The United States authorities have dealt with the book problem
in a far more generous, and I suggest more intelligent, manner. They can afford to be generous, since their supplies of paper are infinitely greater than our own ; but it would seem as if they have handled the problem of allocation with a greater sense of fairness than we have ourselves. Instead of treating all publishers according to a fixed scale which operates to the disadvantage of the small publisher, they have introduced a sliding scale under which pub- lishers are graded into the three classes of large, medium and small users of paper and under which the little man obtains fairer treat- ment than under our own more drastic and uniform system. Thus, although it is inevitable that American publishers should obtain far more paper than British publishers, it is not inevitable that in this country the small publisher should in practice suffer more seriously than his richer competitors. Nor is it just that firms who were publishers in 1939, and who therefore come under the quota system, should be placed at a disadvantage in comparison with the mushroom firms who have sprung up since the war and who can obtain as much paper as some jobbing printer is willing to provide. If Mr. Lyttelton is really on the side of the angels he can scarcely regard as angelic these interlopers into the market for books. The grievance of the publishers is a justifiable grievance ; the service which they perform is one of national importance, and their cause deserves the support of all men of good-will.
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