FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



To give the reader an idea of what can be accomplished in 

 the supplying of a rural population with library service, a 

 brief account will be given of the work of the Brumback 

 Library of Van Wert County, Ohio, which has been called 

 the pioneer county library of the country. In a county of 

 405 square miles, having a population of 29,119, of whom 

 12,825 live in incorporated towns and 16,294 in the open 

 country, this library with 25,000 books distributed, from the 

 central library, sixteen branches and nearly all the rural 

 schools, 98,011 volumes in the year 1915. That is over three 

 books for every resident in the county, a high average even 

 for a city library having a compact constituency. The num- 

 ber of borrowers was 62 per cent of the population. The work 

 at central library was done by six employees, including the 

 janitor, and the total cost to the county for the county-wide 

 service was $8,858.38, which represents less than one-fifth of 

 a mill on a tax duplicate of over $50,000,000 and is 35 cents 

 per capita. 1 



/. Rural Y. M. C. A. and Y. W.C. A. 



Through a period of many years the cities of the country 

 have been establishing Christian Associations for both sexes, 

 and these have greatly increased in number during the past 

 decade. For thousands of young men and women these asso- 

 ciations provide good homes, good board, physical training, 

 social and recreational pleasure, and spiritual and intellectual 

 culture. Thus, they are doing a work the value of which 

 cannot be estimated. They recognize as few other institu- 

 tions do that life is whole and integral, and, without giving 

 undue emphasis to any particular side of one's nature, they 

 plan their work with the view of developing a symmetrical 

 manhood and womanhood. 



Now, just as these two institutions are needed in the cities, 

 so they are needed in the country; and within the past few 

 years wonderful progress has been made in the establishing 



1 See Annual Report of The Brumback Library of Van Wert County 

 for 1915. 



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