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a very busy and popular institution. institution. My time in Portland was so short that I could not get to the building until evening, but that visit was in itself a revelation of what a library can be to the educational interests of a city. Each floor seemed alive with students, some attending lectures, many in the technical and art departments, and conspicuous on the open floor was special consultant on adult education.

Sacramento, January 29-30.

To come to Sacramento from the north in January is to come from snow peaks to blossoms. I could not see Mt. Shasta or Lassen on account of mist, but the nearer peaks had their own red and black beauty and in the fertile valley from Reading on the fascination of obvious opulence.

Not all state capitals seem as human and likeable as Sacramento, and few cities of under 100,000 are as adequately bookserved. The old Purnell book and stationery store on busy K Street is being given a new birth by two young men, Crowell and Johnson. They are in need of more room and hope to find larger quarters. A few blocks up, in a dignified new building, is the long-established department store of Weinstock Lubin, Agnes Shannon has fine first floor space with a good current stock and rental library.

The Levinson Bookstore, also on K Street, the leading shopping thorofare, was established less than three years ago by Samuel Levinson, who some twenty years ago started a varied book career as a Doubleday salesman. He made a selling trip to the Coast, and, like many such pilgrims, decided to stay. There followed retail experience in San Francisco and Berkeley and a flurry in publishing at the time of the exposition. The characteristic of his store which marks it as, perhaps, the most unusual bookshop I have found east or west in a city of 100,000 is the admirable and painstaking selection of stock, and it is of booktrade significance that the city has made such a stock profitable. Every inch of the 18x60 foot stock is put to use, and the books, be it noted, have crowded out the stationery by the growth of demand. When I say a "good stock," I mean that I walked to the shelves and found full assortments

of William James and Nietszche as well as a dozen of Jack London, the leading titles of Sienkiewicz, four sets of Conrad as well as 2,500 selected reprints, all the modern poets as well as a good row of Pocket Bohn Libraries and Oxford Classics, a large and discriminating assortment of children's books; also, a varied selection of fine printing and art books. There must be a $30,000 stock and not a hundred volumes of deadwood. And Mr. Levinson seems to know every volume as does his book-loving wife who takes salesman's place in days of extra pressure or when her husband is on a buying trip to San Francisco.

The store deserves this especial emphasis, because it confirms me in the belief that the day is not far distant when, if the right bookmen and the right communities are brought together, there can be such bookstocks in every one of our smaller cities.

Sacramento is in itself a complete library exhibit, with city, county and state institutions, the latter soon to become resident in its fine new building. Milton J. Ferguson, state librarian of California and conspicuous figure in national library movements, has been here for a score of years, and for half this time chief of the large and rapidly growing book collection and state-wide book service. The new building, with its classic proportion, faces on a new plaza across the street from the gloriously planted park of the state capitol. There are twin buildings, one for state offices and one the library, which will house on its fourth floor the State Supreme Court, most of whose sessions are held in San Francisco. Over the entrance is an impressive sculpture and an inscription devised by Mr. Ferguson, "Into the highlands of the mind let me go." The building, entered thru a memorial hall of black marble columns, is built around the central book stocks, and the handsome woodwork and fine proportions of the long rooms will give a superb setting for the many special collections which make up the library: a hall for the big California history collection, the famous law library, the maps and charts, etc. California is to be congratulated that its legislators have given, even tho by intermittent appropriations. such splendid recognition of the high importance of book collections and book service to the life of the commonwealth.

If the book lover happens, also, to be a tree lover, it is hard to pass on from Sacramento without comment on the magnificent trees which fill the park around the State capitol. I have seen nothing finer since a visit to London's Kew Gardens. The Italian stone pines have reached magnificent proportions, an impressive row of deodars run along the front, redwoods have attained diameters of three to five feet; then there are cypresses, the giant sequoia, fan palms, date palms, orange trees in fruit, and many others. Water close below the soil level, as at Kew, has probably given the trees their noble growth.

