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But the right of property involves the right of an owner to restrict the forms in which his property or product shall be sold, and the restriction of importation in regard to editions not manufactured in this country is but an extension of this principle. The real reason for its acceptance on the part of the Authors' League, which is in principle opposed to it, was a realizing sense of the importance of a waiver on this point to obtain the coöperation of interests, without which an international copyright law could not be passed. The bookseller would be as regards English editions in the same position in which he is placed now regarding English editions of American copyright books, and there is no real grievance in this. Practically the benefits accruing to him under international copyright in obtaining a better basis for the entire bookselling business would offset any such restrictions against him.

On the other hand, the question has come from members of the Typographical Union whether their interest should not be protected by requiring books not only to be printed in this country, but to have the type set in this country. The bill at present is understood to permit the importation of plates, and the question of the Typographical Union is a perfectly natural one. The one thing which international copyright ought not to do is to increase the cost of books by increasing in any wise the cost of manufacture. The result of restricting copyright to books that are set here would be to prevent altogether the development of a class of books of much importance, of which our market would have an increasing share—i.e., the international series of books which are only possible by distributing the original cost among several markets. Moreover, as it is probable that a reciprocity clause will ultimately form a part of the Chace bill, a clause pro

IT is well in all controversial questions to hear both sides, and it is our intention always to keep the columns of THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY freely open on any questions which we discuss. The recent consultations as to international copyright have brought into harmony, as never before, most of the interests connected with books-authors, manufacturers, publishers, and readers. No plan of copyright can be devised under present circumstances which would be absolutely satisfactory to all of these interests; authors, for instance, and not a few publishers believe in a copyright pure and simple, and ac-hibiting the importation of plates into this counquiesce in any limited arrangement only because they see in compromise the only practicable method of getting international copyright at all. In speaking of manufacturers, we mean to include compositors as well as other workingmen connected with book manufacturing, and in speaking of the publishing interest, we mean to include the booksellers also. We believe both these classes would be benefited by international copyright, and we think only careful consideration of the existing facts is necessary to do away with one or two objections which have been raised from those directions.

Mr. W. B. Clarke, one of the most intelligent of Boston booksellers, has given expression to one objection to the copyright scheme in an interview which we print elsewhere. He makes a natural plea for free importation of English editions which the bookseller may desire to show a customer alongside an American edition.

try might ultimately prevent the exportation of plates made in this country, which are becoming more and more in demand abroad. American plates are so much superior to English ones that we have a decided advantage in this matter. But above all this, the great benefit of an international copyright law to compositors will be in promoting the production of American-written books which are now thrown out of the market by the flood of English reprints produced on type-setting machines or at the lowest possible cost for composition. In our view, no class is more likely to benefit by international copyright under the Chace bill as it now stands, than American compositors.

We would again remind all classes interested in this reform that nothing can be gained, and that everything may be jeoparded, by holding out on what is narrowly supposed to be the immediate interest of each class. The good of all will be the

good of each, and whatever each yields to obtain copyright will have more than equivalent in the great gain that it will produce.

We receive from New Orleans a flaming "here we are again" advertisement of the New York Book Syndicate, which announces a great sale "for a short time only." Mr. Eyrich has wisely met this advertisement by the announcement to the public that he is selling perfect books cheaper than any carpet-bag book-butcher who comes to stay a week. "We guarantee our books, and we are here to make good any imperfections." We note also the following" reading-matter notice," which is to the point:

"The Latest Publications of the Age.-If you need books or periodicals, go to a legitimate house, whose reputation is at stake on the quality and market value of the goods it offers. You may get a cheap edition of some trashy work from a travelling peddler who is here to-day and somewhere else to-morrow, but when you want standard works that you can exchange at any time if not satisfactory, go to an old established house like Eyrich's, No. 130 Canal St., where the best and cheapest books that the nineteenth century has produced may always be found. Mr. Eyrich has also issued a price list of cheap books offering to sell the cheap 12mos at 30 cents a volume, three for 90 cents, where the book-butcher advertises three for $1."

There is so much humbug about the peripatetic undersellers that it is worth while to puncture the bubble in this way, and it seems to us that Mr. Eyrich's course is the right one to take. We commend his example to other dealers.

WE print elsewhere some protests against excepting complete books from the benefit of the second-class postal rates (one cent a pound) established for periodicals, as is proposed by a bill which has passed the lower House of Congress. This is a question to which there are undoubtedly two sides, as the present practice, confining this privilege to paper books, discriminates by contrast against American cloth-bound books, and we should be glad to hear more full opinions from the trade about it.

