Life — June 15, 1916 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“D-DEE * . One of the Evils of War IX face of the scarcity of paper and the high cost of manu- facturing supplies, caused by war conditions and the enormous increase in the cost of labor in all industries, Lire finds itself compelled to take a revolutionary step in a business way. This is, to withdraw from newsdealers the privilege of returning unsold copies. Please bear with us a moment while we explain to you what this return privilege means to you, to us, to the news- dealer and to the entire American public. It is an evil which has grown up through intense com- petition among publishers, fostered by the unwillingness of Americans to endure the slightest inconvenience in buy- ing their periodicals. In practice it means that publishers annually print mil- lions of absolutely wasted copies of their periodicals. These copies are supplied to the newsdealer so that no possible purchaser shall ask for the publication and find that the newsdealer has sold out his supply. The newsdealer is a retail merchant, often doing busi- ness on small capital. He cannot afford to take chances. Therefore he will order no more copies of a non-return- able publication than he is sure to sell. Let us take the case of the newsdealer who is sure of a weekly sale of three copies of Lire. Under the return privilege, he will order weekly five copies, so that he will have extra copies to supply chance customers. If he sells one or both of them, he has made the profit on those sales, If he does not sell them, he returns them to the publisher, who loses not only the manufacturing cost of the unsold copies, but also the cost of delivering them to the news- dealer and bringing them back. The unsold copies become simply spoiled paper and an enormous and constant waste of valuable material becoming more scarce each day. The aggregate of copies returned to publishers runs an- nually into the millions. It means a tremendous loss of labor and material. Counted in terms of trees consumed in making wood-pulp for paper, it means the wanton de- struction of whole forests. In other materials and human labor it means a useless waste of great sums of money. It is the result of a trade condition as unintelligent as it is wasteful. It is peculiarly an American extravagance. On the other hand, the newsdealer, if he is not permitted to return unsold copies, will not order, except in rare cases, any more copies than he is sure of selling. He is not to be blamed. He is not a gambler. One unsold copy means wiping out the small profit on those he does sell, He is not going to chance a loss to help the publisher or to please the occasional and erratic customer. You can help us and other publications with very little effort on your part and in any one of several ways. If your help is not promptly forthcoming, it means that very shortly readers will have to pay a considerably higher price for their periodical literature, Frankly, we need your help in this emergency, and we confidently believe that we can rely upon the loyalty of the readers of Lire, who know the paper and approve of the Americanism it stands for. Give your newsdealer a standing order for LIFE. If you ask for Lire at a news-stand and it is not in stock, ask to have the copy ordered for you. This means, as a tule, a delay of only a few hours, and in most cases the dealer will be glad to deliver it at your address. If you are changing your abode for the summer, notify the local dealer promptly that you want Lire ek, Should the dealer, for any reason, not be able or willing to supply you promptly and regularly, send us an annual subscription. Lire will come to you regularly, on time, and you may change the address as often as you like. AF SOLOMON HAD LIVED TO-DAY comicbooks.com