“Admass” Attack

Richard Church in the Spring (1955) Number of LIBRARY REVIEW, wrote “It is safer and cheaper to publish large numbers of a few books rather than small impressions of a lot of titles.” That is increasingly true of almost all commerce to‐day. Salesmanship, to be economic, must be concentrated. British Railways, for example, clip their small services in out‐of‐the‐way localities in a desperate effort to avoid further losses. This may be most inconvenient to the small‐town folk. But who cares about small‐towners? Or, rather, who can care even if they would? The “little man” is only a valuable market when he is one of a large mass of “little men.” I do not accuse the British Railways Executive of callousness; it is driven by the trend of the time. The Mass, the Great Majority of consumers, dictate solvency: the few and the lonely must muck along as best they can.