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The Circuit Rider. A Tale of the Heroic Age. By Edward Eggleston, D.D. Iliustr.

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From the New York Commercial Advertiser for
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JAN. 20.

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J. B. Lippincott & Co.:-The Authorized Life of Edwin Forrest, by Rev. Wm. R. Alger, 8vo, with steel plate illustrations.

Scribner, Armstrong & Co.:-Turkistan, Notes of a Journey in 1873 in the Russian Province of Turkistan, the Khanates of Kokan and Bokhara, and the Province of Kuldja, by Eugene Schuyler, Ph.D.,ecretary of the American Legation at St. Petersburg. (By special arrangement with the author.)

JAN. 23.

Scribner, Armstrong & Co.:-Life and Conversations of Dr. Samuel Johnson, by Alexander Main, with a Preface by George Henry Lewes -The History of a Brok, by Annie Carey-A System of Christian Rhetoric, for the use of Preachers and other Speakers;-Hatton's Lectures on Sanitary Subjects;-Health, by Dr. Edward Smith;-The House that Baby Built, by the author of Dame Europa's School;-The Moon Considered as a Planet, by James Nasmyth-Adulterations of Food, by R. J. Atcherley;La Vie, translated from the French of Gustave Le Bon.

JAN. 24.

J. B. Lippincott & Co.:-Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys, by Amelia B. Edwards:-The Sherlocks, by John Saunders;-The Tales of Belkin. Roberts Bros.:-Prosper Merrimee's Letters, and My Sister Jeanne, by George Sand.

Henry Holt & Co.:-Essays in Modern Military Biography-Twixt Cup and Lip :-Haweis' Speed in Season ;Longevity-Physiology for Practical Use ;-Letters and Journals of Lord Macaulay.

Scribner, Armstrong & Co.:-Letters and Journals of Lord Macaulay :-First Principles of Cooking :-Broken Bonds:-Little Dinners, by Mary Hooper :- Longevity, by Dr. John Gardner :-Life of Samuel Lover, by Bayle Bernard;-Two Girls, by F. Wedmore.

Harper & Bros.:-The Russian Power, by Ashton Wentworth Dilke ;-Meeting the Sun;-On the Road to Khiva; -Little Dinners;-Samuel Lover;-Life and Habits of Wild Animals ;-Little Lady Lorraine ;-The Ocean: Its Tides and Currents, and their Causes, by W. L. Jordan ;Lord Macaulay's Journals and Letters. -Broken Bonds.

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Evils and the Remedies.

WE regard the coming convention as one of the most important events in the history of the American book trade; a step forward and in the right direction, and one which, if it does not succeed directly or immediately in the cure of the evils that distress the trade, will yet lead in its ultimate results to that much-desired end. And we regard it as especially important because we expect that its tone and action will formulate and emphasize what we are glad to find has become the sentiment of the entire trade, that trade interests are one, and that publisher, jobber, and retailer profit each by the prosperity of each, and are harmed each by the harm of each. We have been at much pains within the past fortnight to ascertain the views of that part of the trade which centres in the metropolis, and which may fairly be taken to represent the trade at large, upon the several phases of the one issue which has distress ed and perplexed the trade, and which will be the staple of discussion and action at the convention -the bane of underselling in its various ramifications and its incident demoralizations. We have been very glad to find a general willingness among publishers to meet the retailers half-wayan eagerness, we may say, to give ear to their grievances and to adopt any suggestions of remedy that are friendly and promise to be effective. The meeting of the Board of Trade in this city on the 13th, and still more the distance of the place of the convention, will prevent any considerable representation of publishers from New York. All with whom we have conversed, however, express themselves in sympathy with the aims of that gathering, and some will communicate their views by letter. The special committee of the Board of Trade on underselling, especially to schools, consisting of Messrs. Curtis, Sheldon, and Holt, is generally in favor of postponing any recommendation of action until the Union shall have formulated its difficulties and suggested its plans of remedy; and one of its members advises the appointment by the convention of a thoroughly representative committee of dealers, which may come to New York, and if possible "talk the thing out" in friendly counsel face to face.

It is generally agreed that underselling, in all its phases, has now reached such a pitch that it does only harm everywhere. The public is not

