price rapidly declines to a level at which make a success and another one on excess supplies can be worked off. Non- similar land across the road will fail agricultural products, on the other absoluiely. hand, are frequently in the possession of And, of course, we have such tremend- sellers amply fortified financially to ous differences as the contrasting cases withhold their over-supply from the of the master farmers outstanding market indefinitely. These non-agri- successes in the Middle West and the cultural products are generally non- one-man and one-mule farmers in some perishable Frequently the producers parts of the South, where it is said that of industrial products are few in num- the mule furnishes the brains. ber, and can arrive at an agreemen1 for Nevertheless this discussion must deal the maintenance of price which is necessarily with generalities affecting beyond the power of the unorganized and large parts of the farming industry. multitudinous agricultural producers. The most universal fact to be ob- Thc important point in the price served in the farm situation is the deep situation to consider at the present time pessimism of farmers regarding the is that agricultural product prices at outlook. Conditions have developecl the bottom of a depression begin to which are new to the present generation increase earlier and more sharply than of farmers, and these conditions have do non-agricultural prices. With sur- caused much bewilderment. Between plus stocks of farm products worked off, attempts at governmental relief, Bol- and frequently with current production shevik competition, world over-pro- curtailed as a result of unprofitable duction of some farm products, inter- prices, any increase in consumers' de- national business depression and bank mand is almost immediately reflcctcd failures, which are only a few of the in higher prices for the farmers' goods. factors affecting the farmers' affairs, On the other Iiand, industrial products there is no wonder that distress and con- continue to sag in price for some time fusion of thought has occurred. after the revival of business begins on Foremost in the farmer's mind at he account of the continued pressure of present time is the low price level of SLII-plusstocks. The result is that for a farm products. Using the Bureau of period farmers find the prices of [heir Labor Statistics' indcx of farm product products increasing, while prices of the prices, the farmer is now selling his out- commoclities which they buy are still put at a price level as low or lower than decreasing. Again using the price in- that preceding the World War. Prices deses of the United States Bureau of of commodities which the farmer must Labor Statistics, we find that illis buy have not declined as much. Con- phe~iomenon has occurred in every sequently, the farmer finds himself not period of business recovery during the only with a shrunken cash income, but nineteen years covered by the Bureau's also with a reduction in purchasing indeses. In~portantexamples are the power due to the unequal declines in years 1913-14, 1921-22, 1924-25 and pnces. 1927-28. A fact in the price situation which has The price situation at the present apparently escaped much comment is time gives some evidence of a repetition that farm product prices have always of the same sort of occurrence. Non- declined more sharply during periods agricultural prices have continued to of business recession than do the prices decline up to the present time, whereas of non-agricultural commodities. The prices of farm products have apparently 224 SP~CIALLIBRARIES f uly-Auguet, 1931 stabilized for the time being, since there dence that in the minds of the trade has been no significant change iri their supplies are going to exceed probable index for three months. demand. However, one should be extremely Owing to price uncertainties, bakers cautious in drawing the conclusion and other users of flour have been buy- that farm product prices will follow ing on a strictly hand-to-mouth basis. historical precedent during 1931. Farm- Mills have a very small volume of for- ers have been assistecl by governmental ward orders for flour. As soon as the support in holding the prices of certain outlook for the price of wheat becomes major farm products above the price more settled. lnillers espect to receive a at which the products will be consumed more ~~orrnalvolume of orders for future 'As a result, we have thc spectacle of ex- deliveries and a modcrate increase in the ceptionally heavy carry-overs of wheat stocks of flour carried by bakers, whole- and cotton. In other words, for the salers and others may occur. If this first time in the history of the United happens, it will provide a temporary aid States, Lhese two major farm products in relieving the wheat situation. have joined the ranks of such non- A special factor in the wheat situation agricultural products as copper, oil and is the question of the physical handling rubber in their resistance to price de- of the 1031 product. Terminal elevator cline and the building up of excessive capacity is the crux of the problem. stocks The result is a coniples picture With termillal elevators able to store of farm product supplies with stocks of over four hl~nclred million bushels of some farm products al)norlnally large, wheat, it is ordinarily possible for them and other stocks small. to handle easily the tlortnal crop of the Ilnited States, amounting to around It will be profitnlde to review briefly eight hul~tlredmillion bushels of wheat, the situation which esists in the major and also to take care of such other grains farm products. The key to each com- as come to the market. modity's outlook is the stock of that commodity in esistencc Wheat has However, this year the Grain Stabiliz?- held the center of thc stage for the last tion Corporation has an unusual ac- two years. According to the latest cutnulatioti of wheat, which is not mov- Issue of "Foreign News on \Vheat," ing into trade channels rapidly. Our publtshed by the United States Depart- export demand for wheat has been small, ment of Agr~culturc,the four principal and according to the latest figures pub- exporting countries outsicle of Iiussia lished by the Car Service Division of had 703 mlllion bushels of wheat avail- the American liailway Association, able for export on May 1. If Russian which has the best table on the subject, supplies are added, tl~crewas on May 1 terminal elevators had o~ly153,000,000 the largest exportable quantity of wheat l~ushelsof free space as compared with on record for that date. Russia looms 171,000,000 bushels a pear ago. With up as a growing factor in the situation, only four more weeks before the cam- havtng produced one 1)dlion bushcls in mcncernent of the heavy marketing 1930. On the other side oT thc picture, we movemer~l of Southweslern wheat, the have a detnancl situation which is some- question of the physical handling of tho what more favorable. It appears that new crop is certainly a live issue. How- Europe has exhausted most of its wllcat ever, further elevator space IS I~eing supplies and for the remainrlcr of the I~uilt this summer, especially in the present year will be a hcnvy pi~rcha~crsouthwest, and i~ is hoped that the new of wheat from other countries of the crop can be marketed without serious world. The world acreage planted to dil'ficul ties. wheat in 1931 is smaller than a year ago, Cotton also presents a picture of and crop prospects are not as favorable excessive stocks. Domestic stocks of However, in spite of these favorable raw cotton in mills and warehouses at aspects, the price of wheat has heen the end of March totaled 8,120,000bales, reduced to a level below the pre-war as compared with 5,952,000 bales a level, and the price of wheat futures for year ago, and 4,131,000 bales two years the new crop is still lower, giving evi- ago. In other words, cotton stocks in July-August,1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 235 the United States are twice as large this suming public spends less money for year as in 1929, which may be bon- butter than during periods of more sidered a more normal year. active business, butter being considered These large stocks of cotton have ac- somewhat of a luxury. cumulated in spite of a moderate shrink- Therefore, with buying power for age in production during 1930 on ac- butter curtailed and an increase in count of the drouth. The reason for the production, it was to be expected that piling up of stocks was, of course, the butter prices would be greatly rcduced. curtailment of activity of cotton mills And that has come about. The price of during the earlier part of the current butter paid to Minnesota farmers in business depression. With prices de- May was 20%~a pound, 10c below the clining and demand for cotton goods at price one year ago, and 20c helow the a low level, retailers, wllolesalers and price two years ago. manufacturers carried out a program of Fortunately, or inevitably, this pricc curtailing stocks of finished cottrni goods was low enough so that con sump ti or^ on hand. has increased and has al~nostkept pace Fortunately for the cotton producer, with the increase in production. As $1 clothing has a lim~tedwearing life and result, butter stocks in cold storage must then be replaced. Replacement have bee11 built up only slightly over demand for cotton goods began in Au- normal, and preliniinary reports for gust 1930, and was immediately reflected June are still more favorablr than thc in the activities of cotton mills, since May rcports which were available at stocks of cotton goods on shelves and in thc time of developi~lgthis material. warehouses were low. The result has Let us look at the figures for a minule. been an almost continuous increase in ihe United States cold storage butter hold- activity of cotlon manufacturers up to ings on May 1 wcre about 6,000,000 the present time, accordmg to the weekly pounds more tlian the five-year average index of the Ncw York Annalist and the for that date. Now 6,000,000 poullds monthly index of the Federal Reserve sounds like a lot of buttcr, but when you Board. Furthermore, until April the consider that the LJn~tedStates con- increase in cotton goods manufacture sumes more than 1% billion pounds of did not keep pace with demand, and butter in a year, these excess butter stocks of cotton goods in the hands of stocks amount to unly .4 percent of the manufacturers continued to decline, annual clemancl. 111 otller words, if according to the monthly report of the every collsu~ner increased his annual Association of Cotton Textile Mer- consumption of butter by only one- cl~antsof New York. In April, the twcntietli of one poi~nd,the escess of level of production was higher than the br~tterstocks mould disappear Thai level of shipments, indicating some could almost he accomplished by tlol~- stocking up by cotton mills. Apparently bling ihe size of the little butter pats ' for the present, a level of cotton con- they give you on dining cars. sumption between 80 and 90 percent The othcr livestock and poultry in- of normal IS indicated, and any advance dr~striespiesent a mised picture. I-Icre of PI-oduction over those levels procluces also the stocks of these commoclities are excess stocks of hnislied goods. the key to their future These records Dairying in many sections of the are pul)lisl~cd~nonthly by the IJnitctl United States has been expanded this Slates Uepartment of Agriculture year, as a means of improving farm Stocks of eggs are large, clue partly in income and providing a profitable out- the early spring which stimulated egg let lor feed grain, which of course ib layinq. However, the increase in stc~cks selling at very low prlces in the markets. in terms of per capita consumption is Due to an early spring, a larger num- not significant. Stocks of poultry in ber of cows, and more intensive feed- cold storage are lorn, and this is truly ing, the output of butter is running remarkable for there has been an in- about seven percent larger tlian last creased slaughter of mature fowls due year. History shows that in a period of to unsatisfactory prices for eggs. In business depression the butter con- this case also low prices have evidently 226 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-Auguat. 1931 stimulated demand. Looking into the The effect of the price declines in al- future, smaller market supplies of poul- most all agricultural commodities has try and eggs are expected during the been to reduce the cash income of coming fall and winter on account of the farmers, even without consideration for unusually small hatching program car- the further reductions caused by drouth ried through this year by the commercial conditions in many parts of the country. hatcheries. The reduction in farmers' purchasing Stocks of pork in cold storage have power can be well illustrated by de- shown a moderate increase over the scribing what has happened to the in- average storage holdings, but stocks of come and expenses of an average farmer lard are low. This is a result of two Each year the United States Depart- factors, the early marketing of hogs at ment of Agriculture collects income and light weights from territories where cost data from many thousand farmers feed crops were small and the substitu- throughout the United States. These tion of wheat, rye, barley and other figures are summarized in averages feeds for corn, which produces a smaller which are published in the official pub- proportion of lard. lication, "Crops and Markets." Using Stocks of beef are low Cattle mar- the average farmer in the Northwest keting~have been small. The import- Central stntcs as a typical case, we ant business of feeding steers for mar- find that in 1929 his total cash income ket in the feed lots of the corn belt was $3,257. His cash outlay for farm was very disappointing last winter. The expenses was $2,325, leaving him ap- prices of finished steers dropped in 1930 proxirnatcly $1,000 of cash income for to a level which wiped out any profit to living espenses Of these cxpenses, the the feeder. most important were hired labor, live- The sheep industry has been running stock purchases, feed, interest payments, into an over-expanded slate for sevcral machinery and tools, taxes, and farm years. It would be expected, with the improvements. Between 1929 and 1931 number of lambs coming to market price declines have reduced this farmer's running about 40 percent larger in 1931 cash receipts from crops 39 percent, and than in 1930, for the first few months receipts from the sale of livestock and anyway, that we might find consider- livestock products 32 percent. There able backing up of stocks of lamb in has been a probable shrinkage of $1,000 cold storage. However, that has not pcr farmer in this average farmer group l~appened. Stocks of lamb in cold stor- in gross receipts. age are small, showing another instance Offsetting this shrinkage in receipts, where low prices have stimulated con- his cash outlay, of course, has been sumption. reduced in some respects. Wages of farm labor arc 30 pcrcent lower in the Wool prices are down to the 1921 Micltlle West than they were two years level, bcfore the high tariff on wool was ago. The price of livestock purchased installed, and recently wool consump- has decreased 29 percent. The cost tion has followed the same trend as of purchased feeds has been reduced cotton consumption and probably for 45 percent. The cost of some seeds the same reasons-the need for rc- is also lower. On the other hand, tases, pliwemcnt of clothing, 110th in stocks of interest payments, the cost of new mercl~antsand in the II~III~S of con- machinery, and some other items have sulncrs not been reducecl at all. Tobacco growers arc rewiving somc- If the farmer's program in 1931 what lower prices this year than a year covers the same items as in 1929, his ago for their proclu~t,on account of expenses have been reduced about $400, moderately larger tobacco stocks and a whereas his gross income has been curtailment in tlie export deniand for reduced $1,000. His net income has, 111c ~OnlmOdity. ln tlie domestic trade, therefore, l~cenreducecl from something consumption is running at ahout last like $1,000 to a little over $200. Of year's level. course, the shrinkage in net cash in- So much for the. details of the various come has not been that great, for the important commoclilies. farmer has eliminated ceriain of his July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 227 expenditures for the larger items, such The decline in the latest year was the as improvements, new machinery, auto- most serious in any one year since 1922. mobiles and purchased livestock. Also, The shrinkage in farm land prices he and his family are doing a larger part points also to a growing belief that farm of the farm work than formerly. land is not the all-important factor in The foregoing applies only to cash farm income. Scientific management is income and expenses. The farmer has in the :iscendency as the prof t-making also suHered seriously in reduction in force in farming, as it is in industry and inventories. His net worth, if he wishes trade. It is a well known fact that two to liquidate his business, and his borrow- larniers on adjoining pieces of land, ing power if he wishes to pledge his iclenticd in fertility ad clinlalic con- chattels as collateral for a loan, have ditions, will have very different degrees both been seriously dimirlished during of success. One far~nerwill make a good the past two years. living and the other may go bankrupt. The farmer's credit, both for short.- Thc only difference between the two time purposes and for long-time pur- farms will be in the matter of manage- poses, has been adversely affcctetl by ment of farming operations. Since this the present conditions. Banks, in con- is so, it would seem logical to put a sidering the farmer's request for a short- premium on good management, and to tern1 loan, are paying more attention reduce the premium on good land. This to the debt-paying power of the farmer. is exactly what has occurreci in many They are questioning the loan more instances. A new profession has sprung closely, not only as to the liquidating LIP,that of farm management. Farm value of the collateral, but more particu- land corporations have been formed with larly as to the ability of the farmer to farm managenlent esperts as general repay his note at maturity withou~ managers. These corporations own going out of busmess. The banker's scores of farms, each operated hy IL ,attitude is that he does not wish to tenant under the close supervision of the make a loan the collection of which will farm manager. This super-imposing of force him to sell out the farmer, and farm rnanaqement overhead costs upon that it is much better for the farmer the ordinary esperlses of the farm has to reduce his scale of operations and to generally proved profitable inasmuch as do without the,loan if there is any un- each farm has usually shown a marked certainty as to his ability to repay. increase in net income. Mortgage credit has also become more Since thc current depression began, a conservative, due to the existing un- new force has entered the farm la~id settlement of farming conditions 'The situation. Unemployment in the cities shrinkage in farm income has reduced has reversed the trend of population the value of farm land on the basis of away from the farms. Moreover, what it would produce. In addition, farmers the~nsclvesare using less .Iiil-ed there has been a steady pressure on labor. 'The result has been a pers~stent farm land prices ever since the war, due and marked surplus of farm labor in to the fact thaL a vast amount of farm most parto of the IJnited States. Fur- land has come into the hands of unwill- thermore, reports from many localities ing holders through foreclosure. The indicate a surplus of prospectiye farm United States Department of Agricul- tenants. As an illustratio~~of this, I ture makes a very reliable estimate of cite the case of a farm owner who the value of farm land in each state on advertised in a mid-western newspapcl- March 1 of every year. This computa- for a tenant. I-Ie received approsiniately tion is made as nearly as possible on the 200 replies. Of course, a large numlxr basis of recorded sale prices rather than of the applicants were not quali- on the estimates of farmers as to the fied either by experience or capital to value of their holdings. In other words, enter a tenant relntionship, but the facts rather than hopes are the basis of interestiug thing in the situation was these figures The latest estimates in- that a great majority of the applicants dicate that farm land prices have de- were pcol~le who merely wished to creased from 116 percent of pre-war make a livi~lg;they were not interested prices in 1029 to 106 percent in 1931. in getting rich quickly. 228 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-Augwt, 1931

il'ith this flood of farm labor and When the serious decline in wheat tenant prospects, the farm operator has prices began two years ago, the move- an escellent opportunity to weed out ment away from wheat raising and incHicient help and the farm owner toward dairying and other forms of nlay secure a satisfactory tenant. This mised farming became more pronounced. ill Itself will tend to improve net -farm The survey made last winter showed income. It will make the landlord that at the present time twenty-five less anxious to sell his property. Also percent of the farmers in North Dakota out of this situation should evolve a are carrying on a fully diversified larger number of prospective farm program with wheat only a minor buyers. No sudden reversal of farm part of the farm income. land prices can be espected, but the Another fifty percent of the farmers growth of a potential demand for farm are on the way to diversification. Un- land is clearly indicated. fortunately the slump In general farm There is apparently developing a prices caught them before they had changed att~tude towards farm life. fully fortified themselves with reserves, The old-fashioned belief in farming as and they are not faring overly well at ,1 livelihood is returning. The history the present time, but they are on their of farming is that few farmers have way to better and more stable farm I~ecomerich from their farm operations, income. hut, on the other ]land, they have been Only the bottom fourth of the reasonably sure of three square meals farmers are still following one-crop a day and a place to sleep. farming methods, some because they 111 closing, I wish to say that the haven't capital enough to. make any American farmer is not down and out. change, and others because they went He is largely dependent on outside fac- out to North Dakota to raise wheat and tors for better prices for his products. they intend to continue in that line But under the powerful influence of low of activity prices for some products he is shifting his production to take advantage of But in certain sections where bank markets where prices have dropped failures were very abundant and where I elatively little. farm stress was most noticeable An interesting survey was made following the World War, we Iind that last winter of this shift in farming the farmer's income is not from wheat ptmgram in North Dakota. North now but from dairying, hog raising, lhlcotn traditionally has been the home turkey growing, and the feeding of of the spring wheat crop. North Dakota beef steers and lambs. has been cited as the worst example A normal acreage has been planted of one-crop farming. And that criti- in the United States this spring. The cism was true until several years after farm market for manufactured goods the war. will be small until the depression in I-lowever, with wheat prices at an farm prices is over, but the farmer has u~~satisfactorylevel and moderate profits not been going deep into debt to main- available fro111 other forms of farm tain a standard of expenditures not nct~vity, notably dirying, a gradual warranted by his present income, and iurredse in diurying has occurred and thus he will be in a position to benefit a gradual decrease in the importance by higher prices for his product when of wheat raising. they arrive. The Money Market and Its Relation to Business By David C. Elliott, Economist, Midland Bank, Cleveland R. Love and Mr. Powell have to our general business prosperity, M d~scussedvery interestingly two in- namely the steel industry and the dustt-ies which are extremely important farm industry. We cannot be pros- July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 2 29 perous without prosperous concl~tions Custoniers clo not require this money in the steel industry or in the farm for loans, so the banks li'~ve to f~id industry. some other place to put i t. I want to talk about another matter In such a case, if you were a bank, which is also closely tied up with yo^ would go into the open market. business conditions and I~usiness ups You cbuld lend your funds in this and downs, of a little different sort, open market .in several ways I'ou and that is what we call the money could, for es:mple, lend it out on the market, or if you wish to call jt that, New York Stock Escliarige on call. the level of rnoney rates or ~nterest And that givcs rlse to what we namc rates. the call money late. In that rase, yo11 A lot of us red a good deal these wo~~lilIw, tlirougl~ yc~urcorrcsponclent days about the so-called clfectb of easy ba~ilc In New York, lending to some money and the ups and downs of the l lroker on the New I'orkStock F:\ch.m~e. money market, but possil)ly some of This money, of co~irse,could be callcd us are a little bit confused as to just in i~tany lime. what we mean when we say the money Then you coi~ltldo the same thing as market or the level of rnoney rates. So tl~~t,only you could be lending it rm I thought ~t might be of interesl this timc. And that gives rise to the rate morning to discuss first, briefly, just on time money, or what we call the exactly what wc do nican by the niouey time rnoney r'iie That is again Icnrling market; second, to point out the re- to some broker on the New Yorl, lationship between money rates ancl Stock Eachange, only the loan rum business; and third, to discuss a little for thirty or s~styor ninety days oi bit what may I)c expected of money more, ~nstead of being callable ;it rates in the future and what probable any lime. In tlic tllirtl place, you could buy effect they w~llhave or1 business con- r. ditions. 1)ankers' acceptances. I 11nse ,ire .llm sold in the open market. You coultl First, then, there is the matter ot the LLI~tllern from the Ilill clc;llcrs, \ill0 money market. Wllat (lo we mean by do nothing I~utbuy ancl sell banlicrs' the rnoney market? About tlic sim- acceptances plest way to put that is to say that Or you could buy cornnlerc~al piper there is a place, an open niarket, where in the open market That is, tllrough nioney can I)e borrowed or loaned, a note I~rolrer you could put your just the same as there is an open market funds into that particuliu. kind of porn- where you can buy and sell groceries issory note. 'l'his gi\.es rise to the or anything else. This market is located commercial paper we. largely in New York City, although So we Iiavc iliese four pri~lcipal there are smaller money markets in transact~onsin the crpen market, ~iv~ng other cities, and if somebody outside rise LO four principd classes of open of Ncw York wants to do business in m;ukct money rates; ~lanlclythe call New York money markets, hc can do money ratk, time money rate, comlncr- it through some relationship in New cia1 p~per rate, and tllc rate on York. bankers' acccpt;inces or "l~ill" rate. How could a transaction ill this 'I'he first two are often called Stock market come about? Suppose that Escliange molley rates, because they you are a bank, for esnrnplc, and apply elltirely to loans covering Llansx- therefore a lencler of money. I'ou lions o11 the Ncw l'ork Stock Lch:~nge; wish to loan out all your funcis so rlb that is in co~lnectionwith 1)uying and to earn interest on these funds, You selling sccuritics. The last two, thr will, of course, loan the greatest arnou~~tr,~tes on bankers' acceptances and (111 possible to your own customers, but commercial paper, are sometimes there are certain times when you will called business ralcs, because they find that you have a surplus of money. apply to business trans;lc.tions r'ither For example, at the present time, a than to Stock l

This period, by the way, covers upswing, we have a recurrence of the about forty years, beginning in the depression. That was accompanied by panic of 1893, so the normal line is a period with money rates above normal. a little lower than the average of the After we got through t.he depression commercial paper rate through all these of the go's, we had a lengthy period of years. I have chosen the commercial prosperity and advancing business, re- paper rate because it eshibits, about as presented by the black line here, es- well as any other rate you would choose, tending through 1897, 1898, 1899, and the relationship between money rates up into the early part of 1900. During and Business activitv. all the period you will observe money If you had the call money rate here, rates were below normal, with the ex- the picture would be very much the ception of this one little peak, which same, or the time money rate, or the was so temporary that it hardly counts. rate on bankers' acceptances. Rates Then we had a mild declme in business which banks charge to their customers, that lasted the better part of the year the so-called customer rates, would 1900, and we find that we had a mild not apply, because those move slowly area of money rates above normal. and do not sp~eadso widely as other \Ye had a recovery then in 1901 and rates. So the open money market 1902, accompanied by an area of low rates exhibil much better the relation- money rates. We had the so-called ship between general money rates in Rich Man's Panic of 1903, which business than do the cuslorner's money didn't last long, but was quite a panic rates; that is, as far as their forecasting while it lasled. And then we had higll ability is concerned. money rates. The bottom part of this chart shows We had a recovery in 1904 and 1905, a curve of business activity, that which and low money rates at that time. was recently published by the Cleveland Then we come into the grand old Trust Company. The 100 line here panic of 1907, which probably some is the normal line, and we have fluctua- of you have heard about. That is tions above and below. You notice represented by this line here. Business when business is declining the line is declined very slightly at first, and then in red and when business is advancing went down very, very rapidly. In we have a black line. that period you see we have high money rates conling up to a very high On the other hand, on the upper point, when the money panic hit the part of the chart, when money rates country late in 1907. are above normal, I have put the area The next period on the business part in red, and when we have money rates of the chart is the recovery in 1908 to below normal, the area is in black. In 1909. We have low money rates, a other words; the red area means a slight decline in 1910 and 1911, with period when money rates are above a short period of high money rates. We normal. That might be called a danger have recovery in 1912 and 1913 with simal- so far as business is concerned. the area below normal up here. And Let's see exactly how these two then we have a decline which is called curves are related. Taking our business the war decline. In fact, it was on picture back to the panic of 1893, the its way when the war began and was first year shown on the chart, we dis- pushed on by the fear psychology in- cover in 1893 we had money rates way duced by the war. That was accorn- above normal. In fact, the highest panied by high money rates. point the commercial paper rate reaches Soon after the psychology of fear wore in this chart is the early part of 1893. off this country became quite prosperous. We discover a very sharp decline in We began supplying foreign countries busmess activities, the red curve going with ammunition and supplies. ll'e down there. have a rise extending through 1915 In 1894 and 1895 we have a temporary and 1916. There we had very low recovery in business, which is shown by money rates. Then we had n decline the black line, accompanied by a period in 1917 and 1918, and a period of high of low money rates. Following this money rates. 232 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

