| | 1 | Author: | Clemons
Harry
1879-1968 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The A.L.A. in Siberia  | | | | Published: | 2007 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | . . . Perhaps I had better begin epistolary communication
by certain commentaries on the cablegrams. Yesterday and today I have found four new places where
books have been distributed. The largest collection was of
300 volumes, shelved in a Y. M. C. A. hut and canteen.
There were just sixteen books on the shelves, the others being
in circulation! The cards had been used in this case, and
I found that the cards recorded an average use of fully ten
loans per volume. The men were reading everything in
sight. At the beginning of this week I seemed at a loss how to
proceed. However, I learned at the office of the Chief of
Staff that a letter had recently been received there from
Miss Mary Polk of Manila stating that a dozen or so boxes
of books and periodicals had been sent by transport from the
Philippines. So I started after these, ran into a mesh of red
tape, and after some patient unwinding—during which I received
most courteous treatment—I reached the following
results—which make up my report for the week:— I have finished unpacking the boxes of periodicals which I
reported last week. The periodicals have been sorted and I
have now begun the more interesting work of making up
sets to send out. Already twenty-eight sets have been made up
for seventeen places. Some have been distributed, but thirteen
mail sacks are ready for tomorrow. I hope to be able to
send sets to all the detachments, large and small, of this expedition
during the coming week—Christmas week. Thus do
we introduce the short-story into the long Siberian night. On December 24th, I cabled to you: "For sending money
Vladivostok branch Hongkong Shanghai Bank available." There was a violent storm here on New Year's Day, and
. . . consequently what is officially known as "transportation"
has been interfered with. Herewith acknowledge receipt of parcel of magazines received
from you today. In thanking you for this shipment
I would like to express my personal appreciation for the very
good work done by the American Library Association in all
the posts that I have seen in Siberia. There has just come by post from Miss Mary Polk, of
Manila, a very welcome collection of supplies and information.
I have been particularly eager to get printed or other matter
about the working of the Camp Libraries in the States and
overseas. . . . Yesterday I received by registered post from "The One Hundredth
Bank, Ltd.," Tokyo, Japan, the following letter, under
date of January eighth: . . . "We beg to enclose herewith a cheque payable at the
Matsuda Bank for yen 3,720.93, being the equivalent of $2,000
at $53¾. This past week has been a fairly busy one. Now that I
am able to get really to work with real cases of real A. L. A.
books, perhaps you will not have to wade through such
lengthy screeds from me. . . . Last week I reported to you
the details of the quest of seven cases of books, which had
gone to the Y. M. C. A. All the difficulties which had not
previously arisen in that quest emerged this week. However,
I got the cases on Thursday. . . . One of the seven
cases was short about twenty or twenty-five books. I judge
that the case had been opened en route. I have written to the
Director of the Y. M. C. A. in Vladivostok for any possible
clue about the missing volumes. . . . The use of the little Clearing House and Reference
Library has increased beyond my expectations. And the cases
which I have been able to distribute from the twenty-one
received (three of which were sent out by the Y. M. C. A.)
have only whetted the appetite for more. I shall be grievously
disappointed if the next transport—due in about a
week—does not bring a number of cases. On February 4th, I received the following cable message:
. . . "Shall we subscribe magazines continue book shipments
how many." . . . Now I have both letters and books. In quantity too.
. . . Your words, "Your plan of action seems the only wise
one," gave me immense relief. I have felt the aim of the
American Library Association War Service. That explains
my coming to Siberia. But I was anxious lest my lack of any
experience in camp library methods should make my efforts
appear futile to you from the very start. I have taken the opportunity to go over your letter of
January ninth and the two sets of circular instructions more
carefully. . . . As yet I have not discovered an answer to my
question concerning the ultimate disposal of books. . . . Next
as regards the shipment of books from Manila and from San
Francisco. . . . When I arrived in December, of the fifty-five
cases, twenty-four were in the Quartermaster's warehouse,
having arrived but a short time before. The others
had apparently been disposed of among the forces by the
Quartermaster's Department. One of the twenty-four cases
was addressed to a regiment with headquarters at Habarovsk,
and I sent this on without opening. Of the others all but
five or six contained periodicals. These I distributed as I
have previously reported. Two boxes of good books I turned
over to the Colonel in command at the American Base, for
his regimental library—a very successful institution. There
were two huge boxes of books, many of them old and worn
and worm-eaten and all having two or three club labels pasted
on the covers. I repacked ten smaller boxes from these and
sent them to various places—a hospital, isolated stations, and
so on. Several hundred of these remain. I have permitted
them to be taken as gifts and have continued to distribute
them myself as opportunity offered—when a new ward was
opened in a nearby hospital, when a "troupe" of soldiers went
off to perform at various detachments, when a Red Cross guard
