That well-known situation of an irresistible force running against an immovable body has exemplified itself locally in efforts of the library board to get plans for a new library building drawn, submitted to WPA and approved by that body. And because the irresistible force—the local stipulation that the board may spend only the $1500 authorized, plus funds on hand—has encountered the immovable body—WPA's dictum that there must be a certain percentage of man-hours of labor wrapped around every project approved—the whole procedure has taken a lot more time than anyone dreamed possible when it all started.

However, says Sidney Chapman, board member and the man in charge of the project, the library project will get to the authorities in due time and , he hopes, be approved. In the meanwhile here's more or less what's been going on.

First off the board had ideas of saving on architect's fees and so they—or it—tried to get the project submitted without paying such a fee. They—or it—were turned down.

Then the board hired an architect, told him what was wanted and said, “let `er go.” It did. First thing they knew the architect came back with a bill for services rendered and plans for a $9000 library.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast. The library board knew it had about $2400 to work with but it decided that—maybe—Uncle Sam would be more generous than had been rumored. So either the $9000 project was submitted, or was explained to WPA headquarters. Anyhow, back came the message “muy pronto,” not enough man-hours of labor. For such a project the government would only give you about one-third the total cost. (All figures herewith are approximate.)

Now the board has returned the plans to the architect with instructions to leave off the patio—that's only air anyhow—and the stack room. Those features, it was estimated, amounted to about one-third of the cost. The, when the revised plans come back it's hoped there'll be about enough labor and local contributions to allow the nowadays no-so-generous Uncle Sam to fill out the dotted line for the rest. If not Mr. Chapman has the man-hour formula and he'll go about digging up added man hours until even Mr. Ickes would be satisfied with the results.

In the meanwhile, Chapman assures, there's no intention of trying to get the community to put more into the library than it has already authorized.

Nosuh. And the abbreviated project can be added to when and as necessary in the future.