Of course, there must be an exception yield like that? You might as well to prove every rule, and here it comes. take the money home and put it away After the Armistice was signed, we had as to take a yield of that sort. a feverish year of speculation with So we have a period of extremely false prosperity that lasted through low money rates, and if things are going 1919 and the first part of 1920. All to happen as they have happened in the speculation, however, instead of the past, that should result in a being accompanicd by low money rates, progression upward of this black curve. was accompanied by high money rates. Having established a very beautiful So there is an exception. We have the relationship between money rates and black line coming up here, and we still business, the next thing is to discover have high money rates. The level that the relationship isn't working, did come down somewhat, as you see which is very unfortunate. The but didn't get below normal. question is, Why? Then we have the very bad depression In. this depression, contrary to nearly of 1920 and 1921, accompanied by all others, we had low money rates very high money rates-a long period almost right from the start Money of high money rates, probably the declined back in October 1929. By highest we have ever experienced in the early part of 1930 we had low levels, this country. Thcn we had the re- and ever since then we have gone from covery in 1922 and 1923, accolnpanied low levels to lower levels, as you see by the small area below, the minor de- by looking at the chart. pression of 1924, the small area above, If I am right on that black curve, of and the long so-called Cool~dgepros- course, we can see how wen the thing perity, or whatever you want to call has worked although it has worked ~t-Coolidge depression, in case you pretty late. But In case that black are a Democrat-accompanicd by this curve turns out to be some more red long period of low money rates here. it is going to be too bad for the forecast- Tlicn we have the reversal into a ing significance of this chart. high money rate period, which you can So it is only fair to take up a few of no doul~tstill recall with very unpleasant the reasons why the old-time relation- sensations. That was followed by ship isn't working out so well this the present smashup whicli undoubtedly time as me should like to see it. is the worst business depression of Thcy are, briefly: The money rate this ccntury. itself is not the thing that determines I have been very optlmist~c here these movements in business, but it is You observe I have a black line starting the relationship of rates to other things. up at the end of the business depression, For example, in depressions low money in the first four months of 1931. I rates then~selvesdo not bring us out am not going to stand hcre and tell of depressions, but they do encourage you it is going to continue to be that a strong bond market in all cases. way. I don't know. At any rate we When you have a strong bond market. do have a come-back in the first four you almost invariably have recovery months of this year, which is very of business. encouraging to the statistician, who That is as good a forecast as the fore- has been wrong so much that he would cast of money rates we see here The like to IJ~right once. . reason for that is, in times of depression You observe we have had a period when money rates have been low for of low money rates,-very low money quite a while business houses are en- rates The lowest money rates we couraged to float new bond issues have had anywhere along in this period when they can get reasonable rates. are I~eingexperienced at the present time. They use the proceeds of these issues, For ~nstance, the rate on short-term in a good many cases, to construct Irankcrs' acceptances, as probably most new buildings, install new machinery, of you know, is seven-eighths of one per- put in labor saving devices, make addi- cent. That is pretty low. What is tions to their plants, and do other things the use of buying anything with a of that nature which should have been July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 233 done in the previous prosperous era, but the war. That shortage has been more in such a time as that business is running than made up, so our necessity for at such high speed those things are new construction is not as great as it let go. has been in some of the past business The use of funds in that manner, depressions. There is no particular of course, means that men have to be need in many cases for a corporation hired to do the work, wages are paid to make an addition to its plant or out, and so we get increasc in con- build a new plant because it has more struction through a rising bond market, plant than it can handle now. As Mr. which in turn means more wages paid Love pointed out, that has been a out, more money put into circulation, retarding factor in the situation. and the beginning of the purchase of The other point, of course, is that there goods, which turns the vicious circle in have been a lot of things in the business the other direction. lye have the depression aside from the mere matter of circle going upward-more wages, more moneyrates or the bond market. Thereis purchases of goods, more product~on, unsettlement all along the line and bad and so on. That is the beneficial way foreign conditions, over-stock of com- in I\-hich the low money rates in times of modities, and all the rest you read 1)usiness depression make themselves about every day. Those things haye felt had a retarding effect on the recovery I'nforturlately, in this business de- process. pression we ha1.e an estremely weak However, I think that eyen con- I>oild market, and have not had these sidering all these drawbacks to our large capital flotations to be used for money-business theory here, me can construction that we have gotten in the say that eventually low money sates pdst clept-ess~ons. arc going to have their effect, if In As a nlaitcr of fact, me have two bollcl fact, they ha\.e not already begun to markets. Any of you who have been have it, as sho~vnby this black curve watching the bond market know that. at the end of the char^. \\-e had a very good market for the very best and highest grades of bonds, such I think also, as soon as confidence ,IS Unitecl Sti~tesgovernment securities, is restored a little bit and people get and the very best of corporation bonds, over being so nervous about things, and we have had a very excellent there is going to be a grand rush inlo market for short-term issues. But thc the bond market for a lot of bods at depression psychology has so gripped the low prices, and there ~villbe a great country, and people are in such a state transfer of funds from the short-lime of fear about things, that the rest of money market in~o.tl~elong-time money the bond market has been estremely market, that is from such things as weak. In other words, it is almost bank acceptances, which now ha\-e a imposs~blefor a corporation to Roat rate of 7/8 of 1 percent, to good bonds a bond issue successfully if they want to which are still yielding between 4-1: 2 because nobody will bu). the bonds. and 5 percent. There is going to be Therefore, the constr~rction I have a transfer of funds from the short-time been talking about has not been getting market to tlie long-time market, and under way, as it has In the past de- that will enable business corporations pressions. to float these bond issues \vhicll are or- Ar~other feature of this situation is dinarily necessary to bring us out of the fact that there is less need for depression. construction than there has been in past My conclusion is then, regardless of business depressions. \I7e have just the ill effects of all the business calami- gotten through with a ten-year period ties me ha1.e had so far, the one un- in which we have had a tremendous derlying thing in this whole situation amount ol construction, a period that is the fact that we have the lowest started way back in 1922, (and in- level of money rates in our history, cidentally helped us out of that de- and that is bound to have its etiect pression) when there was a real shortage in bringing about business recovery of building in the country following sooner or later. SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 A New Index of Industrial Activity By Colonel Leonard P. Ayres, Vice President, Cleveland Trust Company OME seventeen years ago, in 1914, perhaps most conveniently considered- S the year that the Great War broke from prosperity, down through decline, out, a brilliant young efonomist in the on still down to depression, up through University of Californ~a, IVesley C. recovery, and still further up to pros- Mitchell, published a book on which he perity again. had for a long time been working with The cycle keeps rolling. But it rolls his associates, and the title of the irregularly, by methods and through book was "Business Cycles " What paths that we have not yet been able Mitchell had done was to depart from clearly to understand or map out. the century old practice of his fellow Now we realize ~t is not merely a economists in discussing that topic, and matter of more or less active business, to attempt to bring together in de- greater or smaller business profits, more finite form in figures and in diagrams or less opportunity for the person who the evidence about the business cycle. wants to work to secure work, but that The term that he used for the title there goes along with these changing of his book was new. "Cycle" had phases of business a succession of been used to talk about these great changes in general public sentiment-not recurring fluctuations of business ac- merely business sentiment, although tivity, but not that concise term-the primarily that, but the whole sentiment business cycle. It was a fortunate term, of the community. In that connection for everywhere here and abroad people one may use "community" not merely realized that that was the name of the in the narrow sense of the community thing that they had been interested in where you live, or even the country of and it was the most appropriate desig- which you are a citizen; but in these nation that perhaps could be given it. larger changes of business, in the world So from that time smce, the term sense, co!responding to the world busmess cycle has been used everywhere, changes in the nature of business here and abroad, in English and in activities, there seem to be. going on translation, to designate these great all the time changes in how people look moves of business, about which we at life. are talking briefly this morning. And When business is depressed but com- Mitchell's book became the classic in ing up, in the phase of recovery, the its field. He was the first to attempt to general business sentiment is one of study that curiously important and hope. As it goes on into genuine mysterious human phenomenon by prosperity, hope changes to confidence marshaling the evidence concerning ~t.As prosperity begins to get less certain After that it was translated into lan- and to start off on the other side, con- guages all over the world and repro-. fidence changes info doubt. AS de- duced in part and in whole. It is now cline continues in business activity, out of print but is followed by other finally that doubt gets down to such a books, including a very important one point that when decline has become by Mitchell, covering in general the same depression, the doubt has changed into ground and bringing material up to date. fear. And so we have those four What Mitchell told us was that there phases-on the one hand, of business seems to be going on in every industrial activity, and on the other hand, of country all the time a working out of business sentiment-going forward con- forces that we know a great deal about, tinously: recovery with hope; prosperity but that we understand only too with confidence; decline with doubt; dimly, which in their combined effects depression with fear. tend to carry business activity and Always and everywhere, if we have human prosperity incessantly through been afraid long enough about what may a series of changing phases-four phases be going to happen to us, we find in July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 235 every activity of life that the worst long, long period of years a truly large things that we thought about didn't literature. \Ye have in both fields happen; they never do happen, because many individuals who are acknowledged our imaginations are always more as being informed allout those things capable than the realities. And so And yet concerning nelther one do we after we have been afraid long enough know the cause. \l'e have much know- we begin to get hopeful once more, and ledge but not complete or adequate un- depression then changes into recovery, derstanding and we go on through that cycle. \Ye know a good deal definitely about Business in the world at the present business c!des for more than three- time is in the phase of depression, far quarters of a century past. During in and deep down; and fundamentally, that long period there have been the sentiment of the world at the twenty-two depressions, of \vhich this, present time is a sentiment of fcar, a of course, is one. Eleven of them have little more thls week or nest, a little been minor business depressions, arid less perhaps in the following, but for the other eleven major depressions. some months past it has been true. It This is not merely a major depression, will not continue. It never does con- but it is going to take rank as one of the tinue. Some time fear will once again great major depressions of our long begin to change to hope, and depression economic history. will change off into the beginnings of recovery. On the average, these business cycles, Some two years ago, in this city, the measured from depression to depression, Board of Education held evaminations or from the peak of prosperity to the at the end of the summer season to find next peak, to the nest and the nest, and out into what grades the children, who so on, have been about forty months had come to the city during the summer long-three and a third years. In from other places, should go. One general, of those three and a third years, of the boys took two esaminations in two years have been spent on the way succession in one day, the first in gram- up, and one and one-third on the way mar and the other in geography. One down. The way down is steeper than of the questions in the geography the way up. Remember, "Facilis de- examination was: Name the zones. scensus Averni." The youngster wrote: "There are two But while it is true that the average zones-masculine and feminine. The length has been forty months, the fact masculine is either temperate or in- is almost always not anything more temperate; the feminine is either frigid than an arithmetical generalization. It or torrid." doesn't help us much. It doesn't mean That is a very good description of that this one is going to be forty months the business cycle. It is always moving long or that after one and one-third from one extreme to another. The years of decline you can be pretty sure only thing that we can be sure about we are through with that decline, for in cons~dcringthe condit~onof business one of the characteristics most published or the business cycle is that whatel~er about the business cycle or cycles is that the conditions are now, they won't be they are irreguldr in size, irregular in that way very long. They are always contour and irregularly spaced. And changing to something else. set they keep on rolling incessantly. \Ire know a good deal about these I think that of those twentytwo well- things. Sometimes it seems to me defined depress~ons,eleven were minor. that the business cycle is fundamentally The minor ones don't do much harm. for the world of business what the They do so littlc that most business men problem of cancer is for rned~cine. do not even recall that we had a clepres- About both of them we know a great sion in such a year, if it was one of the many facts They are so very im- minor depressions. For esample, we had portant that there is much subsidized a truly deep depress~onin 1924: most research going on all over the world business men do not remember it. \Ye concerning both of them Concern- had another that was less serious in 1927; ing both there has grown up over a hardly anyone remembers that, escept 236 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 the students of such things. They were prosperous for a long period until this short. It was quite easy to bridge over thing came along. The contrast at them. least makes this one seem exceptionally Of course, the fact is that we have an severe. almost complete business depression Prosperity comes from the Latin once a week, on Sunday, every Sunday. words pro and sperarc, the thing which But it does not do much harm, because we hope for. And prosperity is some- we are used to it. We count on it, and thing we hope for. In reading some it is brief. What does harm is the Arabian history some time ago, I came duration of the depression, not its across an old Arabian proverb which severity. may have a bearing on this. It said, a Minor depressions, if we diagram "It is continuous sunshine that makes them out, if we make a line that repre- the desert." So perhaps it may be that sents the contour of business activity, after a country has been over-prosperous are what we call V-shaped. The line for a long period, there is bound to goes down, doesn't stop long at all at the ensue a period of depression. bottom, and starts up the other side. In thinking about that in turn the V-shaped depressions do not do much other evening, I wondered if I sliould harm. We do not remember them very find anything in the dictionary about clear1y. depression. I thought I knew what Major depressions are U-shaped. They it came from. It is Latin, and it lneans have a considerably extended bottom, "thing pressed down," but when I looked usually for about a year, and yet there it up, I found in my d~ctionarythere was was one in the '70's that had a bottom no intimation that depression was a six years long, six continuous, successive word that could be used in talking about years of business depression. business conditions. Therc was mental This depression isn't even U-shaped. depression and other sorts of depression, We had a great crash in the stock but not business depression. So I market late in 1929. Business activity, looked back in the front of the book to which had been dcclinmg slowly, came see what I had there, and I had Funk and down rap~dlyto the first part of 1930, Wagnalls Dictionary, theedition of 1929 and then business activit~esstarted to In 1929 they didn't even put that mean- move sideways, and those of us who ing of depression in the dictionar!.. studied such matters said, "Here is a During recent months the statistical U-shaped depression, forming its con- organizations with which I am con- tour, clearly moving rather slowly and nected have been tqring to extend getting ready, after having some succes- backward our knowledge of business sive months of this sort of thmg, to start depressions so that we should l1'1ve a to climb the other side." better basis for studying this one. That process of moving slowly side- It is a fact that general commodity wap continued for about half a year, prices were very high In the Civil \Yar, untd almost exactly one year ago. And fell for about thirty years, clirnbecl all then, after a nice, long, irregular floor the way then up to the time of the had been formed, this depress~on, in- \iTorld \Var, and since then have been stead of continuing that floor out coming down. Nearly all the students and moving up the other side, turned who have been making researches in sharply and went right down into the this field of the business cycle have been cellar There we are now, on a much working on the data ol the later period, lower secondary bottom, which is a very during which wholesale prices were serious matter. rising. Perhaps the depression is serious in We know that business is very this country, particularly to Americans, different when prices are falling, and so because the contrast is so great, because it seemed to us that it would be a useful as a nation we had been enjoying contribution to attempt to extend back- prosperity almost without any interrup- ward our knowledge until we could find tion from 1921. I said there had been out about those depressions following the two minor dep-essions there. That is Civil War and those prosperities, when true. But in general we had been wholesale prices were falling. We July-August. 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 23 7 undertook that task and we tried to live in the world is into two groups: carry back the data even before the the people who live in the country and Civil War so that we should come over extract things from the earth by agri- the top and down the other side and see culture, by mining, by fishing, by- what happened, because now we are in forestry; and, on the other hand, the an era when we have gone over the top people who live in the cities and take and down the other side, and very those things and fabricate them and serious things are happening. trade in them. We became convinced, as we carried When a great war comes, the first that work along, that it was particularly result is a tremendous inflation of important to find out what happens to prices. Prices mount very rapidly, as business after great wars, because we saw during the past war. The apparently it follows a very special immediate result of that is that all those pattern. We have had, of course, four people who live in the country experience great wars in this country: the first war a great wave of prosperity, particularly with England-the War of Indepen- if they are farmers. What they are dence, the second war with England, producing costs no more to produce, and the Civil War, and the World War. what they get for it is very greatly So far as we are able to find out about enhanced. After a few years it would it, business activity has followed almost cost more to produce, but the wages do exactly the same pattern on each of not go up nearly so rapidly as the prices, those four occasions. And what is and mostly the farmers furnish the~rown happen~ngnow is the same thing, with working forces. certain changes, that happened at least So when there comes one of these three times before in our national quick increases in price, it not only may history. happen, but it does happen that the Each one of the great wars has been profits of the farmer may be increased by followed or accompanied by a great a doublmg of prices, ten times, so that price inflation, each one by land booms, the profit may be ten times as great as it each one by depressions, each one by was just before, when the prices were a deflations of the land booms, and each little low. one by long periods of very difficult At once there ensues a great wave of readjustment. prosperity on the farm, a farm land John Adams, our second President, boom, the plowing of new fields, the wrote very interes~inglyon that same mortgaging of farn~sin order to buy theme, a long time ago. He wrote: "I more larrns, the erection of builcl~ngsand am old enough to remember the \Var of the purchase of equipment in the agri- 1745 and its end, the War of 1755 and its cultural district. This period mean- close, the War of 1775 and its termi- while IS rather difficult for the people nation, the War of 1812 and its pacifi- living in the city, because while trade is cation. Every one of these wars has brisk and everyone can have a job, the been followed by a general distress, by cost of food has risen sharply and wages embarrassments of commerce, by de- rise slowly. Labor difficulties result. struction of manufactures, and by a They always result in the early parts of fall in the prices of produce and of land." war periods. It sounds quite modern, doesn't it? By and by the war comes to an end I ought not to take your time to and prices turn down. There is great discuss at all in detail these things that depression. \Ye had ours this last time are primarily of interest to the economic in 1921. It was a serious depression in students, and yet I think I will venture the city but a terrible depression on the to tell you very briefly what I think it is farm. That was true here. It was true that happens after great wars, because it all over the world. There are whole seems to me that it explains what is countries that one may classify as being happening now, and that clearly is some- what I call populated by the country thing that we need to have explained. people, who extract things from the I think I would put i~ something like earth, and whole nations that are made this. The simplest gweral classification up almost of city people who do the that we can make of the people who manufacturing and the trading, and 238 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

there are nations like ours that are So far as we are able to cipher the divided more or less half and half. rather indefinite evidence in the case, it After that depression, always after happened after the Revolutionary \17ar. -the great war, there comes a period of I think that the great lesson of this prosperity for the cities, because during depression is not something relating to some years following that first depression our monetary and fiscal system or even the city is purchasing cheap food, the to our social structure. I think the fun- farming district has increased its output, damental lesson of it is, we can't afford and can't decrease it quickly, and the great wars, that the real penalty of the relative espense for food in the city is great war comes ten years later and is small. Then we have a period of land long and difficult. booms in the city, of city real estate With a great deal of aid from Lhe mounting and mounting in price, of Cleveland Public Library, the organiza- great speculation in everything except tions with which I am connected were commodities. In this last case, a great able to carry back the study that I have stock speculation occurred. This is a been talking about. Miss Vormelker period during which the city people feel and her associates escavated for us the that they are destined to go forward, ancient data. They are engaged in carried by a new era that is very further excavation now, some of it very delightful in nature. intricate and difficult. You know, after But in the meantime the purchasing all, it is hard work to find out just what power of the country district is becoming evidence is in existence as to the amount more and more seriously inadequate, of pig iron that was produced in 1792, and there comes a time when no longer for example. That is the sort of thing can they buy these products of the city that we are doing now. workers, and then we get a secondary I have here a number of copies of the price decline, a secondary deflation of diagram that we produced in connection the building boom, a secondary collapse with our study of the cycles back to of speculation, and a long and grinding 1853; that is, beginning at 1854. It depression. We are in one now, in is in the shape of a desk diagram that which those two great compartments of was made in the hope that people world activities jolt and jar once more would want to keep it on their desks for into such an effective adjustment that reference * they can go on and carry forward the I think in the main you will find the business of the world. diagram self explanatory. The black This happened after the Civil War, silhouette is, of course, an attempt to almost to the month on the same time- diagram the contour of general business table as it happened this time, not in terms of the percent above computed dating from the end of the war but normal that it was or below the com- dating from the peak of prices: great puted normal, each month during this country prosperity, city difficulty, turn long period. down of prices, depression, city pros- You will note there are designations- perity, city real estate boom, great not esplanations so much as the names speculation, secondary turn down, sec- of these depressions and p~osperitiesas ondary deflation, secondary depress~on. business men recorded them in the And then that time after the Civil literature of the day. Some of them are War it took sis years before me got back definite names, just is we give names to normal business. to battles and other great events. Some Don't interpret that as an expression of them are more or less explanatory of my thought that it might take that names. For example, along in 1903 long this time. I don't think so. or 1904 we had a depression accompanied The same thing happened after the by a panic that is known as the Rich War of 1812, a primary depression, Man's Panic. That is not a designation and then several years later a secondary that we gave to it, but one that was depression, and a long and grinding given to it at the time by the people who period of readjustment. passed through it. It was perhaps the 'copies of this dlagram, whleh was published ar~~innllywlth the May 16, 1931 issue of tho Clevclartd Trual Com- pany Iluaire~aOullclm, were d~atributedto the audience. July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 239 only panic in our history that did almost find Lightner's "History of Business no harm to the working people and a Depressions" in the book stores, you great deal of harm to the wealthy had better pick it up, because it. is people. Someone has proposed that moving up in value very rapidly, and this depression ought to be called the clearly will be in great demand. There FYreck of the Prosperous. is a good book on the subject by the late You will see that running through the Senator Burton of this state. background there is a light dashed line. I can tell you another thing that is That is a line showing the changes in coming, because I have been through it wholesale prices during this long period, once myself at least, and that is what and you will see that in 1864 it made a you are going to have-all of you who peak and in 1920 it made another peak, are connected with business libraries in and the peaks are exactly equal. The any way and with general public prices were just as high in the Civil \Tar libraries - increasing demand in the as they were after this war. months ahead for material, data of all If we are ever able Lo estend this back sorts, concerning the cost of living. to Revolutionary times, we shall find Those demands always come late in each another peak in 1814, also exactly of the depression penod, when wage readjust- same height. We shall also find the ments get really seriously under way. same contour, roughly, following that In 1921 and all the way through 1922, peak. my own office was almost swamped by If you count ten years from that peak the demands in all sorts of repeated or about nine years, you will find an forms for material about the cost of industrial overexpansion prosperity after living, because as soon as the employer the Civil War. Count the same number and the employees begin to discuss wage out here, and you will find a bull revision, the question comes up as to market boom. A little later on you will what has happened to the cost of find the long depression of the '70's and living. So I think everybody who is the depression of the '30's. The time- exposed in that way would be wise to table worked out quite truly. provide against the future and accumu- late material on the cost of living. I think it is inevitable that very I wish I could go ahead now and end many of you will have, during the this very heterogeneous and scrappy months and the years directly ahead, talk that I have given you with an an increasing volume of demands for optimistic forecast about the end of material about business cycles. It not this depression, the return of recovery, only is the most important problem in and its progress into full-fledged pros- the world today; it is going to continue perity. I am not wise enough to do to be an extremely important problem that. This is a very serious depression. for a rather long time. The literature It is a world-wide depression. All of on the subject, as many of you know, is our major depressions for the past one voluminous,heterogeneousand scattered. hundred and fifty years have been I think myself for the man who comes world-wide depressions, and minor cle- in and wants to know about these pressions are local depressions. \Irhen things, the answer pretty uniformly is the whole world gets into a profound that the one good book is Mitchell's depression, as it has this time, when second book on the subject, "Business these distinctions between people who Cycles, The Problem and its Setting." live in the country and support them- Many of you may know there is a selves by the estractive industries and history of business depressions-and those who live in the city where fabrica- only one really-Lightner's "History of tion goes on, when those distinctions Business Depressions," a book which apply not merely to groups within the went out of print some years ago, which country, as they did after our Civil \Ihr. never was a successful book, and which, but to all the people in all the countries, curiously enough, can be picked up and almost literally to all the countries rather easily in second-hand book stores all over the world, as they have this all around the country, and can hardly be time, then we must expect that the found in libraries at all. So if any of you readjustment will be slow and difficult. 240 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August. 193L

So I think we should not reasonably after the Civil War. And yet I do expect a prompt and enthusiastic return think that when the depression is to prosperous conditions. 1 think it is through, we shall look back at it and probable that we have hit the bottom of realize that whether measured in terms this depression, statistically speaking. of hunlan problems involved or of tile I think that extends so far down there will not agam statistical evidence in the case, it was a bore its way down to still lower levels. serious and the I do not anticipate that it will be at all recovery from it was rather slow, rather extended, as was the long &pression ~'0loWed~and distinctly difficult.

