Gentlemen, these are but indications of some of the relations which you hold to all the great factors in our civilization. I do not flatter you. Nor would I unduly exalt your calling and mine. Yet it is an honorable one; it is susceptible of producing its own great reward, in the consciousness that the world ought to be better because of you, and such as you, having lived and worked in it. And yet you ask for no endowments out of the public or the private purse, no gift from any man's treasury, but only this-a moderate return for your labor and investment, that you may have the bread which you have earned by the sweat of your brow. carry the thing in full to the perfect end, we swept out a long way in that direction. [Applause.] I look over this audience to-day- there are many here, and they are welcome, who were not heard of at Put-in Bay. Aside from what has been actually accomplished through the Publishers' Board of Trade, and in other directions, this Association has done much, according to my perception-much, according to my estimate of this whole business, and of the men that are engaged in it. It is of still more value that the book traders of the United States to-day are more of men than they ever were before. Why, gentlemen, when in the city of Chicago, under the operation of the laws of this movement, the buyers of Webster's dictionary paid $12 for it instead of $9.50, it built the trade of that city up into manhood. And so on! While we have not been able to hold the trade in all the cities, every man in his own place, according to his own purposes, has strengthened himself in believing that it was not right, or just, or proper that a man who paid without a murmur $5000 for a camel's-hair shawl to give his wife should jockey for his 20 per cent on his Bible. [Great applause.] Now, it is to correct some of the evils to which I have alluded that we have organized and assembled here. But this is not a trade union, as it has been called it does not seek to array one class against another; it is not money as against brains; we are not striking for eight hours or ten hours, but only demand a fair day's wages for a full day's work. [Applause.] Nor is it a movement to increase the price of books, but simply to retain the price which the publisher has fixed, and which price affords no larger proportionate profits either to publisher or dealer than that afforded upon all articles of common merchandise. [Ap-representing, as I said, a diversity of opinion, plause.] And, gentlemen, no one is more deeply interested in the principles and results which underlie this reform which we contemplate than the book-buyers of the country. If the owner of mines in Pennsylvania, if the cotton-planter of the South, or the grain-pro- | ducer of the West, has an interest in the furnaces of the Alleghanies, in the mills of Massachusetts, and in the prosperity of labor in all the towns and cities, then, certainly, all nations, all educators, all the learned professors, all philanthropists have a vital, permanent interest in the prosperity of the American book trade. [Applause.] It is to all these that we may frankly and rightly appeal to help on this work of reform. We are co-workers with them in the elevation of the people. It is a condition of mutual dependence and support, and the time is coming when they will realize that for them to ask or to insist upon a reduction of our legitimate and necessary profits would be as unjust as for us to claim, because of our position and calling, a certain percentage of their income. [Long-continued applause.] It would not be strange if among this company although there is a unity of interest--there should You The President's address closed amid a storm of applause; after which the Constitution, resolutions of the Convention, and list of officers were read by the Secretary, Mr. John H. Thomas, of Dayton, Ohio, as the minutes of the last meeting, and adopted as such. As to the progress of the work since we met a year ago, the reports of the various committees will show it. It would be idle to say, and we can not overlook the fact that there may have been some violations, that there may have been some disappointments, that we have not prosecuted to its ultimate close the work of reform. But, gentlemen, perhaps some of you have not had the same means and opportunities to keep run of the movement as some of those of us who have been more closely identified with it. I doubt exceedingly whether in any movement which represents such a variety of interests, interests that are so widely scattered, there has ever been a movement for reform that The standing committees were then called has been so successful as this. [Applause.] upon for their reports. That of the Committee You know, gentlemen, the action which was on Assemblies was presented by Mr. Isaac E. taken in New-York by the publishers in the Sheldon, of New-York, chairman, who said he Board of Trade. You will hear from the com- did not know what better or fuller report could mittee what we did in Boston, what we did in be had from this committee than the assemPhiladelphia; and while we did not, as I say,blage of this large and intelligent body of men Committee