Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/91

 Memorandum in re Corpus juris

79

SIZE OF THE WORK. Based on the most careful calculations, our belief is

as this new work.

that the work (partly because an ade

each average a sale of more than 2,000

quate system of classiﬁcation will make possible the avoidance of duplication of material in diﬂ'erent parts, on which point

sets per year. Our belief is that the proposed American Corpus juris, within less than two years after it is placed on

see views of Mr. Justice Holmes quoted supra) can be produced in about twenty

the market, at least the entire ﬁve thousand sets, will be sold, or rather

volumes of one thousand pages each,

forty-ﬁve hundred sets,

including an index and table of cases.

being reserved for review and other special purposes. If so, the work would

Second (b). The Financing of the Project.

complete, as valuable or as well edited

It is said that they

ﬁve hundred

have more than paid for itself and left a considerable credit balance.

Planned on so gigantic a scale as that outlined, with an editorial staff such as we have in contemplation, the produc

We believe that far in excess of 2,000 sets of the proposed work would be

tion of the work would cost seemingly an enormous sum of money, yet in reality it is a triﬂing sum in comparison

produced as outlined above. And while

with the advantages to accrue to our

juridical system and to the nation. Calculations, based on careful compu

tation as to cost of material and all other expenses, including the probable amounts

necessary to be paid the various Edi torial Boards, members of the Advisory

absorbed annually by the profession if the work is not a digest in the sense the word is now used and if thoroughly done would probably not require extensive changes in the text from time to time, (probably very few after the second edi

tion) yet we believe it would be advisable to keep it up to date with a cumulative annual and with complete new editions at intervals of say every ten years.

Council and Board of Criticism, total approximately six hundred thousand dollars, which according to the estimate would enable ﬁve thousand sets to be produced, bound ready for delivery. The ﬁgures mentioned could be con

project is undoubtedly capable of being successfully ﬁnanced. Indeed we believe

siderably reduced, yet it would be at the sacriﬁce of the quality of the edi

overstate the case when he said, “For tune and fame sufﬁcient to satisfy any

'torial writers and the extent of the system of criticism; on the other hand, a further elaboration of the extensive

be the due reward of the man, or men, who would succeed in conferring such

system of editorial work proposed would

a boon.” You will recall also that Carter declared it “would be of priceless

of course increase the cost. Our ﬁgures include the advertising necessary to sell four thousand ﬁve hundred sets at the rather moderate price, for a work of such character, of $7.50 per volume, or

$150 a set. The large digests now on the

market sell complete for considerably more than the sum named for our work, yet it is not a debatable point that they

would in no sense be equal to or be as

On a purely commercial basis, the

our ﬁgures to be exceedingly conserva

tive and that James C. Carter did not

measure of avarice or ambition would

'value,"——that “such a work, well exe cuted, would be the vade mecum of every

lawyer and every Judge"; that “It would be the one indispensable tool of his art.” Judge Staake has well said : “It is pitiable that the question of ﬁnancing the project should have to be discussed."

But it must.

There are two general