216 THE MODEL STOCK PLAN
passed as this is written. Today several successful chains
of $1 stores are in operation.
Then there was pointed out the possibility of applying a
similar idea in book publishing. “By and large, books are
published at arbitrary prices, without definite relation to
the buying ability of our 114,000,000 people . . . Often
an edition will not exceed 1,000 or 1,500 copies, whereas there
are thousands upon thousands of potential book buyers in
this country . . . The average book will no longer be pub-
lished at a price higher than a full-line price—that is, higher
than the highest price at which mass distribution is possi-
ble . . . In a short time one or two publishers will do it
and will be able to offer authors a first edition of 100,000 OF
more, while the other publishers offer merely 1, 500 or 3,000.1
In the intervening five years have come the so-called
“book clubs.” The Literary Guild is giving its 60,000
subscribers approximately $40 worth of books a year for
$21. There is a children’s monthly book club, a business
monthly book club, and a lawyer's monthly book club, all
of them working along the best-selling full-line price. And
there is a book club working along the cheapest full-line
price.
I am not citing these examples to glorify my ability as a
prophet. Prophecy is at best dangerous and at worst dis-
astrous, so that I try not to indulge in it too lightly or fre-
quently. But if, in only five years, the unmistakable
economic trend toward mass production and distribution
along Model Stock lines has made these two forecasts come
true—the one about books brought down on my head no
end of dissent at the time—does it not follow that these
broad statements about other lines are now most likely to be
worked out with greater and greater total profits?
Just as another indication of the possibilities of applying
mass-distribution principles and methods to lines of business
that on the surface are much different, let us look at the
experiment made in December, 1929, with merchandising
popular magazines through chain stores. Four new maga-
1 0p. cil., pp. 152-186.
