Review of Revi tee, 1112 jOj. 



The Book of the Month. 



6iS 



church and in the noisy Sunday-school I learned 

 most of the lessons which have stood me in good 

 stead in after life. Among other things I learned bv 

 practical experience how to develop a taste for read- 

 ing, and at the same time to make the process a 

 source of income to the church and school. 



\\'hen I was a vouth of sixteen or seventeen, earn- 

 ing at that time, if I remember aright, the sum of 

 six shillings a week as a 'prentice lad in an office on 

 Newcastle Quav, it occurred to me that it would be 

 a good thing to try to extend the reading habit among 

 the members of the congregation. In a feeble, in- 

 effective sort of way the Sunday-school sold a few 

 denominational and children's magazines to those 

 who cared to have them. No systematic effort had 

 been made to promote the sale of periodicals. It 

 was decided to take the matter in hand, and I was 

 dei)uted to make a canvass of our people. 



When the canvass was complete I booked the 

 iirder with a wholesale newsagent in Newcastle, w'ho 

 allowed us threepence in the shilling discount for 

 cash. The net result was th.it at the end of the year 

 we had a [irofit of from ^5 to ^7 to hand over 

 to the Sunday-school funds, while magazines of the 

 annual value of from ^£20 to ^^30 were added to the_ 

 literary resources of this small artisan and tradesman 

 jiopulation. 



I have never forgotten that experience. If there 

 is to be a revival of reading among our people, 

 especially among our people in the village, the task 

 must be taken in hand in this fashion. The Church, 

 Sunday-schfiol, day-school, or any other local organi- 

 sation should appoint its book and magazine secre- 

 tary, whose dutv it should be to make a personal 

 house-to-house canvass throughout the locality, to 

 liring before every individual the books and periodi- 

 cals whose sale it is desirable to promote. No work 

 can be more important. No work is so generally 

 neglected. It is, of course, unpaid \vork — unpaid 

 IS is Sunday-school teaching. The orders so ob- 

 tained can be booked with the trade on the usual 

 terms, or thev can be ordered direct on special terms. 

 Out of the discount so obtained, books and news- 

 papers can be purchased for the local reading-room, 

 or it can be spent in any other way better calculated 

 to promote the intellectual, moral, or social welfare 

 of the community. 



Whv do I recall these reminiscences of the six- 

 ties? Because I am persuaded that the same method 

 which was found to be so useful in Tyneside forty 

 years ago will be found equally efficacious to-day 

 in hel|iing to realise a very simple but very impor- 

 tant ideal — the ideal, to wat, of having a library of 

 good books in every house in the land. 



HOW TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF THE LIBRARY. 



Any school, church, reading union, or other local 

 centre which obtains by canvass among its own 

 members twelve subscribers for the library, can pur- 

 chase them through the local newsagent at a discount 

 of threepence in the shilling, paying two and three- 



pence for what they will sell to their members at 

 three shillings. When the library is complete they 

 will have the sum of ^£4 los. profit as an endowment 

 for their local library. If they obtain, as they might 

 do in any large church or adult school, 120 sub- 

 scribers, the net profit would be ^45. 



The net profit thus accruing to the local distribut- 

 ing centres would be no less than ;£35,ooo on every 

 100,000 libraries sold. 



This is assuming that the Library is issued weekly 

 through the trade in the ordinary way. But if. in- 

 stead of purchasing small numbers of the weekly 

 issue through the ordinary channels, large employers 

 of labour, co-operative societies, reading unions, 

 adult schools, or other associations were to co- 

 operate with me in the production and distribution 

 of these books among their members, the benefit 

 accruing to the distributer could be materially in- 

 creased. 



Supposing, for instance, any firm, society, or as- 

 sociation were to order 100 or 1000 l,ibraries for its 

 members, and pay for the same m advance, I would 

 supply them at half the published price, plus car- 

 riage to the centre of distribution. That is to say, 

 I would edit the Library, pay contributors, buy 

 paper, set up the type, and bind the books for 15s. 

 per Library, leaving the other 15s., minus the cost 

 of carriage, to go to the distributer to be used for 

 educational or such other purposes as he m'ght think fit. 



The society or reading circle which paid in ad- 

 vance would at the end of the two years and a-half 

 realise a profit equal to the entire cost of production 

 of the Library'. If 100,000 sets were disposed of in 

 this co-operative fashion they would be endowed with 

 a sum of ^75,000, less carriage. 



This, then, is the secret, the open secret of the 

 way in \vhich the Library-University for the 

 Million can be established in every house in the 

 land, and a profit made at the same time which 

 would enable the local reading centres, Sunday 

 schools, literary societies, etc., to fill their treasuries, 

 besides conferring an inestimable benefit upon their 

 subscribers. 



The proposition, I admit, seems to be almost too 

 good to be true. But it w'ill stand the severest ex- 

 amination. 



That is the business basis upon which I am [ire- 

 pared to launch the Library-University for the 

 Million. It may seem a gigantic undertaking to 

 propose to sell twelve million 3d. books in the next 

 thirty months, and it seems, perhaps, even more 

 impossible to do so on terms which will have the 

 effect of endowing local literary and educational 

 institutions with a sum of ;£35,ooo, or ,^£75,000 if 

 paid in advance. But the thing can be done, and 

 done with ease if you will help. Will you help? 

 That is the question, and remember that in helping 

 you will not only help the million and help me, but 

 you will also help your school or society to share in 

 the profit, ' W, T. Stead. 



