p. 21, para. 5 | Our World Literature Sales During 1915

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 21, 1916

Our World Literature Sales During 1915

By N. Z. TOWN

It is with sincere gratitude to God that we pass on to the readers of the REVIEW the summary of our literature sales during 1915. On account of the war the annual reports of our publishing houses abroad have not reached us very promptly, but all are now in except two. For these two we have used the figures of 1914.

Everybody was glad when in 1914 our annual sales passed the two-million-dollar mark, but we are still more glad this year to find that the grand total value of literature circulated during 1915 is $2,132,000, a gain of $23,000 over 1914.

But the end is not yet. The monthly summaries of our colporteurs' work as published in the REVIEW show a gain of $117,000 for the first seven months of this year over the corresponding period last year. Some of the largest individual records have been made this year that have ever been made in our colporteur work.

A brother working in Arizona recently sold more than $1,200 worth of books in two weeks. From San José, Costa Rica, Brother J. A. P. Green reports that he and Brother J. L. Holder, the field secretary of the West Caribbean Conference, sold $500 worth of books in a little over a week. The president of the republic and nearly all the members of his cabinet gave orders for the book.

Never in their history have our publishing houses in this country been busier than during this year. In a letter dated August 3, Brother C. H. Jones, manager of the Pacific Press, wrote:—

“You will be glad to learn that we are rushed with work in every department of our office. Our presses are running from four o'clock in the morning until eleven at night.”

August 16 he wrote:—

“Our presses are still running from four o'clock in the morning until eleven at night, and our book bindery is also working overtime; in fact, we can hardly keep up with the orders.”

Brother E. R. Palmer passes on this good word from the Review and Herald office:—

“While we have no special lines of work on hand, all our presses are running full time, and two of them for several months have been running double shift in order to keep up with our orders.”

During the last eighteen months the Review and Herald has sent out more than 1,100 prospectuses for “Bible Readings” alone, and the Pacific Press bound 800 prospectuses for the same book in one month recently.

The last report from Germany shows that the Herold der Wahrheit has a circulation of over 200,000 copies each issue.

The work is going forward in every land, and we are seeing more and more clearly that “in a large degree through our publishing houses is to be accomplished the work of that other angel who comes down from heaven with great power, and who lightens the earth with his glory.” N. Z. TOWN.