TABLE 3.-U.S. imports, exports, and domestic production of printed matter—1963

Source: Import and export figures from Bureau of the Census foreign trade reports. Domestic production from Bureau of the Census preliminary release on 1963 Census of Manufactures, reduced as far as possible to eliminate duplicate counting of sales of printed matter from one industry to another.

It will be seen at once that all of the four principal classes of printed material-books and music, newspapers, periodicals, and commercial printingshow a large surplus of exports over imports and an extraordinarily low ratio of imports to the volume of domestic production. It is not particularly surprising to find that there is practically no market in the United States for foreign periodicals and newspapers, nor for the printing in other countries of American periodicals and newspapers, considering the importance of very quick delivery and the long printing runs involved. (Periodicals, incidentally, are covered by the manufacturing clause, which is even more obsolete here than with respect to books.) One would think, however, that commercial and miscellaneous printing would lend itself to more foreign competition, because split second delivery is not as important for many standard items and unlike books, it should be possible to anticipate the demand reasonably well in advance. The figures prove this not to be the case-commercial and miscellaneous printing shows a very handsome export surplus and a remarkably low ratio of imports to domestic production, all without benefit of the manufacturing clause. High U.S. tariffs are not the explanation of low imports for any of these classes of materials. Our customs duties on printed matter range from zero to a moderate level. Newspapers, periodicals and a good many types of books carry no duty; current English language books and music have duties ranging from 2 percent ad valorem to 71⁄2 percent; duties on commercial and miscellaneous printing are generally somewhat higher, but are by no means prohibitive. One can only conclude that despite wage differentials the American printing industries are perfectly able to compete on a cost and service basis and that there is something about the custom service provided by printers to their customers which does not lend itself to buying printing services from remote suppliers.

A word of explanation may be in order as to why, for books, the ratios of imports to exports and of imports to domestic production, while low compared to most American manufactured products, are so much higher than for the other major classes of printed materials. Book imports and exports both represent for the most part small shipments of thousands upon thousands of individual titles which are used as professional tools either by individuals directly or through public libraries and the libraries of educational institutions and business corporations. There is no mass international traffic in popular books and textbooks each country supplies the bulk of its own needs for these materials— but there is a large international exchange of the thousands of specialized titles in which no country can be self-sufficient. The United States is a large exporter of books because our books are among the best in the world in subject

matter content and because English has become the new lingua franca of the world in science, technology, the professions, and business. We are a big importer of books because we have the largest education system in the world as well as the largest corps of professional people who need books to keep up with their specialities.

Table 4 below shows the vigorous growth of our export of books, and of our favorable balance of trade, since we shifted over from a book-importing to a book-exporting country after the Second World War. This table does not really do justice to the facts: it is based upon the official export statistics of the Department of Commerce, which seriously understate book exports because they do not include the large number of shipments of under $100 in value. The true book export figure is undoubtedly much greater, probably half again as large, according to statistics compiled by the industry itself.

NOTE. The export totals understate true exports by varying amounts because individual shipments valued at less than $100 have never been counted. Industry estimates place the true value of book exports at least 50 percent higher. There is some understatement of imports for the same reason, especially in the 1954 figure, but from 1958 on the understatement is minimal because of a sample count of small shipments.

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Reports FT-110 and FT 410. Compiled by Printing and Publishing Industries Division for 1948-64; the 1936 and 1940 figures also include music in books and sheets not included in later years.

CONCLUSION

I shall not attempt to recapitulate a long and detailed statement, or even try to summarize the principal steps in the analysis. Let me only repeat our conclusion, taken after long and serious study, that the repeal of the manufacturing clause and related import restrictions is now required, rather than the further tinkering represented by chapter 6 of H.R. 4347. Repeal will be a net gain to the United States, and to all the interests in this country particularly concerned, including literary and scholarly authors, scientists, educational institutions, publishers, and the American book manufacturing industry and its employees. Like publishers in other countries, we are dependent upon our domestic printing industry for 99 percent and more of our book manufacturing requirements, and we want and need a healthy, growing, and technically-advanced American industry. We believe, and have endeavored to demonstrate the factual grounds for our belief, that the crutch of the manufacturing clause is obsolete and should be discarded now, once and for all.

Source Statistical Abstracts of the US for 1954 and preliminary report MC 63(p)-27-A-3, 1963

52-380-66- pt. 3--15

TABLE 5.-Growth of the U.S. printing and publishing industries, 1947–63

1 Value added by manufacture is roughly the value of products produced less cost of materials, supplies, fuel, electricity, and contract work. The 1947 figures are on a slightly different basis than those for the latter 3 years.

2 Combines commercial printing and lithographing.

Data not published but included in the total for printing and publishing.

These are the firms specializing in hardbound book printing and binding for publishers. Other types of printing establishments do book work also, especially paperbound books. In 1963 the book printing industry accounted for 68 percent of the sales of book printing.

Columns may not add exactly because all figures are rounded to nearest million or thousand.

Source: Statistical Abstracts of the U.S. for 1947, 1954, and 1958. The 1963 figures are from preliminary releases of the Bureau of the Census from the 1963 Census of Manufactures.

TABLE 6.-Receipts of publishers from book sales, 1958 and 1963

NOTE.-Sales at retail value would be considerably higher except for book clubs, encyclopedias, and elementary and secondary textbooks.

Source: U.S. Census of Manufactures, 1963; preliminary report MC 63 (p)-27-A-3.