M. Paul Otlet, the Secretary of the Brussels International
Bibliographic Institute, places the total annual book production of
the entire globe at approximately 150,000 volumes per annum.
Senor Eduardo Ravarro Salvador, a distinguished Spanish author, has
compiled with greatest care statistics of a similar nature which are
printed in the _Madrid Heraldo_, and his estimate quite closely
confirms the other, aggregating approximately a little over 160,000
for the year 1911.
A dozen years ago, when book production was smaller than today, Mr.
Percy L. Parker, in the _New York Independent_, gave the total number
of books issued by thirteen countries in an average year as 77,250,
which would be not as large as the estimates of either Senor Salvador
or M. Otlet, but is nevertheless of use in confirming them, and
increasing the probability that a mean of the three estimates may be
quite substantially near to the truth.
Mr. Joseph B. Gilder, in an article in the _New York Times_, for
January 25, 1914, states that our Ambassador to the Court of St.
James, Mr. Page of the publishing firm of Doubleday, Page and Co.,
said not long before departing for his post, that American men spend
less for books than for neckties, and American women less than for the
buttons on their frocks. The same article quotes the Boston
bookseller, Mr. W. B. Clarke, who is Chairman of the Executive
Committee of the American Booksellers Association, as saying that the
per capita consumption of books is less than of any other commodity.
Following Mr. Gilder's article, and using the statistics of the
_Statesman's Year Book_, as to population, and of the _World Almanac_,
as to book production in 1910, we find that in Switzerland there was
one book printed for every 872 population; in Japan one to 1,224; in
Germany one to 2,075; in France one to 3,809; in Great Britain one to
3,808; and in the United States one to 7,295. In 1911 our showing was
not quite so good.
According to statistics prepared for the _World Almanac_, and to
sources indicated above, and others, the number of books issued
annually in the United States varies in late years but little either
way from 10,000. It would appear that the United States issued roughly
only about six per cent of the total, and if we deduct new editions
and translations, only about four per cent of the total.
Further, by an examination of these various and varying statistics
from the best experts, it is evident that little Switzerland, which is
scarcely one-eighteenth the size of our State of Texas, and whose
population is less than one-twenty-fifth that of the United States,
publishes more than three-quarters as many books per annum as we do;
in other words, ten times as many books per million inhabitants per
annum are published by Switzerland as by the United States. In fact
she leads the world in this particular.
By similar analysis, we find that the Scandinavian countries, Denmark,
Sweden and Norway, which in book production are next in rank to
Switzerland, have an output of about six times ours. Germany, France,
the British Empire, Holland, Italy, Austria greatly surpass us, all
running, per million of population, from three and one-half to five
times our output. Roumania, with one-thirteenth our population,
publishes one-fourth as many books; Japan with slightly more than half
our population, publishes four times as many; in other words, eight
times as many per million of population; but a large number of these
are pamphlets: so instead of publishing in percentages eight times as
many, she really issues an average of between three and four times as
many, which makes our showing even then bad enough.
In the density of our ignorance, we sometimes think and speak of
Russia as a benighted country, forgetting that in her middle and upper
circles, she is vibrant with intellectual and artistic energy. In book
production, even though the showing on her side is distorted by the
countless millions of her ignorant peasant class, who number about 79
per cent of her population, we find that she produces two and
three-quarters times as many books as we do, and has a population only
one and two-thirds times larger. In other words, she materially
exceeds us in book production.
This leaves us to seek in Spain the only one of the civilized nations
of the entire globe that publishes so few books per million of
population per annum as we do; and it is questionable whether we are
able to hold the lead over even her: for an analysis of the statistics
of both Otlet and Salvador places us slightly behind united Spain and
Portugal, the figures for the two being given in conjunction. Beneath
these there is no lower depth.
Germany produces more books than any other nation in the seven highly
creditable classes of educational, arts and sciences, _belles
lettres_, theology, medicine, voyages, and law.
Italy holds first rank in political economy; France in history, poetry
and drama; and the United States ties France for first place in one
item only, books on sport. That is our best bid for a premier place.
The _Publishers' Weekly_, the semi-official organ of the book trade,
in its issue of Jan. 30, 1904, contains the following statement:
The great decrease in all the more serious departments of
literature, as well as in some of the lighter ones, is a curious
and unexplainable condition of our book production. Scientific
and philosophical writings are as conspicuous through their
absence as are the simply amusing books.
Moreover, this backward condition of America's book production is a
new situation that has existed for a generation only. That this is so,
is shown in various ways, but particularly in the parlous condition of
the retail bookselling trade. A generation ago, when our population
was a little less than one-half what it is today, there were in the
United States, it is estimated, between three and four thousand
booksellers carrying fairly good stocks of books representative of
history, light science, economics, art, biography, travel, poetry,
essays, fiction and _belles lettres_ generally.
There are less than fifteen hundred booksellers left, and this number
is steadily being diminished through withdrawals from business. Yet on
January 9, 1914, the Secretary of the American News Company told the
House Committee on Post Office that the country contains nearly a
hundred thousand news stands.
Since there were three or four thousand bookstores, not only has the
population of the country more than doubled, but the general average
of wealth has increased markedly, being quite four times what it was
then: so that by good rights the three or more thousand booksellers of
that day should have increased three-fold or over, to at least ten
thousand, instead of diminishing by more than one-half.
* * * * *
If it be true, as has been repeatedly asserted, that a good bookstore,
well stocked and intelligently managed, performs an educational work
in any community only slightly, if indeed at all, less important than
that done by its schools, colleges, libraries or churches, this
deplorable condition of affairs merits serious attention.
The reason for the situation is not far to seek: though not even its
existence, let alone its cause, is as generally known as it should be.
Yet the cause seems plainly and definitely determinable. To arrive at
it, we must turn from book production to another printing-trade
industry that has waxed in the United States as book production has
waned. Forty years ago less than ten million copies of periodicals,
exclusive of newspapers, were published annually. Today it is
estimated that there are published over seven-and-a-half billion, and
of this quantity more than one-half gets distribution through the
mails. These extra hundreds of millions of periodicals would seem to
mean as many tens of millions fewer good books; and that seems to be
virtually the sole cause of the disappearance of the books.
* * * * *
On June 23, 1874, there was approved an act of Congress establishing a
pound rate of postage on mail matter of the second-class--newspapers
and periodicals. At first this rate was three cents a pound for
magazines, and two for newspapers. Soon it was lowered to two cents
for each, and still later, becoming operative on July 1, 1885, the
rate was reduced to only one cent per pound for each. The cost of
service rendered then and every year since, is many times that amount:
at present it is estimated by various experts and commissions as
running from 6-1/2 cents to 12 cents per pound.
The effect of that law is emphatically shown in the following table
giving amounts of second-class mail (periodical literature) carried by
the Post Office Department at various dates.