Public Libraries.— There are in the State (1918) 826 public and semi-public libraries, in cluding institutional and professional (school, college, law, medical, etc.),. besides 111 asso ciation and 33 subscription libraries. The °free county libraryp has become an important feature for outlying rural communities, giving them most of the advantages of a great urban library. Forty-one counties maintain these. The branches of the free public libraries num ber 2,836. Total number of volumes (1916) in 127 leading free public libraries, 3,319,667. There are 175 library buildings; 18 built by their communities, 144 by Andrew Carnegie (in which case the community furnishes the site and a permanent annual maintenance of 10 per cent of the endowment) and 13 by other donors. The largest public libraries are in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockton and Oakland. Library schools are maintained by the State Library at Sacramento and the Riverside Public Library. There are training classes at Los Angeles and other points.
In proportion to population, California has twice as many periodicals as New England. At the last Federal census there were in San Fran cisco alone 242 in 13 languages. In 1914 (United States Department Commerce) there were in the State 975 publications in 16 lan pages, including English, which had of course the vast preponderance in number and circula tion. There were 15 foreign-language dailies including five each in Chinese and Japanese, two each in French, Italian and German and repre sentatives in Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Swed ish, Danish, Croatian, Armenian, Serbian, Hungarian and Russian.
California periodicals, 1914 (United States census) : Largely populated by educated people from all over the world, and of recent migration, California has extraordinary activity in all educational, philanthropic, religious, fraternal, literary and similar organizations. The Y. M. C. A. has 68 associations with 30,641 members, $4,000,000 value in buildings, $852,000 annual expenditure. Los Angeles has the largest asso ciation in the State, and probably in America, with (1917) 8,095 members, $902,841 value in buildings and $433,772 annual expenditures. The Association raised in 1917 $2,360,000 for war and other purposes.
The Y. W. C. A. has 12 city, 14 student and 1 county associations, with total membership 34,820; valuation of buildings $927,208; annual expenditures $390,393. A special quest for funds in 1917 raised $450,000. Particular stress is laid on work amongyounger and immigrant girls. The California Federation of Women's Clubs numbers 485 clubs and 38,893 members (1917). The war greatly stimulated humanita rian work already existing, and caused the formation of scores of new organizations. The Red Cross raised in its June and December 1917 campaigns in Los Angeles County alone over $1,022,000.
California includes as residents many famous musicians. Los Angeles is one of the few cities in the United States which maintain a symphony orchestra. Communal singing has not advanced as far here as in a few other cities, though it is in progress; but there are few cities where good music can be heard so abundantly and so cheaply. The Bohemian Club of San Francisco and the Gamut Club of Los Angeles are internationally famous; and there are many musical, theatrical and other clubs throughout the State, besides women's clubs, which have been of serious import in the development of musical and art culture.
Other organizations peculiar to the State are the Native Sons of the Golden West and the Native Daughters of the Golden West, patriotic associations composed of persons born in California —perhaps the only State in the Union where such a thing obtains. Each num bers tens of thousand of members and scores of local chapters, called "Parlors.° The Land marks Club was the first corporation in the United States to save historic monuments, and has done a great work in preserving the old missions of California. There are half a dozen museums of scientific importance in the State— in Berkeley, San Francisco and Stanford, with the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles and the County Museum, with its wonderful array of Pleistocene semi-fossils.
Though founded and civilized by the Catholic Franciscan Friars in 1769 (the first Protestant sermon being preached here 80 years later), California is richer per population in Protestant churches than most of the Puri tan States; having (1916) 2,370 Protestant churches, valued at $21,400,565; membership 328,631 (an increase of 60 per cent in 10 years) and under 25 denominations. These churches contributed to missionary purposes in 1916 $1,650,926. Los Angeles city had 281 Protestant churches with 58,685 members or 10 per cent of the population. San Francisco had 100 such churches with 15,713 members, or 35/3 per cent of the population. Los Angeles County leads the State with 104,418 members or 31 per cent of total Protestant membership of the 58 coun ties. Alameda comes next with 21,750 members. Twelve denominations maintain 17 Protestant religious schools and colleges, of which more than half are in southern California. It is widely recognized that lack of co-ordination causes great wastefulness in this church work.
The Christian Science churches have multi. plied in number and membership very greatly in the last decade; but no statistics are available. They are not included in the list of Protestant or other churches.
The Catholics have 539 churches, 'of which 298 have resident priests, 155 mission stations, 15 orphan asylums and 8 homes for the aged.
Church membership is as follows: