Vol. XVII, No. 2. 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
June 1915 
T is quite a problem for us to find 
room in the Magazine for all the ma- 
terial we have on hand. We think 
that we have now in our stock some- 
thing like 300 unused designs. We 
are constantly offered more, and 
many good ones, which we must re- 
fuse. We also receive regularly illus 
trated articles of exhibitions, class 
work, etc., and we have so little 
room for thenrthat, however interesting they may be, we have 
to postpone their publication from month to month until they 
finally appear five or six months behind time. 
There would be a very simple remedy to this congestion, 
an enlargement of the Magazine. We have always had in mind 
the enlarging and improving of Keramic Studio, and. as a first 
important step in this direction, we began last fall to give in 
every issue, besides a naturalistic supplement, an extra color ' 
study. If some subscribers say that there are enough designs 
in each issue of the Magazine as it is, all will agree that the more 
color work it contains, the more useful it will be to them. But, 
as you all know, color engraving and printing is extremely ex- 
pensive. 
Now what was the result of our change last fall , of that 
extra color study we have been giving ever since.? We have 
been flooded with letters of congratulation and appreciation. 
This is very gratifying, but, when we turn to the subscription 
list, we find that, if the change in the Magazine has brought an 
increase of subscriptions over last year, this increase does not 
cover half the expense of the extra color study. 
And why is it that with so many letters of praise the in- 
crease in subscriptions is so small? There are many reasons. 
One is that business in a general way has been poor all over the 
country. We do not remember a single year when we have had 
so many letters from old subscribers saying that they like the 
Magazine, that they want it, but cannot afford to subscribe at 
present. We realize very well that times have been hard and we 
sincerely hope that the predictions made everywhere of better 
times coming after the war will be realized. At the same time 
it seems to us that a china decorator who must anyway buy the 
materials she needs in her work, should manage in some way to 
scrape $4.00 a year or $1.10 every three months for a subscrip- 
tion to Keramic Studio, and that it will pay her to do it. 
The true reason why the subscription list is not increasing 
as it should, is deeper and more permanent than the temporary 
set-back of hard times, and it is this : Keramic Studio has never 
been able, in good times any more than in hard times, to carry 
its subscription list to average over 5,000, but it is read and 
used every month by more than 20,000 decorators. 
We know this absolutely, because we receive so often letters 
from teachers, good friends of the Magazine, saying that they 
cannot get pupils to subscribe, as pupils find it much simpler to 
use the teacher's copy in the studio. We have seen in a public 
library copies of the Magazine so soiled and torn from constant 
use that they were only fit for the waste basket. And that is 
the whole trouble, the whole question in a nutshell. Our best, 
most constant subscribers are the people in small places who can- 
not find the Magazine in any other way than by subscribing 
themselves. In larger cities one copy of Keramic Studio is used 
by 5, 10, 15 or 20 people. 
Now this is all wrong, and it shows that some china dec- 
orators lack absolutely this spirit of co-operation which is 
revolutionizing modern business, and which proclaims that 
the old everybody for himself business system does not. pay in 
the end. 
Just as it would be in the end suicidal for us to keep in our 
pocket all the profit which would result from an increase in our 
circulation, instead of giving subscribers a reward for their sup- 
port in the form of enlargement and improvement of the Maga- 
zine, so it is narrow, shortsighted policy for decorators to give 
us only a half-hearted support, to think that a word of praise 
is enough as long as they can find a copy of the Magazine some- 
where, at the Library or at a friend's or in the teacher's studio, 
without subscribing themselves. 
Do you realize that this amateur china decoration, which is 
a means of livelihood for so many of our women, is an uncertain 
and difficult business? It can subsist only if it has a quality of 
hand work which the factory product lacks, and this quality of 
design china decorators will never acquire if they are left to 
themselves, if there is not co-operation of some kind between 
them, if there is not something to guide them, to hold them to- 
gether. Club work is a great help, but club work is really suc- 
cessful and helpful only in large cities. A Magazine can do 
more because it reaches so easily every little place, every indi- 
vidual studio. 
At the time Keramic Studio was born, sixteen years ago, 
everybody thought that amateur china decoration in this coun- 
try was dying out, simply because the old Magazine, the China 
Decorator, which had been for a while prosperous and helpful, 
was going rapidly to pieces from bad management. Keramic 
Studio probably did more than anything else to revive a business 
which we see today flourishing in every city of our country, and 
it can do still more for it. We know it, we realize very well the 
weak points of our Magazine, that black and white designs with 
written treatments are not by far* as helpful as designs showing 
the colors, that there is no limit to the number of improvements 
which could be made in that line alone, in color work, but that 
these improvements are impossible as long as the subscription 
list remains around 5,000. We know what should be done, but 
we cannot do it alone, you must help us. On your active, 
whole-hearted co-operation depends the successful carrying 
out of these improvements we have had in mind for a long 
time. Think it over. 
H n 
We have just received the following communication from 
C. F. Ingerson, who has charge of the Arts and Crafts section 
at the Panama Exposition: "Our good friend and patron, Mrs. 
Adolph B. Spreckels, is redecorating a house of twenty-two 
rooms to be used as Studio Show Rooms, where paintings and 
drawings will be hung, and all kinds of objects d'art shown to 
advantage. Already hundreds of rare things have been sent to 
Mrs. Spreckels from Europe to be offered for sale. The artists 
and merchants in San Francisco are sending contributions from 
(Continued on page 29) 