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induced to buy any more books, because the means of inducing it, viz., the retailers, are being broken down. The retailer, whose nominal discount is 40 per cent., has given so much of his discount away that he scarcely realizes a third of it The jobber, by cutting under, reduces his profits to a minimum or a minus quantity, and the publisher finds his chief instrument of sale, the retail trade, becoming less efficacious for this reason every year. It is unanimously agreed among the New York publishers who have given us their views on this subject, that the first remedy must be a reduction of these superfluous discounts by a reduction of the retail price of books. This would, in the first place, gratify the public, and give a “new departure " of vigor in the sale of books; the retailer would no longer be tempted nor expected to give away a part of his discount, and 25 per cent. off would net him much more than 40 does now. The jobber's lower margin of profit would have a like restraining effect. The publisher would get as much for his books, and do business on a far more efficient system. We may add as to the vexed question of "books sent by mail," that the publishers generally believe that the cost and trouble of writing a letter, the delay and liability to loss or damage in forwarding the book, and the desire to see what one is buying, are sufficient protection to the distant retailer, provided the great cities no longer offer general facilities, by underselling, for getting books below the regular price. The last argument is a bit fallacious, for it is one of the complications of the question that books, being exact duplicates through an edition, may be ordered with surety by sample; but the reasoning is in the main true. publishers are willing to add a mailing charge of five or ten cents, or five or ten per cent., to the retail price, if the dealers believe it necessary to their interests, and we are sure that an agreement to add "for sale by all booksellers" in advertisements would be generally signed.

However, many

The reduction of discounts would necessitate a reorganization of prices on a 'hard-pan " basis, viz.: the cost of manufacture and sale, plus the publisher's proper profit (including insurance for risk), plus the discount generally agreed upon as the maximum. If a general agreement as to dis-. counts were arrived at, the few firms that insist upon "padding" books and prices would be of so little account as to be left out of the question

in giving out books to scholars on credit and such reasonable items.

We were surprised to find that nearly every publisher with whom we have had opportunity to talk introduced the trade sales as a chief cause of disturbance in the matter of underselling. It is urged that these sales, which were useful a generation ago, are quite superseded by the present facilities for communication between the trade

The question of what should be the rate and scale of discounts is perplexing, yet it admits of a solution. Discounts should be as low as possible, so as to take away the temptation to give away profits, yet high enough to make bookselling a profitable business, in which the best men can aford to engage. As it is, 40 per cent. discount means frequently but 10 per cent. profit. Discounts were never nominally so high, and practically so low. The reduction of discounts really means, to the retailer, an increase of them. A third and five is a discount which should be the limit for exceptional rates, and it is believed that twenty-five off (a profit of a third on dealer's investment of capital) would be the safest regular rate. The apportionment of such lesser discount among jobbers and retailers is really the most perplexing point of the problem. Some would allow twenty-five to retailers and a third to jobbers, using their practical knowledge of the trade to decide whether a dealer is entitled to the advantage of the latter. Others would establish a sliding scale, on which five copies should be sold, say at twenty, ten at twenty-five, fifty at thirty, and larger quantities at a third, thus giving the jobber the proper advantage of his larger purchases. Others still would have a rigid discount, alike to all, allowing the jobber to collect a definite rate of commission for the services rendered to the publisher in massing a number of little accounts into one large and easily manageable one, and to the retailer in gatharing together for him the books of various publishers. The jobbing element in the trade, it is claimed, is largely to blame for the present state of things by their "pooling" and underselling their principals. Nevertheless, the joining together of several houses, whether jobbers or retailers, under one buyer, simplifies and lessens the cost of the transaction, and is entitled to whatever advantage may accrue. Under a defiaite arrangement as to discounts, the school-book publishers are generally willing, except in cases of first introduction, to protect the local dealer in school books by reducing the discount to schools or towns to the limit of ten or fifteen per cent., nough to cover the risk assumed by the teacher

publisher, letting his books go at what they may, and paying, besides, the ten per cent. commission and the catalogue charges, is too often actually out of pocket by the transaction, and so far crippled for a great part of the year; that the buyer, coming to New York at considerable expense of travel and hotel bills, does not really gain, and in fact usually overloads himself with books that he does not want and cannot readily sell, and so locks up his capital on his shelves with these supposed "bargains," that he can't buy any new and really salable books the rest of the season. We may mention two instances of the effect of these sales that were cited to us: one, that the pool of jobbers which bought 5,000 copies of Scribner's "Common Sense in the Household," at half off, put the price so much below the publishers' rates that the house informing us "hadn't bought a copy from Scribner since;" whereas they would otherwise have been quite content to buy the same quantity of a book which they "must have," directly and at regular rates; the other, that the agents in this city of a prominent Boston firm were indignantly told by their own retail customer that they had no business to charge full price for their principals' book, when it was advertised in Boston ("Books from Trade Sale, cheap") at half the money. that the only valid reason for contributing to the sales is the inducement of ready cash to houses of little capital, but that even these so run down their own stock by offering it at any price that the year's work shows that this is the very poorest way of raising money possible. The personal popularity of Mr. George A. Leavitt, whom we all know as one of the most genial and courteous members of the trade, and the fear that since everybody else goes in a withholding publisher will find the de ler's capital all used up at the sale so that none is let for purchase of his books at private sale, are the sole motives that influence all but a very few houses in contributing to the sale We have been assured by some of the largest contributors—one of whom says he never feels so small in his life as when he comes off that platform after his invoice is sold-that they will gladly sign a general agreement not to contribute to these sales, and that they will thank any one person or house who will undertake the work which everybody is waiting for somebody else to start. The trade sale, we must say, is generally regarded-not because of

It is further argued