Planning Ahead-The Place of Commercial Research By Randolph Eide, President, Ohio Bell Telephone Co., President, Cleveland Chamber of Commerce

at Annual Banquet, Special Libraries Association, Cleveland, June 11, 1931 will confess at the start that there is purchase, but a business with all these some bravery necessary in discussing prerequisites cannot long continue with atI this time a subject which involves full employment of its personnel, il it plans for the future. Many of the fails to make a profit. To continue plans and programs that business had making a profit a business must see two or three years ago have been rather ahead, not merely guess ahead; it severely upset by the economic distur- must program its future under carefully bances that have been occurring through- prepared plans, and it must be alert at out the world My presentation is not all times to change its future program going to take on the aspects of proph- with each new set of conditions. So ecy but will cover commercial ~esearch far as humanly possible, it must antici- and its relat~on to planning ahead. pate what will happen and what IS In a general business s~tuationof the required. Many businesses may have sort that exlsts today, co~nmercialre- succeeded by industrial ncriclent and search takes on great importance. Some without any appar,ent good management of our present clay esperiences indi- or other reason for so doing. Success cate rather clearly that past planning may just seem to have happened, and in ahead may have omitted many import- turn failure has happened in rrluch the ant faclors that today are greatly same manner. emphasized and will be given more Many businesses have failed because future weight as a result of more their managements were too complacent esperience I trust I shall not be as to the present, past successes having regarded as criticizing errors of the past, lulled them into a sound slumber from but rather that I am willing to project which they awoke to wonder when the the future with full weight to these procession had gone by. Many busi- experiences. nesses, successful for the time being, In the final analysis the primary have been seriously upset because their purpose of a business is to make a management had only one objective, profit and with that to maintain a that of size or extension, without full standing of good citizenship. It goes regard to the requirements a few years almost without saying that any business, ahead. Business also often has turned in order to exist with esteem, must its back to the future, and has persisted produce a worthwhile thing or service in furnishing or making something the that others want or can be induced to public no longer wants. It has grum- July-Auguat. 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 241 bled at the present changing events and "I have but one lamp by which longed for the good old days. As a my feet are guided and that is matter of fact, days far better than the the lamp of experience I know good old days were ahead if they had of no way of judging the future been properly planned for. Strangely but by the past." these good days do not just come into being, and they will not rush in and Patrick Henry was courageously will- embrace either your business or mine. ing to risk everything in his passion- The good days ahead must be wooed in ate desire for liberty. We Iind him, accordance with a well planned court- however, unprepared for the responsi- ship. bilities which that liberty brought. The beams of the lamp of his own personal The buggy maker, who, in this day experience were directed toward the of automobiles and aeroplanes, insists past, and it remained for others with on making buggies in quantity and vision, whose lamps were gathering extending his plant just because he was rays of the past and projecting them once a successful and profitable buggy into the future, to budd the foundation maker, is obviously ready for a guardian of a great democratic nation These or keeper of some sort. There is men of vision were not unmindful of the undoubtedly a market for kerosene teachings which the school of experience lamps, but a factory that would double provides, but in addition they furnished its capacity today to make them is us a good example of planniug ahead by probably headed for failure and the diligeritly searching for all of the workers are faced with unemployment experience which had a bearing on or new jobs. their problen~s,and by adjusting such experience in the light of present and These illustrations of the need for probable conditions. That is true planning to me are self-evident and planning ahead, and true plannmg they must be to you. But there are ahead In busmess brings into action this many businesses today doing well, thing called commercial research. making an article of daily use that will be just as obsolete 25 years from now If we had available now the daily as the buggy and the kerosene lamp. newspapers, trade journals, trends of There are many businesses, perhaps not people's tastes and desires, statistical just now in this depression, that not so informalion of all descriptions, popula- long ago increased their productive tion figures, etc, that will be ~ssued capacities when, as a matter of fact, durmg the next 50 years, there would be they should have remained in size as no difliculty to plan business for those they were and improved their product, 50 years. or broadened and diversified their field. To approach this result 1s the problem of con~mercial research. Cornrnerclal . In a little church in Williamsburg on a research takes known facts, trends and March day in the year 1775 a group of tendencies of the past and from then1 men was assedbled at the Second builds and plans the business of the nest Virginia Convention. A resolution had year, five years, ten years, or even just been offered which included the twenty-five or fifty years hence. Intel- principlc of armed resistar~ce against ligent planning involves very serious the unjust policies and practices of a effort to consider all predictable elements ruling nation. A man was speaking in and reduce the chance elements to a support of the resolution and his dra- minimum. The more factors which can be measured, interpreted and reliably matic appeal, together with his unques- projected into the future, the less chance tioned sincerity, courage and loyalty there will be for the occurrence of to a cause, broke down all opposition. unexpected events which d~srupt the Quotations from that impassioned plea program, cause heavy financial losses, for liberty and justice are many, but upset economic structure and commerce, no single sentence spoken that day and throw many men and women out of typifies the reasoning process of the work. It is to be hoped that out of the speaker so well as this: present situation there will develop more 17 242 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 193 1

and broader attention to future plans sibility of estending the distance, that consider a w~derscope of factors because of the prohibitive weight of iron than ever before, with the result that wire sufhciently large to carry the better control of business will lower necessary current, yet the answer to the future peaks and fill in future valleys. dificulty then was also a matter of It is in this respect that commercial esperience. The superior transmission research will have a more esalted place. quality of copper was already known, Enthusiasm in any program ahead is and it was necessary only to survey essential, but this can never be a sub- general esperience sufficiently to disco\-er stitute for sound business judgment this fact, in order to supply the means of that is guided and controlled by facts, estending a practicable talking circuit either known or reasonably predictable. to four times the previous distance. Speculative guesslng may he successful Again esperience seemed to say that a just like a throw of the dice, but the thousand miles was the limit of a long facts brought out by research are the distance conversation, and again a only sound founclations upon which to matter of previous esperience in the build and plan the business of the general sense resulted in the develop- future ment oi the loading coil, which supplied a The economic structure under which solution and further extended the range. we make our living is dynamical. A third time the esperience of the Changes are constantly taking place industry seemed to indicate that the which have varying effects upon the limit had been reached, and a third fortunes of our industries. Economic time a more general sort of experience society is in a constant state of change. supplied the answer in the form of It is influenced by changes in ethical vacuum tubes, which made distance no standards, by inventive genius and longer a barrier. industrial research. It is affected by There is a world of esperience about people's tastes and desires, both as to us, entirely too much to be confined what they themselves want and as to within the scope of the intelligence of what business, through improvement one individual or some group of indi- and progress, induces them to want. viduals. Even within the limits of a It is acted upon by fashions, trends in single business organization the accumu- government, by natural causes, and by lated facts of pas1 experience are too acts of God, such as floods, storms and numerous and detailed to be mastered pestilences. It is affected by changes in completely without special organization the rate of population and growth, and or consideration. of course a war may alter the whole All business enterprise is dependent on course of events. outside sources, such as statistical service A business organization can advan- organizations and various publica~ions, tageously employ commercial research for the general statistical data which only if it avoids the fallacy of considering they need. There is a great wealth of the hmited experience of the individual, general statistical material that is and does not ignore the broader vistas readily available. Data on indus~rial of general experience. The light of activity, banking, credit, finance, com- esperience must be gathered from its modity pri~es, employment, wages, \ arious sources, after which that light prices, earnings, and so forth, are must be analyzed and interpreted, then available in reports accessible to every it must be amplified and directed and business man. These reports are usually correlated wth independent esperience found on the shelves of our public or to the common general end of furnishing special libraries. Of course all of these illumination for guidance in the future. various services require adaptation to In the early days of the telephone the particular circumstances of the industry, with which I am most familiar, individual business and to its many /there were those who believed that the unique and separate problems. When limit of practical long distance telephony properly adapted and interpreted such had been reached at a few hundred general business information will assist miles. It was the voice of experience in establishing rules of action, in dis- that pointed out the apparent impos- covering the best commercial practices, July-August, 1931 SPECIAL L IBRARIES 2-13 and in formulating sound business economic forecasts are made for various policies, and also can form a foundation sections which give due attention to the for the general future program and opera- trends, both in volume and concentrn- tion of a bus~ness. tion, in the rarious fundamental indus- I should like to give you an illustration tries of the respective sections, and to from my own industry, the telephone natural geographic advantages. In this industry, of the adaptation of general manner a figure is fixed as the probable business statistics to the needs of a par- population at a given date for each unit ticular business, and of their combina- area that is considered; for esample, tion with spec~alizedstatistical informa- first the state of Ohio, then ~tsvarious tion in that business itself, and their use sections, and finally for such an area as as the foundation for the general future you would find here in metropolitan program and plans of espansion and op- Cleveland. eration. Telephone subscribers or customers, Telephone wires, cables, poles, while related to populatio~l,are more buildings, switchboards, and all other neal ly related to families and business associated apparatus, must he in place firms It is therefore necessary lo and ready for service where there are reduce the general population figures to people, and in such amounts, quantities families, and, in turn, to associate with and quali~iesas are required by these the families the probable number of people. The operating personnel must business firms, both in down town sec- be trained and available, and profitable tions and in residential neighborl~oocls. operation must result if the busmess is to It is nest important for our purposes endure, both for the slm-eholders and to know the probable number of cus- the employees themselves. It is neces- tomers for the different classes of sary for us to estimate well in advance, services, and just where in the area even as far ahead as ten to twenty these customers are going to be located. years, the telephone requirements of our It therefore becomes a requirement to population. estimate in advance the character of the You have perhaps read statements various neighborhoods. \TYl a given of probable future growth of certain section be an apartment house develop- metropolitan areas, based on figures ment, will it be of lower or higher grade furnished by the Telephone Company. single residences, or two-family houses? These, of course, are developed neither It is important to estimate the location because we are engaged in population of businesses, large and small, factories forecasts as a business, nor with the idea or industrial plants, also both large and of furnishing encouraging news items small, also those occupying large spaces with respect to any city or locality. They with small telephone requirements are a part of our commercial research in differentiated from those occupying making plans for the future, in order to small areas with perhaps proportion- make it possible to build the right kind of ately larger requ~rernents. In brief, telephone plant in the right amount, in from what our past experience gives us, the right place, to have it ready at the we must try in a broad way, yet rather right time, and with the right kind of precisely and specifically by districts, people adequately trained to carry on. to picture the city as it will probably be. The starting point in making a survey We must try to picture not only this of this character is the forecast of particular city but others as well, national population at some fixed future because the relation between cities and date, say twenty years ahead. Such the flow of commerce and business population forecast is made in the ordi- between them are important factors in nary manner, by considering the trend of determining the number of lines con- the birth rate, the mortality rate, and necting the cities for long distance the excess of immigration over emigra- purposes. tion, and such other general facts as are To picture the city of the future all available. known facts in present experience are There must then be a study to deter- ascertained, such as rental values of mine how this population will be distrih- homes, value and character of existing uted. To accomplish this, general homes, their relation to existing trans- 21.4 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 portation, the time of travel from the data peculiar to a business as the funda- center of the city on existing means of mental basis for a general future pro- mass transportation. We next study gram in a specific case. and forecast ultimate transportation The mere development of a plan is in zones, based on plans for bus, rapid many respects just a beginning, even if it transit, and ordinary street car trans- may be assumed that the general plan portation. In addition to transporta- is sufficiently broad to embrace the tion, other factors essential to a principles and policies of the organiza- determination of growth or change in tion, including the common desire for character of an area or section must be efficiency. There is still the question- investigated in order to fix estimated what are we going to do about it? ~ncrease or decrease in families or Certainly we cannot sit back and say, 1)iismesses. Among these factors are "Mr. Plan, we have created you, now suburban devclo~ments.decav of niid- get busy," or "Well, Mr. Plan, you're a town residential ;leighbdrliood& changes fine plan and you'll take care of yy from residential to industrial neighbor- business if I stick to you." Here an Iioods, business to apartments, or from even greater amount of research work residential to either, zoning restrictions, in careful detail comes into being. This city planning, and topographical research work must be carried on advantages of areas. continuously if the plan is to be success- Khen we once get this future city fully prosecuted, and if n~odifications pctured me know from our own esperi- resulting from changed conditions from ence that one type of area produces a any causes are to be incorporated in certain telephone requirement, and that tlme to prevent mistakes. -A present another produces adifferent requirement. view is always an essential of good \Ye also know the kind and quantity of planning ahead, and the present is plant requ~rcdto serve one section and always a rapidly moving point. another. But telephone habits of people The present widcsprcad business and the art itself have changed in the depression is a challenge to the American past, and we know they will change in business' man and to the business mcn the future. A few years ago a telephone of the world, that they work out was cons~dereda luxury by many who methods which will alleviate the today regard it as an absolute necessity. fluctuations of gencral business and Formerly one telephone in a home used minimize the suffering and losses which to do, but now the trend is toward one accompany them. This may or may In every I oom, at least so in the modern not be the worst depression to which I~ome,and business also has found that the economic systenl of this country eficiency Improves with adequate tel- has been subjected Nevertheless it is ephone service. These factors must be no credit to the econon~icsystem under projected from past trends just as the which we livc that nil lions of able- population and business in our future bodied men, willing to work, are seeking c~tyare projected. employment and are unable to find it. This is a high spot description of the We have the resources, machinery and use of commercial research in future brains with which to produce ivealth, planning that I have given you from my greater than that which the world has own business. I have outlined it simply ever known, but millions upon millions as a broad general illustration in wliich of dollars worth of productive capacity much deta~l bas been omitted. It is standing idle. should be remembered that each The vast majority of us yet have faith I~usincsshas its own peculiar problcms in the economic system under which we and limitations, which determine the make our living. We know it has not nature and extent of commercial achieved all that we would like it to rcsearch as a possible or practicable achieve, but, I am sure, we prefer it to foundation of a future program. The any other system so far tried or sug- example, however, is further illustrative gested. Recently people living in other of the use of a combination of general parts of the world began trying out statistical information and specialized arrangernenls for making a living which July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 245 vary sharply from our own. Even in "cut and fill," resulting in a uniform our own country various political experi- grade. Those factors which are con- ments for stabilizing business have been tinually disturbing the equilibrium of and no doubt will be attempted. economic forces will be sought out and Smooth and uninterrupted progress eliminated by more attention to future and the elimination of so-called business plans. cycles may never be completely realized. Business can face the future with If business buries its head in the sand confidence. We have been floating on and says that a business depression is a a wild wave of false prosperity. ii.p condition that must be endured and have been spending more than we allowed to work itself out, that nothing could afford. There was a revelry can be done about it, then there is grave or orgy not only of stock speculation danger that the public, either acting as a but of business speculation. We got separate entity or through the federal into the idea that fundamental prln- and state governments, will enact reform ciples could be disregarded. legislation aimed at a solution, which Production and sales, factory and may prove both bad and costly. If office, accounting and administration, our own system is to be maintained, if finances and developn~ent,in fact all we are unwilling to pass on the entire aspects of business, subjected to the problem from the business world to the searching lenses of conmercial research political world, business, as well as and projected into the future, not of politics, is lesponsible for finding a next year but of the pear after, the next solution. ten, twenty and even more years, I Business may not be entirely account- am sure will go a long may towald the able for conditions, but certainly busi- stabilization of the future. Then the ness cannot escape a very important factory wilI be less likely to double share in the responsibility. Business its capacity because the sales force for stabilization should no longer be con- one or two years, fired with enthusiasm sidered as an incidental aim, but rather and pressure, put a lot of back orders it must become a fundamental aim or in the hles only to shut down the purpose, notwithstandiilg the fact that factory the third year; then the changes are constantly taking place in financial structure to carry the program our econonlic relationships, social cus- is less likely to break down and collapse toms, and systems of government. It in trying to meet bond interest and is here that commercial research in all sinking fund requirements, to say noth- its broad aspects as related to planning ing about dividends; then those in the ahead takes a seat of first importance, employ of industry will be able to plan and blind guessing and enthusiastic more securely their own problem and speculation, without relation to the futures. They will not builcl up false predictable facts of the future and their hopes and take on impossible commit- - consequent effect upon the fortunes of lnents because things for the time people and business, will have no place being are going forward at a pace so in the sailer operations of the future. dizzy that' the eye, as it turns to the To be 6aught unawares by these ups future, sees only the present and thinks and downs in business is costly, and the it sees the future forever in the light sound business man wants more than only of the present. advance notice of their coming-he By way of summary, we might say wants, and those in his ernploy also that commercial research means little want, and deserve it, the readjustment else than the application to business in our economic structure worked out and business organization of the several so that it will be fortified against these principles of common sense which we upheavals coming into being at all. If exercise or sh'ould exercise in our own we do not build the peaks, the valleys personal affairs. One of these is the will take care of themselves. In the natural tendency to plan ahead, because construction of a railroad right-of-way we recognize the wisdom of doing so. the roadbed does not climb to the Another is the use of past experience peaks and descend into the valleys. as a basis of future plans. A third is There takes place what is known as the supplementing of the esperiences 216 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 of the individual with the past esper- ills and avoid further troubles. I am iences of others, and the acquisition confident, l~owever, that the appli- of esperience by esperirnent. Last, and cation of these principles will bring the most important for group ac- production and distribution machinery tivity, is the idea of constantly cl,ecking of our econon~icsystem into betler har- actual results with our plans. mony and diminish, if not avoid, de- pressions such as this present one from I do not say that the adoption of this wh~ch,I am hopeful, we shall soon mechanism will entirely cure business emerge. Heard At The Convention Everyone prescnt voLetl the 23rd S LA. con- arranged by Mr Sherirlan of the Akrori Bcacorr ferencc one of the n~cestever held. Cleveland Jorrr~rnl. A "closeup" of the giant cl~rigible nasa fine host-the prograrnmc was r~ght,the S S Akron in her clock was one or the sights hotel d~deverythmg possible for the comfort ae saw. An opportunity to go "blinlp~ng" of its guests and if sonic old friends were was oflcred and eagerly grasped by about absent there nele new and northwhile members tn enty adventurous spirits. Later the group to take thelr places. \\sited the plm~and reicrence library of the *** Beucorr Jozlrnal, arriving back in Cleveland in Hats off to Rose \'ornielker was heard again time for the Banquet that evening and agam. That llttle lacly earned the .ldmira- tion and thanks of all thc membership. *** And speaking of Banquets, that fileL mignon was a stroke of genius-such a welcome snub \Ye \\ere shocked to lcarn of the accident to the ubiquitous chicken. that kepL him Agncs Fetersen in a hospital in hlilwaukec. Her many friends sent greetings and good wishes for speedy recovery. Some familiar faces were missed, espec~ally *** Messrs. Handy, Johnston and Fletcher. Each annual meeting brings out representa- tives new to our gatherings. Among others, we welcomed h11ss Susan A. Mutchinson of the Did any of you see the Insurance Group in Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, MISS sess~on? That baby Group is growing in num- Lillia D. Trask, Librar~an of Rockefeller bers steadily-due we suspect to the good Institute, New York City, h11ss Etheldred ofices of Miss Florence Bradley, our National Abbot, Rycrson Lib~arpof the Art Institute membership Chairman. of Ch~cagoand Miss Margaret Hatch, Librarian of the Melropolitan Life Insurance Company The San Francisco Chapter was well repre. L~braryin San Franc~sco,Calif. sented by Miss I<. Dorothy Ferguson, Mr. and +** Mrs Thomas Cowles and Miss Margarel Our thanks are clue Miss L~ndaEastman for Hatch. her gracious words of welcome to Cleveland, * * * her continued InLerest in the meetings and her One of the delightful events of Detroit Day gcneroslty ~ngiving us so much of MISSVormel- was the tca give11 to the visiting Spec~al ker's tirrle. Librarians by Mr. Adam Strohm, L~brarianof *** the Detroit Publ~cLibrary, and President QI The Association now boasts a Counsellor on the American Library Association. Parliamentary Procedure In Miss Grayce *** Hartley, Technical L~brarianof the Engineers Club of Dayton, Ohio. Miss Hartley's t~mely Miss England, hIiss lone Ely and Mrs. Dorn advice nas most heartily appreciated during were compliniented on leaving no gaps in the the Business Sess~onon the list day in Cleve- post conference junket. land I** Two of our members, Miss K. Dorothy Join the Newspaper Group and see the Ferguson and Miss M. Jane Henderson from world is no idle lest. Two large bus loads of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada Spec~alLibrarians did that on Thursday when flew by amphibian plane from Cleveland to an interesting side trip to Akron, Ohio was Detro~t,on Saturday. July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 247 President's Address By Margaret Reynolds, Librarian, First Wisconsin National Bank, Milwaukee. N accepting the presidency of the exhibits. As the Financial Group was I Special Libraries Association in San the first one of our groups to establish Francisco in June 1930 no promises contacts for exhibition purposes with were made, but I did say that I had a national organization outside the li- an idea or two that might be of value brary field some recognition wasdue them. to the Association. I did think of the After a long board meeting we visited words by Kipling: the exhibit which was held in the "I had six honest serving men Cleveland Iloiel. In between, Miss They taught me all I know: Eastman entertained us at lullcheol~ Their names were U'here and and introduced us to some of her staff What and When and took us on a tour of the Cleveland And Why and How and IVho." Public Library. Then at dinner time These serving men who have taught we made the acquaintance of the mem- your President some of the Whats and bers of the Cleveland Chapter at a Whys were not merely members of the delightful dinner followed by an in- Board. The correspondence files give formal reception at the Art Museum. ample proof of the ideas which not only The Pittsburgh board meeting was members of the Executive Board had, preceded by a high tea and musical but the ideas of the membership as a given on Sunday, February twenty- whole. second, in the Art Museum Library. It is too soon to survey the work done Students from the Carnegie Library during the year. We have only just School were among the guests. After begun and our accomplishments cannot the board meeting on February twenty- be numbered or piled high for your third, we met the Pittsburgh Chapter inspection and approval. at dinner. At that time Mr. Ralph My aim, my first aim and perhaps my Munn, Director of the Carnegie only aim, has been to make the Associa- Library in Pittsburgh, paid us special tion activities more wide-spread, to librarians a gracious compliment be- act as a liaison officer between not only cause of the place we were making for the Board, but the entire membership. ourselves on the library map. Perhaps Committee workers have been chosen before another year has elapsed we nmy from almost as many states as we have persuade the R. R. Bowker Company representation in our membership list. to make a pictorial map showing Nearly one hundred individuals have special libraries and the work they do served on committees. as it really is, so as to live up to Mr. Five board meetings for Executive Munn's ideas about us and his ideals Board members only, so that we might for us. transact a greater amount of business We do believe in studying maps not in parliamentary fashion in a shorter only for committee appointments but periods of time, have been held in San for enlarging our membership and add- Francisco, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. ing to the tiumber of local chapters. The attendance at the board meetings Cincinnati as a chapter was formally has varied slightly, but there has accepted at the first Cleveland board always been a quorum and one or two meeting. The day following, your to spare at each meeting. The San President visited thirteen special librar- Francisco meeting followed the elec- ies there. tion, the Cleveland meeting came while The Illinois Chapter entertained at the American Bankers Association was dinner on November 3,1930 and again on holding its September 29-October 2 May 28, 1931. During the year eightcen meeting in Cleveland, for although calls were made upon members of the the Financial Group has held yearly Illinois Chapterand three atA.L. A, head- exhibits since 1926 none of our national quarters. During my vacation I met officers had ever visited one of these some of the New York, Newark and 2 48 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-Auguat, 1931

Boston members informally. I attended The committee on Classification, the closing session of the Massachusetts through its chairman, MISS Louise Library Association at Springfield on Keller, has done yeoman service in March seventh and invited the members answering countless questions on her to come to Cleveland. I attended special subject. Miss Morley, although the council meetings of the American seriously handicapped because of illness, Library Association in Los Angeles in has also handled much detail for the June 1930 and in Chicago in December Publications Committee. The Sub- 1930. I paid an official visit to head- scriptions committee under Miss quarters, 11 Nisbet Street, Providence. Rankin has added the name of many a My schedule may read like that of an public library to our subscription list. itinerant preacher. As Abe Martin says, "A goose may take her time A new committee created at the San crossin' a country road, but I'll say Francisco meeting is the committee for this fer her, She's got sense enough to Coiiperation in Business Library Ser- look both mays." I wanted to look vice. This has done splendid wdrk. both ways so that the members The Business Reading Committee, for- scattered throughout the country merly called Continuation Reading, would feel that we were considering is making a start. Evidence of what their problems and promoting their they are planning will be seen at the Chicago LVorld1s Fair in 1933. work.- - At State library meetings held in Cali- The Constitution needed some slight fornia, Connecticut,Michigan, New York changes and a sub-committee of the and Ohio, round tables either planned Board have these ready to'present to by our members or with our members you. participating in the program were held. What are you doing for your own state The resignations of Mr. and Mrs. library association at its nest meeting? Brigham as Editor and Secretary have I cannot resist mentioning the newest been sent to the Executive Board. Since chapter, Milwaukee. Miss Erna Mr. Brigham has practically given his Schneider, librarian of Morris I?. Fox & services to the Association, a cash Company, is here as the representative honorarium only having been given him of this baby chapter, which had when the Association finances permitted, fourteen charter members and now the one finds words futile at this time. Mrs. total membership is thirty-six. Four Brigham, despite her responsibilities as a o~hermembers besides Miss Schneider wife and mother, has filled the position are also here from the Milwaukee created during President Cady's admin- Chapter, istration. Nor can I refrain from mentioning It is nearly twenty-two years since our publications. The two revised the Special Libraries Association was pamphlets distributed by the Financial begun. Few of the charter members Group or by sub-committees of this remain, but we do possess part of their group at the meetings of the American vision. The inheritance left us by John Bankers Association in Cleveland and Cotton Dana is a valuable one. The the Investment Bankers Association in next five years will be critical ones for New Orleans brought requests for these us. A greater income niust be provided from literally all over the world. The so that we lnay become better estab- "Handbook of Commercial and Finan- lished on a firm, impersonal footing. clal Information Services," which was Charles M. Schwab is quoted as saying, compiled under Miss Cavanaugh's direc- "Cooperation requires leadership that tion, is still being sold. Incidentally has regards itself not as a partisan but as a your library a copy? Let us exhaust the trustee." I have regarded this as my edition. slogan all through the year, trying to The various chapters and committees serve as your trustee. I wish I could will report for themselves. Graphs might thank those of you who have supported have been made showing the increase in me in some other way than with mere membership under Miss Bradley's leader- futile words, for I feel with Hamlet, "I ship as Membership chairman. am even poor in thanks." July-Auguat, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES

Our New President

OUR new President is a versatile In 1918, the Federal Reserve Board person! The personification of the in Washington decided that the Federal effcient modern executive during office Reserve Bank of Cleveland should have hours, her hobbies are bridge and music a libmry. Miss Claflin was chosen to and she is as efficient in these as in her organize it but .no one in the Bank work. Miss Claflin is an accomplished re~llywanted a library or really knew what it was sup- posed to be or do. \Vith her indomi- table will, Miss ClaAin set out to show the need and the uses of such a depart- ment and today, she and her six assistants can supply a deluge of information and figures about the whole finan- cial sphere, with its shifting trend, its peaks and its crashes.

