WISCONSIN'S PACKAGE LIBRARIES
Orvd, Mary Burchard
Wisconsin's Package Libraries BY MARY BURCHARD OKVK —Courtesy The Independent. THE UNIVERSITY of Wisconsin employs many unique methods of educating the people of the whole State, but none is more...
...Los Angeles, with her municipal newspaper, seems to be demonstrating how a similar institution can aid in the formation of public opinion...
...That is what the University of Wisconsin is attempting with great success...
...THE UNIVERSITY of Wisconsin employs many unique methods of educating the people of the whole State, but none is more effective than the little "package, library," "whose sole mission is the assistance of organizations and individuals that are engaged in the study and discussion of important public problems...
...Hutchin's dream...
...in response to any request from within the State, whether the petitioner be the district school pupil or the president of the Milwaukee Civic Association...
...a demand which one State cannot possibly attempt to supply, however willing...
...Discussing Dive Subjects THE TEN iibraries receiving the most calls during 1911 and 1912 are very significant of the trend of public interest: NUMBER SUBJECT...
...The municipal newspaper prints side by side the arguments on a given question...
...Hutchins—Teacher and Friend WHEN I said that package libraries were sent on any subject, I should have qualified it...
...Farmer Jones, Inclined to pouf any "new fangled thing," learns to look facts in the face and to discuss, according to facts, parcels post and good roads...
...31 Capita] Punishment...
...The debating bulletin invariably gives arguments and references for the affirmative and the negative, and if no arguments can be found on a given side, the attention of the public is called to the fact that the subject is new, and the opposition, or support, not yet developed...
...LENT...
...Certainly only a wide-awake people care to discuss subjects demanding any such amount of preparation...
...The "package library" does the same sort of thing, only instead of reaching individual readers, it deals primarily with GROUPS, its function being the promoting of public discussion and debate...
...If women are to vote, after centuries of silence, they must first discuss intelligently at their clubs and thimble parties...
...prints them without censorship, except as to facts easily proved...
...57 Immigration—Restriction...
...Wisconsin has pointed it out and has indicated how its ideal of promoting the enlightened discussion of public matters can be attained...
...commission government because the same Legislature passed a very good law...
...It is interesting to note that other States—Oregon, Kansas, Texas and Virginia—are pursuing the Wisconsin method of directing and aiding public discussion...
...From June, 1911, to June, 1.912, there were 2,450 of these little torch-bearers loaned to 313 different, localities, and they covered 684 different subjects', 2,450 groups, not individuals, were made acquainted with the most authoritative literature on important questions, literature chosen from the most reputable sources...
...Its debating bulletins on various important subjects give general, affirmative and negative references and facts, stating issues definitely and clearly...
...Fighting Civic Ignorance TO DWELL upon the need for a definite sort of group education in tois day of intense interest in public affairs, is not necessary...
...104 Commission Government...
...The other reason why Wisconsin wants her libraries imitated is that she needs the co-operation of other States...
...One is that they are sadly overburdened by daily calls from other commonwealths...
...But only Miss Aimere Scott and her assistants engaged in its actual making, can know the difficulties that have to be overcome in order to make limited financial resources do the enormous day's work of sending "by return mail" a judiciously chosen library on any subject under the sun...
...Madison City Library, State Law Library), it is natural that the...
...So, when requests of this sort come, Mr...
...In the early days requests came only too often for material on the most trivial of subjects—material to be used by stalwart youths, who should have been preparing themselves for the solution of the nation's problems...
...A woman wrote from an isolated valley district, wondering if her little club, dying out for lack of stimulation, could obtain material on the subject of child labor, which she had heard is a national problem...
...Above all else, he impresses upon the mind of teacher, pupil, debater or leader of discussion the fact that the material sent ought to be used to search for truth rather than to win a given debate...
...Woman's suffrage, because the last Legislature passed a bill putting it up to the people at the November election...
...Not even the inevitable, enemies of a State university have ever been able to pick a flaw in the management of this delicate work, involving the most careful selection of material to be presented for public discussion and debate...
...29 These are the matters in which the people of Wisconsin are interested, not the people of the University, but the rank and file of citizens, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker...
...The establishment of similar institutions, each preparing and exchanging bulletins with the other, is Mr...
...Practically the first bulletin got out by this department dealt with the organization of debating societies, and gave careful and clear instructions as to parliamentary procedure...
...65 Parcels Post...
...Municipal ownership is another subject in which the people of Victor Berger's State are interested...
...Political questions of the utmost importance are discussed, but never in a partisan way, for the library is composed of the best material on BOTH SIDES...
...14 Recall of Judiciary...
...Who can estimate the influence on the public mind, on the mind of the individual, of such guidance...
...The package library," composed of from two to one hundred articles, is sent out...
