THE field of the Pacific Press Publishing Company the whole world. In a more particular sense we have that portion of the United States west of the Mississippi with a portion of Canada west of the Great Lakes. By way of explanation I will say that it is found to be more satisfactory to divide up the territory of the United States among our three large publishing-houses,—the Review and Herald, Washington, D. C., the Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and the Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.,—so that more careful and thorough work in selling may be carried on.
Our main office is located here in Mountain View. The Kansas City office is at the extreme east of our territory, and is in the midst of the great central agricultural portion of the United States, one of the richest parts of our whole country.
Recently, we have established a branch office at Regina, Saskatchewan, Can. We also have an office at Portland, Ore. I will speak of these, beginning with Kansas City, a little more in detail.
In 1895 Brother S. N. Curtiss opened a branch office in Kansas City. I was in that district at the time; had been working in the tract society. I remember one shipment we had from the Pacific Press that was three months on the way. You can readily recognize that agents could not be expected to work and wait that long for books to come from the Pacific Coast, so the Kansas City office was organized.
I haven't all the statistics to show you, but I will give you a few. Brother Curtiss remained there one year, when he was called back home. Brother B. R. Nordyke then took the management and remained there nine years. Then he was called to the home office, and Brother James Cochran, an experienced bookman who had been in the field a number of years, was given the management, and he has been there ever since.
During the past few years his subscription book sales have been as follows: (I haven't the records before 1903.)
Last year the sales of the branch office in Kansas City were greater than the sales of the home office. You can readily appreciate, therefore, that the Kansas City office is an important branch. Of bound books they carry a larger stock than the home office. They must of necessity do that in order to supply such a large field. I wrote Brother Cochran, asking him for some information. I received word this morning that their sales for July were $10,000, and for August, $20,000. This is almost half as great as their entire sales for last year.
They have eleven and one-half million people in that district to supply from that office. They have in the northern part of Minnesota and the Dakotas a large foreign population, and therefore do a large business in the circulation of foreign books. The Pacific Press furnishes the subscription books in foreign languages that are issued by the denomination, or practically so. Our Kansas City house, being in the center of the field, so far as States are concerned, has much of that business. They carry a stock of from $10,000 to $15,000 worth of publications in foreign languages.
The home office, located here on the Pacific Coast, is in an advantageous position to do business with South and Central America in supplying Spanish publications. We have made several shipments to Central and South America, and even over to Cuba, and that field is opening up wonderfully. There is no question but what we are going to have an enormous trade in our foreign books.
In this Kansas City field we have various conferences and States. Each of these States has its book depository or headquarters, and each State also has a State agent, or a man to take charge of the book business in that State. The branch does a wholesale business. The tract societies do a retail business. In the Kansas City field there are nine State agents and two general agents besides their various officers: canvassers, etc.
For years we were able to supply the Northwest without difficulty from this office direct, but freights began to go slow and we began to have trouble, so in January, 1904, we established a branch office in Portland, Ore. Portland has a splendid outlet both by water and rail.
The Portland office does not have so large a constituency. There are only about one and one-half million people to be supplied from that office. The Northwest is developing wonderfully. There is no reason to doubt it being one of the most important fields we have. Mines and everything that would draw men are bringing them into that territory, and our book business there this year is astonishing us. We have five State agents and one general agent in the district, and our business is growing very rapidly as a result.
We have had more or less trouble in getting books into Canada. The delays in the customs offices, as well as the long distance, delayed shipments. When I was in Winnipeg in January I rode out with a young man who had made his canvass the preceding summer, and was still waiting for his books; did not expect to get them until this spring, and had his expectations fully realized. So we arranged for a branch office at Regina.
Winnipeg is the great Chicago of the Canadian Northwest, but Regina is more centrally located. There are lines of railroad running in three different ways. It is the capital of Saskatchewan, a growing little place, and we believe it is going to be an ideal location for our branch office.
The average wheat yield of Manitoba for ten years has been twenty-one bushels per acre. The average in the States is about twelve. The wheat is first-class. It is a wonderful country, and altho they only have half a million people to be supplied from this field at present, they are going in there rapidly, and we expect this year to sell $10,000 worth of books, and, really, I expect in 1908 our sales will be $25,000 in that field. I see no reason why we should not do a splendid book business there.
There is another thing I would like to refer to. It is an expensive field. We have heavy transportation charges and duties to pay. This of necessity11has increased the price of our books, and a further increase may have to be made; but, still, when you consider the field we supply, the long journey, and the duties we have to pay in Canada, etc., these rates that will be charged, I am sure, will be looked upon as reasonable by all.
The population is largely foreign, in many places our books are more than half taken in foreign languages. This will mean a great deal for all that country, and now that we are publishing these foreign books, I see no reason why the field should not be supplied, and supplied rapidly. Thus our latest Pacific Press baby, if we may use the term, shall still have an opportunity of expressing itself as strongly and as effectually as have the rest.