ITEMS FROM OUR STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING.
The stockholders of the Pacific Press Publishing Company held their twenty-third annual meeting April 25, 26, 1898, at the office in Oakland, Cal. A few items may be of more interest to our readers than a long, full-detailed report. Some of these items are taken from the president’s address, and some from the actual proceedings. Improvement in the Plant.—This has consisted mainly in putting in a web-perfecting press, built to order by the C. B. Cottrell & Sons Company, of New York. The paper is fed from a continuous roll, and the press is capable of printing on both sides, folding, pasting, and cutting, at the rate of from 5,000 to 10,000 per hour, the grade of work determining the speed. The SIGNS is at present printed from this press; but, the press being new, an apprentice, so to speak, it has not got to doing its best work. When experiments are finished in paper, ink, and adjustment, we hope to give our readers as good a paper in presswork and illustrations as at the beginning of the year. This press will print and fold tracts and pamphlets at the rate of 40,000 16-page signatures per hour. A cut of this press was given in the SIGNS of April 7. There has also been added to the plant a Mergenthaler typesetting machine, in which solid lines of type are cast from brass matrices. The machine is operated from a keyboard by a single person, doing the work automatically. It seems in operation to be gifted with instinct. Another important addition is a new Corliss engine of 75 horse-power of the latest pattern, which is doing most excellent work. Periodical Department.—The regular religious periodicals printed here are the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, weekly; Our Little Friend, weekly; the Sabbath School Worker, monthly; the Bible Students’ Library, quarterly, and the Apples of Gold Library, monthly. There has been added to our editorial force Elder A. O. Tait, formerly of Michigan, whose pen speaks for itself from week to week. We have attempted to greatly improve the paper the present year by original and better illustrations, and by better articles from a larger circle of contributors. Mr. L. A. Phippeny has been added to our staff as art director. For the year ending March 31, 1898, there were printed 2,061,550 copies of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES; for the year ending March 31, 1897, 1,360,100; and for the corresponding year, 1895, 422,000 copies. Since 1895 the increase has been 365 per cent.; but we hope for still greater in the year to come. Last year the average weekly circulation was 27,182 copies; this year it has been 41,231, an increase of over 14,000 copies weekly. Notwithstanding our increased list, there has been a loss on the paper, as there must be unless the list is greatly increased, and the loss is partly met by securing approved advertising. Thousands of dollars worth of advertising has been refused by the publishers, because, according to their principles, they could not recommend the articles to their readers. The average weekly circulation of Our Little Friend the past year has been 16,030 copies, a weekly increase of 240. The Sabbath School Worker has had an average monthly circulation of 6,104 copies. In the circulation of our Libraries there have been sold 10,500,000 pages of tracts alone, besides a good sale of pamphlets. The aggregate gain in pages is over 1,500,000. The paper used in printing them is about eight tons. Financial.—The year financially has not been an easy one. Notwithstanding political promises, times have been hard, and money close. While in some departments there has been slight loss, others have kept the balance good. The total net gain is $6,217.98. Missionary Work.—Besides assuming the financial responsibility of the Helping Hand and Medical Mission, of San Francisco, of which full account has been given from time to time, and of the home for the homeless and betrayed girls, in a suburb of this city, the institution has donated in literature and otherwise $527.47. New Board of Directors.—The board of directors chosen to serve for the coming year is composed of the following: C. H. Jones, E. A. Chapman, S. C. Stickney, W. N. Glenn, M. H. Brown, Wm. Saunders, S. N. Curtiss. The present outlook is auspicious. Looked at from a financial view point, it is not encouraging. Looked at in the light of prophecy, a grander and more awful time never opened its portals to mortal man. We stand at the dawning of the eternal day, whose sun shall know no setting, at the very gateway which shall soon swing wide to the coming of the King of kings. It is the golden, grandest hour of opportunity earth has ever known. May this publishing house and all its coworkers in Christ meet the issue. “This day we fashion Destiny, our web of fate we spin;
This day for all hereafter choose we holiness or sin;
Even now from starry Gerizim or Ebal’s cloudy crown,
We call the dews of blessing or the bolts of cursing down.”