ANNEXES

PAPER READ BY MRS. ARTHUR FAWCUS, OF EAST AFRICA, AT THE GROUP DISCUSSION ON "LIBRARY SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS", WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1936

Circulating libraries have existed in Kenya for some years but have been properly organized only since the visit in 1927 of Dr. Keppel, now president of the Carnegie Corporation, and Mr. Bertram (since deceased). They recommended a grant to be made yearly on a declining scale from their funds, and this has been of the greatest benefit.

The Kenya government and the municipality of Nairobi, the capital city, have augmented the grant.

The headquarters of the circulating library were installed in a Nairobi building, the McMillan Library, erected in memory of Sir Northrup McMillan by Lady McMillan, his wife, who is Americanborn. Local branch libraries are now situated in 40 districts and are supplied regularly with books from headquarters. These are given out on a basis of eight volumes for £1 (or $5), with exchanges every three or four months by a system of specially constructed boxes. The outward cost of transport is paid by headquarters; return transport costs are borne by the library or private subscriber concerned. Free transport is often arranged for. A subscription of £20 (or $100) from a branch library gives between 500 and 600 books in a year. Cooperation is arranged with existing libraries, many of which are managed by the East Africa Women's League with local secretaries. Special volumes are procured whenever possible, but expensive works of non-fiction do not exceed 10 percent of the cost of the total consignment supplied.

Of the $40,000 granted by the Carnegie Corporation, in three instalments, over a period of five years, half is used to purchase books. During the last three years 168,690 books have been issued to borrowers. This is a remarkable figure when it is considered that the total European population is only about 17,500, including children.

At the close of 1934, a new postal service to individual borrowers was inaugurated and also the provision of books especially suitable for children and adolescents. The recent development of settlement in the goldfield areas will call for further extensive library provision.

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This public service has been much appreciated by Kenya Colony. Consolidation and improvement is required, but the early and rapid growth of the scheme is most encouraging and is a proof to the Carnegie Corporation that their generous financial aid is really appreciated.

REPORT OF MRS. ARTHUR FAWCUS, OF EAST AFRICA, AT THE GROUP DISCUSSION ON "THE COUNTRY WOMAN AND THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM", FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1936

In Kenya, as elsewhere, conditions for farmers are very difficult, owing to the low price of commodities on the world markets. Therefore the women on the farms endeavor to augment the family budget by the sale of chickens, eggs, preserves of many kinds, cream cheeses, pickles, chutnies, vegetables, tomatoes, and many other things. The marketing problems for such products are various and include distance from a center, climate (in hot weather it is difficult to keep the produce fresh), and (chiefly) the competition of native and Indian sellers.

The guaranty of a high or even standard of cleanliness and quality of the products is the aim of the European women, and we want to educate the consumer to buy only those articles that have this guaranty. For example, lettuces grown by a farm woman in her garden can be eaten without fear of germs, whereas those produced under less clean conditions by the natives and Indians can be very dangerous.

Individual efforts are to be coordinated for the benefit of all and to insure regularity of supply. We consider in Kenya that cooperative or direct marketing is the solution of the country woman's economic problems; and in these days of distress amongst farmers, when the price obtained for cereals often does not cover the cost of production, it makes the greatest difference if some extra money is coming in from the sale of these garden products. Of course the women are busy with their housekeeping, but most of them can find time for some of these sidelines, and it is true that in any country a busy woman is a happy woman.

PAPER READ BY MRS. LISELOTTE KUESSNERGERHARD, OF GERMANY, AT THE GROUP DISCUSSION ON "THE COUNTRY WOMAN AND THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM", FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1936

With the coming of the world economic crisis to all sections of life in the country, the treatment of economic problems became of greater interest even there, where until then other questions, such as education and training, had been in the foreground. Thus economic problems have been discussed at every economic conference which the Associated Country Women of the World has organized since 1930. I, myself, have spoken about marketing, improvements in the methods of sale, and the attempts at rationalization.

Although it was always agreed at the economic conferences of the Associated Country Women of the World that improvement in the general state of agriculture was one of the first conditions in overcoming the crisis, mere economic teaching has not brought about the cure of the disease. The reason for the state of affairs, namely, the dependence of the farm on the uncertainties of sale, remains. When prices: dropped, the farmer and his wife were forced, in order to keep their farms, to raise the production and concentrate on those commodities: which were not too expensive to grow and which seemed most salable in the future.

As all farmers did much the same, this resulted, after the changeover on the farm, in over-production and its only too well-known consequences, that of difficulties of sale and quite unprofitable prices. This explains why the production of many commodities, in spite of constantly falling prices, still proceeded to rise. This was the case in many countries, and also in Germany before the coming of national Socialism.