WE are glad to note that the Century Co., with its usual willingness to lead, is about to make a new departure in the publication of original copyright books. Mr. Stockton's new story, "The Dusantes," is to be published in a paper edition at 50 cents, and in cloth at 75 cents-a price to which no readers can except. We trust the retail trade will see the importance of giving this experiment the fullest chance of success.

COMMUNICATIONS.

MISS ALCOTT AND "OUR GIRLS." To the Editor of The Publishers' Weekly.

DEAR SIR: In the "Copyright Number" of der the caption, "Belford, Clarke & Co.'s List of THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, on page 93, unBooks by American Authors," appears this an

nouncement:

ALCOTT, LOUISA M. Our Girls.

This is a complete deception. "Our Girls" is an old collection of stories and poems by various writers which for the last decade has done duty Three little sketches of under several titles. eighteen pages out of a total of two hundred and six pages, contributed by Miss Alcott twenty-five years ago to a magazine, apart from which magazine they have no legal right to exist, constitute the sole foundation for this misleading announcement of a book by her, with a title almost similar to her own "My Girls" published by us.

In the interest of publishers and booksellers, and on Miss Alcott's account, we protest against such unwarrantable use of an author's name. ROBERTS BROTHERS,

Sole Publishers of all of Louisa M. Alcott's Books.

MOCK PRICES FOR BOOKS AND REAL ONES. To the Editor of The Publishers' Weekly.

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SIR: Your editorial, 'Mock Discounts and Real Ones," in your issue of the 4th inst., makes the mistake of treating of "discounts," when it should treat of publication prices. The publisher who sells his own publications at retail, at less than his so-called publication price, is a dealer in mock prices; and he not only fails to do his duty to his wholesale customer, but to himself, and he should consider himself as dishonored in the practice. Not merely this, but the narrow view which he takes of the field in desiring to collect a little cash from the sale of his books, works his own injury on a large scale by preventing the trade generally throughout the country from keeping those books in stock and being able to show them to bookbuyers.

The first thing to be done to reform the book business is not in the matter of discounts to the trade, but in that of cutting off discounts to the lisher himself, by doing what in honor he is This must be done by the pubpublic generally. bound to do, having a publication price and sticking to it-not pretending that the price of a book is one dollar, when it is only 75 or So cents.

The present demoralization of the book-trade has a deeper significance than appears upon the mere surface and to people not conversant with economic causes and effects. It comes from the long period of business gloom, which has overspread this country with but slight interruption since the close of the war. Had the trade found a demand for an ample supply of books at regular prices they would not have sacrificed their profits; in tight places, pressed for money, with declining but a large proportion of them finding themselves business, were ready to slaughter their stock on any terms which might bring them cash. But I venture on dangerous ground. The book-trade has no need to study economic questions, and my experience teaches me that THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY declines to lay such discussions before its readers, except they be on the everlasting

international copyright question. This question is always in order HENRY CAREY BAIRD.

Philadelphia, Feb. 7, 1888.

lustration of an actual occurrence, in the hope that the ventilation of such matters may tend to open the eyes of both publishers and retailers to the

many evils at present prevailing and which de

mand immediate correction.

We recently received an order from a public li

During the arrangement of terms the question was asked us if the same discount would hold

[Mr. Baird hits the nail on the head in speaking of "mock prices," but we take it to be one of the laws of trade that if discounts, mock or real, are ex-brary for several thousand dollars' worth of books. cessive, prices cannot be maintained. As to the slur in Mr. Baird's last paragraph, we had simply declined, as previously stated, to open our columns to the general question of free-trade vs. protection, outside its relation to the book-trade.-ED. P. W.]

ORGANIZATION BY BOOKSELLERS.

WINONA, MINN., Feb., 1888.

To the Editor of The Publishers' Weekly.

DEAR SIR: The recent communications, "Shall the Bookseller Survive?" and "The Two Methods," present the true condition of the booktrade, and they also suggest the remedy.

The fatal mistake of the A. B. T. A. was in having the publishers and booksellers in one organization. The "Lothrop" plan is not an exception-it is general. The only protection, therefore, is for the booksellers to organize.

with the publications of one house omitted, the fact being frankly stated that the publications of the house named could be bought at exactly the same prices paid by us as dealers.

We, of course, refused to take the order unless received entire.

