REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 121 



* * * I have just consulted a practical printer and he states that our re- 

 quirements could be met with two typesetting machines and one high-grade press, 

 costing appr()xiinately a total of §;iO,000. * * * i believe the whole yearly 

 cost of printing could be met for $17,500. These are American estimates and 

 the cost should be materially less in England, but even this figure is half the esti- 

 mated cost at $3.50 per page. Although the figures are necessarily only approx- 

 imate they are encouraging enough to warrant looking into the matter in de 

 tail. With your central bureau and printing plant under one roof the organiza- 

 tion would certainly be in a position to overcome the most serious faults charged 

 against the Catalogue, high price, and delayed publication. 



I did not want to complicate my letter to Professor Armstrong, but the cost of 

 production is the only really serious question to confront us for there is no 

 question in my mind as to the need of the Catalogue, and as we produced it once 

 we can produce it again. Every dollar cut from the subscription price will, 

 without doubt, increase the number of subscribers, therefore I am most anxious 

 to get your opinion of this phase of the problem. Editing, assembling, and print- 

 ing in our case is a question of uniform and continuous production and can cer- 

 tainly be greatly simplified and cheapened if we consider it in that light. 



With kindest regards, I am 

 Sincerely yours, 



Leonard C. Gunnell. 



January 12, 1928. 

 I'rof. Henry E. Armstrong, 



Chairman, Executive Committee International Catalogue of 



Scientific Literature, Royal Society of London, London, Eni/land. 



Dear Professor Armstrong : I feel that if the International Catalogue is ever 

 to resume publication some definite steps should be taken looking to that end. 

 Assuming that the agreement made by the delegates at the Brussels convention 

 of 1922 to keep the organization iu being is still in force, the question of resump- 

 tion is in the hands of the executise committee named at that time and author- 

 ized to report with some definite scheme. As I am one of that committee, of 

 which you are the chairman, I feel that any steps I might take, after consulting 

 you, iu an attempt to forward the interests of the Catalogue would be within 

 my province and can be talcen quite independently of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, which need not appear in the matter until some assurance of success is 

 evident. 



The situation as I see it is: That the International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature, to supply an authors' and classified subject catalogue of the cur- 

 rent literature of pure science, is as much a necessity now as it was in 1900, 

 since no similar service or publication has taken its place. 



That the organization still exists duly authorized to prepare and publish such 

 a catalogue. 



That the enterprise can be made self-supporting if financial support sufficient 

 to cover one year's editorial and printing expen.sGs can be procured. 



That if an edition of 1,000 sets can be sold at $50 a set the publication costs 

 can be covered. 



I am led to this opinion by the fact that a prominent American publisher has 

 offered, if furnished regularly with manuscript to fill 10,000 pages of printed 

 matter, to print, publish, and bind, in paiier, an edition of 1,000 for $3.50 a page, 

 or $35,000. Adding $15,(X)0 as the apiu-oximate cost of a central bureau staff, 

 the total would be $50,000 needed for an edition of 1,000. I believe that regular 

 subscribers to take tliis etlition of 1,000 sets could be readily enrolled at a price 

 of $50 i)er set and the organization wonld thus become s. If-supporting. I assume 



