The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-10-05

ling non-useful matter could be curtailed.
WHEREIN WE DO NOT LEAD.
/ Publishers complain that the public is buy
i ing newspapers instead of books. 1.-The num-
Der of books published per annum has decreas-
ed steadily in the last decade" sage one pub
fisher. eff the same rate of decrease continues
for another decade, the United States will lose
its proud position as the foremost book pub
fishing country of the world
1t cannot lose this proud position, . for the
simple fact that it never had it to lose. As a
matter of fact, the United States, SO far as
the position of the little boy who confided to
/ his father that he was at the head of his class
that is, one of the heads.
| What are the facts? M. Paul Otlet, the sec
rotary of the Brussels international Bibho-
graphical Institute, world authority on this
particular subject places the book production
!, of the entire globe at approximately one hun-
dred and fifty thousand volumes per annum.
Senior Eduardo navarro Salvador, dis
tinguished Spanish author has compiled sta
tistics of a similar nature. His estimate quite
lclosely confirms M Otlet's statement, approx
mating 10000 volumes per annum. SWltzer-
land leads the civilized nations Of the world in
the production of books In 1911, in Switzer-
land, there was one book printed for S72 of the
population; Japan printed one book for every
1,224 Germany, one book for every 2075;
France, one book for every 3808; the United
States, one book for every 1926 of the popu-
lation.
This, then, is the ''proud position the
United States is to lose As matter of fact,
the per capita consumption of books in the
United States is less than of any other COM
modify. American men spend less for books
than for neckties, and American women less
than for the buttons on their gowns. Little
Switzerland, one-ei ghteenth the size of Texas
with population less than one-twenty- fifth
that OF the United States, publishes more than
three -fourths as many books as we do. The
Scandinavian countIies-Denmark, Sweden,
Norway-rank next to Switzerland, with an out
put more than six times that of our own. Ger
many, France, the British EMPIRE Holland, Italy
and Austria surpass us. Even Rumania, with
one-third of our population, publishes one
fourth as many books as we do Japan, with
slightly more than halfour population publish
es four times as many books. Russia, regard
ed commonly as an Ignorant country, produces
two and three quarters as many books as we do.
Her population is one and two-thirds larger than
our population, but at the same time it must
not be ignored that seventy-nine per cent. of
her population is Of the ignorant peasant class
Spain is the only one of the civilized nations
that publishes fewer books per million of popu-
latlon per annum than we do Germany he I
fore the war; produced more books than any
other nation In the classes of educational arts.
sciences, bellies lettres, theology, medicines,
voyages and law. Italy holds first rank in DO
ntlcal economy; France, in history poetry and
the drama The United States ties France for
first place with one item only-books on sport.
Ihis then, is the proud position we seem
destined to lose.