...Indeed, so clear was its chart of rules that it has since been printed separately for the use of members of the Legislature, and during sessions you will see it propped up on the desk of many a Wisconsin lawmaker...
...But it was not ever thus...
...That is a letter typical of hundreds received every month from all classes of people...
...If ten neighboring States would prepare bulletins oh different subjects, the influence of each would be enormously increased through the resulting efficiency of covering a few subjects fully...
...Here is a field for the Carnegies of the land...
...A lumberjack writes from the northern woods for a library on the tariff question, and returning it, tells gratefully of the renewed life that has come to his small group through the discovery that there is an organization capable of supplying them with suitable material for discussion...
...On receiving it she sent a pathetic letter of thanks, telling of how she and her friends had tried for years to get help in the study of various educational questions mentioned in their newspapers...
...under which citizens may adopt it...
...When New Hampshire was having a series of suffrage debates, sixteen calls came in four days for Wisconsin "libraries," and at an earlier time whole counties in another State adopted the Wisconsin bulletin on debating as a textbook in their schools...
...It is true that the press has a vast influence in the formation of that very concrete thing called "public opinion" by the believer in the people and "mob mind" by his antagonist, but not all voters read the best papers and magazines, and not all of the best publications print the arguments and facts on both sides of any matter...
...With some of the best library facilities of the World at hand (University of Wisconsin Library, Legislative Reference Library...
...Woman's Suffrage...
...No wonder Wisconsin lawmakers come to the State House well equipped to cope with the problems of the day...
...income tax, because it is being given a practical test in the present assessment...
...I wish to thank you for them (articles sent on the subject of workingmen's compensation), as they proved to be a success, and last evening's meeting was the most enthusiastic meeting we have ever had...
...What a field for the conservation of human energy, this work of leading the young mind into the paths that it must follow, if it is to be of service in the world...
...Since we have only one municipal newspaper and no endowed press, let us make the most of a very potent weapon in the fight against Ignorance of governmental and social problems—the traveling "package library...
...so is that of the closed versus the open shop...
...If we are to have the initiative and referendum, we must inform ourselves on the questions to be so decided...
...Debates innumerable have been headed off by Mr...
...Hutchins, secretary of...
...Thanks to the University of Wisconsin Extension Division for its valuable assistance...
...103 Initiative and Referendum...
...Politics, propaganda," you say...
...the Department of Debating and Public Discus-sion, who frowned on the question, "Resolved, That summer is pieasanter than winter," and its counterpart, "Resolved, That poverty is preferable to riches...
...42 Schools as Social Centers...
...In addition, he often writes "teacher" a word of advice as to how the youthful oratorical impulse may be better directed...
...For the University is not in the business of furnishing material for the discussion of trivial matters...
...above all else, he urges dispassionate discussion, and warns of the pitfalls common to oratory...
...There are no charges except the payment of express one way, and material may be kept three weeks and then renewed...
...Its primary function is to lead the people of the State to the consideration of matters that have some value, either cultural or practical...
...No wonder a legislature composed largely of farmers can pass intelligent laws on primary election, workmen's compen-tion and forestry, when they are in the habit of discussing and hearing their children debate those very subjects in the district school, guided by the State's highest institution of learning...
...So it has had to ask that non-residents pay the cost of the bulletins sent them, and is forced to deny all requests from outside the State for libraries...
...A man from a foundry in the northern part of the State writes...
...Filling Human Wants WHO CAN estimate the value of an institution that teaches people how to discuss vital matters intelligently and dispassionately...
...University should be able, with the additional aid of its experts, to provide the citizen with infinitely better material than is obtainable in his own town...
...Last year they sold bulletins to the citizens of thirty different States...
...217 Taxation—Income Tax...
...And that is just what the Wisconsin people want, for two reasons...
...Obviously there is a natural demand for systematic aid of public discussion...
...Hutchins writes the young (it is to be hoped" it is "young") offender a letter in which he tactfully suggests that perhaps his teacher can help him to find something more suitable for public discussion...
...Who can measure the benefit of friendly discussion under convivial circumstances, such as the gathering of the business men's club...
...By no means...
...If the people are going to rule the people, it is all important that the people study political problems...
...36 Senators—Election of...
...She has shown how, by virtue of freedom from economic pressure, a State can run an efficient department of public discussion...
...The package library, like the Legislative Reference and the Municipal Reference libraries, is bound to be a success if properly managed...
...in vain had they applied to supposed sources of information, until they learned of the University Extension Division, which had "given them new life...
...35 Recall—General...
...Not only is there a complete change in the character of public discussion, but in the manner...
...Yet that is just the sort of thing that the University is encouraging and organizing all over the State of Wisconsin...
...Composed of especially prepared bulletins, carefully chosen magazine articles and newspaper dippings, association and Federal reports, the library is a most useful tool...
Vol. 5 • February 1913 • No. 7
