The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-09-16

Washington. D. c.. Sept 16.-l
With .ths motion picture business
apparsntly going 1t high speed, .
look into the copyright division Of
the United States patent once rs-
veAls the fact that since the war
there has been . great falling on
IN the production Of motion pic
lures.
This may be due, Of course, to
the tact that photoplays have &C
cumelated until production ut high
speed b no longer necessary, or It
may BE- that high costs Of produc-
ton have made the prolific aim
companies . little less so. Il may
be the beginning Of decline in the
great popularity Of the dim. or 1t
may b . healthy tendency to check
waste production. Whatever they
may mean, here are the figures:
liz the year 1913-1S14. the number
| Of phot0plays registered was 3
go, and in 191S-1919 1t fell to only
1.2s5. The decrease is about Is
per. cent. Surely this is significant,
but II would take Z movie expert
to interpret 1t.
The war seems to have LETT sew
eral lines Of so-called artistic pro-
duction in slightly less active state
than they were before the war.
The number Of musical compost
tons copyrighted. for example, is
also on the wane, though it is not
anything like the falling OF in
screen scenarios. In 191S-1914 the
number of musical compositions
copyrighted was 28,493, while in
1s1S-ls19 the figures were 5000
Mere Magazines Than Ever.
No one seems to have realized
that the makers Of films and the
writer's and publishers Of music
have been forced to curtail their
activities, but everyone has heard
that the magazines are having a
hard time. High cost Of paper
printers strikes and postage rates
have all been against them. YET
in the face Of this condition, 25,0S;
different kinds Of periodicals were
published in this country in 1918.
1913 ~ Against only 24,134 in thu
year before the war.
| The number of books annual,
published 10 holding up. according
to the copyright records, despft,
the fact that the cost of making {
book in this country has multiplied
and that publishers have been re
ported for several years rs cuttinl
down their lists. We would lik,
to believe the publishers. but tn
copyright figures show that IL
| 191S-1919 there were 1910 book
copyrighted in the United States a.
against only 1881 in the year be
. fore the war. The figures for las
year show that about 103 book
were offered the public every da,
in the year.
Where do all these books go
you wonder. You see q good man,
books advertised and reviewed, Blu
not anything like this number. Tn
/. answer Is that the vast majorit,
Of books are failures which max
almost no perceptible stir in tn
world, but die peacefully and OBJ
scurely almost before the ink il
dry. The great majority of book
hever sell a thousand copies.
, book that sells 1000 is considere,
modest success, and one tina
sells 10000, even . novel, a decid
; ed success. The books that rul
into hundreds of thousands are a
relatively rare as the men who's
fortunes run into such figures
And fewer and fewer novels sci
in such great numbers these days
Novels have smaller circulation
than they used to have. The PEG
pie read more non-f1ction books
And the lists from libraries shoy
that the non-fiction books the
: read are Of much better qualit
than the novels.
The Bad Novel Crop.
American publishing houses hav