Reports. floated aimlessly apart during the long inter val between the meetings of the General Association, but which form when concentrated a nucleus of sufficient strength and tenacity to withstand or resist a very strong pressure. The original purpose of its founders was a fixing of the scale of discounts for jobbers, but it was soon found that it would be useless to trim or train the branches until the stock had become firmly planted. And so all thoughts and efforts became concentrated upon the now famous "20 per cent rule." With this mighty problem we have struggled manfully, and expect your reasonable applause for the fair degree of success that has been reported from time to time in the columns of the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, and which we have the honor to report to-day in person. [Applause.] which we see here present, but went on to read the circular of the committee, given in the PUBLISHERS WEEKLY of April 17th, 1875 (No. 170). A vote of thanks was then tendered to the committee for their admirable arrangements. The secretary of the committee, R. R. Bowker, of New-York, was then called upon by the Chair in some pleasant remarks, to complete the report, and he stated that before the committee left New-York, 250 certificates had been issued to those intending to be present, including all the leading houses of the country at any rate, all the leading publishers and jobbers;" and if there are any of those leading houses not represented here, it is because some special reason intervenes to prevent their being here. The breadth of this movement and the Association itself is best shown by the fact that those two hundred and fifty names are of representatives from twenty-may be enumerated under three heads: First, seven different States. That is a showing which, for eighteen months' work, is something that the Association may well be proud of." The speaker, after reading some notices from the committee, stating that the headquarters of the Association would be at the reading-room in the International Hotel, where a register would be found, etc., tendered the thanks of the committee to Mr. Martin Taylor, of Buffalo, to whose indefatigable exertions a great share of the comfort and convenience under which the Convention was meeting were due; and to Mr. W. C. Gould, of the Erie Railway; and spoke also of Mr. A. C. Barnes' work in completing the local arrangements, for which he had come to Niagara the preceding week. The Committee on Arbitration then reported through George Remsen, of Philadelphia, in the absence of the chairman, Robert Clarke, of Cincinnati, that no complaints had been brought before that committee, and consequently it had no report to make. The Committee on Finance, through S. T. Bowen, of Indianapolis, chairman, stated that it was not yet prepared to report. The Committee on Book Fair being called upon, Isaac E. Sheldon, of New-York, in the absence of William H. Appleton, chairman, read the report as printed in the PUBLISHERS' WEEK1.Y of February 6th, 1875 (No. 160). The report was adopted. Reports of Local Trade. The President then stated that reports from auxiliary associations and as to local trade would be in order. He called upon Mr. A. C. Barnes, President of the Central Booksellers' Association, of the Eastern and Middle States, to report for that organization. CENTRAL BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION. Mr. Barnes then spoke as follows: GENTLEMEN: I have the honor, as your President has informed you, to represent in this Convention the Central Booksellers' Association of New-York and neighboring cities. This association has found its mission in the necessity that seemed to exist, after the adjournment last summer, for some working force at the headquarters of the publishers, to carry into effect the wise measures that were determined upon at Put-in Bay. Its modest birth took place on the 11th of September, 1874, and within its fold were speedily gathered many of those well. meaning particles that would otherwise have The achievements of the Central Association the alliance of a number of publishers--for publishers who are also jobbers constitute most of our membership--in the interests of the trade at large. It may suffice in this connection to quote the title of our association; namely, "The Central Booksellers' Association, Auxiliary to the American Book Trade Association," and to read perhaps the first article of the constitution, giving you an idea of our organization and its purpose, modestly expressed : The Book Publishers and Dealers in Books of New-York and neighboring cities being desirous of promoting a better acquaintance and understanding between their respective branches of the trade, and to establish sound, and, as far as possible, uniform methods of conducting business, do hereby associate themselves under the name of the "CENTRAL BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION.' Our second claim to your attention is the action of the Publishers' Board of Trade, brought about by our direct solicitation, an action the importance of which I can scarcely overstate or you overestimate. At their meeting, on the 28th of October, a