Southern California Booksellers'

ON

Association Revived

N Thursday night, February 10th, 40 booksellers at a banquet in San Diego, Cal., revived the old Southern California Booksellers' Association. They elected the following executive committee:

Charles Hickson; Ernest Dawson of Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles; Leslie Hood of A. C. Vroman, Inc., Pasadena; Philip Kubel of J. W. Robinson Co., Los Angeles; O. D. Hade of the Children's Bookstore, Los Angeles; Markham Macklin; Charles Andrew of the Jones Bookstore, Los Angeles.

The guests at the banquet included Frederic Melcher, editor of the Publishers' Weekly, who addressed the meeting, Herbert Caldwell, Pacific Coast traveler for Cupples & Leon and William Collins Sons & Company, Ltd. and Helen E. Haines, recently lecturer on book selection at the Library School of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Not Very Encouraging THE publishers who have said they were

not submitting manuscripts to the Guild, according to the New York Evening Post of February 8th, include Boni & Liveright, Harcourt, Brace & Co., Charles Scribner's Sons, Houghton Mifflin Company, Doubleday, Page & Co., Harper & Brothers, Century Co., D. Appleton & Co., George H. Doran Co., Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Macmillan Company, Dodd, Mead & Co., E. P. Dutton & Co., G. P. Putnam's Sons,

Frederick A. Stokes Co., Little, Brown & Co., Bobbs-Merrill Co. and Brentano's.

"I am not in favor of supporting any organization," said John W. Hiltman, president of Appleton's, "which depends on price-cutting for its basis. We have not offered them any manuscripts, nor will we. We have not cooperated with the Literary Guild, nor with any organization whose object is to undersell booksellers.

"Furthermore, I don't see, as a practical publisher, how it will be possible for them to obtain substantial manuscripts and to issue books at a price lower than that now being done by booksellers."

"The trade is against the Literary Guild," said Frank Dodd of Dodd, Mead & Co. "There is a feeling among publishers, which we share, that the Guild is going to antagonize booksellers. It will disturb not only trade relations but the public."

The Macmillan Company declared formally that it "reports that, inasmuch as they have had no formal request from th Literary Guild for one of their books, they do not feel justified in making any statement, as no occasion has arisen for them to make a statement to the Literary Guild."

The Knopf company admitted that "it had been divided at first," but was "absolutely against them now."

George H. Doran declared that the Guild was "inimical to both publishing and bookselling interests."

"As we comprehend the plan today," said George P. Putnam, "we are not submitting manuscripts."

The Stokes Company declared the plan was "not well advised, either for the bookseller or the publisher.”

Arthur Brentano declared that his house would neither handle the proposition as a publishing company nor a book dealer, and asserted that it "was not a healthy condition and won't help either the trade or the public."

John Macrae, president of E. P. Dutton & Co., deplored the attempt of the Guild "to stereotype the American mind" by attempting to force one type of book on a large class of people. He declared that the present bookseller held a sound place in the present cultural life of the community which the Guild could in no way supplant.

T

The Copyright Fees Bill

Report of the Committee on Patents

HE bill for increase of copyright fees (H. R. 16548) was on February 14th reported by Mr. Vestal from the Committee on Patents back to the House with amendments making the fee on unpublished works $1 and including in the charge for transcription of records the phrase "or additional fraction thereof over one-half page" with the recommendation that the bill do pass. The bill is otherwise as printed in full in the Publishers' Weekly of February 12th.

As the bill is unopposed, it is hoped that passage in the House will be secured and no opposition in the Senate is feared in case it can be got on the Senate calendar for prompt action.