The writer afterwards asked the leading representative of the house in question if they would sell a few hundred dollars' worth of their publications to a library on the same terms as to the dealer who used thirty times the amount (of the proposed purchase in this case) of their publications thousand dollars in stock during the dullest seaper annum, and never carrying less than several

sons.

The representative admitted that the firm alluded to would do exactly that, and seemed surprised that a retailer could have the least objecAs to the benefits of organization, we would tion to handling the books of a publishing-house invite every bookseller to read Andrew Geyer's which retails its own publications at the lowest editorial in his valuable Stationer of February wholesale prices, and by so doing tacitly admits 2, entitled "Why Should I Join the Station- that its advertised prices are even greater misrepers' Board of Trade?" We have sold miscellane-resentations than is practically the case now (in ous books for twenty years, and with one ex- varying degrees) with most publishers who retail ception believe we are the largest distributers of their own books. books in Minnesota, yet we give this branch of our business the least attention, because we can't compete with the publisher.

At the Niagara convention of the A. B. T. A., one of the largest publishers grew eloquent in his defence of the booksellers, and stated that none but a bookseller got better than 20 per cent. from his house, yet the writer read a letter from this same publisher offering 40 per cent. to a customer for two books; and while we bought (60) sixty of the same book we could get but one-third off!

The A. B. T. A. was a clear case of the "Lamb lying down with the Lion," (the Lamb being inside of the Lion); it is needless to say the bookseller was the Lamb. We take no stock in conferring with publishers. Organization is the only remedy. Let us have a Board of Trustees, a paid secretary, and open a bureau of information, so that every member can know what publishers do business on the " Lothrop" plan and agree not to keep or sell the books of such publishers.

If the bookseller will agree and unite on this just basis, the cloud will lift, and bookselling will become profitable. After all, the " pocketbook" is the best reformer. Let us organize-and for business. Truly yours,

MCNIE & Co. PUBLISHERS' UNDERSELLING: A CASE IN POINT.

BOSTON, February 4, 1888.

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To the Editor of The Publishers' Weekly.
DEAR SIR: Your editorial in the issue of Jan.
28 was read with interest, and with an honest de-
sire to see the retail book business raised from the
depths to which it has fallen; it seems to us de-
sirable to occasionally give illustrations of some
of the difficulties surrounding the retailers, and we
venture to trespass on your space by another il-

For certainly no business man can claim that a purchaser who does not buy to sell again as a part of his regular business is other than a retail buyer, or that by adopting this plan the publisher gains the sale of a single book. And on the other hand by doing retail work at wholesale prices he decreases his own profits and takes that belonging legitimately to the dealer.

We give this as only one more instance of the many causes of complaint on the part of the retail booksellers who transact business properly and handle the best books intelligently in liberal quantities.

We do not write in any feeling of enmity as against any special publisher, but we feel that the time has come when the retailers should combine and devote their best energies to the sale of the publications of those houses which deal fairly, in an honest business-like way.

Yours respectfully,

CLARKE & CARRUTH.

A PLEA FOR CHEAP BOOKS AND HONEST

PRICES.

To the Editor of The Publishers' Weekly:

DEAR SIR: I see in some recent addresses made at the dinner of the Brotherhood of Commercial Travellers that quite a little time and thought and interest were given to the subject of international copyright and then to the success or failure, I hardly know which to call it, of American books. I think it is admitted by all that there are not as many books sold in the United States as there might be. I expect every one has his reasons and theories in regard to its cause and cure. There are some which present themselves to me, and possibly the presenting of them to the trade might not be wholly valueless.

The international copyright question I will not dwell on, as it has been much discussed and its innate justice all will admit.

What I have to say is as it is seen from the retail bookseller's position. I don't know that it is considered a very high one at the present day; certainly it is not an entirely profitable one, and the publishers seem to consider it not of much account, any way.

and more carefully edited, I owe it to the taste acquired in reading my cheap edition.

Some writers are wont to complain that these books are not read; well, my experience is that a great many more are read that are not worth reading than that are left unread that deserve reading.