committee of our association consisting of Messrs. Lee, Cushing, Randolph, Bragg, and others, waited upon the board, and by their persuasive eloquence so won their way to the hearts of those stern sentinels who control the supply of books from the fountain-head, that, although they had previously refused to consider such a thing, when proposed by one of their own members, in this instance they gracefully and graciously passed a resolution adopting substantially the 20 per cent rule of this Association. The publishers, you know, are men who mean business; and when such a law went upon their statute-books, a moral and an actual force was brought to bear at once, that would go far by itself to carry this reform to a successful consummation. Thirdly, we have occupied ourselves in obtaining the signatures of the trade to the 20 per cent rule. This was accomplished by an actual canvass, under the auspices of the Central Association. The result was 37 names in Boston, 47 in New-York, 49 in Philadelphia, and a scattering from other places-157 in all. [Applause.] This includes the entire important trade in the great Eastern cities, with the eminent exception of our esteemed, but in this latter very reluctant friends of Philadelphia. [A voice: "Name !" Mr. Barnes: "No! no names."] By delegations, and by written appeal and protest, we have labored with these gentlemen; but all in vain. We piped to them, but they utterly refused to dance to any tune that we could play them. [Applause and laughter.] They would not listen to the voice of the charmer, though he charmed never so wisely. It was my purpose to read at this time the correspondence which took place between this house and the representatives of the association; but a very recent event, to which I shall allude again, renders this quite unnecessary. I will not, however, mention it at this stage of my remarks. stronger before their eyes, the modern Danaans resorted to stratagem. Like their prototypes, they built a wooden horse, dedicated it to the goddess of reform, and left it on the plains of Troy. Eyeing this object from our citadel, and admiring its fair proportions, we were sorely tempted to repeat the great mistake of heroic history, and draw the portentous effigy within our gates. But Laocoon, whose modern name is Randolph, predicted a stratagem, and it was he who cried, "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes ;" and inasmuch as no serpents appeared from the sea to punish him for impiety, we took his advice, and contenting ourselves with nailing a conditional acceptance of the gift to the wooden ribs of the monster, we retired to await the rethe imprisoned warriors ventured to peer from their place of concealment, expecting to find our sleeping city beneath their feet, behold they were still in the midst of the barren plain, and nothing within reach but our agreement to ac cept their horse, if they would first help us to manage our own pony. [Loud applause.] We judge this was not satisfactory, for their reply was little more than a brief acknowledgment of the receipt of the letter, and so the correspondence closed. It is due, however, to the officers and members of the Central Association, in order that some features of their action may be explained, which perhaps did not give entire satisfaction to the trade, that I should give you a brief review of this correspondence. The first let-sult. In the silent watches of the night, when ters, as you may remember, followed at once on the circulation of the paper for signatures, and, on the part of the house referred to, evinced such a determination to decline cooperation with us, that for the time being we concluded it was better to allow the matter to rest, and wait for the effect of the published correspondence on the country. A volley of rumors came first from different sections, that the trade were not only interested, but aroused and active, and this feeling increased in voice and volume, while our most efficient ally, the WEEKLY, kept hammering away at the centre. The first effect of this steady bombardment was a flag of truce to afford our friends an opportunity to rise and explain-which they did as well as, under the circumstances of the case, they could be expected to do-and the trade listened respectfully to their documents, but there was no "let-up" A resistless force was then exerted that should teach us to appreciate the power of this great bookselling guild, when acting intelligently, temperately, and in concert. Under this influence, or pressure, or whatever you may please to call it, the enigma presently took on a new and apparently more satisfactory phase, in the form of the celebrated" advanced position" letter, which for a time threw consternation into our ranks. This document was regarded with a variety of sentiments by those who attempted to analyze it. It was certainly a bold leap from the policy that had been characterized at one of our meetings as like chopping a dog's tail off by inches. so as not to hurt him to the one now proposed of amputating it suddenly just behind the ears. The enthusiasts of our number, who look upon every step of progress as a tedious and unnecessary measure toward this