Education was an intensely personal subject for Reuben. Deprived of formal schooling, he was largely self-taught, from the age of nine onward. While most children were walking to the schoolhouse, Reuben was already hard at work in the blacksmith’s shop, on the rail lines, at the glass factory and, eventually, in the print shop. It was there at the age of fourteen that he met labor writer and mentor John E. Williams, who developed a curriculum of self-study that would forever change the boy’s life. For the next several years Soderstrom spent almost every off-work hour at the Streator Public Library, poring over books on topics ranging from classical history to progressive economics. He maintained this academic discipline throughout his early adulthood, joining public libraries in every city to which his work took him. Throughout his life, Reub remained a voracious reader, known for his literary appetite. Soderstrom never forgot the debt he owed to the public library and the free access to information it provided. As a legislator and labor leader, Reuben worked to ensure that everyone, no matter their income, age, or previous experience could have access to public education and all its tools.

Reub’s love of the “poor boy’s school,” as he called it, was reciprocated. In 1952, Walter E. Myers of the Illinois State Reference Library at Springfield, wrote an essay on the life of Reuben Soderstrom, lifting him up as an example of how the public library system can help anyone reach a high level of achievement—even someone with little to no formal education. The piece is a touching tribute to Reuben’s love of and dedication to public information and education. We now reprint Mr. Myers’s work in its entirety, as it appeared in the June 12, 1952 issue of the Streator Daily Times-Press:

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"Reub, did you run the bills for Jim Martin's sale?" "Don't for get to sweep up." "If it's cold in the morning, you better start a fire, Reub”

If you peeked in at the composing room of the Independent Times, at Streator, Illinois, about forty-eight years ago, you would have heard the boss talking to a hustling young boy who had just passed fourteen. His name appeared in the family Bible as Reuben G. Soderstrom, born March 10, 1888, but he was familiarly known around the town as Reub.

At that age, Reub had no way of knowing he would become president of the Illinois State Federation of Labor in September, 1930, when he was forty-two. He has been re-elected to that office every two years since then. His good health, intelligence, alertness, geniality, and progressive outlook promise many more years of faithful service in this work.

PRINTER’S DEVIL

Speaking from his boyhood job, Mr. Soderstrom says, “I started out as a printer’s devil. My work consisted at the outset of lighting the fire in the old cannon stove in the morning, sweeping the floor, setting heads occasionally, and feeding the flat bed press all afternoon while the daily edition of the Independent-Times was run off.”

As time went on, Reub became a linotype operator in the composing room of the Independent-Times. In the early days, the paper had only one ad-machine and one news-machine. Reub worked at the news-machine for many years. In fact, he was there when the composing room expanded and the Free Press consolidated with the Independent Times. The new paper became the Streator Times-Press, and is so-called today.

Of course, everybody in the office knew Reub. The hand compositors, pressmen, foremen, editor, reporters and special writers were his intimate friends. One special writer, whom we would refer to today as a columnist, was the famous bard, John E. Williams, who later became the first arbitrator for Hart, Schaffner and Marx. Williams’ work in establishing piecework wage rates was one of his outstanding achievements in the company’s employer-employee relationships.

INSPIRED BY WILLIAMS

Mr. Williams wrote a column in the Independent-Times, called “The Fabian,” and he signed it “Fabios.” Reub was attracted to Mr. Williams’ fair economic philosophy. A friendly relationship soon developed between the man and the boy. Frequent conversations and friendly banter around the shop encouraged the boy to better his position in life.

Mr. Williams being a good judge of human nature, as well as a student of economics, said “Reub, you’ve got a good chance to make something of yourself. Here’s a list of books for you to read. Get a card in the Public Library and I’ll sign it for you.”

Among the early books Soderstrom read were John Mitchell’s Organized Labor and Richard T. Ely’s Elementary Principles of Economics, Labor Movement in America, Monopolies and Trusts, and Outlines of Economics.

Reub knew that information is always a good substitute for formal education, so he eagerly pursued the course of reading prescribed by his friend, John Williams. Reading of this character gave Reub a background in philosophy of labor and labor history. This fitted him for a career that ranged from a linotype operator in a small print shop to a great labor leader in Illinois.

“Yet, I branched out also on my own,” says Mr. Soderstrom, “and made many trips to the library to take out books on history, biography, literature, and fiction.” Reub admits that whatever cultural interests and attainments he has are the result of this early habit of using the public library. As he says, “Even then I knew the best thoughts of the greatest minds in the world were preserved in the books available to me in the Streator Public Library.”