The Committee report says:

"The present general copyright registration fee has been in force for nearly a century of time with no change in amount. In the first Federal copyright act of 1790 the fee for entry of title was 60 cents and an additional 60 cents for every copy under seal of the record made. By the copyright act of 1831 these charges were reduced to 50 cents, respectively, for entry and certificate, and the same sums were provided for under the act of revision of 1870, the Revised Statutes of 1873, and the copyright act of 1891. The copyright registration fees covering recording and certificate have never been increased. In the act of March 4, 1909, there was no change made in the total sum charged for registration of the copyright claim, but the law was simply changed to require a fee of $1 in the case of each entry, that sum to include the certificate of such registration.

"There has been a great change in economic conditions in this country during this long period of time, and especially by reason of the war. The services rendered by the copyright office also have changed greatly and the comparatively nominal service rendered for this fee so many years ago has developed into a prompt, effective, and adequate response to the demands now made upon the office by the enormously de

veloped publishing and producing business of the United States.

"The fees now paid do not cover the actual cost of the service performed, including salaries, supplies, printing of blanks, certificates, and circulars, and of the Catalogue of Copyright Entries, nor the overhead charges of the copyright office for space, light and heat, etc.

"Under all the circumstances the increase in fees proposed by the bill seems reasonable. The fee for a patent was increased $5 by the act approved February 18, 1922, amending Revised Statutes section 4934. The advance in these fees as proposed will still leave them smaller than similar fees charged in other copyright offices. At Stationer's Hall, London, the copyright office for Great Britain, the registration fee is 5 shillings with the same sum for certificate, or the equivalent $2.50 in all. In the bureau at Ottawa, the copyright office for Canada, the registration charge is $2 and $1 for certificate, or $3 in all. It is in evidence before the committee that fees for similar services in recording documents in offices of clerks of courts have been generally advanced in recent years, especially since the war.

"The increases proposed are small individually (from 50 cents to $1 and from $1 to $2), and even in the aggregate will hardly be felt when distributed among all the producers of copyrighted works thruout this and foreign countries. The sums realized from the exploitation of literary property have greatly increased since 1909. It would not be unfair if the fees connected with the protection of this valuable property paid to the copyright office should be increased a little.

"Expressions of approval of the proposed increases were submitted to the committee at the public hearing on the bill on Thursday, February 3. Organizations representing most of the large clients of the copyright office are on record before the committee as directly favoring this increase in fees proposed-the American Bar Associa

tion, the Publishers' Weekly, motion-picture producers and distributors, the Authors' League of America, and the Music Publishers' Protective Association. The National Periodical Publishers' Association, representing copyright office clients making. more than 40,000 registrations of newspapers and periodicals last year, are recorded as expressing no desire to oppose the proposed increase.

"The works for which registration may be made in the copyright office are divided into two classes-(1) unpublished works, and (2) published works-and this permits the registrations to be divided into two categories to correspond. Registration in the case of the unpublished work is a preliminary entry of title, made usually upon the deposit of the author's manuscript and before a publisher has been secured or arrangements have been made for the exploitation of the author's creation. It is in the case of such authors that a doubling of the registration fee to $2 might seem burdensome, and the amendment recommended will in the case of such works leave the charge as it is now under present law, $1, for registration, including certificate. But in the case of all other works, published or reproduced in copies for sale, where the deposit has been made as required of the work actually published, the fee of $2 for registration, with certificate, is proposed.

now

"The fee now fixed by law for indexing works the copyright for which has been assigned is also left unchanged, namely, IC cents for each title indexed.

"The bill further proposes a change in the subscription price for the Catalogue of Copyright Entries. This was fixed at $5 the year by the copyright act of 1909. Since that time the cost of printing this catalog and index of the copyright registrations has more than doubled. The work consists of a complete yearly record of more than 170,000 entries, and amounts to nearly 8,000 closely printed octavo pages. An increase to $10 for the complete work for each year seems entirely reasonable. This proposed increase in the price of the catalog was directly suggested by Hon. Martin B. Madden, of the Appropriations Committee, who has also recommended the increased fees proposed."