very end, were in favor of accepting the proposition as it stood; but the more prudent foresaw its practical difficulties and counseled caution. Could it be possible that our fellow tradesmen of the simpleminded city of brotherly love were intent upon dividing our counsels by leading a brilliant but utterly impracticable movement? Wouldn't the entire trade believe in their sincerity, and applaud to the echo, while the lately waning tide of favor extended to the house would react in a flood of grateful patronage? If so, it was a bold move in the game of diplomacy, and entitled to our respectful admira tion. more The manoeuvres practiced in this contest would form a worthy theme for another first book of the Æneid, and our poet-president ought to write it. Finding their power would not avail against the walls of brotherhood growing daily But this was not the end. The last feather that was needed to complete our plumes of triumph has been added within a very few days. I have the pleasure to announce to the Convention that the only prominent house in the United States that declined the twenty per cent rule, has voluntarily and without condition joined the A. B. T. A. That they are heartily welcomed I do not need to assure them or remind the Convention. [Loud and continued applause.] This, I believe, checks off the last item on the book of engagements of the Central Book sellers' Association, and we are now ready for fresh enterprises. We are still a vital power, and feel within ourselves an undiminished capacity to serve you in the future. While the main body lies inert, except during these summer months, the strong right arm trusts not to forget its cunning, and to wield steadily its sledge-hammer throughout the entire year, welding the rivets until the whole armor shall be complete by which the young giant nursing here shall become invulnerable in repose, irresistible in action. CHICAGO. Mr. E. L. Jansen, of Chicago, being called upon to report for his section, then said: MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE TRADE: I came here, not to furnish any report of our association, as I am not one of the active officers, but merely a member, expecting to find our president, vice-president, and sec retary here by this time. I am not delegated by them to make any remarks, but as I am called upon to state the workings of our association there, I can simply say that we have had the utmost harmony and good feeling, and have experienced but very little trouble in our rates of discount, in selling to the trade. the libraries, or the private book-buyers. There has been no variation yet, to my knowledge, among the jobbers of the city of Chicago during the past year. We went home from Put-in Bay determined to stick to our charge. The rates of discount in every instance, as far as I know, have been maintained to the letter and to the spirit. So far as the library trade has been concerned, we have lost a great portion of that. We are unable to say where it has gone, but all the libraries that have been purchasing books in Chicago have paid their twenty per cent discount to the dealers. So far as retail prices are concerned, we have experienced some trouble; but so far as the larger dealers have conducted their business, I think, in nine cases out of ten, the full retail price has been ob tained. Of course, in a city of our size, there are many small dealers around public schools. Small bookstores that furnish the school children in distant portions of the city have, I think, been selling a great many school-books at lower than retail prices; but so far as large dealers are concerned, the respectable houses have maintained full retail prices to all outside buyers. We have a number of customers who buy from year to year several hundred dollars' worth of books, who had been in the habit, previous to the Put-in Bay Convention, of getting 30 and 33, and some even 40 off; but since then we find our customers are willing to pay 20 per cent, and think it is a good thing, and have sustained us to a surprising extent. The new books are retailed at full retail prices, and in the case of Webster's Dictionary, to which the President alluded, we sell at twelve dollars. Some sell at ten, but our larger houses have been selling for twelve. We are satisfied that our sales have been as large as in any previous year, and our profits proportionately larger. We have no reason to wish to go back on this arrangement at all, but shall stand by it as long as the trade lasts. BALTIMORE. Mr. Cushing, of Baltimore, then addressed the Association, as follows: MR. PRESIDENT: For Baltimore there is not a great deal to say. But the bulk of our trade there formed a local association, of which they did me the honor to make me president; and they all agreed, when they joined that, to keep the 20 per cent rule adopted by the Book sellers' Central Association. We had some difficulty when we first began. Teachers who had been buying at 25 and 30 thought it was hard that their discount should be reduced; but when they find out they are buying as low as other teachers, and that no one else in town would sell them better than the dealer they were accustomed to go to, they