WRITES FOR LABOR

While working as a linotype operator, Reub began to contribute articles to labor papers. At the age of twenty-one he began to move around a bit, taking a job in St. Louis, where he joined his first union—the International Typographical Union. After a short time there, he moved to Chicago to a better job, and joined Chicago Typographical Union No. 16. While in Chicago he remembered the good advice of his former mentor, and took steps to become a patron of the Chicago Public Library. This time the officers of the union signed his application, and this studious young man became a regular borrower at the Chicago Public Library.

Presently Reub made a discovery that gave him a pleasant hobby for many months. He found a whole section of shelves in the downtown library devoted to the life of Abraham Lincoln. Reub spent his spare time one whole winter searching for information about Lincoln and his associates. He found material both pro and con, but like many other young boys in those days, he came away with a profound admiration for the Great Commoner.

Printers were a restless lot in those days. It wasn’t long before Reub Soderstrom got itchy feet. Traveling northward, he landed at Madison, Wisconsin. While working at this trade, he found time to visit the state legislature. He saw the Progressive Movement in action, and caught the spirit of the famous Robert La Follette, then so much in the limelight. As Reub says, “Robert La Follette’s quotation ‘The will of the people shall be the law of the land’ left a permanent impression on me, and has governed my activities since then.”

Now comes a period of moving again, first to Milwaukee, where he became an active union member, attending meetings regularly and learning first-hand the problems confronting the working people of Wisconsin and the nation. After six months, he returned to Chicago for a new job. Now he was on his own. He no longer needed Local No. 16 to sign for him. He renewed his card at the Chicago Public Library, and began once again to fill in the gaps in his formal training.

When Reub was twenty-four, his thoughts turned toward his boyhood sweetheart, Jeanne Shaw, back in Streator. He returned home, and they were married Dec. 2, 1912. She, too, encouraged him in his ambition, and much of his success is due to her inspiration (She passed away a year ago today, May 22, 1951).

Reub was pretty well liked by union members. Not long after he was married, he had a chance to put his foot on the first rung of the ladder of success. He was elected president of the Streator Trades and Labor Council. He was also well known in the community. His tremendous earnestness and oratorical supremacy soon attracted the attention of political leaders in La Salle County, who asked him to run for the office of State Representative. He made the grade all right, and was elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 1918. He served successfully in that capacity until 1938.

HONORED BY LABOR

Because of Reuben Soderstrom’s help in placing on the statue books of Illinois all the humanitarian laws enacted since 1918, his friends and associates in the labor movement elected him in 1930 president of the Illinois State Federation of Labor. While working in this role, even more than as a state legislator, he remembered his debt to the public library. Consequently, in each of his annual reports he includes a section on the use of libraries.

Usually, this takes the form of encouraging the union members to take advantage of their local library resources. Sometimes he mentions special services offered by various libraries, such as the reading courses offered by the Illinois State Library to any citizen of the state.

In his 1949 annual report, Mr. Soderstrom says, “The thoughts of the greatest minds in the history of the human race are to be found in the library books. They come from the pen of thoughtful notables ranging from ancient leaders to modern philosophers. The biographies of statesmen, both native and foreign, are also available in the modern public library for those who like to study history and ascertain what each statesman contributed to the advancement of his country and the period in which he lived.”

He closes with the thought that “The public library is the poor person’s school. Those who thirst for knowledge and information, rich or poor, can satisfy this thirst by absorbing the thoughts, recorded in books by the world’s wisest men and women. The Illinois State Federation of Labor is in full accord with the free services rendered to its members by the public library, and has, in turn, often performed worthwhile legislative work whenever there was an opportunity to stand up and be counted on the side of this great educational institution.”

USEFUL SERVICE

In the 1950 Annual Report, Mr. Soderstrom is equally complimentary. “The Public Library today,” he says, “is particularly well provided in history, economics, jurisprudence, the political sciences, and American fiction. It is the greatest reference bureau available to the average person and is patronized extensively by serious minded labor unionists who like their information straight. The Illinois State Federation of Labor will continue to be friendly to all proposals designed to enlarge the field of usefulness of the Public Library.”

Such statements as these show that Reuben Soderstrom has not forgotten his “Alma Mater.” As he says, “I tip my hat every time I pass a public library.” Through his long career as printer, news and editorial writer, legislator, and great labor leader, Reuben G. Soderstrom has used his influence to promote the general welfare and bring more happiness to the great mass of working people in Illinois.

Reuben G. Soderstrom will never write Ph. D. after his name, but he can write something that gives him greater satisfaction, P.L.G., Public Library Graduate.[1]

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