One great source of patriotic inspiration for our American born Lithuanians has yet to be tapped. This source is Lithuanian literature, and by this we mean the scores of romantic and historical novels, biographies, histories, technical books and collections of essays and poetry being published every year in Lithuania. When we remember that the renaissance of Lithuanianism fifty years ago was largely, almost exclusively, brought 2 about by what has now become our Classical Lithuanian literature, we cannot conceive of the preservation of that Lithuanianism among our people in this country without a closer contact with contemporary Lithuanian literature.

A nation without its literature is doomed. The same fate awaits that part of a nation which is denied easy access to its own literature.

In publishing house store-rooms, in Lithuania, thousands of books are mildewing because there is no market for them. And yet one of the greatest potential markets for these books - America - has been allowed to go undeveloped.

However, it will not be an easy task to correct this condition and make us Lithuanian book conscious. It will take more than a few advertisements to budge the great body of American Lithuanian youth out of its indifference 4 to everything that is Lithuanian, particularly Lithuanian literature. It will necessitate a concerted campaign of advertising, publicity, and a wide spread distribution of books to begin to accomplish this. We must begin sometime, and the sooner the better. We read with a great deal of interest of the arrangement recently made between various Lithuanian publishers and Marianopolis College, in Lithuania, to make this American Lithuanian institution a distributing center for 5 Lithuanian books. This is a step in the right direction, and we heartily commend the authorities of Marianopolis for it. And yet such an arrangement in itself is by no means the solution of our problem. It will do little good if there is no attendant publicity. We cannot expect our people to discover for themselves that there are Lithuanian books for sale, and then flock to buy them. A mere occasional listing of the books received will not help much either.

Parenthetically, we would like to express our strong disapproval of the selfish attitude displayed by most of our Lithuanian newspapers in this 6 regard. For years Lithuanian publishers have been sending scores of new books every year to our newspapers. They have been doing this at great expense in the hope that, in return for these free books, they will be read and reviewed and given some publicity in American Lithuanian newspaper columns. Yet we can count, on the fingers of one hand, the reviews of Lithuanian books that we have seen in our half dozen or so newspapers in the past five years.

The best form of publicity for books is reviewing. Nothing can arouse so 7 much interest in a book as a critical opinion of it.

Reviews of Lithuanian books are particularly needed in America to dispel the wrong impression most of us have about Lithuanian literature. Most of us associate the literature of our nation exclusively with the sugary "mother and child" stories and the cut and dried "they lived happily ever after" types, and goody-good characters. These all have their uses and their spheres of influence, but too much of anything can become boresome.

A balanced reading diet is what we all need. Reviews can bring out the fact that Lithuanian literature follows the general trend of literature the world over.

Merely as an illustration, not as a commendation, we have even observed that several Lithuanian romances, published in recent years, have been almost too realistic for American appetites.

But, before we can create an American market for Lithuanian books, even before we can arouse any interest in them, we must make them so easily obtainable that even those with only a slight interest in and a limited knowledge of Lithuanian, will perforce become acquainted with them.

Thus, it would seem that one of our first requirements is the establishment of reading centers or small libraries in the most important Lithuanian colonies in this country, where our young people could borrow and read the 10 latest Lithuanian books free of charge. These libraries would not necessarily have to be separate establishments, but could be contained in club rooms, newspaper offices, schools, etc.

Who would supply the books for these libraries? It is almost out of the question to suppose that we could possibly bestir ourselves out of the lethargy into which we have fallen, and buy the books ourselves, each colony supplying its own. There are any number of possible solutions few of which, however, are very probable.

We personally would look hopefully across the sea, to the Lithuanian government, for our solution. The Lithuanian government has recently demonstrated (by its granting of scholarships) how friendly it is to American Lithuanian youth, and how deeply concerned it is with our future as Lithuanians. If it was willing to grant scholarships, at great expense, to a select few, it would not be too presumptuous of us to hope that reading centers might be subsidized by the Lithuanian government. Thus, Lithuanian influence would reach, not a select few, but hundreds and thousands of American Lithuanian?

The cost to the Lithuanian government, of such a subsidy, would be negligible, an investment that would be returned an hundredfold, both in strengthened marketable interest in the Fatherland and in a timer and more widespread Lithuanianism in our daily lives.

We believe this idea has enormous possibilities, and we urge our young American Lithuanians to consider it and to act upon it, collectively and 13 individually, by presenting their petitions to the Lithuanian government either directly or through the Lithuanian consulates.

In conclusion, we hope that the editors of Jaunimas will find it possible, in the near future, to begin presenting reviews of recent Lithuanian books in these columns.