But first the complaint that an edition of fifty thousand copies of a pirated book can be sold to In regard to the publisher. I see the repone of five by an American author. Are the pub-resentative of the Messrs. Harper thinks we lishers aware that they are trying to conduct the retailers do not sell a quarter as many as we business on the same or a similar basis as the for- should; granted. And now a few words to the eign, or more especially English publisher, under publisher. entirely different circumstances? There they have a compact population with easy access to libraries, and where it is much less the custom for the general reader to buy a book than here, he preferring to get it from the circulating library. This more especially in reference to works of fiction. Now, as a matter of fact, how many novels of the present day are worth a permanent place in a library, and how many of them will find such a place in even the most liberally formed one ten years after publication? I doubt if five per

cent.

one

My belief from my experience, and of that of others that I know, is that a cheap paper edition will be more profitable to all concerned than only the high-priced one. There are tens of thousands of people that would prefer a new clean paper edition to one taken from a library. Then there are thousands to whom no library is accessible, who have not the means to indulge in a new book costing a dollar and a half every week or so. If other booksellers have any the same experience as myself, it is that it is easier to sell one hundred twenty-five cent books than ten at dollar and one-half. It seems to me that the success that some publishers have had recently with cheap editions, even with old dead novels, should convince them of this. I am perfectly satisfied I could sell a couple of hundred copies of a new novel by Crawford, or even some of our less-known writers, in the first month of issue at 25 cents, with a continued sale afterwards, and probably one-fourth or more as many cloth ones as now. As I see bookbuyers or especially novel-readers, it is much easier to sell a customer ten twenty-five cent books than one at one dollar and a half. There is nothing in the world in the shape of money that is so readily spent as a quarter of a doliar (unless it is a nickel); it goes with hardly a thought. Now we will probably not sell over twenty-five copies of the first edition, and there are but few authors of whom we can do that. An edition of one hundred thousand could be easily sold of any novel worth the reading, and if it was of especial interest two or three times that.

Now, cannot the publisher and author both make as much or a little more with a fifty thousand twenty-five cent edition as with three or four thousand at a dollar or a dollar and a quarter when they have the copyright ?

A limited better edition should meet the wants of those who prefer it, and if the book is a great success, and proves worthy of a place with the great, the cheap edition might be dropped; but I question even the expediency of that.

Thousands of the young people of this country will acquire a taste for reading by having the best before them in a cheap form, and will afterwards become purchasers of fine editions.

My first reading of Shakespeare was in a fiftycent paper edition, which was absolutely read to pieces. If since then I have had the pleasure of gathering some editions bound more artistically

Most publishers seem to think that they can get along without the retailers, and prefer to do all the retailing they can themselves. Now as a matter of fact which needs no discussion, with wellstocked retail stores and books continually brought to the attention of the public, ten times as many can be sold as if they merely see a casual notice at the best in the publisher's advertisement, and in thousands of cases never would hear of it but for the retailer. There is never a day, I think, in my experience, that one or more persons do not say, "Well, I should not have come into your place, as I never come in without buying something I had not intended to, or had no intention of buying anything at all, but saw something, or my notice was called to it, and so bought."

But then if the retailer stocks up his shelves, of course many of his best books can have but a slow sale any way. And most customers know that if they will write direct to the publisher, they can get anywhere from ten to thirty per cent. discount, so after having seen something they like, they go and order it direct. As a matter of fact, I know several good buyers of books among our customers that can get within five per cent. of the discount we get direct from the publisher on his own books, and books that he knows we are carrying in stock. Is there any other manufacturer of goods that pretends to the least decency that will sell all the goods he can to the trade, and then deliberately sell to his customers practically at the same price?

I expect comparisons are as odious as they ever were, but I can't forbear to make one or two. We carry in our stationery stock a well-known fountain-pen. A gentleman not having noticed that we had it in our advertisement of it, wrote to the maker for it. Did he send it, even at the full retail price? Not a bit, but wrote saying that we had it and could supply him. Now don't you suppose that if a customer at the holiday time was looking for something for a present we would recommend the pen rather than the book of the man who would undersell us every time he got a chance?

I have a personal friend who is a large dealer in fine gas-fixtures; a customer, after looking over his stock and drawings, went to New York and purchased the same one of the manufacturer, but he paid the full retail price and the regular commission was credited to the retailer the same as if the goods had been purchased in his store, and he also had the job of hanging at a good price, which would have been included in the purchase at home; but I could multiply instances by the score. Now when I hear of a publisher protecting the retailer I will take a holiday and celebrate it, notwithstanding the high place they claim among business men.

And something while here to the retailer. There are several well-known publishersBoston and Philadelphia are especial sinnersthat make up a catalogue giving the publisher's

price and their price, and then send those catalogues to every one of your customers whose address they can get. Now our way is never to buy a cent's worth of their publications that can be had of any other house, and never to sell a book of theirs if we can induce a buyer to take anything else, even if asked for; and I believe if all retailers would do the same they would be better off, and at least let those publishers do their own retailing, if that is what they

want.

