because of the readers' neglect and their failure to buy books, espe-cially the useful ones. There is no doubt that the nation which labors steadily at producing useful books and publishing them is the one that carries the torch of progress and civilization and becomes a beacon for all other nations and peoples. Useful books are those that carry the messages of progress and prosperity; writers and scholars cite them to support their sound opinions, so they pass from hand to hand and all acknowledge their merit — and thus the paths of civi-lization and prosperity grow wide,

and the nation rises from its

stumble, and all the nations that wish to work their way into the ranks of the advanced nations follow its course. But alas, those who perceive the crookedness in the nation's character and hasten to set it right are not many in number. Talk is plentiful; but treating matters with firmness and understanding — few there are who accomplish it.

There is no doubt that intellectual production is the loftiest and highest of all production, and intel-lectual production today rests upon the book. By it have risen industry, agriculture, philosophy, mathemat-ics, history, religion, medicine,

psychology, ethics, language, poli-tics, the state, and all that pertains to them. And you know that in America and Europe, when a bridal couple — of whatever class they may be — set about establishing their home, they attend to the founding of the library as much as they attend to the dining room, the bedroom, and the reception hall; for people there believe that strengthening the soul is as neces-sary as feeding the body, and that neglecting the nourishment of the soul plunges the self down to the depths, until there is no longer any difference between man and beast.