Page:The Ethics of the Professions and of Business, with a supplement - Modern China and Her Present Day Problems.djvu/206

190 are considered somewhat of a byproduct, the conviction of the publisher being, however, that good service, intelligently placed from the business standpoint, will be sure to receive financial reward. Essentially, these two points of view in business publishing are the same as those which are met in the individual citizen in everyday life. After all, what the publisher and the individual have to sell is fundamentally service.

There is reason, of course, behind both of these points of view, and there is not so much difference between them as might appear at first sight. The difference while small is, however, vital. It is one of emphasis. Thus the attitude of one publisher says, "the profits first," even if his words are different. 'That of the other says, "the reader first," whether he subscribes to a creed which formulates his attitude or not. The latter is the modern, progressive industrial publisher. He is the one who has been forward in the movement to raise the standards of the business.

From what has been said, the reasons underlying the formulation of "Standards of Practice for Business Papers" may be inferred. As publishers got together in their local and national associations to discuss their problems, they felt the need for some yardstick by which to measure their own performance along ethical lines. Their idea was not to produce a police code which would permit the bringing of transgressors before the bar of industrial publishing justice, but rather to draw an outline of what industrial publishing is at its best. The "code" has been accepted in the spirit in which it was drawn and, in the opinion of leading publishers in this field, is accomplishing its purpose. A glance through any good industrial paper today will disclose little material in the editorial columns that bears the mark of disguised advertising, and little in the advertising pages that is extravagant in claim or derogatory of competitors.

So much by way of a background for the "Standards of Practice." Let us now examine briefly the organization which is promulgating them, the Associated Business Papers, Incorporated. This is the outgrowth of a movement of the industrial publishers to get together nationally, which in 1906 took the form of the Federation of Trade Press Associations in the United States. As the name of that organization indicates, there were already a number of local publishers' associations extant. These had been formed from time to time to bring together the men engaged in this branch of the publishing business for the purpose of exchanging views and experience, at the same time enabling them to take a united stand where such action would be helpful to the industries which they represented and to their own individual industry as well.

At its annual convention in 1913 the Federation adopted a "Declaration of Trade Press Principles," ten in number, which set forth frankly just what business publishing was trying to do and what the publishers believed to be the essentials of good service. Good service, the "Principles" stated to be the basis on which every trade paper should build its business. Such was a beginning which led naturally to the "Standards of Practice" which were adopted by the Federation in May, 1914, and were taken over by its successor, the Associated Business Papers, Incorporated. This, the present association, was formed in