A service of nine years here brought an The program of the Cleveland Con- offer as Cataloger of the Western Re- vention stands as testimony to the serve Historical Society, where she splendid work of Miss Claflin as Chair- carried on for six years, with an inter- man of the Program Committee. The lude of one year, for attendance at the Associa~ionwelcomes her, and pronlises New York Public Library School. its whole-hearted cooperation. SPECIAL LIBRARIlES July-August, 1931

Editorial Board EDITOR, Ruth Savord, Council on Foreign Relations, Inc., New York City. Associate Editors D. N. Handy, Insurance Library Association of Boston; M. E. Pellett, Library The Port of New York Authority, Rebecca B. Rankin, Municipal Reference Library, New York City. Department Editors Charlotte L. Carmocly, Department of Commerce Library, Washington, D. C. Ethel Cleland, Business Branch, Public Library, Indianapolis, Ind. Thomas Cowles, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, Cal. Elizabeth 0. Cullen, Bureau of Railway Economics, Washington, D. C. Louise Keller, Independence Bureau, Philadelphia, Pa. hfarian C. Manley, Business Branch, Public Library, Newark, N. J. Emilie Mueser, Engineering Societies Library, New York City. A. A. Slobod, General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y.

F after seven years spent in editing SPECIAL LIBRARIES, Mr. Brigham still I says in his final report, printed elsewhere in this issue, ". . . the Editor cannot accede to reader demand if we do not know what that demand is . . . , " please imagine the helplessness of the new Editor. There is only one solution. It has been expounded again and again. This is yow magazine and it is issued as an open forum for discussion of your problems. Therefore, the membership at large must decide what SPECIAL LIBRARIES means to them individually and whether or not it is supplying their needs. Then, again individually, they must feel a sense of responsibility-first, for constructive criticism; second, for contributions. Constructive criticism consists in telling us how and why the magazine is not fulfilling its mission and in suggesting remedies. Are the articles the type in which you are interested? Are the Departments as helpful as they might be? Would you rather have less or more shop-talk? Because you are not a designated member of the Editorial Board or have not been solicited for a speciiic contribution need not prevent you from submitting articles descriptive of your libraries, notes or methods used, questions on your problems, or items of news about yourselves, other members, new books or events of interest to the library world. Local Presidents are especially urged to submit copies of outstanding addresses made before their Associations. Once we know your wishes, we will try to satisfy them insofar as is consistent with space limitations. The Editor asks: "W111 you share the responsibility for making SPECIAL LIBRARIES a worthy organ of our Association?" July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES President's Page HOSE of us who can look back on several years of membership in S. L. A. see how greatly the Association has grown year by year in strength and prestige. ThisT has been brought about only by the whole-hearted devotion of its leaders in the past and present. Thelr names are too many to enumerate, but they can be assured that their services, recorded or unrecorded, are not forgotten in the minds of tllose who now have the task of maintaining the welfare of the Association during the coming year. Your President has been made wll awarc, even in these few weeks since the convention, of the efficiency, interest and devotion of your chapter presi- dents, group chairmen, and national officers and directors. There were two important tasks that needed immediate attention. The resignations of Mrs. Brigham as Esecutive Secretary, and of Mr. Brigham as F:ditor of SPECIAL LIBRARIES, took effect the first of July. It was therefore necessary to appoint a new Secretary and establish a new headquarters office to be ready to function by July 1. Under the constitution, the appointment of the Executive Secretary is a func- tion of your National Board. A con~n~itteeof the Board consisting of Miss Cullen, Chairman, Miss Cavanaugh, and your President, was given executive powers to settle this problem. The following arrangement has been made: The offer of free office space, for an indefinite period, in the library quarters of the Standard Statistics Company, was acceptecl. The appointment of a properly qualified person as paid Executive Secretary, wilh the necessary breadth of view and knowledge of the policies and needs of the Association, will take a longer time to bring about. It was therefore decided to appoint Miss Re11ecca.B. Rankin as national Secretary, without salary, for the coming year. She is supervising the reorganization of the national office and the work of a paid full-time office secre- tary at our new headquarters. It is needless to say that it is a very great bur- den which we have put upon MISSRankin, in addition to all her other duties and activities. The task of selecting a new editorial shff for the magazine was given to another committee consisting of Mr. D. N Handy, Chairman, Mr. William Alcott, and Miss Rebecca Rankin. The results of that committee's work are as follows: For Editor of SPECIAL LIBRARIES-Miss Ruth Savord, Librarian of the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc., 45 East 65th Street. New York City. For Business Manager (advertising and circulation)--Miss M. Dorothy Howard of the Standard Statist~csCompany, Inc., 345 Hudson Street, New York City. Both of these appointments have been accepted, so that the magazine can now go on under very able management as before. We cannot express here our gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Brigham for their services in the past. The thanks of the Association are embodied in the Resolutions which appear in the regular Proceedings of the convention elsewhere in this issue. You will note in the report of convention proceedings that it was voted tosend a copy of our pamphlet "List of Members, 1930" to all active members of the Association. If any member has not yet received his copy please write to the Secretary or the President for one. It is suggested that the supplementary lists printed in SPECIAL LIBRARIES of November 1930 and February 1931 be added thereto tn bring the list up-to-date. New members will be listed in coming issues of the magazine. We wish here to extend the congratulations of the Special Libraries Association to Miss Josephine Rathbone, upon her election as President of the American Library Association. It is a matter of special gratification to your own President who gained her first training in library work under Miss Rathbone at Pratt Institute. ALTA B. CLAFLIN. SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-Augurt, lQ31 Reports of Officers and Committees Secretary approximated the bank balance. The balances given at thie convention mean with all bills At Toronto, four years ago this month, plans paid. were laid which led to the opening of a general Much remains to be done. New contacts office for the Association. "General Office" was with the world are needed, a new era. Thia perhaps a misnon~er,since the fine-sounding should be an era of aggressive progress with title was really only a third floor room in the big plans and big accomplishments. home of the Secretary. Owing to family ties and geographical limita- Nevertheless, the humble beginning served tions your Secretary is not in a position to the purpose of gathering together in one place carry forward this big work which should lie all the scattered records of the Assoc~ation in the mmediate future and which you have a whose funds were equally scattered. Hundreds right to expect of your leaders. I regret that I of dollars of back dues were collected and some cannot share your destmy but this convention routine for business established. The must complete my period of service to you and Treasurer's reports have borne effective tes- I am tendermg my resignation. timony to the progress of the work. Respectfully submitted, When we began, the outstanding bills MARYH. BRICHAM,Secrclary Treasurer FINANCIAL SUMMARY. 1930 RECEIPTS: Dues Advertising Interest Convention Miscellaneous January 2257 33 152.13 2 18 22.50 February 597.40 79.60 3 00 Itlarch 308.95 195.00 7.30 April 351 90 223.16 5.61 May 317 00 106.40 5 35 June 8.00 14.00 5 13 July 265.25 416.05 3.38 421.90 August 118.34 2.84 September 121 75 3.33 October 278.30 2.30 November 363.25 2.32 December 1958.00 1.80 TOTALS $6945.47 $831.14 561692.19 $41 54 $421 90 $309.53 TOTAL RECEIPTS $10244 77 Balance Forward 2089.86

-- IvI iscel- DISBURSEMENTS: Salar~esBudgets Travel Publicat~onsConvent~on Office laneous $222.00 $225.00 $196 95 $80.35 $14.74 222.00 50 00 60.56 376.40 70 59 77.23 March 222.00 50 00 199.66 4.16 .30 Apr~l 150.00 225.00 209.04 69.25 21.50 May 150.00 25.00 529.75 8.93 7.40 June 150.00 52.50 818.20 509.25 267.00 29.39 7.50 July 150.00 169.00 6.75 12.00 August 150.00 454.60 206.61 51.59 14 60 September 150 00 241.50 50.00 303.40 34.50 October 150.00 86.85 130.85 37.28 November 150.00 256.25 27.74 399.67 86.50 50 December 150.00 16.00 476.76 6.00 .40 TOTALS $2016.00 $1 100.25 81084.35 $3786.33 $651.54 $483.76 $148.77 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS: $9,271.00 TOTAL INCOME 1930 $12,334 63 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS 9271.00 BALANCE 12-31-30 $3063.63 Respectfully submitted, ELIZABETH0. CULLBN, Treasurer July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 253

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT the following year we etarted a series of local numbers, one devoted to Chicago, another to JANUARY-MAY, 1931 California. For your inforniation, 1 made some tentative In the succeeding years the proceedings of totals of the first five months of the year 1931. the various Groups were often segregated into From dues we received $2918.50. From the special issues, such as a Financial number, a sale of publications we received $1071.81; Newspaper number and a Museum number. from advertieing revenue, $355.50; from Our latest special issue which went to you interest $24.52; from miscellaneous $1; recently was the Cleveland number. rnakinga total of $4371.33. It should be borne in mind that all of this We have spent for salaries $750; for local work has been performed in addition to the budgets $817.90; for travel $74.45; for routine work of a state official with manifold publications $2144.96; for office supplies duties in librarianship, legislative reference, $299.83; miscellaneous 5.40; making a archives and records. total expenditure of $4087.54. As of May 31, During the course of the year the Editor we had a balance of something over $3000 in received varlous letters and communications, the treasury. both favorable and unfavorable. We have had many pleasing comments upon the department inaugurated in 1930, called "Digest of Business Editor of "Special Libraries" Book Reviews" compiled by the staff of the 1930.31 Newark Business Branch. A group of our membership is also very much interested in the In making my annual report to the Special Classification and Indexing department which Libraries Association, I am going to review was also inaugurated in 1930. briefly the work of the past six years. For lack of space we have been unable to At the request of former President Handy, in establish a department relating to transporta- October, 1924 I assumed the editorship and tlon, or one devoted to government documents have carried on under the presidencies of Mr. and for over a year we have not asked Mr. Cady, Mr. Alcott and Miss Reynolds During Slobod for mater~alfor his column on "Science that period I have edited and sent to press 67 and Technology". issues of SPECIAL LIBRARIES carrying a It is obvious that the Assoc~ationmust have total pagination of 2,528. additional financw in order to increase the size At first 1 tried as an objective to secure articles from prominent men' outside the pro- of the magairme There is always material for a regular issue of 48 pages and the pre-confer- fession, such persons as John hloody, Irving ence and post-conference numbers require Fisher, Professor Harry Jerome, Percival White and other men high in the fields of addit~onalsignatures. transportation, insurance and finance. The Ed~torhas also received other comments At the Swampscott meeting in 1925. an which are not so favorable. Errors are quickly informal gathering to discuss the pol~ciesof the called to our attent~onand while we try to magazine brought forth decided opinions that a\oid mistakes, during the rush of printing it the magazine should cater more to the wishes of is inevitable that some little Item should the members and should contain more material come through printed erroneously. relat~ngto library technique and operation, and Another caustic critic stated that she did so our policy was changed and ne began to not read the magazine as it did not interest her increase the scope of the departments adding and that we should return to our previous a special one for new ideas called "ti-e Do policy of having noteworihy nimes among our Th~s." The local associations were growing contributors. I agreed w~thher but asked her and developing unusually good programs which ho~she expected us to put into type the mass brought us an occasional article and in add~t~onof material we now have hich is prepared by the Proceedings, wh~chin 1925 were printed our o\\n membership The question is worthy in one volume, were in the follow~ng years of debate at an annual session and some future scattered through issues of the magazine for editor can attempt to determine the opinion of aeveral months. the tnembership. The editorial ofice does not In 1925 we established a series of special receive sufficient letters of approval or dis- numbers relating to specific subjects, such as approval, and the Editor cannot accede to legislative reference, transportation, statistical reader demand if we do not know what the interpretation, railroads and insurance. In demand is. 254 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 When your Editor assumed the duties of the Sub+Committeeon Amen& ofice, there were in existence two other national library per~od~cals.Today there are mentS Constitution four and the competition is getting more and more keen. This not only applies to sub- scriptions and reading matter, but to adver- tising. An agency recommends the use of two SUDJIITTEDFOR ADOPTIOS TO ASSOCI~TION, library peri~~clicalsand sometimes ne are JUSE 10, 1931. TO BE VOTED OX AT COX- not selected because the agency I~elievesthat VESTIOS IS 1937. T other period~calsIII tlie field are more su~table. I. This compet~tion,together WILII tlie depression, SBCTIOS 3, paragraph 4, line 2-delete the has had a marked effect upon our own adver- words "and qualified." tising columns. There has been a dec~ded 11. shrinkage during the past year and accounts SECTIOS 5, with regard to the "further which have been with us lor many years have nominations" in paragraph 3, it is advisable &her been uitlidraum or have reduced their that when nominat~onsare called for from tlie total space. It has required a considerable floor the presiding oRicer should remind tlie correspondence with prospective advcrtisers meeting that such nominations may be made, and has placed an undue burden upon the in terms of the constitution, only on the Editor. Th~swas recognized at a recent meet- written pet~tionof ten voting members. It is ing of Lhe Execut~veBoard and a motion was also suggested that on appomting the nomi- passed that the local chapters of Boston and nating committee the President should ~cmind Neb York should cooperate wit11 the Editor them that non-members should not be included by appolntlng advert~singcommittees. As in the list of nominations. a result, Miss h1 Dorothy Howard assumed 111. the duties for the New York Chapter and Mr. S~crros6a and c. There is an apparent D. N. Handy for the Boston Chapter. Already conflict between the powers of the Secretary results have been achieved and Miss Howard and of the President as to the signing of certain is responsible for several important adver- docurne~~ts.The committee suggests that tisements in the current issue Mr. Conforti section c, line 12, should be amended to read as ot tlie Chicago Chapter and Mr. Robertson of follo\vs: "he shall, with the President, sign Toronto have also assisted in their respective and attest all conveyances of property, wrltten territories. This local aid has been of great contracts and obligations, and shall perform, value to the Editor and has solved a problem etc." which has always been of serious concern to IV. him. With tlie passing of the depression and SECTIOS 14. The committee reconlmends the assistance of the local advertising corn- that this should read as follows: "At all mittees, I have no doubt that the year 1931- annual and special meetings forty voting 32 will present a better story than the year members constitute a quorum." 1930-31. v. SECTION 16. The committee recommends I regret that I am forced to give up tlie that the word "regular" be deleted, making the editorship of the magazine. I have enjoyed the section read: "By-laws may be adopted or work and am only dropping the task because I cancelled by vote of the members present and cannot conduct the heavy duties of my own voting at any meeting of the Association." office and in addition continue the editorship. VI. Much of the work on the magazine has to be BY-LAWNO. 7. The committee recommends done after hours, on Saturday afternoons and that this by-law should read as follo,ws: "At Sundays, thereby giving me a seven-day week the first meetmg of the incoming Executive with little relaxation. Time also frequently Board the following standing committees shall has to be taken from my dally work with be appointed: Auditing, Membership, News, consequent impairment of my regular duties. Publications, and Resolutions " \Vhile the committee recommends no change in the Respectfully submitted, appointment of an Auditing Committee, it considers that the incoming President should HERBERT0. BRIGIIAM have due regard to the convenience of the Editor audit taking place at the ofice of the Secretary, July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 235 and that if necessary the Executive Board Through the courtesy of the American should make financial provision for professional Telephone and Telegraph Company in New services required. York the conlmittee \\as spared the exoense of VII mimeographing the quest~onnaire 433 Ques- tionna~res aere sent out. 234 hare been BY-LAWNo. 8. The committee recommends returned. A return of 54 percenl. A conimerc~dl that this by-law should read as follo~vs: "The 5% members of the Advisory Council shall meet return of is generally regarded excellent. with the Executive Board once during the The answers varied from an uncompromising I850 T p9 lo very complete descript~onsof bulletins, annual convention, and upon the invitation of the Board may meet wLh it at other times of names of house organs In which the library has the year. The members of the Advisory a department, mailing lists and methods of Council at any such meeting may subrn~tto the obtaining and using these l~sts,of publ~cations Executive Board such recommendations as may in which material concerning the library has be deemed advisable. The chairman of each been published, and copies of various forms of local association, chapter, group, or standing publ~city committee may designate an alternate to Thirty-eight librarians rcportcd that tlley represent him at a meeting of the Advisory prepared for lhe~rown executives and staff Council." mimeographed lists or bulletins, giving acces- VIII. sions, short book reviews, scientific abstracts, The committee gave careful consideration to and items of current interest, which may not the question of providing for a smaller Execu- be sent to other libraries. tive Committee within the Executive Board and Thirty-two librarians reported that they can did not feel able to recommend it. send their bulletins or lists to other librarians IX. requesting them. Certain qualifying phrases In order to remove ambiguity the last were added in some instances to th~sstatement, paragraph of Section 3 should be made the for example: within limits, depending on the second paragraph of that section, to follow the number of requests received, occasionally, on words "three directors." an exchange basis. The necessity is obvious. Copies of nearly all these bulletins may be seen in the display prepared by the Exhibit~on Committee. A list of these libraries and their publications may be found in Exhibit A. Business Reading A list of twenty-three libraries that publish lists in house organs or other publ~cationsis Committee appended in Exhibit B. One member of the committee who feels A survey of what is actually being done by deeply on this subject and discussed the matter librarians of special libraries to promote the use informally at the Los Angeles Convention of business literature and to advertme their suggested that while collecting information on services to their organizations is the work Busmess Literature we collect materml on the attempted by the Business Read~ngCommittee organization and routine of the special librar~es of 1931. c~rcularlzedwith a view to preparmg a manual A list geographically arranged was compiled that would be helpful in organ~zingnew from the subscription list ofSPECIAL LIBRA- hbraries. RIES and the 1930 men~bershiplist of the The net result of this query was 13 outlmes S. L. A. The total list numbered 730. As the sent, 2 reports of activities, 7 reported a statc- survey was concerned with business literature only, from this list were eliminated colleges, rnent for use only in the organizations and not in form for distribution, 3 not up to date, 3 museums, state and legislative reference libraries, chambers of commerce, newspapers. could prepare one if desired. U. S. Government libraries and public libraries This list of libraries and the material will not l~stedin Business Service of the Public be filed at S. L. A. Headquarters and will form Libraries in 109 Large Cities. This reduced the a nucleus for some future committee to develop. number to 433. Even then the 11st had some of the weaknesses to which all mailing lists that are compiled from directories possess. SPECIAL LIBRARIES

EXHIBIT A. Pewmylvania PhnPddphia wyB-3~s -r luu arz ~NTON R~UP~T. Provident Mutud Life Insurance Co. Idbnry BuUetln num. California United GP. Improvement Co. Bullet-wWy. Ab. I~Armab straeta. Endneerlnn. Geed Petroleum Corp. Monthly review of currant wismnaln li-turn In od industry. Appleton Md15p.l Relerehee Library-W~ekly mimwgraphed Institute 01 Paper Chemhtry. Mo. Bullath. Abatnct. ~Reeantaddit~ons. & blbliogmphlm. Mo. utide in "Clty Employee." Mo. bmk reviewa in "Municipal Entinineer." EXHIBIT B. Southern Cdilornia Edison Co. Libnry Bulletin - LIBRARIF~TRAT P~TBLIBALISTS, RDVIWS, mw. IN BOU~ aatiaa- - -.- of-. new- - -materul. .- s.n Fnndeeo ORGANS OR OTKER IVBUOATIONS TEAT YAY BE Bmk of America. Llbnry Bulletmu-weekly. BENT ON RRQUgST. W& hrgo Bank &Union Tmt Co. hbrnry Bulletin. Connecticut California HvtIord San Francism PhdMutual LUe Inauranee Co. Librnry Leaf. Stock Exchange Inatituh Coumm lor Spring Term 1030. Connecticut Delaware Hartford Wilminghn Phwnu Mutual Life Inaurance Co. In house organ E. I. du Pont de Nemoum & Co. JacLsDn Librnry. Yo. list of ad&tiona and new patents. Mulud &ski. Delaware nlinoia Wllmingtan Chiengo Herculea Powder Co. In houea orpan Tha Mrzcr. Insurance Library oI Chieaao. Mo, multlm~hed- - lint 01mnt publi'eatlo~. - Joaeph Schallncr Library of Commerce (Northwestdm IUinoia Chamber of Commcrco. IUtmia Jo~rrnulof Unlve~ity)Mo. Ibts of boob and articlea in current Cmnmerca. mo. National haation or Real Estate Boards. Liab of Maryland boob on apecihc subjects. Bdlimore Indiana Mar lind Cneunlty Co. Search Llght Bullctln-weekly. Fort Wane ~iiruy cop-qunrtcrly. ~rneolnNational Lilo Inaurance Co. In houae ortan LtJa mlh tha L~ncoln. Indlanapolin Busmess Branch. Readsr'a Itrk. (Speclal businesl numbem.) Administration Librnry Boaton School of Com. Bi- mo. mun. list of boo& hfaryland Feded Rseerve Bank Occ~sionallrnt of additions. Baltmore Kiratein Bualneza Branch. New books and Service. mo. Consohdated G8n Electric Llght 81 Power Co. In houso oman Ballimors Gaa and Elcclr~cNcwa. Mrnsouri Maasachunetts St. Louis Bedford Municipal Reference L~brnry-Library Bulletin. On U. S. Veterana Hoap~tal. In monthly publlcatlon exchange. The Oval hf~rror. New Jemcy Boston World Pcaco Foundntlon. Ii~lcrnul~onulBooL News. Bibliographlcn on subjects deallng with Intarnatlonal Western Electrrc Co. Duarterlv bulletin ol nddltions. nllnira. New&k- ~ ~ Buninem Branch. Buslnens Literature-ma. Town Room Llbrary (Mass. Clvlc League) Liste & Public Service Corp. ol N. J. Llbrary Bulletin-mo. revlews in The Lena Michigan Pdc Detroit U. S. Rubber Co. General Lnborator~es-Bulletin-wkiy* Detrolt Edison Co. In house orgnn Synchroscopc. New York New Jersey New York Princeton American Foundcm Corp. Wkly. Lmt ol Investment Industrial Relations Sect. Dept. of Economies and trust mrticla. Soclnl In~tltutions Resenrch rcporta and bibliomaphie~ Consolidated Gas Company Libmry Bullctrn. on industrial aublerta. Industrial Relntions Counselors Inc Librnry Bulletm- Now York -1-ann. Annotated hat of bublicationa on induntrial New York relatrons auhjocia nnd btbliog. on some rublecia of Clennllneza Inst~tuteIn Cleai~hneasJouriral currcnt interest. Coneol~datedGns ~d.In To Scrue Ncw York. Metropolitan Life Insuranre Co -Library Bulletina- Gunrmty Co, ol Ncw York. In houao orgnn Guoranlv rnultipphed lints. Nm8. Insurnnee Society of New York. In News Lcllcr. Municipal Referenca Lrbrnry. Municipal Reference Ruaseli Sage Foundat~on. Bullclin bl-mo. No Complr- Libmw Nolee-wkly. mcntary copies. ~tandnrd~randa,Inc. ~klysheet ol reviews and recent addition Ohio Provrdent Mutual Life Inauranco Co. In house organ Cincinnati Belwccn Oursclres Proeter and Gamble. Lrbrary Bulletm--short notes on Unlted Gas Improvement Co. In houne organ U. G. I. new boob. Qrcle. Clevelnnd Plttsburgh Buaiwss Information Bureau. Monlbly Bulletin. Melion Institute Lrbrnry. Blbliogrnphlcn. Fed4Rererve Bank. Service Bulletin. Philadelphia Company. In houne organ. Orcgon Wisconsin P0N.nd Stevens Pomt PeeNorthwest Puhlic Service Co. Lrbrary Bulletin. Hardware Mutual Casualty Co. In houea organ mrm. Curual~le. July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 257 Committee on Classifica. Philadelphia has been experimenting along educational lines for several years. This last winter it held two conferences on classification which were truly helpful to the participants. It 1s also remembering classification In the loan We hope each of you has looked, or will look collection of books which it is building for its at the Classification Exhibit. It is a small members' use. Yaur Chairman has more than ekhibit, but it illustrates the considerable once been thankful to borrow the last Brufisels range in classification work which has been Classification from this collection. Mr. Paul undertaken for the Asmciation. Vandcrbilt of the Pennsylvania Museum Except for the exhibit of classifications shown will be Chairman of the Philadelphia Classifi- a number of years ago, it 1s the only advertising cation Committee for the coming year. we have ever undertaken, apart from the This being the season when classification Classification and Indexing Department in questions bloom abundantly, it has been SPECIAL LIBRARIES, the annual reports, difficult to steal time for this report, but none and a few stray articles- by the Chairman, the less we wish we could record more examples also in SPECIAL LIBRARIES. of worthy work. Perhaps another year you will It pays to advertise. We agree with that afford us the opportunity. ancient slogan, but before advertising more, LOUISEKBLLER, we need more Classification enthusiasts as Chairnzair workers. Please notice the words "as workers " As it is, our membership has advertised us sufficiently for the correspondence of pour Committee on Cooperation Chairman to go into every section of the United States, to Hawaii, the Philippines, Canada, in Business Library Service Newfoundland, England, France, Russia and, 1930.1931 indirectly, to Switzerland and Brazil. If you want to increase the range and frequency of Following the discussion of relations between our performance you certainly will have to public and private business libraries at the enlarge your broadcasting station, and increase San Francisco conference, this committee was your announcers. appointed. The work for 1930-31 has neces- The first step towards enlarging our capacity sarily been experimental. The first step was has indeed been taken. The Classification an endeavor to provide a clearing house for the Department in SPECIAL LIBRARIES run valuable malerial discarded from special by MISSMueser and her Advisory Committee libraries but still of use in many places. Letters has been a great addition. It is doing real were sent to a number of speclal I~br,lrlans work and ~ddingto the value of the magazine explaining the objects of the coni~iiittceand as a reference source. It means something to be asking for lists of their material to be discarded building reference sources, but the Department -in particular the trade directories. people have no desire to be selfish. Outside Although other methods have been ~riedlor- contributions are not taboo. reaching I~hraries-addresses at library meet- Boston has asked Miss E. Louise Lucas of the ings, notices in SPECIAL 1.1 BRARIES, eic.- Fogg Art Museum to act as liaison officer with they have not been so successful in getting the Classifications Committee. During the results as these direct letters It takes time, winter we had several questions along horti- however, to reach all the librarics, and active cultural lines which puzzled your Chairman, cotlperation from the Association 111 this line and finally they were sent up to Boston where would be whole-heartcdly appreciated. MISS Lucas assigned them to Miss Dorothy The committee approached approximately hlanks of the Horticultural Society L~brary, 100 libraries; 22 responded with lists of Boston. That is real and worthwhile co- material that could be distribuLed; 30 failed operation. to answer at all; 30 expressed keen interest New York in connection with a survey of but inability to codperale, 17 expressed libraries collected some interesting manuscript approval but stated that the disposition of classificat~ons ah~chhave been gwen Lo the their discarded material was already planlied. National Collection. An interesting point brought out through Miss Callan at Pittsburgh sent on a small this correspondence was that a number of collection of class~fications. libraries are already giving to local publ~c 258 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