acquiesced willingly. The most difficulty appeared first with the library trade. We have suffered most by libraries leaving us, and some by private dealers leaving us. We do not know where they go. Certainly not to the North or East, and we know certainly they can not go to the South. When each bookseller has made up his mind to get fair prices for his goods, and stand an equal chance with the library and dealer, and if it is no more than a just price, and when all over the country the sellers everywhere maintain the retail prices, then we, in common with the rest of the community, will do our home trade with satisfaction and profit. We have one instance that is very troublesome to us-one who advertises to always retail at wholesale prices. But this case with us, as in similar cases in your city, will be so dealt with by your Convention that it will not be expedient for the parties to continue such a disreputable practice. All else I have to say has been far better expressed by the President of the Association, of which I may say we are almost the tail end, as we are at almost the southern point; and Í have no doubt that all of us who have come, and those who have not come, who are detained by family afflictions, will continue our labors to protect ourselves in the future. MILWAUKEE. Mr. H. H. West, of Milwaukee, then spoke as follows: MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN: I have not even a scrap of report, and it had not entered my head, until I saw others making a report, that I should be called upon at all. And yet, having been unwittingly brought before you, I hardly feel like taking my seat without saying something, whatever it may be, or whatever it may amount to. One year ago, in consequence of circulars which I received calling the Convention at Put-in Bay, I felt, in reviewing my own business and getting at the results of each year, that they were so unsatisfactory that something must be done. What was to be done, was the question. I did not hesitate a moment as to whether it was best to go to Put-in Bay or not. I thought perhaps that might solve the question what could be done ; and I gathered then the spirit which many of you did, and carrying it home with me, I made it my business first to wait upon my competitor, Mr. Harger, who is here to-day, and inform him of the results of that convention. He at once became infused, to my surprise and to my joy, with the same spirit that I thought I had carried with me. He very readily signed the agreement of the Western Booksellers' Association, and became a member of it, and has done a great deal to carry out to the letter every thing in that article of agreement. And I can say, of our own city, that it has resulted in good, not only to the jobbing trade but to the retailer. We organized an association among ourselves immediately; we had some little friction to begin with, as all associations of that kind do, but when we came to show them that it was not the interest of the jobber only that we sought, but that it was for the interest of the retailer as well that some understanding should be arrived at whereby we could know what to ask for books, then they seemed very ready to fall in, and we formed an association, the results of which have been very satisfactory. Only two or three days before I left home I called on two or three of the retail dealers, and asked them what was their opinion as to the getting up of that association; they said, "By all means let us sustain it." One said, Before this organization a man would come into my store, pick up a book, and say, What is the price of that book?' and I would hem and haw a little, and say, 'What price have you been offered it for? You dared not ask the retail price, for the man would say, 'I can buy it for 25 or 30 per cent less." But we have no difficulty now whatever; when a man comes in and asks the price of a book, it is the retail price; and I believe that with proper pluck and perseverance on the part of those in the country towns they can form the proper associations, and ་ do those things that are necessary for the protection of the dealers through the country. us. But there are some difficulties, and even now we hear murmurings that some are not going to keep it up. I believe there is moral power and force enough in this Convention to compel these men, whatever may be their positions, to continue their connection and association with If there is not power in the booksellers themselves, then we must appeal to the publishers to help us. It is certainly to their interest to help us. We do not ask you to undergo any arbitrary loss to help us, but you can unite as to one or two to form a moral power which they can not resist. I think we must commence the business of this Convention with the determination that all that has been done must be maintained, and all that can be done to promote what is necessary for our good shall be done. [Applause.] . ST. LOUIS. The President then called for Mr. W. D. Baker, of St. Louis, who spoke as follows: MR. PRESIDENT: I am sorry to say I can not say as much in favor of St. Louis as the gentleman who preceded me. Upon my return home I called upon the members of the