Free Fiction ?sx - Why Not Free Films ?sx .sx ARE books out of date ?sx Is reading an old-fashioned hobby , like archery ; or a Tory vice , like golf ?sx Some of our great national newspapers seem to think so :sx but the figures are against them .sx My favourite Sundays record that on a previous day 600,000 people attended the Football League matches in England and Wales .sx On a fine Saturday in January ( with Cup Ties ) I made it 800,000 .sx But on every working day in the week 1 million , or more , citizens borrow books from a public library .sx The total figure- for the year , for the United Kingdom- is about 400 million- 7 1/2 million every week .sx Bar " radio , " the book may still be the most popular pleasure :sx and the public library , though a tiny buyer , is much the biggest book-provider in terms of readership .sx In its inception- and for a long time later- it was a great institution .sx Today , I fear , it is merely a large institution .sx It has , like one of those frogs , puffed itself out in the wrong places , and has assumed a shape which is both unnatural and inefficient .sx It is now under fire from three points :sx ( 1 ) its customers , the readers ; ( 2 ) its servants , the librarians ; and ( 3 ) its suppliers , the book-producers , authors and publishers .sx The complaint of its customers- and of conscientious head librarians- is that the public library does not buy enough books .sx The sum expended on the purchase of books is about one quarter of the libraries' total expenditure .sx In 1959 the Roberts committee laid down , as a rough " test of efficiency , " an expenditure of at least 2s .sx per head of the population served .sx ( The Library Association wanted to make it 3s .sx ) Some of the best libraries are well ahead of the 2s .sx mark :sx but in 1960 , out of 559 public libraries in the United Kingdom only 137 hit the two-shillings target .sx The total shortage , I reckon , was about +600,000 .sx The librarians complain that they have to squeeze , almost by prayer , any addition to their " book fund " out of the reluctant councillors .sx The complaint of its staff is that the public library does not pay librarians enough .sx Far back in 1927 the Kenyon committee recommended that " the trained librarian should be paid not less than the trained teacher , and the one profession should not be less attractive than the other .sx " The Roberts committee , in 1959 , said :sx " There was a short period between 1946 and 1955 when this parity was in sight , but recent improvements in teachers' salaries have put them ahead again .sx " ( And now , I see , the teachers are asking for more .sx ) The chief librarian of St Pancras ( a go-ahead library ) writes in his 1958-59 report about " the difficulty of recruiting , and more particularly of retaining , suitable junior staff .sx . We have lost several junior assistants to the teaching profession in recent years .sx " I do not know exactly what the librarians want , but there are 14,000 of them ; and a rise of the order of +100 all round would mean +1,400,000 a year .sx The complaint of authors and publishers is that the public library is not paying the book-producers enough .sx I shall not argue the authors' and publishers' case here :sx but we believe that our demands are just , and are sure that , in one way or another , they will , in the end , prevail .sx They will cost between +1 million and +1,500,000 a year- a very modest addition to " the paltry five million now spent upon books " ( Mr W. Hanley Snape , lecturer in librarianship at Liverpool) .sx NOW , if a public institution , created by Parliament , is failing to satisfy its customers , its servants , and its suppliers :sx and if its paymasters are not sufficiently interested to pay for efficiency , Parliament should sit up and take notice .sx Failing real reform , the public library , of which so many are traditionally proud , will remain in fact an inefficient , unjust and , here and there , discreditable institution , precariously existing on the reluctant doles of local authorities and the abused good will of librarians and book-producers .sx Reform , in fact , is , rather feebly , on the wing .sx The Roberts committee recommended this and that ; the Minister of Education has talked about a Bill ; and now he has appointed two working parties to study some " technical implications of the Roberts report .sx " But that report was vague about the librarians and did not mention the book-producers at all .sx All this , then , is merely fiddling .sx The statesman , at this point , should see the public library as a whole and consider the three demands I have set out together .sx They all mean money- perhaps +4 million a year in all .sx But who is going to provide the money ?sx The Government won't- I have heard the Minister say so .sx ( Why literature should not rank with the fine arts for some assistance I do not know- but there it is .sx ) At the moment the only possible source is the rates .sx Well , +4 million may be a mere flea-bite on the vast body of the ratepayer , who suffers about +500 million a year already .sx But there are new flea-bites everywhere ( the police , for example ) , and every flea-bite hurts .sx Moreover , there are millions of ratepayers who do not use the public library at all , never borrow a book .sx If the ratepayer wants to have a properly conducted public library , he must accept the responsibility .sx But he can easily be relieved .sx There is an enormous untapped source of income , other than the rates , which only Parliament can make available .sx Section 11 of the Public Libraries Act 1892 said that " no charge shall be made ( 1 ) for admission to a public library or ( 2 ) in the case of a lending library , for the use thereof by the inhabitants .sx . " I would not interfere with ( 1)- with free admissions .sx What is done and enjoyed on the premises- the proper functions of a library- should remain perfectly free .sx But the vast modern book distribution- the 400 million loans 6per annum- never imagined by the founders , or Parliament- should now be made revenue-producing .sx I- and my committee of authors and publishers- would give each local authority the option of " charging the borrower .sx " High-minded authorities