MODERN PRINTING STATISTICS.
[From the Scientific American's Special Number on "Modern Aids to Printing."] THE development of the "art preservative of all arts" has been very rapid during the last decade, and many of the changes have been revolutionary, resulting in enormously increased product, manufactured in quicker time and at a much lower cost. The quality of the work has also improved. The far more general dissemination of intelligence, the rapid and efficient means of intercommunication between all parts of the world, with the cheapening and broadening of educational facilities, constitute one of the most notable features in the progress of the world during the past fifty years; and the one most vitally contributing to all our great industries is the printing press. Some idea of the volume of business may be gained when it is stated that in 1900, the census year, the value of the finished product was $347,055,050. This sum was almost equally divided between newspapers on the one hand and book and job printing on the other. In the United States there are 22,312 establishments, 15,305 of which publish or print newspapers. The total capital invested is $292,517,072. A large clerical force is necessary to transact this amount of business; 37,799 salaried officials, clerks, etc., draw $36,090,719 in salaries, while the actual work is done by 162,992 persons, drawing $84,249,954 in wages. Miscellaneous expenses of these establishments were $55,897,559, and the cost of materials used was $86,856,990. Of the total value of products, advertising forms 43 per cent, subscriptions and sales 35.8 per cent, and book and job printing, including miscellaneous products, 21.2 per cent. The total circulation of daily papers is enough to supply one for every five inhabitants, and the total circulation per issue of weeklies and monthlies is one to each two inhabitants. Ninety-four per cent of all the publications are printed in the English language. One and a quarter billion pounds of paper were used in the census year. Of this amount 77.6 per cent was consumed for newspapers, and 16.4 per cent for books and periodicals, and only 6 per cent for job printing. On analyzing the total circulation of each State it is found that the ten leading States supply four-fifths of the circulation per issue of all publications, thus indicating the concentration of circulation in certain populous States. Weekly publications are more numerous in proportion to the inhabitants in the West and Northwest. New England ranks high in dailies but low in circulation, suggesting that in that densely-settled region the daily has to some extent supplanted the weekly. There were 18,226 publications reported to the census authorities, while 3,046 publications failed to report. This would give a remarkable total of 21,272 periodicals, and the aggregate circulation of those reporting was 114,229,334 per issue, while the aggregate number of copies issued during the census year was 8,168,148,749.