PROGRESS OF THE XATIOXAL GEOGRAIMIIC SOCIETY 253 



There were published by the Society 

 during 1912 1,705,000 copies of the mag- 

 azine, the average monthly edition for 

 the year being 142,083, a gain of 48,666 

 per month. The average edition in 191 1 

 was 93.417; in 1910, 68,833; i" 1909, 

 52,833; in 1908, 41,000. 



The Society is today the largest patron 

 of the post-office in Washington, exclud- 

 ing the government departments. Dur- 

 ing the past year about 1,200,000 letters 

 and 50,000 postal cards were dispatched 

 from our office. Approximately 225,00c 

 remittances were made to the Society. 

 only a very small percentage of which 

 were of a greater amount than $2. Forty- 

 eight thousand changes in the addresses 

 of members were made, more than 150 

 for each working day, and approxi- 

 mately 2,250 mail-bags of magazines 

 were sent out each month. 



The condition of the advertising de- 

 partment of the magazine is most prom- 

 ising for the current year. Our policy 

 has been to limit the number of advertis- 

 ing pages and to refuse much advertis- 

 ing which we did not think desirable. 

 For instance, advertisements of certain 

 medicines, foods, real estate, etc., though 

 carried by standard magazines, are not 

 printed in the National Geographic 

 Magazixk. 



The fact that the magazine has been 

 built up out of membership fees and sub- 

 scriptions, and has not been dependent 

 on advertising receipts, has enabled us 

 to be independent ; furthermore, we have 

 not had to maintain an expensive adver- 

 tising staff. 



Our policy is to limit the number of 

 pages of advertising to be carried by the 

 magazine to not more than 50 pages per 

 month. Owing to the exceptional value 

 of the advertising i)ages in the National 

 Geograptiic Magazink, there is now be- 

 ginning to be a great demand for them, 

 and we expect shortly to command a 

 much more remunerative price per page 

 than has heretofore been obtainable. 



The success of the Society in develop- 

 ing a poi)ular magazine for the dififu- 

 sion of geographic information monthly 

 makes me believe that the Society should 

 now undertake the publication of the 



ideal, or standard, books of travel. It 

 seems to me that our aim should be to 

 encourage a new tyi)e of geographical 

 literature, just as we have encouragcil 

 and established a new type of geograph- 

 ical magazine. Our facilities for illus- 

 trating books of travel and for distribut- 

 ing them are unequaled. The market is 

 flooded with books of travel every year, 

 most of which are rubbish and not 

 worthy of even a line of note in our 

 periodical. They have a very small sale, 

 because so many poor books of travel 

 are published that the very rare good 

 book is hidden in the mass of worthless 

 material. 



If the Society adopts the policy of 

 printing exceptional studies of foreign 

 peoples, such as "Farmers of Forty Cen- 

 turies." by the late F. H. King, we shall 

 undoubtedly receive applications from 

 authors of such volumes who will want 

 to have us undertake their publication 

 because of the distinction that a work 

 approved by the Society will merit from 

 the public. We have such a tremendous 

 field of readers that the Society ought to 

 do all that it can to place useful geo- 

 graphical information before them. 



Our aim is to make the magazine a 

 source of desirable and useful geographic 

 information to every intelligent familv 

 in the United States, and we believe that 

 this ambition can be realized. 



If the Society through its magazine 

 can get the average man and woman in 

 the United States to read articles like 

 the one on "The Wonderful Canals of 

 China," in the October (1912) number, 

 we shall be doing an educational work 

 which in importance cannot be overesti- 

 mated. 



The magazine is thus becoming one of 

 the greatest forces in the world for a 

 better understanding and a])preciation of 

 other peoples, and for the ])romotion of 

 international good will. And in this con- 

 nection I quote from an editorial in the 

 Boston Herald as follows : 



"The National Geographic Society of Wash- 

 ington, D. C. is doing a work, througli the 

 montlily publication of its magazine, which no 

 intelligent man or woman can afford to remain 

 ignorant of. Geography by itself is ordinarily 

 thought a dry subject. Geography, on the con- 