went to Omsk, when I learned of a handful of signal corps men
at a point on the railway. About a hundred and fifty newer
books I kept until I received some cards and pockets from
Miss Polk—for I found none of the books in the cases
equipped with cards and pockets—and with this hundred
and fifty I was able to effect the beginnings of an exchange of
A. L. A. books which had previously been distributed. This
exchange affected five different detachments. Notice has reached me by letter from San Francisco that
on the March transport, the "Thomas," which is due to arrive
this coming week, there are thirty-four cases of books for
me and four for the transport. . . . I shall then have received
one hundred and twenty-two altogether. If twenty more are
sent in response to my recent cablegram, there will be an adequate
supply for this expedition at its present strength. The transport "Thomas" has arrived with A. L. A. cases,
but as these are unloaded by the Quartermaster's Corps,
turned over to the Commanding General, turned back to the
Q. M. C., and turned over to me, it will probably be several
days before my "turn" comes. The thirty-four cases for the A. E. F. Siberia have been
turned over to me. As yet I have not discovered the case of
supplies, but this may possibly be at the bottom of the pile. This week the Chief of Staff went over with me the situation
concerning the withdrawal of the Expedition. . . . The
conference was specifically about the answer, [&c.] The Chief
of Staff finally suggested that periodicals might be ordered
for the permanent units. . . . In case of any withdrawals
the periodicals would, of course, follow these units to their
new location. . . . . . . The three boxes of books containing respectively, 69
71 and 71 volumes, were promptly received and have been
placed in the crew's library of this vessel. I need hardly assure
you that the acquisition of a new collection of books
at this time and place was especially gratifying. Last week I gave you the reasons for making the subscriptions
for periodicals. . . . The colonels . . . have expressed
pleasure at the idea of receiving these periodicals. I enclose
a copy of the signed letter from Colonel Styer. In reply to yours of March 23rd, I beg to say that we will
appreciate very much receiving the periodicals you mention.
If they are addressed to the Headquarters of the Regiment,
the Chaplain will attend to their distribution in case our
companies are scattered in a number of places. . . . This past week I have received your letter of February
twenty-first and two cable messages. . . . This week a box of periodicals sent by the United States
Soldiers' Christian Aid Association, George Breck, Esq., Secretary,
5 Beekman Street, New York City, was turned over
to me for distribution. The periodicals have been distributed
and the gift acknowledged. . . . Up to the present I have repacked, listed, and distributed
eighty-two cases. . . . [To continue] my attempts to
cover the whole Expedition and to make the distribution of
books so far as possible proportional to the strength of the
detachments . . . now means a redistribution of books, and
a redistribution from centers outside of Vladivostok and the
Base—from centers, that is, which are going to be reduced in
strength. Hence, I have been waiting for a fortnight or so,
and shall continue to do so until it becomes clear how the
troops are to be located. . . . . . . By repacking each case of books sent out from the
Clearing House Library (eighty-seven cases have thus far
been so repacked) and retaining a list of the contents, I have
been able to build up collections of books that were largely
free from duplication and that contained a proportion and
type of non-fiction books adapted to the local use—at least
such has been my purpose. It is altogether probable that
in the redistribution of troops the larger collections have been
broken up into smaller collections and repacked for this purpose
in such a way that I have no longer any use for my
lists. The plans for the redistribution of troops have been
carried out rapidly and my appeals to the various centers for
information about the books have thus far brought not a
single response. Of course, where companies have gone out
from the Base at Vladivostok I have been able to handle
the matter as before. But the troops from centers like
Habarovsk have gone from those centers, they are now on the
way, and, though the sectors to be guarded are known, the
actual locations of the entrained troops will depend on the
discovery of suitable barracks by the Commanding Officers;
hence, these ultimate locations are not known even at Head-quarters
in Vladivostok. . . . I have written two short letters containing lists of
books desired by Captain Ward of the Intelligence Department
and by Lieutenant Horgan, the Morale Officer. No cable . . . no message about my relief has been received.
The cable business here is extraordinarily slow and
uncertain. Your message of March fourteenth did not reach
me until the end of the month. . . . The administration of
this Expedition amid huge distances and such means of
communication and transportation is one of the feats of the
war. . . . Chaplain Loughran [appointed my successor] is one of the
four chaplains who arrived a fortnight ago on the transport
"Sherman." He has been assigned to the Base, lives at the
officers' mess where I have been staying, and a simple chapel
room is being made for him in warehouse number three, one
wall of the chapel serving also as a wall of the Base Library.
So his work will be centralized—the feast of reason on one
side and the flow of soul on the other. He is Catholic. Already
he has made a good impression for energy and for
ability to get on with the men. . . . | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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