The Publishing Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 22, 1912

The Publishing Work

Conducted by the Publishing Department of the General Conference N. Z. Town - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Secretary

Work of the Pacific Press

On the occasion of the annual outing of the employees of the Pacific Press Publishing Association, Brother H. H. Hall was asked to give a short address on the work of that institution. He said in part:—

"Our work is to print and to assist in the circulation of gospel and health literature. That this work has ever proved a mighty factor in all moral and religious reforms is recognized by all candid observers and students of history.

Our Territory

"Our territory in Canada stretches from Port Arthur, on the northern shores of Lake Superior, to Vancouver Island, on the Pacific. In the United States it includes everything west of the Mississippi, except Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Organization

"The agencies through which we operate in this country consist of twenty-six conference tract societies, employing forty workers, twenty-four field agents, and five union agents. We have three branch offices, located in Kansas City, in Portland, and in Calgary, Canada, all of which now occupy buildings of their own, which serve as supply depots for their respective territories.

Sales

"Our records show that in 1875 the association supplied to the field literature valued at $10,000. The year that has just closed records a circulation of over $400,000 worth, or forty times as much as in 1875.

"Thus far this year our sales show a monthly gain of $2,000 over the same period of 1911. The shipments from our book department have aggregated seventy tons, as compared with fifty-two tons for the same period last year. Our tract sales last year were 22,000,000 pages. This record is being upheld this year, and only last week we had an order for more than a ton of tracts in five-dollar-package form from one of our depositories.

"Five years ago we undertook the publication of text-books for use in our church-schools. We have sold 65,000 copies of these, or a little over 1,000 copies a month.

To Foreign Lands

"In recent years our institution has been publishing a series of subscription books in German, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, Dutch, and French, which bring to us markets limited only by the organization and activities of these foreign countries in their work of extending a knowledge of the third angel's message.

"I heard Elder O. A. Olsen say recently: 'To my certain knowledge, the printed page has pioneered this message in every foreign field.'

"As an indication of the immense development of this class of business, you will be interested to know that there are now more than twenty tons of books out on the Atlantic and the Pacific, hastening to our gospel colporteurs in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the West Indies, the Philippines, and other islands."—Pacific Union Recorder.