I
Gazette Supplements CorvalK, Or., November 9, 1894.
" Be thou as chaste as ice and as purt
snow thou shall not escape calumttjf '
ANSWER0F THE
AMERICAN BOOK CO.
TO ITS DEFAMERS.
A STATEMENT OF FACTS BY THE
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY '
TO THE PEOPLE OF
OREGON.
A public attack upon the methods, mo
tives, and business interests of the Amer
can Book Company, by a small sub
committee of the "Committee of One
Hundred," of Portland, Oregon,, has re
cently been published in the "Oregon
. ian," a newspaper of that city. ,
The "report" embodying this attack is
made up of a mass of misinformation,
unsupported charges, baseless rumors,
and unjustifiable suspicions.
Upon this ex-parte showing, with no
solid basis of fact or proof whatever,
npon mere assertions and insinuations,
our character and our business are as
sailed. Under such circumstances it is
but just to ourselves, and to our many
friends and patrons in Oregon and on
the Pacific Coast, to make a full and ex
plicit answer to these slanderous mis
representations. THE SUB-COMMITTEE'S CHARGES AGAINST
US.
I. That our corporation was fraudu
lently and deceitfully organized.
3. That we constitute a trust and a
monopoly. J
3. That this alleged trust and mo-
nopoly had existed, as such a "combina
tion," for many years before the incor
poration of our company.
4. That we have been guilty of brib
ery, and that we systematically pursue
our business through a policy of bribery
and corruption.
5. That our elementary publications
are without merit. '
6. That we palm off inferior books on
what the self-constituted censors style
"backwoods states."
7. That our profits in Oregon are
$30,000 a year.
8. That the effect of this alleged mo
nopoly is "disastrous to tha public
school system," and thereby "the public
are cheated of the right to independent
teachers, good schools, and good books."
Having in mind the full force of our
words, we most seriously and emphati
cally declare that each and every one of
.the above charges is absolutely false, and
that they are unsupported by any proof
or evidence whatever; and we hereby in
vite an examination of them in detaiL
THESE CHARGES WHOLLY LIBELOUS.
Although advised by eminent counsel
that the charges made against our com
pany are ' clearly libelous, and would
form the basis of successful suits, both
criminal and civil, if they were made
against us as individuals,, we shall not
hide behind oar corporate organization
or wait for the customary slow motion of
the courts. We do not shrink from the
broader trial of this issue by that public
before whom we have been accused, as
we have complete confidence in its sense
of fairness and justice,' and therefore i
make this public answer.
THE SOURCE OF THESE SLANDEROUS KJt
PORTS. There is but one reasonable explanation
as to the source of these attacks. They
emanate from some competitor iu busi
ness who has the skill to make use of
venal or gullible persons to publish and .
circulate bis own attacks and calumnies
for him, expecting in this way to build
himself up by defaming the character of
his competitors. These reports, which
are copied as news by the various country
journals, illustrate the fine art of procur
ing free advertising.
A "H:DIEX MONOPOLY'
It is charged that the American Book
Company was incorporated in New
Jersey, with a capital of $5,ooo, and that
'under this modest organization was hid
den one of the greatest monopolies ever
known in this country." It is true that
the American Book Company was legally
incorporated January 9, 1S90, and with
the amount of capital named. But for
what reason was this state chosen and
this small amount of capital made use of,
and what were the subsequent steps of its
corporate development?
New Jersey was chosen because its
laws are more favorable to manufactur
ing interests like ours than the laws of
some other states, and because several of
our large stockholders, who became di
rectors, reside there. As.is required and
customary, "a principal place of busi
ness" was designated in that state. The
New Jersey laws, however, are so strict
that they require the money which rep
resents stock issued to be all actually paid
in; or, when the money is not so paid in,
that actual property at a cash valuation
shall be purchased as the basis for stock
issued. In this latter case the stock
certificates issued for property must
bear stamped on their face, "Issued for
property purchased." It was therefore
on simple grounds of convenience and
economy that a cotnonny was at first
formed with this small capital, with a
view of afterwards purchasing the re
quired properties and issuing property
stock therefor, according to the statute
law ofthat state. To have done other
wise would have necessitated the locking
up, on the first incorporation of the com
pany, of a very large sum of money in
cash, to lie idle until ready to be turned
over foe. the several publishing plants
acquired, a very clumsy and expensive
proceeding which no sensible man would
advise.
Within four months after the original
incorporation all the subsequent steps of
purchasing property and increasing the
capital of the company to five million
dollars, the actual cost of its publishing
plants, were taken and every one of
these steps was official and public, and
made matter of record both at the capi
tol of the state in Trenton, and at Jersey
Citv, in Hudson Comity, the coporate seat
of the company. Thus.if the whole record
were quoted and published, instead of
being garbled for purposes of deceiving,
by publishing only the preliminary step of
incorporation, we should be truthfully
and fairly represented. As to the amount
of our capital and the size and import
ance of our business we have nothing to
conceal; indeed, we regard the great ag
gregate of our sales, spread over the
whole country, as the measure of confi
l dence of the school public in onr com
pany, and as an unimpeachable indorse
ment of the superior merit of our publi
cations.