libraries. Five, for example, give to the public Bids were obtained from various printers library In Philadelphia. Possibly duplication and the contract awarded to B. H. Tyrrel. might be avoided, especially as large public The printing cost was $650, which was reduced libraries are in a better position to buy such to approximately $500 by advertisements To publications than are smaller ones who are date receipts on sales amount to $1031, showing also further away from other sources of informa- a net profit of $531 to the Association (as of tion, yet whose business men are in even greater May 25, 1931). need because of this distance from more The question of hoe to ascertain the demand comprehensive information bureaus. Publ~c for a new publication has always been trouble- libraries as a rule accept gifts. They are not some. hliss Manley came forward with a always in a position to dispose of these gifts to suggestion that we circularize a selected list other institutions. It m~ghtbe well for some of of prospects and enclose an order blank for the these special libraries to carefully consider the Handbook, the Electrical Engineering Bibliog- disposition of this material. raphy, and the Union List of Periodicals. The In 1929-30 the Newark Business Branch Newark Public Library, through the generoeity made a survey of the public libraries doing of Miss Winser, agreed to underwrite the cost business work, and from this survey those of such a circular and early, in January the probably most able to profit by such material order blanks were sent out. were selected. At intervals, a combined list A member of the Publications Committee of material available in special libraries is tabulated the returns and forwarded the orders assembled and mailed with a letter to these to the Secretary's ofice. The returns were public libraries. Many more requests are gratifying, although comparatively few orders received for individual items than can be were received from our own members. filled at once, but may be later. The total (signed) list price of the material sent by special libraries to public libraries in the past year is $1,927.23. GERTRUDEPBTERKIX, What the current value would be, cannot be Acting Chairman estimated. What the value to the publ~c librar~esis can be gathered from such comments Three publications have been issued during as these: the ycar: "The Handbook of Commercial and "This is a very generous offer." L~ttle Financial Services" compiled by a special Rock (Ark ) Public Library. committee appointed for the purpose, of which "Your idea regarding an interchange of Miss Cavanaugh was chairman; a chart, directories is perfectly splendid. So often we "Statistics on Con~modities," prepared by a poor public libraries have not had suflic~ent committee of the Commercial-Technical Group, funds to purchase the d~rectorieswe need and of which Miss McCaskie was chairman, with could use back copies of them." San Diego the cooperation of the I-Iarvard Business (Cahf.) Public Library. School Library; and a "Bibliography ol "This work of cobperation between libraries Bibliographies in Electrical Engineermg" com- is a splendid idea and we hope to be able to piled by the Electrical Engineering Committee contribute something to the cause soon " of the Commercial-Technical Group headed by Business Branch of the Hartford (Conn.) Mrs. Maynard. The "Illumina~ing Bibliog- Fublic Library. raphy, 1329-30" compiled by the Illuminating hlany special libraries have codperated in Committee of the same group, which for ' sending materlal to various public libraries. several years has been published wlth the MARIANC. MANLEY, financial cooperation of the Illurnmating Chairman Engineering Society, wlll this year be printed in the July issue of their Transachoss. Two hundred reprints will be given to S. L. A., for Publications Committee our Institutional members and for sale. 1930*1931 A "first purchase" list of trade directories Miss Peterkin's report covering the early prepared by a comniittee of the Commercial- part of the year as acting chairman of the Technical Group, of which Miss Cleland is committee 1s as follows: chairman, is being printed in the Convention The copy for the new "Handbook of Com- Nuniber of SPECIAL LIBRARIES and if ap- mercial and Financial Services" was subm~tted proved by the Executive Board reprints will tn the Publications Committee early in the Fall. be made for general sale. July-Auguat, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 2 59

The following record of expenditures and Considering the fact that two of the three males for publications during the year shows a new publications of this year are just off the balance on the right side of the ledger: press and are of the type that have a very fair market, our publication pol~cyseems to be just~fy~ngitself. The significant factor in these results IS the large sale (about 550 copies Due and Paid withm five months of issue) of the"Handbookof Mimeographing Commercial and Financial Services" which was Descriptive List of US. due to the broad-scale publicity campaigtl Government peri- handled by Miss Alexander, the publicity odical mimeographed member of the Publications Committec. The statements (3rd run) $45.66 recommendation of the Publications Committee Printing Handbook of that publicity be made part of the responsibility Commercial and Fi- of that committee and that a person with a nancial Services 675.90 knowledge of advertislng methods be added to Printing advance order its membership for that purpose has been very blanks 76.00 advantageous. The association has benefited by the revenue on sales but even where sales Publicity (postage only) 35.00 did not result, by bringing S. L A., to the $832.56 attention of over 4,000 persons and orgsniza- tions and so building prestige. Actual returns BiRs Nod Yet Due on th~spublicity as represented by sales Printing Chart Statistics amounted to 17 !4 percent to date. The on Commodities 43.00 report of the publicity chairman is submitted in Printing Bibliography of full and attention is particularly called to the Bibliographies on Elec- recommendations ~t contains. trical Engineering 530.00 Tubes for mailing charts 6.25 The work of the Publicity Chairrr~an has centered this year around the "Handbook of Commercial and Financial Services." Thia book Total was published on January 15, 1931. The publicity devoted to it to date (May 1, 1931) is described below. Samples of releases are pasted in the official scrap book maintained by Sales of Descriptive List the Publications Committee. of U. S. Government periodical mimeo- ographed statements Announcement mailed to these, January 15, Sales of Membership 1931. Personal letters were written to Mr. H List W. Wilson; Miss Weston, Editor of Library Sales of Handbook of Journal; and Mr. Sawyer of Plrblic Affairs Services Informaliarr Service. Free review copiea were Sales of other older publi- sent tq H. W. Wilson and the A L A. Booklist. cations Advertisements in Hand- All of our professional journals gave the book of Services Handbook publicity as follows: A. L. A. Booklist, 1931, page 343 Business Literature, published by the Advance orders for Bibli- Busmess Branch of the Newark Public ography of Bibliog- Library, February, 1931, page 1 raphies on Electrical Industrial Arts Index, February, 193 1, Engineering page 1 Libraries, February, 1931, page 93 Library Journal, February 1, 1931, page Total Expenses 138 New York Public Library Bulletin, Feb- Profit ruarylll, 1931, page 32 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August,1931

Public Affairs Information Service, mailed to three hundred of these newspapers January 24, 1931, page 4 and 7 in the larger c~tiesin the country. Standard Publishers Weekly, February 7, 1931, Statistics multigraphed the releases and paid page 698 the postage but Special Libraries Association Special Libraries, February, 1931, page 63; stationery was used. These went out January March, 1931, page 100 23. TRADEPAPERS A list of about three hundred and fifty of the As soon as the Handbook was off the press, a leading trade and business magazmes was personal message was mailed to each of the two compiled and releases mailed to each on January hundred and fourteen information services 15. We do not know how many of these used included in the book. The regular news our news item Several niembers of S. L. A. releases to edltors were used with a red label col~peratedwith us by clipping the publicity pasted at the top of each bearing the phrase they saw; some publishers mailed us copies of "You are listed in this book. Order a copy their review; but we believe that many Items today." appeared of which we have no record. Those from wh~chwe have clippings are: Through the further cooperation of Miss Advert~singAge, January 24, 1931, page 8 Cavanaugh, letters especially directed to the American Banker, January 17, 1931, front statisticians of three thousand irnpottant Page banks and brokers, were sent out at the expense American Printer, February, 1931, page 78 of Standard Statistics Company on March 25. The Annalist, January 16, 1931, (annual statistical review number) Bankers Magazine, February, 1931, page The membership of the National Association 292 of Teachers of Marketing and Advertising Bankers A'Ionthly, February, 1931 covers all of the important colleges and uni- Rond Buyer, January 17, 1931, page 4 versitles interested in business publications. Business Briefs, May, 1931, page 639 Their 1931 roster was secured and letters Business Economic Digest, March, 1931, mailed to four hundred and ninety-six indi- page 4 viduals on April 15. Chicago Prmting and Advertising News, February 14, 1931, page 2 Daily Bond Buyer, January 13, 1931, page 119 Domestic Commerce, March 20, 1931, page A check of the sales of the Ilandbook showed 89 that relatively few membera of our own Associa- Editor and Publisher, January 17, 1931, tion were ordering copies. Accordingly the page 39 mailing list was analyzed and the namea of National Underwnter, January 15, 1931 institutional members who had automatically Nation's Business, March, 1931, page 114 received copies of the Handbook, as well as the Newark News, January 27, 1931 names or assistants in large libraries, were Printers' Ink, January 22, 1931, page 58 eliminated. A special letter was then sent to System, March, 1931, page 213 . four hundred and thirty-five lnembers on Trust Companies, February, 1931, page April 22. This letter was niultigraphed and 244 mailed by the American Telephone and Tele- U. S. Review and Southern Underwriter graph Company through the courtesy 01 Miss January 24, 1931 Wary Cox. Wall Street Journal, February 9, 1931, (both morning and afternoon editions) Western Insurance Review, January 10, The Handbook shared in a circular mailed by 1931 Miss Marian Manley for the Con~mercial- Technical Group of S. L. A,, early in January, 1931. This circular went to libraries and to a The Standard Statistics Company maintains selected list of engmeers. Its purpose waa to a mailing list of all of the important newspapers learn the demand for the proposed bibliography in the country. Their librarian, Miss Cava- in electrical engineering. The Handbook was naugh, arranged to have our news releases one of four publications featured July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 26 1

An advertisement has appeared in each by the Publicity Committee so that this issue of our magazine, SPECIAL LIBRA- activity might become part of the routme of RIES smce January, 1931. the headquarters' office. Mailing lists should ...... be maintained by the Executive Secret'bry and Through an exchange arrangement which the Publicity Chairman would then be respon- our magazme has with the H. W. Wilson sible only for the planning and wlrLir~g of Company we have had a half-page advertise- campaigns for each new publication. Th~s ment on the ins~decover of the Industrial Arts Standard Practice for promoting a publication Index lor May and June. ehould be somcthmg like thls: , ...... , 1. News releases, personal letters, and Free review copies were distributed only on free review copies to be sent to each request since these cut into our profits consider- of the five or six important hbmry ably. Only about a dozen copies have been publ~cntrons. given away 2. News releases to the editors of general magazines and trade papers Card file of three hundred and fifty publications The cost to our Association for this publicity now maintarried to be checked to shoa has been almost negligible. Clerical work, our experience with them. Basic list to postage, and paper for multigraphing have be rev~sed or enlarged as the work been donated by Batten, Barton, Durst~ne& progresses. Osborn, and, as indicated above, by the 3. Xewspapers. A key list of the im- Standard Staiistics Company and the American portant papers througliout the country Telephone and Telegraph Company. In might be developed although these are furnishing us with Special Librar~esAssociation so numerous that it would seem wiser envelopes, the headquarters has sometimes to accept the coaperat~onof conlpanies supplied the stamps. I have no accurate that do maintain stencil lists of papcrs record of this but know that the cost was well for their onn publicity operations. The within the amount which the Board voted for Standard Statistics Company is one the Handbook expense, namely, $25. such and undoubtedly there are others among our members who would be will- ing to run off envelopes for us. Your publicity chairman believes that as our 4. D~rectmail. There are certain people Association issues more and more creditable and organizations that will be a market publications our reception by the press will be for nearly every publication that more generous. We are not yet well enough Special Libraries Associat~on might known to have our releases mean much to the issue. Such organizations should regu- busy editor. However, if we continue to send larly be c~rculariredand special lists them good news material, In accepted journal- made up to suit the type or publ~cat~on ist~~style, from a central clearmg point, we being sold. Some of the standard lists should be able to establish a reputation. might be: To build a good mailing lisL, ~t is desirable Public Libraries, especially those that we devise some method of checking the maintaming business branches or publicity we secure from magazines and news- sections papers. There are no national clipping bureaus Research services which cover magazines adequately so that the Banks and brokers help of our members should be solicited and Colleges and universities, especially organized. those \di~chhave business schools While releases to the press are necessary and Trade associations \\ill become increasingly helpful, results may Chambers of commerce always be secured more easily and quickly Regular purchasers of Special LI- from direct mail. Ord~narilythis method is braries Association publications. much more expensive but with the splendid cooperation our Association always gets from Other lists to be considered as the needs its members, this cost is reduced to a minimum. arise would he statisticians, engineers, manu- It would make for efficiency if a Standard facturers in speclal fields, etc., etc. Practice for publicity for all Special Libraries I recommend that the Board authorize the Association publications could be worked out Executive Secretary to take over the esist~ng 18+ 262 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 193 mailing list, prepare new ones as needed, and part of individual members of the Committee handle the routine work in connection with in each community. publicity. The Chairman first made a list of all present Respectfully subni~tted subscribers of SPECIAL LIBRARIES as (signed) MARYLOUISE ALBXAMDER taken from our Association Membership List Cliairinan, Publicity Subconamirtee (an excellent tool by the way) and checked against the A. L. A. Handbook-and also with A special report containing recommendations the "Amer~can Library Directory." This for future publication policy and method of made a mailing list of one thousand. A operation based on the experience of the past letter of appeal was then formulated, approved three years has been submitted to the Executive by the Committee, President and Secretary and Board for actron. mailed on January 15, 1931. An incidental re- The members of th~scommittee have co- sult of the Committee's work was that, in the operated in the work done in their usual whole- checking, certain subscribers who seemed pos- hearted way. To Miss Peterkin especially, who sibilities for active or institutional member- stepped Into the breach and also put the hand- ships were referred to the Membership Chair- book of services through the press, during the man. enforced absence of the chairman, the Associa- The indiv~dualmembers assisted by asking tion is greatly indebted librarians of their public libraries to subscribe to as many copies of SPECIAL LIBRARIES as they did Lzhrary Journal, and appealed to the Supervisor of Branches to subscribe for all major branches. They also made announce- ments about SPECIAL LIBRARIES in all local associat~on meetings, and sent press releases about subscriptions to all local library bulletins and publications. &ow as to the results. It is rather difficult to estimate exactly how much was accomplished. All we can say is that the Secretary's record Committee on Subscriptions which she kindly reported to me up to May 26, 1931 shows an increase in subscriptions; Late in October this Committee was created there were thirty-eight (38) New subscriptions to assist Mr. Brigham, the Editor, in securing received in these past five months. Undoubt- additional subscribers to S P E C I A L edly this Committee can not take credit for all LIBRARIES, the suggestion having been of these because some might have been re- made by our former President in his Presidential address at San Francisco November and ceived due to other members' efforts or for December were spent in selecting and appoint- other reasons. If all are cred~ted to the Committee, it means an additional income for ing committee members. The following, all of them members of the staff of a public library, the Association of $190 from this source. The Chairman wishes to point out that were chosen and have worked diligently on this problem: January is a poor time of the year to initiate a campaign for subscriptions. Most libraries Miss Edith Guerrier, Boston make up their subscript~onlists in September hliss E. Gertrude Avey, Cincinnati or October. It was impossible this year to get Miss Edythe Prouty, Cleveland under way at that date. Rut what we have Miss Agnes Greer, Chicago done thus far this year is good spade work for Miss Josephine Hollingsworth, Los Angelea securing subscriptions in the coming September Mise Amta Levy, San Francisco and October. By January plans for action were made and Miss Agnes Greer of the Chicago Public we started a campaign for subscriptions. Library did an extra plece of work for the It was deemed advisable by the Committee Committee in compiling a list of 60 libraries to lmit our efforts at th~stime to public within a radius of 40 miles of Chicago to whom libraries particularly in the middle-sized she sent a special appeal over her signature on cities, to branch libraries in metropolitan April 18, 1931. Mrs. Brigham followed this centers, and to college I~braries. Most of the up with a sample copy of the magazine to each work has been done through direct corre- library. Miss Greer suggested that a follow-up spondence, succeeded by follow-up work on the letter be sent to the same libraries between July-~ugust,1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 263

August 15 and September 15, 1931 which, of year. If possible, the same individual members course, is the proper time to make an urgent bid should function and the same mailing list of for subscriptions. libraries be sol~citedagain, Miss Greer would The ~ll&nanthanks her Committee for make an excellent chairman. faithful work performed. She also suggests to Respectfully submitted, the incoming Executive Board that a Sub- scriptions committee be continued for 1931- REBECCAB. RANKIN 1932 to carry on the work just started this Cliairman General Education Board Grant to A. L. A. In announcing a recent grant of $13,500 books in various fields for which cards are not from the General Education Board to the available from the Library of Congress. The Americatr L~brary Association, the Library General Education Board's grant to the Jolrrtial of June 15, 1931 reported that the American Library Association provdes for a fund was "for the study of cooperative cat- thorough study of the methods and costs of aloging which will deal with the methods of centralized cataloging of such Items pre- cataloging research items in special libraries limmary to the cobperative production OF . . . " Lest there be any misunderstanding cards. The results of this study udl determine among special librarians, the Editor wishes the practicability of carrying out such a to amplify this statement by explaining that project The Advisory Committec appointed spec~allibraries is here used in the sense of for the study includes Dr. Herbert Putnam, special collect~ons such as the Goethe, the Mr. C. H. Hastings, Prof. J. C. M. Hallson, Oriental, and the Latin American collections Mr. H. M. Lydenberg, Dr J. Christian at Yale. As is well known, most of our large Bay, Dr. W. W. R~shop, Mr. Andrew publ~cand university l~brarieshave collections Keogh, Mr. T. Franklin Currier, and Dr. C. C. of foreign books, old books, and technical Williamson. A Saturday Morning in Search of the Documents for One City The experience of thoroughly studying the of the charter and ordinances, with shp editions New Haven documents was so interesting to of ordinances to date. For reports of the Park me, in the hght of numerous discussions on th'e Department and the Recreation Commiss~on subject of collecting city documents, that I I had to go directly to the departments. One have decided to put it on paper. It serves of the items that I desired was a health demon- as a cross section of the municipal document stratlon, 1920-23. I was told that Dr...... problem that we have been studying this year. in the Health Department would give me a My first step was to go through the cards copy but he had to report the supply exhausted, under New Haven in the Yale Library. Then saying that there were too many people like I went to the Public Library and did the same me. I told him that he should rejoice that thing. I found a fuller collection in the Public there was such a demand but he came back Library. I noticed that some of the most with, "I have to think of it in tcrms of another interesting documents of a few years back nurse." I came away, however, with a copy were not official at all but publications of the of the 1928 health survey in my hand. Civic Federation of New Haven. The Public A visit to the Chamber of Commerce gave Library helped me to discover that the Civic mc no satisfaction as to how to get copies of Federation had been merged some time ago the Civic Federation publications. Somebody, with the Chamber of Commerce. somewhere, probably has them buried away Supplied with notes from the study of the in a basement supply of duplicates, but where? cards mentioned, I went first to the City New Haven was deservedly proud of the Clerk's office. There I was able to secure the fact that it had won the health prize this year 1931 manual, The New Haven yearbook for and I was told that material for a new henltli 1924, 1925, 1927, 1929 (the supply of 1926 survey was in the files and might be published was exhausted and 1930 was not publirthed). if funds were available. They also presented us with a 1928 edition INA CLEMENT. SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August. 1931 Reports of Local Associations Annual reports of the 12 local chapters yielded many interesting things. Baltimore Chapter's report m~ghtwell serve as a textbook for new chapters on what to do and how to do it. The leport contamed an illustrated cover, a table of contents and 21 pages devoted to history, objec- tives and mcetings of the chapter, together with four outstanding papers of the year. A survey of Baltimore special libraries has been completed and will be mimeographed. I3oston reported a successful year with the class on library methods, gained 27 new members, and had a maximum attendance at meetings of 143. Illinois Chapter reported red-letter meetings in the entertainment of President Reynolds, Jane Addams, and A L. A. officers, and recommended for new work a survey of salar~esand a card index of ~nformatlonabout members. Cincinnati Chapter had 10 meetings, with an average attendance of 28. At Christmas time baskets were filled and sent to needy families. Cleveland and P~ttsburghChapters each entertained the Executive Board of S L. A., and held their second jornt meeting-this year in Pittsburgh. Cleveland supplied most of the conference committee working members. P~ttsburghheld four regular meetings, a tea, five bridge parties, dnd an annual bridge luncheon. Detroit, in its fifth year, adopted a new const~tut~onand increased ~tsmembership 176 percent. Miss Lutz. the President, personally visited 39 of the 42 listed librar~es. RIllwaukee Chapter, the baby of S. L. A., was organized last January with 14 members and gamed 128 percent. New York Chapter, the largest in the Association, announced a gift from Carnegie Corporation for a public,rtion fund and three new publ~cat~onsto its credit. Meetings ranged in attendance from i2.5 to 194. Ph~ladelphia Counc~l,complet]ng 12 years, mimeographed all the reports of the year, and cllstributed copies to all members. Both San Francisco and Southern Cahfornia Chapters revised their constitutions, and each published a union l~stof periodicals San Francisco Chapter, feeling the impulsir of the 1930 conference in its city, made a 56 percent increase in membership. The reports, somewhat abridged, follow:

Baltimore Chapter the second meeting the topics were "Research In order to derive a maximum of benefit and facilities at the Library of Congress," and enjoyment from a well-balanced program, the "Research facilities in Baltimore." At the Vice-chairman, W. S. Hamill, prepared the third meeting "The Science of Bibliography" following set of objectives, which were adopted and "The origin and development of a typical as a guide in planning activities for the coming spec~allibrary in Baltimore" were discussed. year. 1-To foster and develop a greater The fourth meeting dealt still further with the interest in libraries; 2-To arouse an in- subject of "Research facilities In Baltimore," creased interest in the use and extension of and since then the survey has been completed special library facilities; 3-To assemble and is in the process of publication in mimeo- periodically and discuss our mutual problems, graphed form for members of Baltimore chapter. and through this mterchange of ~deashroaden A brief description of the questionnaire for our knowledge as to the aim and functions of the survey follows: special libraries; 4-To promote and en. 1-Nature and purpose of the corporation, courage social contacts among special librarians association or institution which maintains a of Baltimore, with a view to increasing thew special library. already splend~dspirit of codperat~on 2-Nature and scope of special library, Our activities were designed to meet the including name of librarian, date l~brarywas needs of a heterogeneous group of individuals established, major functions and use made of alth diverse Interests and. training. The Ilbrary; departments served and extent to successful execution of the schedule of events which outside individuals or firms arc served. proved to he of interest and benefit to us all. 3-The spec~allibrary collection; approxi- The program combined cultural and cyclopedic mate number of bound books, pamphlets, and aspects of l~brariesIn general, and an examma- other material; nature and scope of material on tion of important problems of special hbraries as file; subjects covered and unusual collections. well. 4-Organization; personnel; method of ac- The first meeting considered "What libraries quirlng material; type of shelving, files, etc have meant to us," and "Things a specla1 used; type of card indexing and book cataloging librarian can do," the first topic having two used (samples requested); system of outside speakers, and the second five speakers. At circulation, if any. July-~ugust, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 265

