Book Sales in Australia During the Year 1904
By E. R. Palmer
This splendid report from the Australian field may be a little late, but it has just come to hand, and as it contains some interesting suggestions, we are glad to receive it even at the eleventh hour. Brother J. M. Johanson, general agent for the Australian field, and manager of the book department of the Echo Publishing Company, writes as follows:— “With reference to our work here in Australia, we certainly have cause to feel encouraged. There is, nevertheless, ample opportunity for doing better. During the past year I spent most of my time in the field, and most likely it will be the same during the coming year. It is in the field that the big end of our work lies, and it is from there our success must come; and the longer I am in the work, the more I sense the necessity of keeping in personal touch with the work in the various States. “The result of last year's work, as far as the number of books sold is concerned, was better than any previous record we have had in our work in this field, and I am glad to say that notwithstanding the fact that the sale of our health books is only about half what it used to be, the money value of our work has been on the increase. During the past year we have had sixty-six agents in the field, working an average time of sixty-seven hours a month—equal to about eight colonial working days. The actual number of subscription books delivered was 15,432, and the total value of our sales $71,070, as against 13,754 subscription books and a total value for sales of $68,395 the previous year. The percentage of our deliveries was ninety-six as against ninety-two the previous year. This is especially encouraging, as it indicates that not only did our sales increase, but our canvassers did better work. “The weak spot in our work here seems to be on the point of time. I should like to see us average at least seven thousand five hundred dollars' worth of business a month; and it could readily be done without putting any more men into the field, if we would only improve on the matter of time; but that little ‘if’ comes in, as usual, and spoils the calculations. Still, we are living in hopes that by steady perseverance we shall improve on this point.” The preceding is a report of subscription books only, which were actually delivered during the year. There was also a good sale of trade books and periodicals, which brings up the total retail business to nearly one hundred thousand dollars. As this is by far the largest report furnished from any country in our world-wide field in proportion to the population and the membership, it may be of profit for us to review briefly the organization and plans of work which have enabled the Australasian Union Conference to attain this splendid success. Australia is a scattered, difficult field to work. More than half the population is in large cities, and the great, almost unbroken, droughts for the past ten years have afflicted the country to such a degree as to make it one of the most trying fields to be found anywhere in the world for our canvassers. Therefore this report must be interpreted as a triumph of general principles, rather than an unnatural boom on a basis of prosperity and easy sales. 1. At about the same time when the book work was at its highest in the United States, between 1885 and 1893, the canvassing work also prospered in Australia; but beginning about the latter date, the book work began to fall to pieces there, just as it did in the United States, and from about the same causes. 2. In 1895, when the writer went to Australia, the book work was about as near flat as it could be. There was a general agent in New Zealand, who was also president of the New Zealand Conference and was running a series of tent-meetings; and Elder Daniells, who was president of the Australian Conference, was holding the fort (what there was left of it) in Australia. 3. The rebuilding of the work was a slow, difficult process, and very little advancement, apparently, was made during the first year. No effort was made to start a boom. The work was begun by teaching fundamental principles with the object of erecting a structure upon a permanent basis, which would give a substantial, permanent work. 4. The success which was finally attained came as the direct working out of sound principles of labor and organization, and the enthusiastic, harmonious co-operation of the Australasian Union Conference, the Echo Publishing Company, and the State tract society departments. These two forces, co-operation and right principles, were necessary to17secure these satisfactory results. Co-operation would have been only half successful without the right principles of organization and labor to work upon, and the right principles would not have prevailed without the co-operation. 5. The principles adopted were the old fundamental principles of tract society organization and work which God gave to this people almost at the beginning of their work, and which were built up and maintained for many years under the energetic labors of Elder S. N. Haskell, Miss Maria Huntley, and a score or more of faithful, energetic tract society secretaries, the most of them women, whose names are inseparably connected with the past prosperity of tract and missionary efforts in the United States. This system, with its faithful workers, built up the splendid publishing achievements of this denomination, which reached their greatest success between the years 1885 and 1893. The neglect of these principles was the cause of the decline of the work in Australia, just as it was the cause of the decline of the same work in the United States; and the revival and steady maintenance of those same principles brought the revival of the work in Australia, just as it has brought a revival in every country where those same principles have been maintained. 6. The co-operation, already mentioned, was also necessary in order that tract societies, occupying local territory under the local ownership and control of conferences, might be protected and maintained as retailers; that the publishing house might be protected as the importer, manufacturer, and wholesaler for the entire country, and that both wholesaler and retailer might have the powerful assistance of the conference workers, who hold the key of influence with the people, and are set by the Lord as the guides and shepherds of the flock. This powerful combination, working harmoniously upon this co-operative basis, accomplished the revival of the work in Australia, just as it can accomplish it in every other place. 7. The strong co-operation between the union conference and the publishing house in Australia is indicated by the fact that the general agent is appointed and largely directed by the union conference, and his salary and traveling expenses are cheerfully paid by the Echo Publishing Company, and he is made the manager of their Book Department. 