Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1889 — A School Book Trust. [ARTICLE]

A School Book Trust.

A combination baa been formed by the leading school book publishers for the purpose of regulating the methods of selling their publications. The publishers deny that their combination partakes in any sense of the nature of a trust. It was formed solely for the purpose of reducing the cost ot doing business, and there is no attempt to govern {trices. The agreement, which went nto effect Monday, provides that the publishers shall not employ traveling agents. The large houses in the trade hitberto have employed fifteen to fifty men to solicit orderjs at salaries ranging from SI,BOO to $3,500. The firm of A. 8. Barnes & Co., one of its members, has been in the habit of paying more than SIO,OOO a year to talesmen, and other houaee have paid salaries at the same rate. The saving in expenses which the agreement will afford wity enable the publishers to sell books at lower prices. Besides the members of the School Book Syndicate, which has ' been in existence several years, the new combination includes karper & Bros., and other firms heretofore opposed to union.