On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • Untitled
  • 

    Camnjkjlx Aisi) (Jo. The board of Cu»acl...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    An Evil In The German Book

    'Many are the complaints in the German book trade of bad times ; and scarcely ^ had the — -

    discount question been settled , and a healthier attemp state of t was affairs made begun by resolutions to prevail of , a mai than oritv an

    in the Booksellers' Exchange Union to bring everything back again to the old and no longer tenable position i . In opposition — to this

    we cannot help once more calling ij attention to , an evil in the German book trade which will render more and more difficult the sale of

    socalled heavy books . We mean the far too hasty reduction in the prices x of books only d

    recently published . In theory , the business usages of the foreign book trade are condemned , according to which the publishers

    of books recently produced frequently reduce the prices as soon as the first demand has been satisfied ; and the German booksellers are

    looking praised upon for pursuing books as onl higher y common aims , merchan and not - dise ; but , in practice , the German publisher

    only too often leans towards those very same trade usages of the foreign bookseller . ' The following case gives cause for this

    complaint in which many colleagues will join . A Viennese booksellerin a circular now lying

    before me , offers the " , Biographical Dictionary of the Greatest Physicians of All Ages" which

    only appeared complete in the second half of the year 1888 in Vienna for 97 Marks 50 Pfennige ( « £ 4 . 17 s . Gd . ) for € 1 . 5 * . So that ,

    about a year after completion , the price of the book is reduced to about one-fourth . The publisher must have reduced the price still

    - more L if a third party can still get a profi . t out of the 4 Apart JL £ 1 . 5 from . s . the fact that such reductions in

    price often lead to mistakes , librarians must often ask themselves if they would not do better not to order such expensive books at once but i rather wait quietly for some reduction in the

    price . What effect such compulsory dilatory action on the part of librarians must have on the new pA ublications of the German book

    trade is patent to every one . We should like the committee of the German Exchange Union to take measures against such proceedings .

    Although the German librarians are not disposed to injure the interests of the German book tradethey are bound to guard

    nistitutions entrusted , to their keeping from the loss which n ; ay result owing to such hasty

    reductions in price .

    Ar01700

    I March 15 , 1890 The Publishers' Circular 323

    Camnjkjlx Aisi) (Jo. The Board Of Cu»Acl...

    Camnjkjlx Aisi ) ( Jo . The board of Cu » acll As

    Company ( Limited ) Htato that the gradually increasing absorption of capital by the company ' s New York branch led the directors to entertain

    proposals for the purchase of that business , which has been sold , on satisfactory terms , as from December 311880 to a body of American

    , , citizens , as the * Cassell Publishing Company / The purchasers ¦ take over all the assets and

    liabilities of the branch , and arrangements have been made whereby they will act in the future as agents in America for this company , which

    on its part will act as agents for the ' Cassell Publishing Company ' in this country , Europe , and the British Colonies . The proceeds of this

    sale ( which in the balance-sheet appear among the amounts owing by ' sundry debtors' ) are

    now being temporarily invested , pending their employment in the further development of this ' s business UUOlllCOOi The illt / amount iven under

    the Compan ¦^ - > yJlLi head . ^ JOiXLJf y of O i sundry . debtors IIIIIV ' is 'UIIU £ 148 g gL * , 4 47 UAJUC . 1 . The Readers' Pension . —This pension . i has

    now been fairly started by the payment to the Printers' Pension Corporation of £ 488 . At the election which takes place to-daythe

    votes from the pension will be given to , Mrs . Franklyn , whose husband , having been for more than thirty years a reader at Messrs .

    Burt ' s ( formerly of Wine Office Court , Fleet - Street , but now of Fetter Lane ) , fell dead on

    his way to work in April last . A sum of between 100 and 170 , in addition to the amount paid to the Corporation , has been

    promised , which will , it is hoped , increase the pension next year to US . Part of this is from readers who had decided to spread their

    contributions over two years . Messrs . Clowes recently increased their donation from five guineas to ten ; and Mr . Tomsof the Field

    has given 15 . The working , expenses have , been less than 2 \ per cent , on the amount

    collected , the expenditure being solely on printing , postage , and stationery . More than half of this will be covered by the interest

    received for the money while the fund was accumulating . Sir John Lubbock ' s Public Library

    Bill . —One year ' s success in improving the law relating to the establishment of public libraries is but an incentive to Sir John

    Lubbock to make further efforts in the same direction . His Bill of this year proposes to substitute the county and borough electorate ,

    for as established the electorate by the of ratepay Acts of ers 1888 in and whom 1882 the , power of adopting the Libraries Acts is now

    vested . The Bill also provides that , where the district for which the adoption of the Acts is proposed M . ' X . contains a population ML M . of 5 , 000 or

    g by more iven vo , ting b the y the papers opinion Act of alone of 1877 the . of voters The proceeding op is tion to be that e taken ither was

    by voting papers or by public meeting would thus be confined to districts having a population of lens than 5 , 000 . Another provision of

    the Bill is that the special condition which may be adopx . ted may •/ be eit i her that the

    maximum rate is not to exceed ; halfpenny or three ones far — things — that ___ — may those . _^ be specified exact sums . And being subsequentl the onl y y

    ei „ ther _ , of these limitations ^ might be removed ^ ^ , or the lower one raised to the higher . Howintended to authorise the

    ever ever , it it is is not not intended to authorise tne levy levy of a rate exceeding a penny in the pound in any library district except the City of London .

    It is also proposed that the opinion of the majority of those who vote shall prevail , and

    not that a majority of the constituency shall be necessary . Moreoverwhen questions are

    put by voting paper , both , as to the adoption of the Acts and also as to limitation of the

    rate upon , the either voter or upon is enabled both to of g these ive a valid questions vote .

    Thus the Acts he may and vote 4 Yes ' ' No as ' to as limiting to the adop the rate tion to of ,

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), March 15, 1890, page 323, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15031890/page/17/