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1Author:  Clemons Harry 1879-1968Requires 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. . . .
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