5-Future prospects for expansion, extended pos~tions filled. A course of 10 lessons in service, etc. Library Methods with special emphasis on cataloging and classifying was successfully conducted for our nien~bers. Twenty-seven We feel that with the completion of th~s new members aere submitted by the Member- pamphlet, much has been accomplished. It ship Conim~tteeand In April as part of the is the first time that such an undertaking has Nattonal Associat~on'sdrive for Active mcm- been attempted in Baltimore, and the multitude bers, our Associate members were circuIarizcC of interesting and valuable information avail- as to the advantages of Active Membership, able has surprised even those who \\ere con- enclosing the National Assoctation's new versant with local library fac~lities. The spirit folder on Membership. The Publicity Com- displayed by members of the chapter and their mittee \\as composed of members representing willingness to give information proves very each of the important Rosto~ipapers with the forcibly that our ch~efaim has been accom- Secretary as Chairman, and very satisfactory plished-cooperation, results were secured The Methods Com- mittee has finished its long and painstaking Bibliography on Special Library Methods and has presented it to the Publications Committee for action. Boston Chapter As one serves as Pres~dentof such an organi- zation as this, she cannot but be impressed Boston ChapLer held eight meetings from with the real spirit of cooperation and good- September through May. We met for the fellowshtp anlong the members. Appointments first time this year at the Federal Reserve to committees were cheerfully accepted and Bank and at the newly opened Kirstein Business genuine service was always shown. Branch oi the Boston Public Library. Another ABBIEG. GLOVER, new departure was our successful joint meeting President with the Boston Group of Catalogers and Classifiers. Two meetings of real entertain- ment were held at the Harvard University Theatre Collection and at the Boston Museum Cincinnati Chapter of Fine Arts where splendid illustrated talks Membership of Cincinnati Chapter incrd were given by the directors Two meetings from 30 active members in 1930 to 41 in 1931. were given over to discussions of library We lost one member by death, Miss Virginia problems as at the State Library when three of Hickman, our Vice-President. our members discussed the outstanding refer- ence tools in their respective fields of banking, The schedule of meetings, with the alten- museum and newspaper work. At our meeting dance, was as follows: at the Massachusetts Horticultural Soctety, June-Picnic at the farm of Miss E. Ger- five of our members, whose libraries also trude Avey at New Richmond, Ohio, with 14 included material on horticulture gave us a present. broad survey of that field. As it is pract~cally Sept. 22-First fall meeting at Business impossible to meet at all the libraries devoted Woman's Club, with 26 present. to any one subject, this symposium enabled us Oct. 2-Tea for MISS Margaret Reynolds. to get a splendid idea of the resources in any one President, at the Procter Sr Gamble Co. in the branch. Attendance at these meet~ngsvaried Gwynn Building, with 40 present. from 68 on one very rainy evening to 143. Oct. 17-Spec~al L~brariesluncheon at the Our standing committees have made dis- Engineers Cluh, Dayton 'during convention of tinct contributions to the work of the Chapter. Ohio Library Association, wtli six n~ernbcrs Our Hospitality Commtttee provided a place present from Cincinrin~~Chapter. for supper preceding each meeting and ar- rangements were made for us to s~tby groups. Nov. 10-Trip to Crosley Rad~oCorporaLion, This commtttee was also in charge of the Annual U'LW, with 27 present meeting at which was staged a "May Frolic." Dec. 18-Christmas party, at uhich baskels The Registration Committee has had the were filled for eight famil~esnumbering 35. expected larger number of applications for Every member of the chapter had a part in positions during this period of depression thts, as those not able to attend sent their and the corresponding snialler number of gifts. 266 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

Jan. 19-hleeting at the Public Document In February about 25 members met for Room of the Cmclnnati Public Library, uith dinner at Bohannon's Restaurant In Cleveland 26 present. Heights, and, for the evening, proceeded by Feb. 3-Meeting at Union Gas and Electric auto to the home of Otto F. Ege, a teacher at Co., with 16 present. the Cleveland School of Art. The evening Has March 9-Meeting at the University of spent most charmingly as the guests gathered Cinc~nnati,with 33 present. around informally while Mr. Ege talked of his priceless collection of iIlunlinated manuscripts April 13-Meeting at Art Museum Library, and allowed them to be examined as freely as with attendance of 36. desired. One event of each year has come to May 11-Annual meetingat MariemontInn, be the visit to the home of one of oui members, with 32 members present. Mrs. Birdsall, at Twinsburg. This year E. GERTRUDEAVEY, the visit was made on May 2 for the annual Prcsidenl meeting. A beautiful spring day made the trip by automobile most enjoyable and a walk in the woods, filled with early wild flowers, Cleveland Chapter whetted the appetites. After the picnic dinner the officers for the coming year were elected The meetings of the Cleveland Chapter were and final Chapter plans were made for the notable this year in the opportunity afforded June convention of getting acquainted with the national officers. Much of the effort of the members of the There were two meetings at which they were Cleveland Chapter this year has gone into present, aside from the Cleveland Convention preparation for the annuzl convention, be- in June. ginning with the first general committee The first national executive meeting was meeting held in November. The effectiveness held in Cleveland September 29 in accordance of this effort may be judged by the results aa with the policy of the President, Miss Reynolds, shown in the program, exhibits, and general to vary the place of meeting in order to get arrangements at the Convention. The efficient acquainted with various S. L. A. chapters. chairman of the local Convention Committee The Cleveland Chapter made this the occasion was Miss Rose Vormelker, Business Research for an informal dinner at the Cleveland Librarian of the Cleveland Public Library. Museum of Art with about 30 in attendance. NELLG. SILL, Following the dinner Miss Reynolds spoke President briefly of the hopes for the year'e work and Miss Callan, for the Pittsburgh Chapter, told of the plan for a Pittsburgh-Cleveland joint Detroit Chapter meeting in February. The second opportunity to meet the national This, the fifth year of the Detroit Chapter, officers was in connection with this Pittsburgh- was one of organization. It was realized at the Cleveland meeting held in Pittsburgh February outset that such would he the case. The 23. An enjoyable luncheon at Hotel Schenley prime object was to establish some set of made informal contacts possible; this was governing rules. It was also the purpose of the followed by visits to some of the Pittsburgh organization to investigate the special library libraries. A most successful dinner meeting held in Detroit and vicinity, and to increase the at the Rittenhouse Hotel was concluded with paid membership. inspirational and informational talks by Miss There were six regular meetings and one Reynolds and others. The success of these special meeting. joint meetings have proved the value and The first meeting of the year was held Sept. pleasure to be gained from neighborhood 26, at the library of the Engineering Labora- association. tories of the Ford Motor Company, at Dear- The other meetings of the year were varied in born. Luncheon was followed by a short character. One was an evening meeting held business meeting in which the President out- in the Cleveland Public Library in connection lined plans for the year. There were 65 people with the members of the Alumni Business present, which constitutes the largest meeting Club of Flora Mather College. J. B. Anderson, ever held by the Chapter. Miss Jane Nicks w~a assistant Federal Reserve Agent, gave a most the hostess. The special attraction of the day informing talk on the work of the Federal was a visit to Mr. Ford's Greenfield Village. Reserve Banks. For the second meeting, the group assembled July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 267 at the "Green Cottage" and Miss England During the year, the President of Detroit read her paper entitled "Special Tools." Miss Chapter visited 39 libraries out of the 42 listed. Manning, of the Detroit Edison Company, CAROLINEW. LUTZ, acted as hostess. A committee to draw up a President constitution, and a membership committee were appointed. The third meeting was held in the Florentine Room of the Hotel Tuller on Nov. 25, with Miss Marjorie Darrach as hostess. Dr. The year would not have been a success Richard McKean spoke on "The Professional were it not for the splendid coBperation by Man's Use of the Library," and Dr. Daly, a officers and committee chairmen. Every guest from the University of Detroit, graciously effort was made to secure the 1933 conference responded to the address. The discussion of S. L. A. for Chicago. The President of the proved to be particularly interesting because Chapterwasinvited to a sub-committee meeting views of both doctor and librarian were of A. L. A,, which recommended the establish- exchanged. ment and plan of organization of a 1933 Chicago The fourth meeting was held on February World's Fair library. 9, at the Wardell. The proposed constitution, To the new administration the following drawn up by a committee consisting of Miss suggestions are offered: 1-Continuation of Louise Grace, Miss Mildred Treat, and Miss effort to secure the 1933 S. L. A. conference for Louise Thompson, was adopted. Chicago; 2-Adoption of recommendations of On Feb. 22, a telegram was sent to the the Employment Committee; 3-Survey of Executive Board, meeting in Pittsburgh, Chapter's membership for the organization of inviting the Special Libraries Association to committees. To substantiate the third sug- visit Detroit at the time of the annual con- gestion the following quotation from one of vention in Cleveland. The letter of acceptance our members is given: "It is always n good was received March 23. At a meeting of the thing to have an association studying specific Chapter held on March 24, plans for the post- problems. It increases the interest and stin~u- conference visit were immediately set afoot. lates members to greater efforts in their own At a meeting of the general committee on work. For this reason I think it is a good April 1, various committees were appointed, thing to divide into committees for special and publicity was prepared by Miss Ione Ely study. My own reaction is that committees and sent to Mr. Brigham for publication in should be formed and studies made on topics SPECIAL LIBRARIES. that are most vital to those concerned, and At the fifth meeting of the Chapter, which that the initiative should come from members was held at Striker's Cafe on March 24, with who feel the need for something of thc kind. Miss Frances Curtiss as hostess, Mr. Cecil Any contribution to a national committee will Betron of the Detroit News, talked about be the outgrowth of actual experiment in local "Clippings-What to File and How." organization." A special meeting was called for April 29 Seven successful meetings were planned by to discuss convention plans. The meeting the Program Committee. The first meeting was held at the Women's City Club. Reports was held at the Lake Shore Athletic Club. The second meeting, at the Illinois Women'a of the various committees were presented, and satisfactory development was apparent. Since Athletic Club, was a dinner and reception for that time the entire 1.1embership of the Detroit Miss Reynolds, President of S. L. A., and was Chapter has been canvassed, and a fine spirlt attended by about 40 members and several representatives from A. L. A. Miss Rey- of helpfulness is evident everywhere. nolds gave a most interesting and enthusi- The annual meeting was held at the General astic talk, and Carl H. Milam, Secretary of A. Motors Proving Grounds at hlilford, Michigan, L. A,, and Walter R. Spofford, President of the on May 23, at which time the election of Chicago Library Club, also spoke. Seventy-five officers was held. members attended the third meeting at the The average attendance for the year has Presbyterian Hospital, where Dr. Morris been 30. At the beginning of the year the paid Fishbein, Editor of the A. M. A. Journal was membersh~pwas, Institutional 3, Active 14; the chief speaker. The fourth meeting was Total 17. This has been increased to, Institu- held at Hull House, with an attendance of 90, tional 4, Active 22, Associate 21; Total 47. the largest of the year, and Miss Jane Addams 268 ' SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 193 1 was the guest and speaker of the evening The The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light fifth meeting was a joint meeting aith the Company, and The Municipal Reference Chicago Library Club at the Nenberry Library. Library. Plans for corning meetings include The sixth meeting was held in the crystal room round table discussions, addresses by specialists of Marshall Field & Co. The final meeting in different fields, vis~ts to other special was held at the Merchandise Mart, and was the librar~es and points of interesl, and joint annual business meeting. meetings aith allied groups The Employment Committee has an active The officers originally elected will serve file of 100 seeking new positions. This com- until June 1932. mittee recommends for future activities the ZILLAR. hlcC~me, following: Secrelary- Treastrrer ' 1-That the promotional aork be undertaken as soon as busmess conditions permit, so that executives will turn LO the Employment New York Alsociation Bureau for assistance in establishing research How can pour President present in one departments and business or special hbraries. brief annual balance sheet a satisfactory 2-That a survey of salariea paid in special accounting of the year's accomplishments that librari~ain the Chlcago area be made. The will analyse all the "tangibles," to say nothing committee feels that special librarians and of the "intangibles," which in my opinio~iare research workers will never get salaries com- of incalculable value? mensurate with the caliber of work required, The "tangibles" have been recorded fairly or for the amount of abil~tyand training well in our monthly bulletin. In the May necessary, until it is known what is paid for bulletin were summarized reports of the various certain work, certain abdity and training. groups and committees in order to give a The results of these studies may be worked quick bird'a-eye view of them. Ae to the into certain definite standards which could meetings, they have been exceptionally well be brought before the Chapter for adoption. attended, never droppi~igbelow 125, and with a Membership in Illinols Chapter shows an maximum of 194. increase of 28 percent during the year, from 117 Your Executive Board have worked hard on on June 1, 1930, to 112 on May 28, 1931. your behalf, but their efforts would have been JOSEPH A. CONFOBTI, worth little without the active and loyal Presideit1 support of many willing members. Curiosity prompted me to total up the number who have served on committees and my count showed Milwaukee Chapter that at least 63 members have done active Milwaukee Chapter was organized on Jan. committee work, a splendid record for busy 20, 1931. The petition for membership in the I~brarians. I cannot recollect a single case in national Association was signed by 10 of the which I asked for help and was refused. 14 librarians present. With four out-of-town I must commend the zeal of our very efficient librarians who were unable to be present, but Secretary, hliss Constance Beal, in sorting who had signified their desire for a local over an accumulation, of many years' standing, chapter and their intention to join, the number of letters addressed to the Secretary and of petitioners became 14, representing the countless other old records. The remaining following industries: 2 banks, 2 public utilities, reports of historical value are now encnsed In 3 newspapers, 2 insurance companies, a substantial loose-leaf binders, where they can be department store, advertrsmg agency, law readily referred to at any time by future library, manufacturing company and mun~cipal officers and group chairmen. reference library. Another group among the "tang~blcs" to At present our membership is thirty-two: which I want to refer briefly are the programs. sir institutional, 11 active, and 15 associate Our plan was to have represented In the series members. Four more applications for associate both inspiration and information. Such a membership have been made speaker as W~lllaniC. Redfield, in his talk on Four regular meetings have been held, at "Dependent America," broadened our vision which we have vlsited the libraries of the and made us world conscious, both as citizens First Wisconsin National Bank, of which our and as I~brarians. Another speaker, Miss national President, Miss Reynolds, is librarian, Clare Tousley, of the Char~tyOrganization The Three Schuster Stores (department store), Society, most effectively awakened our social July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 269 sympathies and at the same time indicated the the proceeds of sales of the "Union List" absorbing interest in the field in which the which they financed. The fund is being put "social-civic" librarians work. A practical out- to immediate use to finance the publication come of this particular talk was our first of our new directory. philanthropic venture to my knowledge, when The "intangibles" in a balance sheet such ae offered our assistance in assembling books as "good will" must be given an arbitrary for the unhappy boys detained in the House of value, as no one can say accurately and speci- Refuge. fically what they amount to. Outstanding in our "good w~ll" assets are the friendly Helpful suggestions for improviog methods contacts made possible through a renewed and hbrary Service generally were brought out activity in our groups. For the new life at a joint meeting with the Catalogers Group. infused into these groups this year, the greatest Also, most informing were the glimpses behind credit is due the various chairmen, who have the scenes of two grpat organizations, typical succeeded in arousing a real enthusiasm for of many served by our libraries, The Western their luncheon, tea and dinner meetings and Union Telegraph Company and the Daily their library visits. News Publishing Plant, while the talk by Even in our general meetings, which are Professor Charles R. Richards on the industrial naturally more formal in nature, the spirit of museum opened up a vista of new activities friendliness was in evidence. hlay I point for librarians in exhibit work as well as new out, too, the value of our chatty little news sources of information in visual form. bulletin in creating a feeling of friendly Last among the "tangibles" I list our publica- interest in one another's doings. On your tions. F~vedistinct publications appearing behalf I want to convey to Miss Esther this year should be mentioned, although only Wright our grateful appreciation of her one can be strictly claimed as a production of successful editorial efforts. this particular administration. The long The hidden talents of our members recorded heralded "Water Transportation Bibliography" in the answers to the hobby questionnaire appeared in its first volume under the zealous revealed a surprisingly wide range. guidance of hi. E. Pellett of the Port of New One question that has grown out of a year's York Authority. "The Union List of Periodicals experience I should like to raise for the con- in Special Libraries of the New York Metro- sideration of the incoming administration politan District," to which many members and also of the Associat~onas a whole. Are contributed, and which is almost entirely the we having too many meetings? The con- work of Miss Ruth Savord, has just come out. stitution requires seven monthly meetings Miss Eleanor Cavanaugh, chairman of the beginning with October, with December committee which comp~led the "hlanual of only omitted. If this matter could be left Comrnerc~al and Financial Information Ser- to the discretion of the Executive Board vices," reports a record sale of that publication, and the mininium specified, say four meetmgs following a well thought-out plan of mailing- a year, I think an interesting experiment list publicity, so that the entire cost of publica- might be made in coordinating g~oup and tion has already been covered. A publication general associat~onactivity. which is just appearing this month, "Sources of In closing, 1 wish to say that in constructive Current Statistical Information for Cornrnodi- individual achievements, and in fine co- ties," is a chart covering 106 commodities and operative committee work, the Association 76 magazines, giving statistics on prices, pro- can congratulate itself upon a year's record duction, sales indexes, imports and exports, and that shows a state of unusually healthy vitahty Miss Gladys McCaskie of the Newark Business M.~RGUP~ITEBURNCTT, Branch is responsible for a large part of the President work. Finally the revised directory for the New York Special Librar~esAssociation, coni- piled by a committee under the chairmanship Philadelphia Council .of Miss ~ebeccaRankin, has already gone to press and should be ready for distribution The twelfth season of the Special Libraries early in June. Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity came Itisgratifying to announce that the to a close on May 1, with ~tsannual business Association 1s now the fortunate possesmr of meeting and election of officers. The a Publication Fund established through the meeting was held in Alumni Hall of the generosity of the Carnegie Corporation from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 270 SPECIAL LIBRARIES JuIY-Auw~~,1931 where it has been our privilege to hold many In September, a special dinner meeting meetings during the past two years, as guests was held at "Ye Singing Kettle," in Pitts- of our Chairman, Misa Bemis, Librarian of burgh's Greenwich Village. Miss Elizabeth Lippincott Library. The meeting was 0. Cullen of the Bureau of Railway Economicr preceded by a dinner meeting of the Execu- Washington, President of the D~etrict of tive Board and heads of committees for the Columbia Libraries Association and Treasurer purpose of reviewing the plans and accom- of S. L. A., gave a delightful talk on her work plishments of the past year and outlining in Washington, with constructive suggestions unfinished business. for further cobperative effort among Pitts- As has been our custom for the past few burgh libraries. years, the annual progress reports of officers The first regular meeting was held in and committees were summarized by the October at the United States Bureau of Mines. Chairman, and distributed in mimeographed Director George St. John Perrott spoke form to the membership in advance of the on the work of the Bureau, and this was business meeting. This method of informing followed by the showing of two motion pictures, the membership of the Council's activities, "Heirlooms of the Future, the Story of Silver," accomplishments and financial condition is and "Carbon Monoxide, the Unseen Danger," especially helpful to those members who are Mrs. H. E. Foote, Librarian of the Bureau, interested but unable to attend all meetings. served refreshments in the library. At this Miss Bemis, in her address, referred to the meeting, the President proposed that mernbera Council as having grown two years older should drop in informally at her apartment with the passing of the present adminis- on the first Saturday of each month for tea, tration. "With the passage of time," she bridge, or chatter. The idea was well received, asked, "has the association grown two years and the first bridge was set for November first. stronger? Have we as an association in- The December session was again a dinner spired the confidence of our members through meeting at "Ye Singing Kettle." Miss our activities and aroused their pride in their Marion L. Hatch, librarian of the Business membership? Or are we moving along in District Branch of Carnegie Library of our self-widening groove serving only as a Pittsburgh told of the activities there. social agency for our supporters?" Recalling In February, it was Pittsburgh Association's the fundamental principles of the Council, great pleasire to welcome the Cleveland "to coordinate our local sources of information, to promote our divisional interests and to Chapter to Pittsburgh, to reciprocate, in SO far as possible, the very enjoyable time had encourage helpful cooperation that comes at the joint meeting held last year in Cleveland, through acquaintance," Miss Berriis stated An additional reason for holding the meeting that while she believed it essential for us this month was the fact that, for the first locally to organize as a divisional association, time, the national Executive Board was she believed it "just as necessary that we meeting in Pittsburgh, and MISS Margaret unite to support our parent or general Reynolds had promised to address the joint association." gathering. An informal ten was given on Sun- Mr. Rigling, the incoming Chairman, on day, Feb. 22, for the members of the national behalf of the Council, paid tribute to Miss Executive Board and other guests. On Monday Bemis, the retirmg Chairman, for steering there was an informal luncheon at the Hotel the Council's affairs so pleasantly and Schenley followed by visits to some of the profitably through the past two years. libraries, and in the evening the joint dinner HELENM. RANKIN, meeting at the Rittenhouse Hotel. A number Secretary of membera of the Pittsburgh Library Club and other librarians not affiliated with the Pittsburgh Chapter Pittsburgh Chapter, attended the dinner. Mrs. Blanche K. S. Wappat, formerly Librarian Sociability was the keynote of Pittsburgh of Carnegie Institute of Technology, was Chapter's 1930-31 program. Besides the toastmistress. Mjss Margaret Reynolds gave four regular sessions, there were special a book talk on "Librarian's Lure." Ralph dinner meetmgs, a tea, five bridge parties, Munn, Director of Carnegie Library of and the annual bridge luncheon. In addition, Pittsburgh, epoke on inter-library codpera- several executive committee meetings began tion. Harold J. Rose, Director of General with business and concluded with bridge. Laboratories, Koppers Research Corporation, Jul~-~u@, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 271 gave an illustrated talk on "Coal, the Cinderella The outstanding piece of work completed of the Chemical Industry." during the year was the Preliminary Union The April meeting was held in the library of Liat of Periodicals in the Libraries of the the Aluminum Company of America, New San Francisco Bay Region (exclusive of the Kensington, Pa. A tour of the beautiful in the two university libraries and their building was followed by a business meeting branches, already recorded in the Gregory and the annual election of officers, at which List), a publication of over 100 pages. This the present officers were elected. project, under way for aeveral years, was brought to a auccessful conclusion by Isakl For the annual bridge luncheon, yhich usually concludes the Pittsburgh program, H. Jackson and her committees. The Pacific Gas & Electric Company generously members were invited to the home of the contributed the paper, mimeographing and President in May. An unusually chilly day binding. The company's librarian, Mrs. changed the plans from a garden party to an indoor affair but everyone voted the party Agnes G. Reinero, was named chairman of a new committee for the object of keeping most successful. the list up to the minute. The card file has The special work of the Pittsburgh Chapter been placed at the California State Chamber for the year included the preliminary steps of Commerce, where Mrs. Amy M. Caya, re- toward revision of the Union Liat of Periodicals search librarian, will be custodian and answer compiled in 1926 by Miss Mary M. Lynch requests for information. The committee of the Pittsburgh Academy of Medicine, and is planning to issue supplements from time to Miss Henrietta Kornhauser of the Mellon time. Institute Library. Three questionnaires were sent out by the President of Pittsburgh The publication of the Union List was made Chapter, the first to ascertain the hobbies the occasion of preparing to issue shortly a and special interest of our members; the second circular letter to a list of 100 firms and or- asking for a complete bibliography of the ganizations in the city selected by the pub- publications of Pittsburgh members; and the licity committee for the purpose of broadening third requesting complete information on the our field of influence and seeking to make the size and scope of the various special libraries business and professional sections of the of this district, to be used as the basis of a community more special-library conscious. book on Pittsburgh libraries. Replies to the The activities of the committee got off to a last questionnaire are atill incomplete, and a good start in October at the regular meeting follow-up letter will probably be sent out at the Women's City Club, with a talk by later, as it is thought the publication of euch Shirley Walker, of the Walker Advertising a book will be helpful both to librarians Agency, who entered with enthusiasm into and to the public. the committee's plans by offering specific JESSIE CALLAN, advice and suggest~onson the various projects President under consideration. Another of the publicity committee's activities was codperation with the officers San Francisco Association of the Special Libraries Section of the California The activities of the San Franc~scoChapter Library Association, who for the year were during the past year sere notably affected Isabel H. Jackson, President, and Margaret by the stimulat~onresulting from the pleasant M. Miller, Secretary, both members of the experience of being host to the annual con- local chapter. Ever since the inception of vention of the national Association the the Section, about four years ago, it hnd been preceding June. The personal acquaint- the aim of the founders to provide in this anceship~ and the official contacts made way for an annual meeting of all the special with our Eastern and Southern colleagues librarians in the state. Miss Jackson and at that time, provided not only many enjoyable Miss Miller arranged an interesting brace of memories but also proved an invaluable meetings for Saturday, April 11, at Del Monte incentive to the accomplishment of more preceding the general sessions the following and better professional objectives. One direct week. result to be seen is the intention of four of As the California County Librarians were our local members to attend the coming meeting the same day, a joint dinner was held, Cleveland convention, whereas but one with a program keyed to the topic of special has urrually gone. library service. Mr, R. Jenney, assistant 272 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

rate engineer of the Pacific Gas & Electric Jan. 22-Dinner at Women's City Club. Company in San Francisco, spoke for the Feb. 19- Dinner at Special Diet Laboratory business man; Mrs. Faith Holmes Hyers, of Stanford University Ilospital, followed by director of publicity for the Los Angeles Public visit to Lane Medical Library. Library, Mrs. Alice G. Whitbeck, librarian March 19-Dinner at Maison Paul Grill, of the Contra Costa County Library, and followed by talk on the San Francisco Law Mary A. Taylor, librarian of the Standard Oil Library by Robert C. Owens, librarian, and Company of California in San Francisco, visit to the library in the City Hall. presented the professional aspects of the April 11--Combination meeting with question. There were about 100 present. Special Libraries Section of the California One outcome of the Del Monte meeting Library Association at Del Monte. ,was the proposal to develop our monthly May 21-Dinner at Women's City Club, bulletin into a medium not only for the ex- preceding annual meeting. change of teclmical information, but also Taoms COWLES, for the promotion of interest in our work and President services to outside circles. A section for the exchange of duplicate material has already been added. Southern California Chapter Last yearbefore the convention there was a concerted drive to increase our membership The year 1930-31 in the Special Libraries under the able leadership of W.A. Worthmgton. Association, Southern California Chapter, This year Mr. Worthington has continued his has been one of special achievement, and efforts in the same direction, and withextremely shows steady progress toward the goal which encouraging results. The membership has we set for ourselves at the beginning of the increased fifty-six percent. The report of year, namely, the co6rdmation of committee ihe employnlent co~nmittee chairman, K. activities, so that each and everyone would Dorothy Ferguson, indicates that while we operate toward the one end of making the have about forty registrants on file only three community aware of the Special Libraries were placed during the past year, including Association as a uaeful and active business one new library. organization Perhaps as a matter of record the changes Our Publicity, Union List, Employment, in our constitution and by-laws should be Membership, Exhibitsand Program Committees set down here. In November the addition have all done much to bring thin aasociation of a section enabling affiliation and thus before the public. TheEmployment Committee, legally confirming our de facto status in the under the direction of Miss Faith Smith of the national Association was made, the change Los Angeles Public Library School, undaunted of fiscal year to July-June, with the annual by the business depression and the lack of meeting in May, was adopted in order to new libraries for the unemployed, took thin conform with national practise in the matter; opportunity to circularize and enlighten and the quorum necessary for a legal meeting business houses of the value of special libraries. was changed from two-thirds of the member- The Membership Committee paid special ship to fifteen members. The incumbent attention to following up with formal invita- officers were automatically retained t~llthe tions those who visited our meetings. In this end of the new fiscal year, thus making an manner some new members were acquired. annual report covering wholly their own Mrs. Leidendeker, Vice-president of this administration. Association and Chairman of theProgramCom- Meetings have been held nearly every mlttee, introduced the plan of having each month during the year, and the practice standmg committee in charge of one meeting of having dmner meetings instead of luncheons during the year. Conaequently, we have had has proved highly successful. a diversity of programs, inspected several new Aug. 19-Luncheon at Studio Tearoom, libraries and heard numerous noteworthy for consideration of plans of coming year speakers. Sept. 16-Dinner at El Portal Cafe and visit The meetings have all been preceded by to the museum and library of the California dinners, and the fact that they were very well Academy of Sciences. attended indicates the interest shown by the Nov 18-Dinner in offices of the California members Our first meeting of the year was Region of the U. S. Forest Service in the Ferry held in October at the Los Angeles Public building. Library. Judge May Lahey of the Municipal July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 273

