An enterprising American has published the following calculations:

There are 500,000 tobacco dealers in the U. S. A., and only 2,500 bookstores. 200 times as much effort to supply smoke as to supply brains!

Should we, as a nation, fare any better, were similar calculations made in our case? I fear that we should not.

MR.

It is clear then that there is need for such an organization as the National Book Council, and that the work in front of it is illimitable. It is equally clear that that work cannot be effectively done without the active cooperation of all the better elements in the community. The problem is too large for any one man or group to solve. It needs to be approached from all sides simultaneously. We must link up books with every form of activity.

In the first place, perhaps, their practical utility and necessity must be stressed. The farmer must be led to realize that he cannot make the best of his farm, or the golfer the best of his golf, without the knowledge that books have to offer him. We have made a tentative beginning along these lines in the distribution of brief lists of the best books on all manner of subjects and in the syndication of suitable articles in rural papers, that had not, hitherto, printed a word about books. But much more remains to be done to convey the idea of books as a necessity and to break down the inhibition that undoubtedly prevents people from buying them. The idea that books are a luxury is still all too prevalent. It not only prevents people from buying them, but leads people to hoard the most worthless trash. A couple of magazines bought to while away a journey will unhesitatingly be discarded, but a cheap novel bought for the same purpose will be preserved as a priceless gem of literature. What a chaotic state our homes would get into, if we acted upon the same principle, let us say with clothes that had served their

you

We can probably all do something to make people as ashamed of being without books as they would be of not having a few pictures or a comfortable chair or to desire books as much as they desire these other things.

A distinguished authoress has said, "Nobody between the ages of 12 and 20 ever has enough books to read." A child that grows up in a home

to

without books is a mentally starved child. If you are beginning to be middle-aged, come may have believe that it is only serious children, only studious and precocious boys and girls who love to read; perhaps you don't remember, or perhaps you had nothing but seed catalogs and volumes of sermons to read when you were seventeen, an age when boys and girls are apt to be great readers.

Well, it is one of the missions of the National to Book Council encourage parents to be as thoughtful in the provision of mental food for their children as they are with physical food or other merely material welfare.

We do not overlap the work of education authorities, or other organizations. We supplement it. It is a worthy task to which we have set our hands and we need all the assistance you and others can give

us.

We are a young organization-we are as yet a small organization, but we are fired with enthusiasm and are possessed of that dogged determination which will not let us rest until we have obtained for books their rightful place in the lives of the people in this green and pleasant land of

ours.

TH

HE July convention of English booksellers, held at Cambridge, has proved one of their most successful meetings, and the program is represented. in this number of the Publishers' Weekly by two addresses, that by Basil Blackwell, which opened a discussion on "How to Sell More Books," and that by Stanley Unwin, who spoke before a joint meeting of the booksellers and the National Book Council.

It is especially interesting to note that a Cabinet member was present, Lord Eustace Percy, Secretary of Education, who opened the discussion on "Books and the General Public." Lord Percy believes that "the need of the time is not to stimulate the reading habit. Nearly everybody has the habit. It has been discovered that the greatest mind opiate in the world is carrying the eye along a certain number of printed lines in succession. This mere habit of reading is a danger to modern civilization. If we are honest, we will admit that the attraction of the morning paper is in the fact that it lets our eye travel down the columns while our mind is practically asleep. In the train we see people taking this opiate in order to dis

tract themselves from the discomfort of their position or from thinking of things about which they ought to be thinking. When one sees the expression on the faces of these fellow creatures, one feels as a horseman might when his horse has his head down and there is a fence ahead. He has to get his horse's head up if he is to clear the fence. The reading public must get their heads up from the morning papers if they are ever to learn to read properly."

Hugh Walpole, another distinguished guest, having lately returned from the United States, contrasted the reading public in England with that of the United States. "The demand for books in the United States," he said, "is far greater than in England because England does not discriminate enough between reading for entertainment and the highbrow literature. Times have changed, and people find both pleasure and relaxation in light reading. A new public has been created by the war, and supplying the needs of this public is the most interesting part of the book business. It doesn't matter so much what one reads, and perhaps the books of the past have a reputation which is exaggerated and perhaps from the point of view of interest are much behind those produced today. must not be too highbrow. People of today want books which can be read after the day's work."

