The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-20
IN d. d.

the Once workers Union, the
problems they face, and the I'M
even line of development of the
three main groups included in the
Section, it is necessary to give
brief analysis of each in turn. The
Section is composed largely of book
publishing, book store, and maya
zine workers. Conditions in each Of
these literary trades differ widely
and each presents special problems.
Book Publishing
To begin with book publishing:
This industry used to be considered
the sristocratic paradise of white
collar workers. 1t reached an alb
Surd point during the boom period
when rich mems sons and daughters
bought their way into jobs. 1t
can readily be understood, therefore,
why SO many of the college educated
sons and daughters of the lower
middle class with literary talents or
without sought to find places in the
industry.
The reason for this is that the
publishing business is perhaps the
last surviving cultural industry Of
any real character, with the unim-
portant exceptions of the art gall
leries and the now defunct Little
Magazine and Little Theatre move
ments. In the publishing field, the
regulations that later blossomed in
the big magazines and the movies
were born. A literary standard is
actually supposed to be maintained.
For some time publishing was a
profession into which gentee1 people
could go because 1t seemed to lack
the customary faint of business.
In recent years, however, this
situation has changed radically. 1t
is significant that publishing houses
established in the late years of the
boom and since have generally been
Of a frankly commercial nature, ex-
plotting literature in printed books
as Callously as have the pulp maya
zines. The development of the cir
culating library went along with it
and brought about decline in lit
erary standards. The book clubs,
originally presented as cultural or
CARNATIONS built up to send the
best book of the month to their
subscribers, have actually fostered a
middle-of-the-road attitude and
have favored fundamentally cheap
books that are not too badly written.
Monopoly Control
Some time in 1881 an attempt was
made by a large book publisher
Doubleday Doran, to obtain mo-
nopoly in the book publishing field
by cutting the price Of books In
half. Several other publishers made
the same attempt There was be-
lief that this would drive out the
smaller and usually the more enter
pris1ng and more literary publish
ers, but the attempt failed for the
time being.
The owners of this same publish
Ing house, which operates an enor-
nous open-shop printing plant In
Garden City and book stores
throughout the country, recently
bought up the Literary Guild, one
of the two large book clubs, in their
drive toward monopoly. Inciden-
tally, the Literary Guild was itself
approaching monopoly position in
its own field. 1t already included
a children's book club, the Junior
Guild, and had absorbed the Book
League some time before.
While these blows of monopoly
capitalism were being directed at.
this individualistic and still some
what cultural industry, another
factor was leading to its cultural
disintegration. This was the in
oreasing purchase by moving picture
companies of the publishers out
put, reaching such a point that
many publishers began to consider
their prime customers to be, not the
reading public, but the movie mag
nate, and began to shape their
wares accordingly.
AS consequence workers who
bad entered this field as a last ref
uge of culture within the Ameri-
can business scheme have found
themselves betrayed in this respect
also.
That Shrinking Payroll
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