Court of Los Angeles was the speaker. In struction. 011 March 17, we met at the Los Noveniber the meetmg was held at the Angeles County Tuberculosis and Health Southern Cal~fornia Edison Company Ltd. Assoc~ation where we had the pleasure of n'alter G. Blossom of the Edrson Company hearing an illustrated talk by Miss Rama presented an illustrated lecture on the life Bennett on tlie work done with the children in of Thonias A. Edison, gnd the romance of the Summer Schools and Mrs. Ida Spacth, electric poser. The social meeting held at Librarian, told about her unusual library the Barlow Med~cal Library was most publicity methods. In Aptil ne were the appropriate for tlie December meeting. In guests of hIrs. Pauline J. Bullard, Librarian January our meetmg was held at the 1.08 of the California Taxpayers' Xssoc~ation,and Angcles Muscum of I-Iistory, Scicnce arid Harold A. Slone. Director of Research, ex- Art, where Arthur S. iVoodward, Curator of plained how governmental research was cartled History, gave a very interesting talk on the on by the Taxpayers' Associatton. The museum expedition to Gila Valley, Arizona. May meeting Has a purely business affair Guy E, hlarion, lIanager of the Research held at Menlo Manor It IS planr~ed to Department of tlie Chamber of Commerce, have our annual meeting on Jone 17, at the was our host in February. After a d~nner Southern California Telephone Company. served by the Chamber of Commerce, iyayne H. Fisher, President of the IValter H. Fisher Among the more tangible accomplishments Corporation, outlined Lhe work to be done of the year arc the rev~sionof our constitut~on at the Hoover Dam site. A trip taken by and by-laws, and the pr~ntingof the Union hIr Fisher and his party up the Colorado List of Period~calsin Libraries of Southern River In a small power boat, and agam by California. For two years this association airplane, illustrated by his own motion picture has been labormg fa~thfullytoward the con1- camera record proved intensely interesting. A pletion of the Union List, and it is with a great second speaker, Ralph G. Lindstrom, Cornp- deal oi relief as \cell as pride and sat~sfact~on troller of the Q.R.S. Neon Corporat~onLtd., that we now present thls valuable reference gave an inspiring address on the purpoac and tool to the research world. value of the Olympic games, stressing business sportsmanship, and competition between mtlons for excellency rather than for de-

Greetings from the British Association

Too late to be read at the Cleveland con- held at Cheltenham (Gloucestershire) vention the following letter, addressed to Mrs. durmg the seek cornrnencmg August 31st, Brigham, was received from Guy W Keeling, 1331. An attendance of close on one Secretary of the British Library Assoc~ation, thousand delegates is anticipated. 26-27 Bedford Square, London, W.C.1: "With kind regards, "Would you please convey to the Yours sincerely. members of your Association at their Annual Convention next week the cordial greetings of the Library Association, arid at the same time extend to any who may be able to be present a warm invitat~on Miss Claflin has forwarded to Mr. Keeling to participate in the forthcoming Con- the greetings of the Special Libraries Assoc~a- ference of this Association. This is to be tion at the coming Conference in Cheltenham. SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 Reports of Groups Most of the Groups devoted much time during the past year to the verification of their member- ship lists, and to ascertaining actual and potential members. Preparation of material for publica- tion was a major interest. In New York a sub-group of museum librarians was organized and held three meetings for the promotion of acquaintance and professionalinterests. Detailed reports follow:

Civic-Social Croup It has been a pleasure and an honor to The first problem before us during the past serve this Group this year. I thank you all year was to establish a roster of Civic-Social for splendid cooperation and many of you for Group members. With the help of Miss wise counsel and constructive criticism. Constance Beal, Secretary of the Group, such GRACEA. ENGLAND. a working list was compiled. There are 245 Chairman names on it. Two major activities were proposed, one Commercial-Technical Croup by Miss Rankin, who suggested that the Group Durmg 1930-1931 several of the older cooperate with the Social Science Research committees of the Group have taken a well Council in the compilation of a bibliography earned rest. Others have completed projects of source material in criminology. Due to on which the committees have been engaged conditions in no way under our control this for some time. Of new committees appointed, project did not materialize. Miss Hollingsworth two finished their work and others arc still presented a suggestion that we study the engaged in definite tasks. question of distribution of rnun~cipal docu- The EIectrical Engineering Committee (Mrs. ments in cobperation with the Library of Maynard, chairman) has completed its note- Congress. This vexing question seemed to worthy contribution to research, "A Bibliog- merit serious study, and a committee consisting raphy of Bibliographies in Electrical Engineer- of Miss Hollingsworth, Chairman, Miss ing, 1918-1929." There had been reason to Clement, Miss Rankin, Miss Clark, Mr. believe that the National Research Council Sawyer, and Mr. Hyde was appointed. would coOperate in its publication. This This committee has done excellent work and its proved not to be feasible, but due to the co- report constitutes the bas19 for the Fr~day operation of the Massachusetts Institute of afternoon meeting of this Group in Cleveland. Technology and the demand demonstrated Your Chairman feels strongly that we should through the circularization of a pre-publication see that the Groupisrepresented in the nat~onal order form, publication was found to be prac- conference of our cognate organizations, that ticable. we could contribute to the advancement of The Illuminating Bibliography (Miss Green- learning and to our own professional standing wood, chairman) is completed and ils publica- if we plan for exhibits of the work done by tion through the cobperation of the Illumina- representative organnations within our Group tlng Engmeering Society is under consideration. or if merited, by the Group itself. To that end, Mr. Pellett's tremendous project, the Water the Cha~rmansuggests that a standing Com- Transportation Bibliography, has been carried mittee on Exhibits be author~zed. on at the cost of much labor on his part. The In conducting the busmess of the Group appearance of Volume I just before the Cleve- during the year, it has occurred to your land conference 1s a monument to his unceasing Cha~rman that a standing Committee on effort. Activities would prov~dean admirable clearing Completed projects of the younger com- house for new projects, could help to line us mittees are: Trade Directory List for First up with the cognate societies and organizations Purchase (Miss Cleland, chairman.) This and could be of great assistance to your grouped and annotated list of 96 directories executive officerin helping the Group to function selected by experts in this line, was prepared more smoothly and much more effectively. during the year and was submitted for pub- Such a Committee on Activities m~ghtauto- lication in SPECIAL LIBRARIES. Due to matically include the ret~ringcha~rman of the its length, it will appear either as a Supple- Group and the chairman of the Committee on ment or as an Information Bulletin. Exhibits but should otherw~sebe the choice The Comrn~tteeon "Statistics on Cornmodi- of the current Chairman, who should be ties" (Miss McCaskie, chairman) completed Chairman of this committee. the chart showing current sources of statistical July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 275 information in time for publication before the the members of the Group as fundamental Cleveland conference. This chart was first books for the basis of a llew library. A lis~ visualized by W. P. Cutter of the Baker of insurance libraries, brough~up-to-date by Library of the Haward University Graduate the Secretnry of the Group, Miss Laura A. School of Business Admi~iistration, and due Woodward, Librarianof the Maryland Casualty to the cooperation of Harvard University and Company, w~llcon~plcte the pamphlet. Mr. Cutter, his idea was made available for Among the insurance libraries organized or re- development. org-~nizedduring the past year are the libraries The Committee on the Revision of the Bib- of the Aetna Life Insurat~ceCompany of Hart- liography of Special Tools (MISS England. ford, the Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Insur- chairman) has worked on this annotated list ance Company of Stevens Point, WM.,Kemper of the less well-known but intensely useful Insurance of Chicago, and the Western Canada items of current reference work. A tentative Ul~derwriters'Association of Winnipeg. The list has been assembled and the final ed~ting I~braria~isof three of these librar~eshavealready will take place during the summer in prepara- joined Special Libraries Association and the tion for its publication in the fall. Insurance Group. The new members added The Committee on Trade Directories- during the past year make the total member- Annual List, (Miss Barnett, chairman) has ship of the Group 41. had an active year. Due to the cooperation of Individual members of the Group have pro- R.A. Sawyer, chairman of P.A.I.S., a list under duced several valuable contributions to in- the heading "Directories" is printed regularly surance I~terature, Miss Mildred B. Pressman, in P. A. I. S. As a result of the activities of this Librarian of the National Bureau of Casualty committee, in the current cumulative edition and Surety Underwr~ters, has published a for May 1, 1931, one hundred and ninety- "Btbl~ographyof publications OII casualty in- three d~rectoriesare listed. surance and surctysh~p." and her "Fourth Two other committees whose activities as annual index to current Iitcrsture" appeared a yet are tentative are the Comrnittee on Uus- short time ago. D. N. Handy has written two iness Periodical Development and Indexing historical art~cles in the Starrdartl concerning (Miss Pidgeon, cl~airman)and the Committee the Friendly Society of Charleston, South on Trade Directories Standardization, of which Carolina, and he has invest~gateclthe number Mrs. Fuller is chairman. of insurance books available in some of the Since the committee organizat~on was publ~clibraries of New England. changed to some extent during 1930-1931, the M~ELB. SWISRIG, Chairman has endeavored to keep in direct Chairmart touch with the members by mean6 of circular Muleurn Croup lettere. Three have been sent and committee work was carried out as a result of the answers. Owing to its membership, which is scattered The membership list contains more than 150 from San Francisco to Boston, the Museum names. Group has been able to hold but one n~ectinp As Chairman I have appreciated fully the a year. The Comm~tteeappointed last June cordial co6peration and synlpathetic interest to prepare plans for a survey of Art and Science displayed by the many members of the Group. Museum Librnries has been working systemat- MARIANC. MANLEY, ically under the leadership of the Cha~rman, chair ma?^ Miss Susan A. Hutchinson, Librarian of the Brooklyn Museum. Insurance Group As no complete or satisfactory list of libraries The pamphlet about the insurance library or librarians in these ntuseums now exists, it which the Insurance Group started two years has been necessary for the committee to devote ago will be finished this year. D. N. Handy, considerable time to the making of such a list Librarian of the Insurance Library Association Lawrence V. Coleman, Secretary of the of Boston, has prepared the text of the booklet. American Association of Museums, has been He explains the special problems that arise in most helpful in consultalio~~and has gmer- organizing an insurance library, and discusses ously lent the committee his unpublished list the choice of a classification system, sources of of museums. insurance information, and other quest~ons The work of the committee was expected Lo that may come up in the formation and running extend over two years at least. At the Cleve- of an insurance library. The booklet will Iand meeting a tentative list of art and science contain a list of insurance books selected by museums libraries will be submitted and also 276 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931

a list of subjects to be covered by the questton- -the care of the collections, the har~dlingof naire which it 1s proposed to send to these oversize material, the handling of rare books, libraries. manuscripts and maps. At this meeting, the The survey, however brief, will involvi a discussion of some of the problems Bas in- great amount of time and effort, but the terrupted for an adjournment to d~nncr,so committee has been much encouraged through that not much progress was made along practi the support rece~ved from the rJubl~cations cal lines. There were 26 members visiting the Comm~tteeof the Special Libraries Association museums and collections w~ththe group, and and also by the interest in the unclertakmg 18 remained to a very enjoyable dinner at Lhc expressed by thc American Association of Men's Faculty Club. Museums and the American L~braryAssocia- The Chairman would recommend that some tion. of the meetings in the future be devoted solely Miss Nora E Cordmgley, Librarian of Roose- to the consideration of practical problems. velt House Library and Museun~,Ncw York NORAE. CORDINGLEY, City, organued a group of museum Ihrarians Chairnran late in the fall of 1930 A number of ~nleresting Newapapcr Croup meetlngs have been held with a program of important subjccts for discussiort Members of the Group were circularized Accordmg to the latest figures ~eceived,(lie twce during the year, the first tme In an effort. Museum Group has now 51 members. LO lear~~what problems the ind~viduallibrarian ETHELDRHDAUUOT, had which he would like d~scussed at thc Chniri~rau convention. This information was used by the program conmittec i~ formulating the Museum Croup of New' York program. The second letler was mailed giving Heretoforc the museum librarians of New the niembers a copy of the program and urging York Specla1 Libraries Association Here not the value to be gamed by attendancc. organized intoa group. The first rneetmg was In an effort to popularize library methods held on D~L.12, at the library at Kooseveli among newspapers, a series of eight articles by House for the purpose of organmng. Only 10 represeniative newspaper librarians was pub- memhers attended. lished in Bdilor 6r Pablzslrer. These caused A second meeting was held at the American considerable comment among newspapers whose hluseum of Natural M~storyon Feb. 10 Th~s librarians do not belong to the Group. meeting was much more largely attended, about Desp~teeconomic conditions, there was a twenty members being present These two net gain in membership. Five new members meetings were devoted largely to becoming came in and one withdrew. better acquainted with the personnel of the One death occurred during the year. Miss Group. Inasmuch as each museum is so vcry Virginia Hickman, Librarian of the Ci?~cintmli specialized in scope, it was the Chairman's Tirnus-Slar passcd away on July 30, 1930. feeling at the begmning that the ~nuseum She had served as Secretary and V~ce-President librarians would gain most from the mere of Cincinnati Chapter. personal contacts to be made in such a group. Two newspaper librarians entertained iheir At both these first meetings, therefore, enjoy- local chapters. Mr. Kwapil entertained the able social times were held, followed by very Philadelphia Council a1 the Public Ledger pleasant teas, although at the Natural lhstory Building in Philadelphia, and MauriceSyrnotids Museum, a cons~derableamount of tme was entertained the New York Chapter in thc taken up most enjoyably by visiting the New York Daily Newa Building. Miss Frances South Asiatic Hall, the Hall of Ocean Fishes Curt~ss,Assistant L~brarian of the Detroit and of course, the Library. At this meeting, News, was hostess at a Detroit Chapter several nlemhers voiced ihew oplnlon that meetmg, and Cecil M. Betron of the Detroit they would welcome some programs devoted to News Reference Department talked on lilir~g I.' the d~scussio~~of actual prol~len~s.Accordingly, newspaper clippings. In Boston, William a questionnaire was sent out to some of the Alcott of the Boston Globc library was a members, askmg lor their cho~ceof problems speaker at one of the Boslon Chapter meetlngs to be discussed. on newspaper library tools. Mr. Alcott also At the third meeting, therefore, which \\.as spoke on newspaper library work at the Shn- held at Colurnb~aUn~versity, on April 23, the mons College Library School. emphasis of the visits to the various museunla FORDM. PBTTIT, was placed on special proble~ns-for instance Clmirman July-August. 1931 SPECIAL LI BRAR I ES Business Session FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 12,

STENOGRAPI-IIC MINUTES

The meeting convened at nine thirty-five 9. To Mr. Herbert 0. Brigham, retiring o'clock, President Reynolds presidmg Editor, for seven years of unselfish devotion, PRESIDENTREYNOLDS: ?'he nleetlng w~ll to the preparation of SPECIAL LIBRA- please come to order. The first business on the IZIES, the organ of our Assoc~atton,for his program this nlorning IS the presentallor1 of long and arduous attentton to the many the Report of the Committee on IZcsolutions, deta~lsof this work and too, our smcere con- by MISSGlover gratulations to him for the real success he has MISS Aaum G.GLOVER (Boston): AIadilm acliieved in making this magazine of pro- President, may I give tlic report of the IZesolu- fessional and financial profit to us and a recog- tions Comn~~ttce? nued success ill the field of professional publica- "RE IT RESOL IVEU,Uy the Special Libra- tions-all of this with such slight remuneration. rles Association, assen~hledat Cleveland, Ohio, 10. To hirs hlary 1-1. Brigham, retiring in its twenty-third annual conference, that it Secretary, for her unflagging zeal in her pioneer express its sincere and grateful appreciation: wot k of organizing and developing the ofice ot Executive Secretary, and for her loyal co- 1 To the speakers at the general sessions vperation with Llle local associations and and group nleetlngs who have so graciously given of their time and tl~oughtin addressing groups. 11, l'o Miss Margaret Reynolds and the us in such an illspiring manner. members of the Executive Board of 1930-1931 2. To the individual convention officers and for their splendid efforts in aclvancing the comnlittee ~nembers for their long and un- c..luse of Specla1 Libraries Association at the tiring efforts in preparing a most successful and ~ncctingsof the Uoartl, often at nluch personal hospitable convention. sacrifice, ar~d to their employers for their 3. To Mr. L. E. Pierce, Manager, I-lotel generosity in providing this time of their Cleveland, and Mr. L. H. Alguire, Assistant I~brarians. Manager, and their staffs for their excellent 12. To the members ol the Detroit Chapter provisions for our comfort. for the drl~ghtfulplans for our entertainment 4. To Miss Linda A. Eastman, L~brarian, in Detroit." Cleveland Public Library, and her staff for (Signed) Allurn G. GLOVKK,Clmrmuiz their cordial hospitality to our officers during CARRIEMAUDE JOKES the year and for their splend~dcodperation in GERALDINERAMMER the convention arrangements. 5. To Mr. A. C. Young. Chief of the PI~ESIDENTREYNOLDS: At this time I Exhibits Department, Cleveland Public should like to announce that in the Executive Library, for his invaluable assistance in arrang- Board nleeting the recommendatlon was made ing the Publications Exhibit. Lo the membership as a whole that we accept 6. To the Cleveland Chamber of Corn-. the oner made for quarters In New York in the merce, the Women's City Club, the Play Standard Statistics Building. Tli~s,I would House, and to the other Cleveland organlza- say, is the only offer we have had. tions which have so generously offered us their This offer of floor space and storage space, at hosp~tality. the cost of rentals in New York, is wonderful. 7. To the Clrri~liun Sricirce Afonztur for The Standard Statistics Company occupies sending a special representative to this con- seven floors and a little more of that building. vention and to the Clavclund Pre~sfo~ the This is what they olTer us: "Space for an generous space allotted us in the colllnlns of ofice for one person, with the desk and the their papers. necessary equipment near at hand, and part of 8. To Mr. R. R. 13owker and the Lal~rury a thousand square fcet of storage space, going Ju~rrmlstaff for the excellent publicity given way to the ceiling, for the records. It has no Special Libraries Association and many of its shelves in it. It has shelves in the part of it individual menibers in the va~iousissues ol that is used now, but niore shelves could be that magazine. put in. There is a large stock room where 191 278 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 things that are not needed cvery day could be Miss Cavanaugh said: "What I have to stored." offer now is space for an office for one person, We want you to know that the Executive with the desk and the necessary equlpnient Board felt we should like to accept this offer. near at hand, arid part ol a thousand square It is a very generous offer, which it seems to feet of storage spacc, going way to the ceiling, me could only have happened because of the for the records. It has no shelves in it. It has unlim~tetlfaith which the company has in their shelves in the part of it that is used now, but librarian. I doubt if you could have gotten more shelves could be put in. We have a large floor space for us a year ago, at the high rate stock room where things that are not needed of floor space. every day could be stored." At the meeting of the Advisory Councd on MR. WILLI.~~ALCOTT (Boston): May I Tuesday, the members expressed the opinion make an explariation as to why in the Executive that they should like to come to the Board Board I moved that we accept this offer? I meetings. They were assured that they could came to this conference with some questions come to the Board meetings in the future, they in my mind which had been raised by some of would have no voice in the vote at your the members in Boston, as to whether it was a Executive Board, they could be there and Men wise thing to move from a compamtrvely In, and minutes would be sent to them after inexpenswe city like Providence to an ex- each Board meeting. pensive city like New York, but after hearing Those were the two points 1 think that were the discussion in the Executive Board, I felt tliscussed at the Advisory Council meeting, convinced that this was a very generous offer; which you all perhaps are most interested in. and as far as Providence is concerned, I think We have the abridgment of the minutes, as that is a closed I~ook. taken by our expert here, for reference, in In looking about for another place for head- case any of you want to see them. quarters, this was the only offer wc had. The Now what is your pleasure at th~stime? I question the President has raised here, as to just mentioned thesc two points, because this whether any of us are in a position to offer is my report to you from the Adv~soryCouncil space to this Association, I think bri~igsthe meeting. Do you wish to act at this time upon matter very closely to the practical phase. the recommendatio~isof the Board that the I know, as for as my ow11 organimtion offer of quarters in the Standard Statistics is concerned, we couldn't have an inch of Building be accepted? space there. It seems Lo me this was a very AL the Executive Board meeting, Mr. Alcott generous offer. We must have quarlers and asked the privilege of being the one, after the have them irnniediately, d~scussiontook place, to present th~smotron, The further question as to whether, after which I am now repeating to you in part. one year, we inight have to look about for Would you like to make a rnotio~~to accept some other space was also considered. That is the recommendation which the Executive one of the quest~onsI brought to the Executive Board referred to you, that we accept the olTer Board meeting. In the letter rt mentioned one of the Standard Statistics Company for the year. space for our headquarters? PRESIDENTREYNOLDS: Miss Cavanaugh MISS AL~EHTAA. HILLLIAN (Jones & put in the "one ycar" in cave we misbehaved. Laughlin Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh): May Mrss CAVANAUGH:It wasn't that. 1 said I ask what the floor space is? 1 am afraid I was "for at least one ycar," because you never not I~stening. can tell what might happen at the end of a PRESIDENTREYNOLDS: I will read what year. But as far as I know, the oBer is made for Miss Cavanaugh said. Right here I might an indefi~iiLeperiod. say that, of course, we would be expected to PRESIDENTREYNOLDS: That was simply pay for our telephone. This all links up to- a protective measure, you might say. It m't gether. We thought we would have no ditficulty meant to be taken literally, as I understa~idit. in gettmg a desk and a chaw. The desk and MR. ALCOTT: SO it seems a very generous chaw we have in Providence aren't worth offer. And in the absence of anythmg else, it paying the freight 011 Lhem. We all patronize seems the only thing the Board could do is to the people who sell desks and chairs and shelv- heartily recommend the acceptance of that ing. We think we would have no trouble at offer by the Association. all and that they would be only too glad to I would hke to move that the Special Libra- supply us with the few pieces we ~~ced. ries Association accept the generous offer of July-Auguat, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 279 the Standard Statistics Company, and that as I move that the Secretary be requested to soon as conven~entthe headquarters of the send to the active members of the Association Association be removed to the Standard the list of members of the Association for 1930. Statistics Building. The motion was seconded by Miss Marian The motion was seconded by Miss Florence Manley of Newark, New lersey, put to a vote Wagner of New York City. and carried. MISS ALIILRTAA. HILLMAN (Jones & Mrss RUTHG. NICHOLS(Chicago, Illinois): Lauglllin Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh): I The Nominating Committee submits the will make a matching offer in Pittsburgh followmg list of candidates as officers for the PRESIDI~NTREYNOLDS: What is the offer? ycar 1931-1932: Tell us about it. President- MISS HILLMAN:We have in the particular Miss Margaret Reynolds, Librarian, building in which I ant located, just one story First Wisconsin National Bank, below me, possibly 4000 square feet, which Milwaukee, Wisconsin has been used only once, and at that tune for a First Vice-President- few months, by an engrneering staff, which we Mr. Joseph A. Conforti, Ass't. Librarian transfeired again to our plant the first of May Peoples Gas, Light & Coke Company, That space IS not likely to be used for many Chicago, lllmois years, and if that particular space was used Second Vicc-President- there 1s plenty of other ava~lablespace in that Mrs Lou~se1'. Dorn, Librarian, same building, which I feel free to offer you, as Detroit Ed~sonCompany, I asked about this on Tuesday, before I came Detroit, Michigan away to the convention. Treasurer- In case we wanted to bring our headquarters MISSElizabeth 0.Cullen, further to the center of the country, instead Reference Librarian, of leaving them directly In the East, you have Bureau of Railway Ecu~~on~ics, an offer in Pittsburgh. Washington, D. C. MR. ALCOTT. I would l~keto amend my Director for Three Years- motion, to this effect: that the Executive Mr Fred A. Robertson, Librarian Board be authorized to accept the offer of the Hydro Electr~cPower Commission, Standard Stat~st~csCompany for headquarters. Toronto, Ontario, Canada Then it seems to me it would be up to the MR. I-IBRIIERT0 BRIGIIAM(Providence, Board to either accept ~t or reject it. It would R I): I move the rcport of the Nominating put the power to deal wit11 the matter in the Committee be rece~ved. hands of the Executive Board. The motion was seconded by Miss Virginia The amendment was seconded by Miss Savage of Chicago Cullen. VICE-PRPSIDENTCALLAN: Are there further The motion wrth the amendment was put to nominations from the floor? a vote and carried unanimously. MR. THOMAS COWI.ES (San Francisco, PRESIIXNTREYNOLDS: There is I think just California): I wish to nominate Miss Alta B. five minutes remaining, and \4e must dose Claflin as Pres~dent This nonlinat~orl 1s this rneetmg absolutely at ten o'clock, because supported by a petition of ten active members we can't take a minute of Colonel Ayres' Lime. of the Assoc~at~on. In the interim I would like to read some an- The nomination was seconded by MISS nouncenlrtlls. . Eugenia Raymond of Cincinnati. . MR ALCOT~:I might present a matter VICE-PR~SID~~NTC~LLAN: Inasmuch as there that might be disposed of. So far as I can now 1s more than one qominee for the dice of learn, we now havc in the ofice In Prnviclence President, what is your pleasure regarding the many hundreds of the membership list of the voting? Each cantlitlate will have to be voled entire Association, which apparently is so on separately. much "dead horse." I wish that as far as the MR. BRIGTIAM. I would SU~~CSLthat if active members are concerned, a copy of the might be easier and less embarrassing if there list of members of the Association in 1930 might irr a paper ballot. IL would be a nlore suital~le bc sent to every member as a gilt of the way to do it. I, therefore, move thnt a paper Association. It would bc of a little use and ballot be used and that the Chairman appolnt save g~vingit to the junk man in a few months tellers to distribute the ballots and make the or a ycar. announcements That is, for the Pres~dent. 280 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-Auguat, 1931

