tyle
and choice of words--is assumed to be his. If he is a careful worker he
has probably weighed every word that has gone into the phrasing. He
therefore does not relish having his style meddled with, even for such a
technicality as the filling out of a short line."

"Is it really better to heed this printer's edict?" laughed Paul.

"I think without question the book makes a better appearance if the rule
is heeded," declared Mr. Cameron. "A printer does and should take pride
in the looks of his page. The beauty of a book is quite an element in
its production. After the type has been set up and corrected, and the
proof paged, the next consideration is the size of the paper to be used,
the quality, the texture. The width of the margins, the clearness or
brilliancy of the text, the appearance and flexibility of the binding
all have to do with the artistic result which is, or should be, the aim
of every publisher. When all these details have been decided upon there
is yet another important factor in book-producing--the item of expense.
Books being no longer the property of the few, they must be within the
reach of the many, and the book-manufacturer's business is to make them
so. It is precisely because we have such a large reading public that
America has attained her high intellectual average. Not that we are a
cultured nation. By no means. What I mean is that our public school
system offers education so freely, and even compels it so drastically,
that there is a much smaller proportion of illiterate persons here than
in most lands. Our illiterates are largely foreigners who have not been
in our country long enough to become educated. Most of them have
immigrated from places where they had no educational advantages, and
some of them are, alas, now too old to learn. The great part of our
native-born citizens can read and write, and vast numbers of them have a
much broader education than that. It is by means of the wide
distribution of learning and enlightenment that we hope to banish
ignorance and superstition and spread patriotism and democracy. So you
see books are a giant element in our national plan, and the writing and
publishing of what is worthy and helpful is a service to the country. To
do all this the publisher has no easy puzzle to solve--to produce what
is good literature artistically, and at a price where he shall have his
legitimate profit, and yet give to the public something within the range
of its purse."