The University was represented in the discussions by Vice-Chancellor Weekes of Sidney Sussex College, who brought testimony to what his own experience had taught him of the great value of the booksellers of Cambridge. He believes that if you induce people to buy books you are much more likely to induce them to read them.

The business discussions of the convention showed the continuing importance of the maintenance of the net book agreement. The president reported conferences with one dealer, who had not cut the price but who had given extraneous services, which he believed was perilously near an evasion. He also reported a conference held with a subscription book house which had at first refused to sell its product also thru the bookstores but had been persuaded to reconsider its stand.

One firm of booksellers announced a pre-publication price that was lower than the regular price but had been persuaded to drop the practice.

A study which had been made by the Association on the cost of doing business showed how different is the situation in England from that in America. While the president found that it was not always possible for the dealers to give figures on new books alone, as the result of his questions he reached the conclusion that the gross profit on new books is about 25% or 26% and the expenses about 20%, this being about 10% less than in America.

Some indication of the coordination that is going on in England between the forces which are concerned in increased book distribution appears in the fact that the publishers' association is represented by W. M. Meredith, the National Book Council. by its chairman, W. Pett Ridge and secretary Maurice Marston; the Incorporated Society of Authors represented by its chairman, W. B. Maxwell; the Society of Bookmen represented by its president, Hugh Walpole; the Federation of Master Printers represented by its president, J. S. Brunton; the National Book Trade Provident Society represented by its president, F. A. Denny; also the Stationers' Association, and the Oxford and Cambridge Booksellers' Assistants' Association.

Authors' Income Taxes

TH

HE decision of the government to classify authors' royalties, for the purpose of taxation, as "unearned income" brought forth many columns.of comment in the press. In the World the question of the actual effect of this ruling was analyzed.

"In practice no great hardship will be wrought to authors by the Internal Revenue Bureau ruling holding the ordinary form of royalties to be 'unearned income.' Since earned income is limited to a maximum of $20,000, beyond which figure all forms of income are taxed alike, the ruling could under no circumstances cost an author more than $200 a year; under ordinary circumstances $150 would be an outside estimate. The rule regards books as a manufactured product which is leased. for an annual revenue. It places the au

thor upon the same footing as a carpenter who builds a house for lease and whose annual rent is treated as unearned income.

"The chief unfairness of the rule in the eyes of authors will lie in the rather arbitrary distinction it makes between authors on contract and free-lance authors. A popular author with an assured public who contracts to do articles or books for a lump sum and is paid outright has this income treated as earned.' An author who invests equal labor and talent at his own risk to produce a book published on a royalty basis has his income treated as 'unearned.' If the book sells for only a year he does not have the advantage of spreading his income over a longer period than the author on contract. This distinction will seem to a great part of the literary world illogical and unfair, and we may expect to see publishers unite with authors in combating it."

A

English Undefiled

JURY of two hundred and twentytwo authors, editors, business men and teachers have, at the request of

a profesor of the University of Wisconsin, presented a verdict that the English language may be much mishandled in the using without its being a final disaster. The jury has agreed to approve a good many grammatical constructions that have been taboo in our schools and colleges. It is not, to be sure, going to permit the expression, "It is me," but some expressions at which we have been called upon to look with horror, are more favorably treated.

The release of this jury report and the very general comment on it in the press again emphasizes the wide public interest in the matters of language and correct expression, an interest of which every bookseller is well aware. The books on correct English or words mispronounced or sentences misused are in constant demand. This is quite as it should be, and the bookseller is serving his own business interest and serving his community well when he carries on his shelves a good assortment of books in this field. The jury may approve a number of doubtful expressions, but they would not approve many hundreds of expressions that appear all too frequently in our everyday speech and which a good reference book helps to correct.