VICE-PRESIDENTCALLAN: The nominations VICE-PRESIDENTCALLAN: A8 there have have not been closed. Are there any further been no other nominatlons from the floor for nominat~onsfrom the floor? the remaining officers, it will be necessary to MISS DEBORAHMORRIS (Philadelphia): I ask your pleasure as to how you shall vote for move the nominations be closed. the officers in the report of the Nominating The motion was seconded by Miss Gertrude Committee, other than the President. Peterkin of New York City, put to a vote and MR. BRIGHAM: I move that this ballot be carried. for President only, and later we will elect the The motion made by Mr. Rrigham was put other officers to a vote, after being seconded, and carried. The motion was seconded by Miss K. VICE-PRESIDENTCALLAN: It will be neces- Dorothy Ferguson, put to .I vote, and carr~ed. sary to appoint tellers for this ballot. I appoint VICE-PRES~DENTCALLAN: The tellers will MISSSue Wuchter, Miss Els~eVogt, and Miss please distribute the bnliots. Adelaide C. Kight. The Secretary tells me Miss Vogt is an The ballots were distributed. associatc member and not an active member. VICE-PRESIDENTC.\I.L\N. If your dues are It n~llbe necessary to appoint an artlvc not pad th~syex you ale not entitled to a member who is a votlng member, or an institu- vote Those who have two votcs should have tional member. I will appoint Miss Elizabeth two ballots. Taylor. Will the tellers please collect the ballots? MH.BRIGIIAM: WC should ask the associate VICE- RESIDENT CAI.T.AN: \\:bile the votcs members not to sit with the active members, are being counted, as there are no other so there will be no doubt as to who is entitled nominatlons from the floor, what is your to vote. They can sit in the hck of the room. pleasure with regard to voting on-the repolt of VICE-PRESIDENTCALLAN: There are two the Nominating Comn~ittee? classes of members voting- the ~nstitutior~al MR. DRIGAAM:1 would suggest, to expedite membcrs, or the representatives of institutions, matters, that we votc on the nominees as a and active membcrs Will the associa~e whole, and permit the Sccretary to cast one members please w~~hdrawto one corncr of the ballot for thosc nominees, below the office of room? President. I so nlove. I am asked to make the announcement that The motion was seconrled by Mr. Alcott, if the member representing the institutional put to a vote and carr~ecl membership 1s also an actwe member, that VICE-PWBSIIIENTCALLAN: The Secretary means two votes. has cast a ballot for the nominees below the Ma, FREDA. RODRRTSON(Toronto, Ontario). oRicc of President. I would suggest that if any of the niembers In case there are any questions about the present arc not sure whether they arc active Executive Board, we can tell you that Miss members or associate members, they consult Cavanaugh will retire in 1932, Mr. Fletcher in the Secretary. 1933, and Mr. Robertson in 1934. We have a MR. DRI(:BAM: May I make a su~gestion three-ycnr tcrrn. that any institutional member who in any way Since thc vole has been cast for the entire represents the institut~onbe allowed to vote? ticket belo\\, the olfice of President, I declare And I should ~nterpretthe constitutio~iin that those nominees elected. respect ~IIILCliberally. In one or two cases the Librarian 1s not here, but his delegate is here in Will the new officers please rise, so we may his place. I think it is quite proper where he is sec you? paying a large fee, he shoulcl have the right to Thc new officers arose . . vote. VICE-PRESIDENICALLAN: Will YOU please VICE-PRESIDENTc4Ll.A~: For your in- see if tl~ctellers are ready to report? formation I shall read the names presented by Miss Wuchter, will you plcasc give the report thc Nominating Comm~tteeand the nomina- of the tcllets? tions from the floor. MISS SUE M. WLICHTER(Chi~ag0): Sixty Vice-president Callan read the names of the five votes were cast for Alta B. Claflin and candidates. forty for Margaret Reynolds. MR.ALCOTT. May I inquire whether the plan VICE-I'RESIDENTCAIJAN: I declare Alta B. now IS LO vote for the entire ticket or juqt for Claflin President of the Special Libraries the President? Association. July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES Digest of Business Book Reviews Compiled by the Staff of the Business Branch of the Public Library, Newark, N. J. Babeon, R. W. Investment fundamen- the bottom of all such uphcavals, we shall not tals. Harper, 1930. $3.00 succeed in placing an end to the calamities of panics." Bankers Magazine, February 1931, "Th~sbook IS addressed directly to the p. 291. 360 words. average lnvestor in quest of financial indepen- "A study of the causes that led to the great dence D~scussionsinclude the various types inflat~on ol 1929 and its calamitous conse- of investment, such as real estate, bonds, quences." Bankers Monthly, April 1931, mortgages, stocks, investment trusts, etc." p. 251. 52 words. . American Bankers Association Journal, Aprd "His book deals only with men and their 1931, p. 869. 140 words. actions. 'The panics are treated as human "Tlic various sources of financial information events, not as economic developments.' " are described briefly. The Rabson 'continuous Dartnell 1Icferencc Index. 120 words. working plan lor your money' is c.tplained in detad." C S Tippetts American Economic De Forest, C. hi. How old am I financially? Review, March 1931, p. 136. 145 words. American Provident Corporation, 1930. "'The Chapter on Investment Trusts is $3.00. especially timely. There is also a chapter on 'Living ar~dOther Trusts,' \\hicli sets out some "This is the first volunle Lo be sponsored by of the vArlous causes for setting up sudl the Amer~can Provident Soc~ety,a group trusts and methods by ~hichthey niay be set recently organized on a non-profit basis lor up." C. M Frederick. Management Rewe*, the promotion of thrift." American Bankers February 1931, p 64. 600 words. Association Journal, March 1930, p. 882. 162 words. Beard, C. A. The American leviathan. "It gives tables by means of nhicli the reader Macmillan, 1930. $5.00 can easily ascertain his financial age, and by "Hischapter on theextent to which American adhering to which he may maintain any ol business has compelled the Federal Govern- three suggested reserves, minimum, middling ment to get into, rather than out of, business, or master." Bankers Magazine, Augus~1930, will be an eye-opener to ninny business men " p. 290 280 wor(ls. J. Carter. Forbes, January 15. 1931, p. 61. "A book wh~cli \ill help banks in aiding 50 words. customers to establ~sh a properly balanced "Pol~tics, government and technology as financial program." Rankers Monthly, April reflected in the federal system of the United 1931, p 25 1 25 words States with emphasis on the nencr functions created under the pressures of the machine Foster, W. T. and Crrtchings. W. Progress age." Management Review, April 193 1, p 124, and plenty. Eloughton Mlfflln, 1930. 28 aords $2.00. "The authors d~scussLhe influence of sclence " 'The Road to Plenty,' published lor the and macli~neryon our political institutions." Pollak Foundation for Economic Research, System, January 1931, p 50. 50 words consists OF reprmts of newspaper syndicate work." Forbes. December 15, 1930, p 59. Collman, C. A. Our mysterious panics, 215 nords. John Carter 1830-1930. William Morrow and Com- "There 1s one thing that stands out in this pany, 1931. $2.00 cleve~ly comp~led volume arid that IS its "This volume is designed to sliou the power to stimulate d~scussion,to arouse thought similarity between the depression of 1930 and on each of the important subjects presented". those which preceded it, and also the differ- Lefax, December 1930, p. 26. 215 words. ences." American Rankers Association Journal, "The thesis is that excessive thrift is sinful January 1931, p. 636. 112 words. and suicidal, and that ~t leads to depression "The author says that if we are neither and despair. Business thrives on purchasing strong nor wse enough to stem the waste in power." IV~lliamFeather. Nation's Business, accumulating investment capital, which is at January 1931, p. 57. 420 words. 282 SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-A~gunt,1931 "Talks which reveal the Irony of a situation+ ~eynes.J. M. A Treatire on money. where plenty of goods and plenty of consumers ~arcourtBrace, 1930. $8.00. exist, but no way to get the goods to the "In a field which has been perhaps more 1931, 134. consumers." System, February p. extensively cultivated during recent years than 45 words. any other branch of economics, Keynes mys much that is new, much more that is new to bank- James, F. C. Economics of money, those who do not read German, still more to ing and credit. Ronald, 1930. $4.00. those who do not read either German or "The author was apparently equipped with D. H Robertson." C. 0. Hardy. American an understanding of the questions most Economic Review, March 1931, p. 150. 3000 frequently in the minds of students of econom- words. ics, and in th~sway was able to answer them "As it will be regarded as the standard in a minimum of space". American Bankers work on the subject and as it is likely to be the Association Journal, August 1930, p 160. starting point of endless controversy on 98 words. questions of money and banking, every banker "The discussion IS not clear in making a who aants to keep pace with the development distinct1011 between money ancl mere pur- of a subject vital to his o\vn Interests will have chasing power; nor is a sharp distinction made to read the book carefully." Ranker (London), between credit and capital." F. F. Burtchctt. Decemher 1930,p. 3 18. 410 words. American Economic Review, March 1931, "This is really the first publrcation to deal p 155. 840 words. systematically and thoroughly with the theory "Matters of structural detail and legal and facts of representative money as it exists regulation have been omitted in all those cases today in the modern world." Business Briefs, in which they wcre not of importance to an January 1931,p. 315. 105 words. understanding of the economic functions under Kuzneta, S. S. Secular movements in discuss~on." Bankers Magazine, September productlon and prices. Houghton 1930, p. 426 I10 words. Mifflin, 1930. $3.50. "A discussion of our entire financial organiza- tlon with emphasis on the function performed "It studies 'production in the important by the system and on its relatmnship to so- industries of several nations, together with ciety." Bankers Monll~ly, January 1931, the corresponding price changes " G R. p. 53. 22 words. Davies. American Econon~icReview, Decern- "There is an illuminating chapter on 'Bank ber 1930, p 787. 730 words. Crcdrt and Business Fluctuations' which will "Dr. ICuznels analyzes data in a great stand a lot of readrng at this particular time." variety of fields, separating the long-term or F. A. Fall. Credit and Financial Management, secular trend from the cyclic fluctuations by p. 42. 420 words. an application of the Gompertz equations for growth." H. P. Dutton. Factory & Industrial Kelly, F. C. Why you win or lose. Management, June 1930, p. 1369. 185 words. IIouQhton Mlfllin, 1930. $2.00. "It is an exceedingly valual~lecontril~ution to the study of production and price move- "His succcss, he claims, has been due to the ments, one that no student of such movemenls fact that lie has refused to follow the great can afford to overlook. 11 is an indispensable mass of stock market speculators" C. S. reference book for business writers, forecasters Tippetts. American Econotiirc Review, March and statisticians." J. G. Thompson. Manage- 1931, p. 141. 140 words. ment Review, January 1931, p. 27. 920 words "The evaluation of chart-use, the cleterniina- tion of the time element in purchases and Lawrence, J. S. Ranking concentration sales, and the application of actual exprrlences in the United Statea. Rankere Pub- are a few pertinent subjects discussed." R. L. lishing Company. 1930. $5.00. Smitley. Business Briefs, October 1930, p.72. "Mr. Lawrence makes a careful analysis 145 words. of present banking trends and criticises the "The volume appears to he equally valuable movement from the standpoint of public when advising what not to do, and why, in policy; safety of operation; and from the stock market speculation, as when advising standpoinl of profits to the individual banks." what to do, and how." Inclustrial Digest, Bankers Monthly, April 1931, p. 250. 120 January 1931, p. 40 250 words. words. July-August, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 283

"As branch and chain banking problems "A wide variety of experiences, offering are being debated with vigor on many platforms practicable plans and suggestions adaptable just now, Mr. Lawrence has picked a psycho to almost every business executive are offered." logical moment for bringing out his ideas on Industrial Digest, April 1931, p. 39. 245 words. banking concentration." F. A. Fall. Credit & Financial Management, February 1931, p.42. Gtewart. B. M. Unemployment benefit8 490 words. in the United States. Induetrial Rela- Forbes, April 15, 1931, p. 6.5. John Carter. tions Couneelore, 1930. $7.00. 230 words. "In the preface it is stated that this book, "Students of banking practicc and practical the first of a series on unen~ployrnentinsurance, bankers will find this book a source of valuable deals with the American beginnings." H. P. information." William Feather. Nation's Dutton. Factory and Industrial Management, Business, April 1931, p. 84. 180 words. March 1931, p. 426. 260 words. "The book is a particularly timely, impartial Schabacker, R. W. Stock market theory and useful contribution to what is probably and practice. B. C. Forbes Publishing the most urgent question of personnel policy Company, 1930. $7.50. at the presenL t~me." H. P. Dutton. Factory "There is an itnrnense amount of appendix and Industrial Management, April 1931, p. material such as the ticker symbols, brokerage 639. 480 words directory and data covering other exchanges " "The work is much more than just adcquatcly R. L. Smitley. Business Briefs, October 1930. accon~plished. It is magn~lice~~llyarranged p. 71. 140 words. and presented. So much so that there is "The author tells how it works, and con- nothing more to be said on the subject, up to ducts a practical 'course' in investment opera- and including the year 1930." E. G. Draper. tions An invaluable book." John Carter. Management Review, March 1931. p. 96. Forbes, August 15, 1930, p. 61. 170 words. ' 560 words. "His work is an up-to-date encyclopedia "This volume embodies the results of an and seems about as complete on all aspects of extensive survey conducted by the Industrial organized stock markets as it would be poss~ble Relations Counselors, Incorporated." Nation's to include in a single volun~e" Industrial Business, March 193 1, p. 114. 220 words. Digest, September 1930, p. 19. 330 words. Smith, E. S. Reducing seasonal unemploy- ment. McCraw-Hill, 1931. 53.00. A Little Lesson in Mnemonics "The book gives reports of the various The members of the Special Libraries ways manufacturers have dealt with seasonal Association will probably be thinking-"Oh, irregularities of production and employment." my, the headquarters of the Assoc~aiion are Advertising and Selling, February 18, 1931, changed-what n nuisancel I shall never p. 74. 90 words. remembcr the address." "Instead these business executives set out to Oh ycs, you can It's very simple! search out methods, devise plans and policies Whoever ~hlnks of New York without In merchandising, sales, and production to remembering the mighty Hudson River? bridge over the marked irregularities in pro- HUDSON STREET is only a hlock or two duction and sales." Automotwe Abstracts, from the Hudson River and hence its name. April 1931, p. 122. 60 words. IL'sa3 easy as 1, 2, 3. Only in this case begin "The wide variety of experiences reported in with 3-3, 4, 5. the attainment cf more level sales, product~on, 345 Hudson Street. and employment, offer to almost every business 3-315. executive pract~cal plans and suggestions S. L. A. is three letters. Begin with adaptable to his own special problem." Dart- And New York City IS three words. Hence: nell Reference Index. 120 words. Specd Libraries Association "Sponsored by a distinguished group of 345 Hudson Street industrialists, Mr. Smith has cot~iitlued and New York City brought down to date the pioneer studies of What could be easier to remember? Herman Feldman, published in 1925 under the title, 'The Regularization of Employment.' " If you have an idea, a suggestion or a H. P. Dutton. Factory and Industrial Manage- criticism-pass it along to Headquarters at ment, April 1931, p. 639. 160 words. SPECIAL LIBRARIES July-August, 1931 Events and Publications

. Rebecca B. Rankin, Department Editor

The Pelican published every month by Aka B. Claflin, Librarian, is responsible for Mutual Benefit L~feInsurance Con~panyhas the semi-monthly Service Bvllelin published devoted its May issue to a List of Books of the by the Library of the Federal Reserve Rank Agency Departnient Library. In addit~onto of Cleveland. It contains a very dependable books on L~feInsurance and Salesmanship list of all the leading articles in current financ~al 'they list titles on Business and General Litera- pertorl~calscarefully d~gcsted ture, followed by suggested reading lists that cover such courses as "Self Orgdn~zat~onand "\Yeekly Business Index" IS recently Development" for Secretaries, Cashiers, and A announced, with Mr George \I' Fogg, College Ofice Workers, for General Agents, etc Park, Maryland as editor and publisher. It *I* indexes fifty-five business period~cals and 'tie Publications Conimittce of Special plans to scrve the business library or Libraries Association reports a very gratifyng business nlan by prov~dmg.I quick indexing acceptance by the public of our recently pub- servlcc and anall tical subject index. lished "FIandl~ook of Commercial and Finan- * * * cial Services." Bankers, econoniists, stat~sti- Cotrrnrerrr ntld Fiaatlce for June 3 contailis cians, college professors, and ot hers haveordered the following reference to the meeting of the copies in grcat numbers. Strangely enough the Special Libraries Assoc~ation at Clevclantl. members of Spec~alI.il~raries Association have "MISS H~ckeyhas frequently in~prcssecl upon failed to show the samc Interest. us the value of membership In tli~sassociation, lrnportant new mformation services are wli~chis in fact one of thc most helpful fm- coming into the field all the time. kvcry tcrnities of our time. It is impressive that on special 11l)rarianshould keep In touch wth then1 so many and such varier1 occasions men have and be sure she is subscribing to those bcst to turn to the special Ihrary. Research, not suited to her needs. Th~sHanclhook clescrtbes only In the scientific but in the business world, 214 important scrvlces, and sho\vs the~rcost would be in a bad way were it not for the and frequency of pllldicat~on The price is only co~~stantuse of the special library. We send $1.50 to members. to these skilled administrators our felicitations *** on this gathering." From the Preface of "Roosevelt" 11y LYalter F. McCaleb we quote: "Mention must also The financial libraries may not have had be madc of the Rooscvelt llouse Library and their atteritioli called to a good work~ngtool Museum, at 28 East 20 Street, Net\ York City, "The Federal Reserve Bankmg System-A It is all that ~t purports to be There is the Bibliography" by Pearl hi. Day. It is published room \\here ICoosevelt was born, just as it \\as in the New York Public L~braryB~tllrlirr, June in 1858; and there 1s .i great library. Thc and July 1931. This list supplements a former neaspaper files are particularly Important 1 one prmted in the Bltlletitb of January to April used thcni freely for the P.lnama period, hIy 1928. thanks are due to Nora E. Cordingley, Librar- *** inn, for courtesies hliss Linda A Eastman, The great demand for trained l~brarians Librarian of The Cleveland Public L~brary,and throughout the Un~tedStates has resulted In her associates have my tribu~e for the~r an increase in the number of Summer courses kindness." offered to those who wish to meet the require- **$ ments, MISS S. U'. Vouglit, Libmtian of the Miss Mildred A. Burke, Di~ector of the Federal Office of Education, stated orally Ch~cago Trhune Research Department and July 20. It is expected that since so many Library, is responsible for a splenclicl ptcce of States have adopted standards rcquirmg the puhl~city. It is a folded leaflet of six pages serwces of a trained librarian, there will be a descriptive of the library and ~tsresources large group pursumg these studies durmg the ant1 is ~ntcndetlprimarily for the Tribune staff. Summer. July-Auguat, 1931 SPECIAL LIBRARIES 285 K. Dorothy Ferguson, librarian of the Bank prepated an exhibit of publications and photo- of America at San Francisco is also a lecturer graphs lia\mg to do ~riththe Vail L~brary,for on Business Libraries at tlie University of Cali- deposit in the Ford ~nuseunl at Dcarboln, fornia School of Librarianship at Berkeley for hlich~gan."

1931-1932. I** *=* On May 13 Miss hlatilda M. Light died, after Miss Katherme Dawley of the Cataloguing an illness of several weeks. Miss Light was Department of the Univers~tyof Chicago has first employed in the Dayton, Ohio, Public recently joined the staff of the Museum of Library and in 1905 she became head cataloger Science and Industry, founded by Julius in that I~bra~yIn April 1920 she accepted a Rosenwald and teniporarily located at 1525 pos~tion in the Catalog Department of the East 53 Street, Chicago. Ncxt spring the Engineering Socwtics Library, New York City. museum u~llhe locatctl In the remodeled Fine where she served with cl~stir~ctionu,.:il her Arts Building in Jackson Park illness, hlarch 1931. IIer loss \\as keenly felt *** by all the members of the staff. Marie-Anne Walker, Lil~rarian of the New York Ttmes contributes a descriptive artdc of The library of the U. S. Dcpmtment of that library to Tkr~Lillie Times Commerce has recently compiled a mlmeo- graphed list of the fore~gn and domcstic bank publications is-uecl periodic;llly through- In the Report of the Librarian, \\'illiam N. out tlie world. 11 seems unnecessary to mcn- Seaver of the Massachusetts Inst~tuie of tion how irnportanl this compilation is or how Technologywefincl th~ssiaternent:"hlrs, hlay- valuable. Tlic arrangement is nlpl~abetically nard, Vail Librarian, served as chairman of the by coontry and then by the name or the bank NominatingCo~r~m~tteeof the above-mentioned issuing the pulAication. Information 1s also association. She also continued as cha~rn~an glvcn as to \vhere located in the country a.~d of the Electrical Engineering Comm~ttceof the frequency of pul~licaiion. National Special Libraries Association, in which capacity she has heen preparing for early publication a list of 'Recently pul~lish I Eleanor Icerr, consultjng statislician, for- bibliographies in electrical engineering, 1918- merly a special I~brarian,isco-nutl~or wit11 two 1929.' In connection with a course in b~hliog- other investment speci;tl~slsof "Effect of the raphy and the history of printing which she Russian Develop~nent on hnericn~~Securities," took at Radcliffe College during the year she clai~netl to bc the first conclusive statistical prepared in manuscript an annotated bibliog- survey shoaing the changing cond~tionsIn that raphy on 'The Forerunners and Followers of country tluc to tlie 5-year plan. Ti is poldished Will~an~Gilbert.' At the request of the .4meri- by the Financial Publishing Cornpany, 5 can Telephone and Telegraph Company, she Newl~ur!~Street, Boston, Mass.

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