could stick to the rates , if they liked ; all could excuse old age pensioners , or whom they wished .sx The average borrower takes out 30 books a year- but in the Metropolitan boroughs the average is 40 ( St Pancras 45 , and Finsbury 55) .sx Twopence a book ( on 400 million " lending " ) would gross , in theory , +3,300,000 a year .sx Threepence a book ( some of the little tobacconist-libraries charge 4d .sx ) would yield +5 million .sx Deduct 10 per cent for possible diminution of readers , etc. , and we have +4,500,000- +1,500,000 each for ( a ) purchase of books and general library purposes ; ( b ) increase of staff and salaries ; ( c ) the book-producers .sx Pennies-in-the-slot would be one way to collect .sx But I should prefer a charge of 5s .sx ( or 7s .sx 6d .sx ) on the " ticket " issued to the registered reader at the beginning of the year .sx After paying this modest entrance fee he would be as free as he was before- and could borrow 30 , 50 , 60 books a year without putting his hand in his pocket again .sx Five shillings , I believe , is the average weekly investment in the pools .sx Well , why not ?sx Because , at present , the scotfree library is a sacred cow to which most Members of Parliament , without much thought , bow down .sx But it is out of date and illogical .sx It was designed , a hundred years ago , for the education of " labourer and artisan .sx " It has become a free book-shop for all and sundry .sx At St Pancras 66 per cent of the issues are fiction ; at Shoreditch 68 per cent ; at Stepney 69 per cent ; at Stoke Newington 70 per cent ; at Hackney 76 per cent .sx Well , some " fiction " can educate , especially mine :sx but so can some films .sx Why not free films ?sx The sacred cow has been betrayed already .sx The Roberts report recommends that charges should be permitted for " admission to meetings and other functions , " for " retention " of books , and for " notifications .sx " The Holborn library in 1958-59 charged " reservation fees " of 4d .sx to 22,301 readers .sx The Westminster library netted +8,991 from " library receipts " ( fines , catalogues , ) .sx You have to pay for municipal concerts and plays .sx Why should borrowed novels- or any other books- be free ?sx Anyone who objects " on principle " to charging the borrower must stop complaining about a charge on the rates .sx For , one way or another , these reforms must come ; and there is no good reason why authors and librarians should be butchered to make a public library .sx Here , at least , is a practical , constructive line of thought ; and no minister , librarian or councillor has offered any other .sx LATIN AMERICAN FUTURE .sx REVOLUTION OF RISING EXPECTATIONS .sx BUFFON , two centuries ago , put forward the theory of the " immaturity " of the New World .sx This theory he based on the absence there of the greater mammals and on the fact that , as he believed himself to have ascertained , animals transplanted from Europe or common to both sides of the Atlantic " without exception " showed in America a falling-off from European standards .sx Whatever its scientific validity , Buffon's theory coincides closely enough with the view of Latin American human affairs generally held in this country and in the United States .sx Anglo-Saxons do not doubt that the twenty Latin American republics are immature ; and they are ever ready to detect fallings-off from the best European political and economic standards .sx It may be that this attitude owes less to Buffon than to persistent underestimation , not to say misrepresentation , of the American empires of Spain and Portugal .sx Yet , after all , the English may find it worth while to remember that Columbus set out on his first voyage when they were barely through with the Wars of the Roses .sx Corte@2s was busy subduing the Aztecs a year before the Field of the Cloth of Gold .sx Considerable churches , with services fully supported by choir and organ , were to be found in Spanish America ( and they stand today ) many years before the sailing of the Mayflower , for before the end of the 16th century there were 200,000 Spaniards ( to say nothing of the many Portuguese ) established in the New World .sx Yet , much more than the chance that the Spaniards arrived first , the fact that they had come with different motives and a different concept of settlement was to have results that are still working themselves out in the Latin America of today .sx Spain , if not Portugal in Brazil , certainly did not conquer and occupy America from California to Cape Horn in a fit of absence of mind .sx Once the Spaniards had digested the fact of Columbus's original miscalculation , they set about the subjugation and occupation of their new territories with care and method .sx In contrast with the later Anglo-Saxon settlers farther north , the conquistadores were animated both by a desire for wealth and a zeal for the propagation of their faith ; and their empire-building was on something of the pattern set by the Romans .sx Each expedition usually set out only after it had been officially sanctioned .sx Each new colony was founded with due deliberation and ceremony , and was eventually incorporated in a system of kingdoms , all of equal status in their relation to the Spanish crown .sx It followed that Spain should seek to govern America as Spain itself was governed .sx Yet , being bereft equally of any religious or intellectual tolerance , of the spirit of compromise , and of any conception of government as the art of teaching men to govern themselves , Spain was not in a position to transplant these qualities to the New World .sx In the economic sphere no less than in the political , the Spaniards regarded their American lands as part of Spain itself .sx They utilised and spread through Europe the precious metals and other products of the Americas , just as if these derived from Castile or Andalusia .sx Similarly , they insisted that their American possessions , no less than the Spanish home provinces , should supply their needs from or through Spanish sources .sx Here , in these parallel political and economic attitudes , lay the reasons why Spain strove to preserve the frontiers of Spanish America inviolate from foreign penetration as if they were Spain's own .sx