The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-11-23
MIR. nANA,s SUMNER HOME.

city alone, after quick computation,
figured it at S250,0e0, although sometimes
the gross sum he thought would reach
as high IL figure as 100000. That means
thatin the comparatively small department.
OF magazine literature issuing from New
York city presses there is an expenditure
yearly of 100000, not including the in
terest on the plant or any other expense
than that entailed by collecting, printing
and delivering the literary articles and the
illustrations of them
From this estimate other publishers took
up the computing pencil and at n rough
guess reported that the expense entailed
by publishing literary matter both in the
magazines, in the weekly newspapers and
in some of the other forms of publication
outside the daily newspaper field was prob
ably not far from 100000 month So
that these publishers estimate that the
business of publishing literature in New
York city alone, not including books and
daily newspapers, entails an expense Of
from 100000 to Ss,000,OOO year.
This, then is the modern endowment of
literature which New York city alone fur
nlshes, and while there are no very reliable
data as to the expenses of publication of
similar forms of literature in other parts of
the country yet the publishers who make
these computations We're convinced that it
Is safe to estimate that periodical literature
of all forms i'll the United States entails an
output every year of not far from sl5, 5000
GOO. This is an extraordinary development.
most of which has appeared. according to
these publishers, within the last 90 years.
This endowment means that Il new in
dustry has been created or Il new profession
1t has made Il certain market rate for liter
ature which before that time was dealt in
ut haphazard prices. 1t has made it DOS
sible for men willingly to turn their backs
upon law, medicine and the schools and de
vote themselves to literary work, feeling
just rs sure Of their market as does the farm
er or the iron producer. 1t has created Il
splendid race of writers whom Mr.. Dana
cheerfully regards as professional men. 1t
has made it possible for those who are in the
first class to count on earnings which are
greater than the majority of lawyers in the
country are able to make, and almost com
pare with the princely incomes of the lead
erS OF the bar. 1t has enabled writer's who
are OF the second class, so to speak, to earn
with certainty incomes of from s., 900 to SlO,-
OOO year, and it furnishes employment to
thousands who make fully as much money
by such pursuit as they could hope to do in
any other profession. This is the modern
endowment of literature.
Members of the Typothetp society OF
New ork VINO saw these estimates were
able to furnish in the rough some addition
nj ones which will give some idea of the
colossal expenditures of money each year
which the publication of all forms of liter.
ature and its twin sister news reports,
which are more and more being written in
the form of literature, entail. These experts
figure that the publication, including illus
trations of reading matter in all forms ex-
ceptinR books, in the United States in
wolves an expenditure every year of not far
from S2O0, 900, 000 and each year the sum
thus expended is larger than that reported
for the previous year.
There is no other expenditure of the
American people outside of the actual ne
cessaries of life which compares with this
enormous sum. and rs this expenditure for
the most part represents profit it is fair
to infer that the American people spend
now more than 500, 100000 year for read
ing matter, and that this sum is to be con-
stantly increased as the years pass.
1t looks large in the aggregate, and yet
when the population of the country is con
sidered it is comparatively trifling ex-
penditure for each person. 1t is only $40 a
year or little more for each family, or 81 q
person. When the population of the coun-
try reaches 100, 600, 600, it is probable that the
annual American expenditure for reading
matter, exclusive of books, will reach tho
enormous sum of $500 100000.
+. J. EDWARDS.