8. Even the Echo Publishing Company itself has been organized as a department of the Australasian Union Conference, so that the work not only in spirit, but in fact, is one. 9. One of the strongest features of the Circulating Department of the Echo Publishing Company—that feature which has contributed most largely toward strong, harmonious co-operation with the field—has been its strict adherence to the just principle of maintaining its wholesale business, and protecting each State tract society in the full enjoyment of its retail trade. Cash orders are filled and charged up to the State societies at wholesale rates, and the cash received is credited on account, and letters are forwarded to the State societies, thus directing the purchasers to the local retail office. This system has strengthened the State society, has decreased the routine of the Circulating Department of the publishing house, has turned the attention of the general public toward its local office, and has done more than any other one thing to establish a harmonious, co-operative basis between the office and the field, and has made both wholesaler and retailer prosperous. 10. The Echo Publishing Company ships out most of its books in boxes by the hundredweight, instead of in parcels by the pound, and is able to turn over between eighty and ninety thousand dollars' worth of book business a year with only one packer, who gives half his time to other work outside of the Circulating Department, a stenographer, and a general agent, who manages both the office and the field. This strict adherence to the wholesale business enables the office to turn over a large business on small expense, and make larger net profits than it could possibly make if it carried a retail trade by elaborate organization and long-distance management. This protection of the retailer by the wholesaler is one of the most vital and best known of business principles. 11. Tract societies do not carry stock, except sample copies, and a small supply of the most current literature for filling mail orders and the most urgent express orders. Other shipments are sent directly from the Echo Publishing Company to the agents in the field. 12. A cash business is maintained through the entire system, from the individual in the churches and the canvassers in the field to the publishing house. When this system was introduced, it was feared that it would cut down the trade, but, on the contrary, it did not lessen the trade, and greatly improved the profits and the success of the tract society work. This cash policy was adopted without any serious trouble. State tract societies and agents were considerably involved in debt, and it was found necessary to make a change in some way, and after careful counsel it was unanimously agreed that a cash policy was the best. Church librarians, canvassers, and State tract societies closed up their accounts, and placed their debit balances as account number one, and started in to pay cash. No old account could be increased, and all new business had to be done on a straight cash basis for every one. Tract societies sent in their orders to the publishing house with a check attached, and deposited a small sum with the publishing house to cover periodical business and other small purchases. Then every one who was in debt worked to pay off his old debit little by little. The success of this cash system has been such that old obligations are nearly all settled, and the tract society work is being run almost clear from all indebtedness, and all concerned feel good about it. 13. The best man available is secured as State agent in each conference. The heavy responsibility and expenses of his work are such that he is paid a good living salary, equal to the salary of any of the best ordained ministers. The substantial support given to these men, and the fact that their work is placed on a level with all other departments of work, and they are given opportunities and advantages which make them staunch counselors and good committeemen,—all these things have served to build up the work of the State agent and to magnify its importance, and has enabled the Australasian Union Conference to keep a strong line of competent men in these positions. Every agent in the Australasian colonies is paid from $12.50 to $15 a week. It would be impossible to hold able men, such as have charge of the work there, year after year if they were paid a pittance which forced them to sleep on the benches in railway stations and eat crackers and cheese. 14. For eight years this steady prosperity has been maintained in the tract society work of Australasia, and as indicated by the report given above, it is rising steadily every year. May the Lord greatly bless the work and the workers as he has done in the past, and forever save them from a departure from the strength of their present co-operation on the basis of the sound principles of our tract and missionary work. 15. This perfect system of tract society organization puts each local section of the field into the hands of local workers so completely that when important plans are laid at headquarters, either by the publishing house or by the union conference, these plans can be launched by a few hours' correspondence with these tract society secretaries, and the whole machinery of the denomination is set in motion as if by an electric button; and the strong co-operative relation of the union conference and the publishing house to the tract societies gives these societies a strength and confidence which makes them thus efficient. 16. This tract society system and co-operation are as valuable to the prosperity of the periodical work as for the book work. In Australia the periodical work is carried on by these local societies, and the average sale of the Australian Signs of the Times is something over three papers a member. This excellent circulation can be secured only by the local forces at work in each field, and the active co-operation of these workers can be secured only as they are organized locally so as to enable them to do their work in an intelligent, responsible way. Such reports as the one above, together with other reports of great interest from England and Germany, which we will give later, make us long from our hearts to see stronger, more united work in the United States. There was such a work years ago, in the days when the principles mentioned above were, in the main, controlling this field. Our work went down as these principles were neglected. Statistics show that no other department in God's cause has brought so many people to a knowledge of present truth as the tract and missionary department. One cause of the languishing of our evangelical work is the decadence of the tract and missionary work. As one pioneer minister in this message used to say, “The tract and missionary society puts a gun in the hands of every Adventist,” and a gun in the hands of every Adventist makes an army that can conquer. Has not the time fully come when the officers of the General Conference and the union conferences should unite with our publishing houses and State conferences and tract societies in re-establishing a united movement on the strong basis of the vital principles which God himself has given to this people? The18times are perilous. The end of all things is overdue. The Lord has been waiting graciously for us to finish his work that we might have the precious privilege of sounding the last notes of warning. All these years we have been very, very slow. In the Battle of the Wilderness, when the results of the third great day of strife hung in the balance, the word was passed through the ranks, “Touch shoulders and turn to the right.” This is the word for us just now. Touch shoulders for union, and turn to the right. May God put it into the hearts of his people to band together inseparably upon such strong working principles that our tract and missionary work shall be indeed a “continuous great campaign.” Sec. Gen. Conf. Publishing Dept.