the subscriber and the paper. Since
people were at liberty to start a subscription at any time in the
year, it was plain that a year's subscription would run out at the
same time the following year, and since this was going on twelve
months in the year, we began sending out bills each month to those
subscribers whose subscriptions were about to expire. That system was
in operation from 1910 through 1915.

During 1915, it was made possible for us to have enough helpers in the
office to make a study of the Circulation Department with a view
to seeing where improvements could be made, what leakages could be
stopped, and what kind of circulation work was paying. The result was
that we decided that along with our efforts to get new subscriptions
we must carry on a new kind of work to keep those already obtained
on our books. We found that it was not sufficient simply to send the
paper to a person for a certain time and then ask her to renew. We
found that we needed to study the source of the subscription, the
motive for subscribing, and how best to appeal to the subscriber
to renew. We found that since we had been keeping the record (1910
through 1915), about 26,000 persons have been on our books and for
some reason or other are no longer there. A careful study and a long
one showed that those whose papers had been discontinued in that
period fell into the following classifications:

1. Those who had died.

2. Unconverted antis.

3. Those who had not paid
after we had sent three
bills.

4. Those who had moved without
giving us their change
of address.

5. Those whom the post office
reported as "not found."

6. Those who asked to be
discontinued without giving
a reason.

7. Those who said they could
not afford it.

8. Those who said they were
too busy to read it.

9. Those who said they were
converted and did not
need it.

10. Those who disapproved of our policy in some way.

The number of new subscriptions and the number of papers discontinued
for 1915, by the month, is shown below so that readers may understand
how serious is this problem and so that they may understand why every
subscriber and every suffragist ought to help keep the numbers in
these ten classes as small as is possible, if they care to have a part
in making the paper self-supporting.

1915
New Subscriptions Discontinuances
January 1,297 407
Feb