Better let the publisher drop a published retail price, and let every dealer make his price to suit his circumstances, or at least having made it, stick to it.

I notice customers never think of expecting a discount from prices which we make. Publishers' price seems to mean anything. I would thank THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY for the stand it made a year or two since on the retail sales of its publications.

Let retailers all oppose the cheapening of book postage, as that is a direct blow at their interests in the favor of the publisher, and as it is below cost to the government it can be consistently opposed. I find I have gone much more at length than I expected, and still am not half through, but I know if I expect any attention I must stop. BOOKSELLER.

THE BUSINESS BASIS FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.

A LETTER FROM G. H. PUTNAM, SECRETARY OF THE PUBLISHERS' COPYRIGHT LEAGUE.

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27 AND 29 WEST 23D STREET, NEW YORK, February 10, 1888. DEAR SIRS: You may find it a convenience to have before you in shape for reference a summary of the points I desired to make clear in our conference of yesterday.

1. The authors and publishers who are now working for international copyright believe that such copyright is necessary, not merely as a matter of justice to American and foreign authors, but in order to restore to a wholesome condition and to secure the natural development for the business of writing and of printing American books.

2. The members of the Publishers' League, who are now supporting the Chace bill, comprise practically all the book publishers of the country, and the Executive Committee of this League includes the heads of the largest manufacturers of books and the largest employers of compositors and pressmen, such as Houghton, of Boston, Lippincott, of Philadelphia, and Harper, Appleton, and Putnam, of New York.

3. It is the conviction of these publishers, who are also printers and who are naturally desirous of increasing as much as possible not only the printing but the type-setting done in their own establishments, that the Chace Copyright Bill will very considerably increase the number of the books made and the amount of the book typesetting done in this country.

4. These publishers have not only a direct interest in bringing about such a result, but through the records of their past business and their correspondence concerning possible future business, they have at hand the information required for such a calculation, and their evidence is therefore to be accepted as trustworthy.

5. It is the opinion of all of us who have been doing work on behalf of copyright that present success is practicable only if all parties at in

terest, authors, publishers, and printers, shall unite in the support of the Chace bill.

6. This bill in its present shape represents a large amount of concession on the part of all of the authors (who are opposed to the manufacturing conditions and the other restrictions), and also on the part of a number of the publishers who consider such conditions and restrictions unnecessary. It has required a good deal of labor to bring about this coöperation of the authors and publishers, and when that of the printers has been obtained, it is believed that the success of the reform is assured.

7. All of us who have been working for the measure are also quite clear in our minds that it would stand no possible chance of success if a provision for "total manufacture" should now be inserted. The authors have already accepted with reluctance the protective features in the present bill, and a total manufacture clause would result in serious opposition to the bill on the part of many of them, while there would also be opposition on the part of those who are interested on behalf of the reading public in preventing books from becoming too dear.

8. The publishers would be unable to approve such a provision, as it would necessitate (especially for illustrated works) the doubling up of the expense of production, which would of course call for a much larger outlay, and as the books would of necessity be higher in price, would result in smaller sales.

9. The alternative for the printers to decide is then practically whether they will support the Chace bill in its present shape, or whether they will use their influence to delay indefinitely the reform that is believed to be as important for their business interests as for those of the authors and publishers.

10. The statistics of book production in the United States show that there are actually fewer bound volumes issued each year for 1000 inhabitants than was the case 15, 20, or 30 years ago, and that the business of bookselling and that of bookmaking, which depends upon bookselling, are being undermined. This injury is due partly to the decrease in the number of American books accepted and printed by American publishers, and partly to the supplying of the requirements of readers of fiction with the cheap libraries, etc., out of the sale of which the booksellers cannot make a living.

II. Every American publisher will give evidence that he finds it necessary, under the present "cut-throat" competition, to decline each year a large number of American books, which, under a copyright arrangement, he could print with a profit for the American author, printer, binder, and publisher. It is difficult for any one not in a publisher's office to realize the amount of the profitable work of this kind that is now each year being lost for all interested in American bookmaking.

12. The publishers, who are also printers, are confident that the copyright measure will largely increase the amount of composition and presswork done in this country, as well from the stimulus given to the production of American books, as from the increase in the production of international series, such as the International Science Series (Appletons), and the Story of the Nations Series (Putnams), the American volumes in which are put into type in this country and the duplicate electrotypes exported.

13. These publishers point out that, while typesetting is somewhat cheaper in England than here,

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