trade, and they all acquiesced in the expediency of making this arrangement, I was the only member from St. Louis who was present at the Put-in Bay Convention. I am glad to see that the St. Louis trade is more fully represented today. The members have engaged, in St. Louis, to adhere to the Put-in Bay Convention rules, and with one exception they have faithfully and readily adhered to them. There has been some clashing, of course, between individual houses, but what one has lost the other has gained. There may have been some flagrant violation of the rules by one particular house, and I certainly think that for the support of the members of the American Book Trade Association residing in St. Louis, some definite action should be taken, so that any house violating its rules should pay some penalty for the violation; and if members offer to supply books at larger discounts there should be certainly some moral or other force used, so that they shall abide by the rules. I should hate to see the efforts of the Association fall through, but yet it would be suicidal to remain a member of an association that is not able to protect its members. CINCINNATI. The President then called upon Mr. Geo. E. Stevens, of Cincinnati, who said: MR. PRESIDENT: In our city it has been very much as has been reported from other Western cities. The action of the Convention has been of decided benefit to the dealer, both retailer and jobber, so far as I know. Not all the houses in Cincinnati identified themselves with the Association, but in the main their action has been governed, I think with one exception, by the rules of the Convention. We have had but very little trouble; the main difficulty has been with medical works, which have been sold under the regular prices. There is one library that expends $20,000 for books, but so far as I know the prices have been mainly upon the basis of the American Book Trade Association. The Mercantile Library gets its books at 20 per cent discount and no more. The ministers and teachers get their books, if not at retail prices, certainly in no case, as far as my knowledge goes (outside of the religious societies), at less than the Convention prices. I hope the action of this Convention will be perpetuated, that there will be no more letting up, that we take even more advanced ground than we did at Put-in Bay. Cincinnati had the honor of initiating this movement, and it will be the last to go back on the reform. this I have taken pains to get information from the retail dealers in our State and section. The uniform testimony is that the Convention has been a help to them to enlarge the volume of their business and to increase the percentage of its profits, and I think the retailers here to-day owe a great deal to the action taken at Put-in Bay. And I hope the retailers here and of the whole country will sever in their mind any connection of the jobbers with Convention. Some booksellers accused the convention at Put-in Bay of conspiring against them. That had nothing to do with the action of the convention, and whatever the position of the retailers of the country is to-day, I hope they will recognize the services which the convention at Put-in Bay did to the entire retail trade of the United States. It is certainly a matter of immense benefit to the jobbers, and in many respects to the entire trade. WINONA, MICH. The President next called upon Mr. McNie, of Winona, who spoke as follows: MR. PRESIDENT: The reform at Winona commenced some time ago. We have had but one difficulty in our place. A certain house at Chicago furnishes books at 30 per cent off, which has been patronized to some extent outside of the trade. The experience related by other gentlemen of the West applies equally to our own city, and I can only express the hope that the Convention will take such action as will be certain to continue the good work. The President then said: As we want to get free discussion on all these points, and the time is slipping by, we will have the report of the Executive Committee, and then adjourn until to-morrow, using up our leisure time in I think this must this kind of discussion. have struck you in every report that has been made to us to-day-there have been statements that in this respect or in that respect there was a failure to obtain all that was sought for; but in the main every man has said that there was progress made, and the booksellers were better off for the movement. The President next called for the report of the Executive Committee, which was presented by Joseph M. Cushing, of Baltimore, in behalf of the chairman, William Lee, of Boston. This report covered the main points afterwards reported to the house by the Committee of Thirty, for which the report provided, and these will be found in their proper places. On motion, the report was accepted, and the Convention proceeded to the discussion of its recommendations. Mr. Sheldon said: On account of the very great importance of the report just presented. and as this has been the first thing done to-day looking toward the future-for we have now got to the real kernel of this matter: What are we going to do with the future?—I would suggest that this report be |