In the process of this development production finally reached the stage elsewhere in the world, where it was found necessary to destroy large quantities of foodstuffs. In 1933 immense quantities of grain, rice, coffee, sugar, and tinned meat were either burnt or thrown into the sea to prevent a further sinking of prices, or because no market could be found for them. In the same year roughly two and one-half million people died of starvation, and a million others took their lives owing to economic distress.

As in other countries, so also in Germany the proceeds of agriculture went steadily back, in spite of increased production. The proceeds of sales, which in the year 1928-29 had still amounted to 10.2 milliards of marks, dropped to 6.4 milliards in 1932-33.

It thus came about that the farmer's family, and in particular the country woman, owing to the increased obligations of the farm to the market, were gradually withdrawn from their own interests and family

duties to concentrate on the production and sale of their commodities, an immense new duty for the already overworked country woman.

The new German agrarian policy is trying to cure these ills, by strengthening and securing the position of agriculture as a whole. The fundamental idea underlying all our schemes is that the era of free unhampered action by the individual, without any consideration for the state or the nation, belongs to the past. While the great boom, which started at the beginning of the last century, lasted in the world, when new and increasing demands of all kinds had to be met, a serious injury through the separate action of individuals was not noticed. The rapidly growing population with its rising incomes could absorb all that was produced. As soon as the high-water mark of sufficiency had been reached, however, in the first one and finally in all spheres of enterprise, greater disturbances became noticeable. This process received a greater impetus through the immense effort made by all countries, through political-economic channels during the war, when the general speeding-up of production showed up as overproduction when the war came to an end. Under the pressure of economic disturbances a number of countries have curtailed the production of various commodities, without, however, organizing individual action.

Germany on the other hand has constituted a general order in place of the unrestricted action, by joining together the individuals into bodies to enable their economic activities to be the general good, while retaining their individual initiative. These bodies embrace all those connected with each particular economic group, producer, tradeconsumer, and distributor. The linking of these bodies forms the Reichsnahrstand, whose work it is to care equally for the economic, technical, and human needs of its members. The execution of these duties lies in the hands of the three main departments of the Reichsnahrstand, i. e.: Department 3, The Market; Department 2, The Farm; Department 1, The Human Side.

The linking together of these into the Reichsnahrstand is arranged in the same way and with the same aims in view as the linking of the separate units. Every member of the Reichsnahrstand works within the plan of the organization to their full capacity. In this way it is impossible for one group to dominate another, as was formerly the case. Thus all members together form, as it were, one large farm-Germanyin which all branches of activity are organized to fit in with the others, producing centralization of power and resulting in the greatest degree of efficiency.

The organizing of the Reichsnahrstand, through the law passed in September 1933, formed the foundation for the drawing-up of the production and marketing rules after the existence of the separate

farms had been insured and safeguarded through the law governing hereditary farms.

The marketing order means: first, finding a quicker and cheaper way from the producer to the consumer wherever necessary, through the organizing of distribution; and, secondly, the fixing of steady and staple prices which cover the cost of production, without laying too great a burden on the consumer.

In the meantime, the marketing order has been applied to all commodities coming within the range of the Reichsnahrstand, whereby fundamentally the same form and the same means are adopted. According to the necessities of the different commodities, the marketregulating measures vary slightly while always keeping within the ideas of the organization.

Some of the most important methods of work are:

1. The division of the country into collecting areas, the center of which are collecting centers. This applies to milk, meat, eggs, poultry, and vegetables.

2. The enforced rule that all surplus of either milk or eggs in the good seasons has to be sold to the storage centers to avoid a fluctuation in prices between the good and the bad seasons. The same has been organized for vegetables and all garden products.

3. The regulation of all food imports through the appropriate centers of the Reich, with a view to the season as well as to the demands within the country.

It is obvious that only through the help of the inner marketing order did it become possible to receive exact information concerning the supply and demand of certain commodities. By the proper seasonable reduction of imports corresponding with the demands inside the country, it has further become possible to import these commodities without imposing high tariffs, and in this way affecting the foreign producer.

Such an order of things is naturally of far greater value to the foreign producer than the reverse, when they are only able to insure a fairly steady market for their goods by having to submit to heavy tariffs and resulting reduction of their prices at the source. From this it is also clear what a great value the marketing order has for foreign national economy.

For the German peasant and his wife the marketing order has this advantage: He knows that he can sell his products, he knows to whom he can sell his products, and he knows what prices he can get.

Through this the great anxiety has been removed which was felt so much formerly, that of fluctuating prices and unsteady markets, a state of affairs, as already mentioned, which often affected the working of the farm one-sidedly. It is now not the prices or the demands of