In order to make this statement com
tplete and clear, it should be said that
ithie purchase of all school-book properties
made by this company, from whatever
: source was upon a uniform basis of cash
valuation, and according to the estab
lished rules of valuing publishing rights,
plates and plants. The price paid for
the Harper school-book interests was no
exception to this rule. No bonus or extra
inducement of any kind was offered or
given to anybody, much less was there !
any undue influence or duress exercised,
forming any alleged "dark chapter," as
basely insinuated in this so-called ""re-!
port" . ,
A PUBLISHING COMPANY.
The statement in the "report" that,
"this combination had practically been
in existence for over ten years prior to its
legal incorporation" is wholly false.
There had been no community of inter
ests, no consolidation of business
nothing interfering with the. entire inde
pendence of each firm, nothing that had
the slightest effect upon prices of school
books, nothing that influenced or inter
fered with their publication and regular
sale in any particular. There had been a
"Publishers' Association," which at
tempted to restrain the evils and extrav
agances of agency work for the introduc
tion of school books, but nothing that
attempted any restriction of the regular
business as between publishers, or as be
tween the several publishers and the pub
lic. The traffic was absolutely open and
free, and it has never been otherwise.
Nearly every reputable publishing house
in the country was represented in this
Publishers' Association or co-operated
with it directly or indirectly.
Why was the American Book Company
formed? The answer is the simplest thing
in the world for economy and efficiency
in conducting the school-book business
It was thought that the combined skil1
of the most experienced and sagacious
publishers, the combined judgment ot
the most accomplished editors, and ju
dicious use of large capital in stimula
ting the best authorship, would bring
the greatest measure of success; that the
bringing together of these forces would
tend to utilize the highest educational
thought and crystallize it into the best
text-books. Besides all this, there were
the very obvious economies in consolida
ting the agency operations for placing
the books, and the merchandizing opera
tions of distributing them to consumers.
All these ecouoinies enable the Company
to furnish the best possible text-books at
the lowest possible prices. The Ameri
can Book Company, by at once increas
ing its discount and inaugurating meth
ods for" regulating the retail prices of
middlemen, greatly cheapened the cost
of school books to the people; and by
establishing its own depots in different
sections of the country, enabled the pub
lic everywhere to readily obtain its pub
lications at the reduced prices.
HAS A TRUST BEEN CREATED AND A
MONOPOLY ESTABLISHED?
A trust or monopoly, as defined by all
authorities and by the United States and
State statue laws, must possess these two
essentials, namely:
Power to control production, and
Power to establish arbitrary prices for
all such production.
Without these elements there can be
no monopoly, coercion, or oppression.
In the publication and sale of school
books the exercise of neither of these
powers is possible. Authors, and would
be authors, are as numberless as "the
sands of the sea," and capital and presses
are 'everywhere available to print a
book. There are at the present time
in the United States, according to the
official trade organ, The Publishers'
Weekly, more than a hundred corpora
tions, firms, and houses issuing school
publications, and there are nearly ten
thousand different volumes in current
publication. It is a matter of notoriety,
among all teachers and school officers,
that competition between different houses
publishing school text-books has never
been more active than since the forma
tion of the American Book Company, or
than exists at the present moment. Com-,
petition is even strong enough to stimu
late the wildest and basest slanders
against a large and successful house like
the American Book Company, wherever
and whenever an important adoption -is
being considered, as is at present the
case in the state of Oregon; with the
evident purpose of shifting the issue
from the merits of the books to a discus
sion of personalities.
Stimulated by the charges of such ever
preseut and sometimes virulent competi
tion, there were brought about two legis
lative inquiries as to the status of the
American Book Company, respectively iu
the states of Pennsylvania and Illinois.
In these investigations and hearings the
testimony of everybody was publicly in
vited publishers, booksellers, educators,
politicians, and public cranks. Each of
the two reports, to their respective legis
latures, resulting from thete investiga
tions, completely exonerated the Ameri-
can Book Company from being, in any
sense or form, a trust or monopoly, as
had been falsely alleged. At liie Harris
burg hearing, all the leading publishers
of New York, Philadelphia, and other
Cities were present, ami, tesli.ryi;ijj uuder
oath, each one declared that be knew of
no case where any competitor had been
"crushed out" or oppressed by this com
pany. And we hereby offer this chal
lenge to any respectable school-book
publisher in this whole country today to
come forward and declare under oath
that he has suffered any oppression in.
his business from the American Book
Company, or that it is within his experi
ence or personal knowledge that this
company, has ever, at any time, at
tempted in the least degree "to crush
competing houses and destroy all legiti
mate competition," as charged iu this
"report."
WHAT OF THE POLICY OF BRIBERY ANL
CORRUPTION? e
In this report the old stories are re
hearsed that the agents of this company,
in one instance in the state of Washing
ton and in another in the state of West
Virginia, attempted bribery. Where is
the proof that these agents attempted it
in either case? Observe, it is not charged
that bribery was committed, but "at
tempted." The Washington case, after
dragging along in the courts for some
time, with three of the acccused agents
and detectives in their jnrisdfction and
under bail, was decided in favor of the
agents. It was then appealed to a higher
court, sent back for re-trial, and finally
dismissed for lack of evidence to main
tain it. This "report" also states that in
the West Virginia case the agent "was
publicly reprimanded and compelled to
hack his money." Is this the usual