D

January Best Sellers

Compiled by "Books of the Month" URING their first month of publication "The Plutocrat," by Booth Tarkington and "Tomorrow Morning," by Anne Parrish have become decided successes, reaching second and third places on the list of Best Sellers compiled by Books of the Month. The Plutocrat is an American millionaire, who is taking the Mediterranean cruise and he has been described as the boy in "Seventeen," grown up. Anne Parrish, the author of last season's best seller, "The Perennial Bachelor," has written another story of family life, this time in a modern setting. "Revelry" has gone up from seventh to fifth place, followed by "Under the Tonto Rim," which has also gone up two steps. The latter book is most popular in the midwest, as is "Chevrons,' a war story by Leonard Nason, that has not yet attained a place among the top ten. "Cherry Square," by Grace S. Richmond has reached tenth place.

"The Story of Philosophy" again tops the non-fiction list, with 92 points out of a possible III. The next six books are just the same as last month, except that their order has been shifted slightly. Miltion C. Work's "Auction Bridge Complete," is again among the first ten, taking eighth place, and "Benjamin Franklin" is again at nine.

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Comparisons have also been made of the books voted for by two or more stores in individual cities, and the following results obtained: Wilmington, Del.: "Tomorrow Morning,' "Galahad," "The Dark Dawn," "War Birds,' Dawn," "War Birds," "The Story of Philosophy," "Cross Word Puzzle Book, No. 6"; New York City: "The Plutocrat, "Tomorrow Morning," "Revelry," "The Story of Philosophy," "Benjamin Franklin," "Wine, Women and War"; Chicago: "Tomorrow Morning" and "The Plutocrat," "Chevrons," "The Delectable Mountains," "The Story of Philosophy," "Benjamin Franklin," "Sutter's Gold"; San Francisco: "Sorrell and Son," "Beau Sabreur," "Bellarion" and "Nigger Heaven," "The Story of Philosophy," "Why We Behave Like Human Beings," "The Royal Road To Romance."

FICTION

Erskine. "Galahad." Bobbs-Merrill. Tarkington. "The Plutocrat." Doubleday.

cards better known as post-cards, the same rate as for the private postal cards supplied by the government. The measure now goes to conference. The provisions for secondclass matter follow compared with the present rate:

Newspapers and Periodicals

Parrish. "Tomorrow Morning." Harper.
Deeping. "Sorrell and Son." Knopf.
Adams. "Revelry." Boni & Liveright.
Grey. "Under the Tonto Rim." Harper.
Ferber. "Show Boat." Doubleday.
Glasgow. "The Romantic Comedians." (Text and advertisements) (lb) 11⁄2

Doubleday.

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Non-Profit Publications

All Other Publications

(Text)

Adv. Matter Zones 1 and 2
Adv. Matter Zone 3

Adv. Matter Zone 4
Adv. Matter Zone 5
Adv. Matter Zone 6

Adv. Matter Zone 7
Adv. Matter Zone 8

Present Proposed
Cents Cents

14

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Further proposals are as follows:

"Where the space devoted to advertisements does not exceed 5 per centum of the total space, the rate of postage shall be the same as if the whole of such publication was devoted to matter other than adver

tisements.

"The rate of postage on daily newspapers and on the periodicals and newspapers provided for in this section, when deposited in the letter-carrier office for delivery by its carriers, shall be the same as now provided by law, and nothing in this act shall affect existing law as to free circulation and existing rates on second-class mail matter within the county of publication. The Postmaster General may hereafter require publishers to separate or make up for zones in such a manner as he may direct all mail matter of the second-class when offered for mailing.

"With the first mailing of each issue of each such publication the publishers shall file with the Postmaster a copy of such issue together with a statement containing such information as the Postmaster General may prescribe for determining the postage chargeable thereon."

During debate on the bill Senator Moses however declared that it would cause a loss of $30,000,000 a year in year in postal

revenues.

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