As both the leading left book publisher and producer of the International Socialist Review the Charles H. Kerr Co. played a central role in the Socialist movement of its time, with its influence still felt in ours. The year 1912 saw the Company under concerted attack by the Socialist Party’s right wing. Below is Charles Kerr’s report to the stockholders’ meeting for that year, including an insight into their finances.

‘Annual Stockholders Meeting’ by Charles H. Kerr from international Socialist Review. Vol. 13 No. 8. March, 1913.

The annual stockholders’ meeting of Charles H. Kerr & Company was held at 118 W. Kinzie street, Chicago, on January 15, 1913, at 3:00 p.m. Out of the 3,723 shares of stock issued by the company, 2,473 shares were represented either by shareholders or proxies. Among those present were: Dr. J.H. Greer, R.H. Huebner, August Heidemann, J.O. Bentall, Jacob Bruning, R.B. Tobias, H.A. Levmson, Marcus Hitch, Walter Huggins, Joseph Novak, a stockholder and also representing the Bohemian Publishing Society, L.H. Marcy, Charles H. Kerr and Mary E. Marcy. Comrade Charles H. Kerr presided and Mary E. Marcy acted as secretary.

Charles H. Kerr read the following:

ANNUAL REPORT

The year 1912, in spite of several unusual difficulties, has been the most successful in the history of the publishing house. Our cash receipts increased from $63,276.75, our previous highwater mark, to $73,025.51. On the other hand, the cost of paper and printing, like the cost of living, has been advancing, and our necessary expenses have increased in proportion to our receipts. Moreover, to keep down the cost of printing, we have found it necessary to print books in larger editions, and we close the year 1912 with a larger stock of books on hand than ever before. This fact has made it impossible for us to pay off loans as rapidly as we had hoped, but our total liabilities apart from capital stock are less than a month’s average receipts. The loans from stockholders are for the most part at four per cent interest, so that our expenditure for this purpose is trifling, but the outstanding loans are a constant source of anxiety, and we hope to pay off most of them during the year 1913, so that we may plan for enlarging our work without the risk of failure. The late Chicago Daily World is a good example of the results of reckless expenditure from borrowed capital.

Receipts for 1912

Book sales $47,120.91
Review subscriptions and sales 23,075.68
Review advertising 2,811.42
Donations 17.50
Increased value of books on hand 2,717.23

Total $75,742.74

Expenditures for 1912

Manufacture of books $19,252.14
Manufacture of Review 14,450.43
Wages 11,989.10
Postage and expressage 12,620.98
Advertising 7,518.61
Review circulation expense 688.37
Review articles and photographs 1,111.48
Authors of books 1,470.05
Books purchased 707.09
Rent 1,200.00
Insurance 107.25
Taxes 133.63
Miscellaneous expenses 1,702.43
Interest 135.34
Lost through failure of Daily World 56.66
Profit 2,599.18

Total $75,742.74

Assets, December 31, 1912

Cash on hand and in bank $105.97
Books, bound and unbound 11,025.45
Electrotype plates 14,258.76
Copyrights 10,232.21
International Socialist Review 5,000.00
Office furniture and fixtures 764.00
Accounts receivable 558.39
Real estate 450.00

Total $42,394.78

Liabilities, December 31, 1912

Paid-up capital stock $37,230.00
Loans from stockholders 4,017.84
Bills payable 500.00
Accounts payable 46.94

Total $42,394.78

The profits of $2,599.18 are represented in the increased stock of books and paper on hand, amounting to $11,025.45, as compared with $8,308.22 at the end of 1911. It should be noted that we figure these books at the actual cost of paper, presswork and binding, the electrotype plates being figured separately. The books on hand would sell at our usual prices for more than $30,000.

The real estate included in our assets consists of a 25-foot building lot on 103rd Street, Chicago, not far from the Pullman Car Works, and a forty-acre tract of woodland near Manchester, Tennessee. Both of these we took in exchange for Review subscription cards, and we are holding them temporarily until some chance offers for realizing on them at something like their value.

The summer of 1912 found the Review bitterly attacked by a certain faction of the Socialist Party, and its natural growth was in this way delayed to some extent, but its subscription list is now growing more rapidly than ever before, and all signs point to a rapid growth for the Review as well as for our book publishing business in the near future. This is due to the constant co-operation of thousands of working men and women, whose ideas we are trying to carry out to the best of our ability.

Dr. Greer moved that the report be accepted: seconded by R.B. Tobias, and carried.

Comrades Jacob Bruning, L.H. Marcy, Dr. J.H. Greer, J.O. Bentall, Walter Huggins, Charles H. Kerr and Mary E. Marcy were unanimously elected directors of the company for the coming year. All are members of Local Cook County, Socialist Party, in good standing.

The meeting was thrown open for discussion and questions, and a few good suggestions made that will help the officers of the company to make their work more efficient in the cause of Socialism.

At the meeting of the directors, which followed the stockholders’ meeting, Charles H. Kerr was re-elected president, and Mary E. Marcy secretary of the company. L.H. Marcy was elected vice-president.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n09-mar-1913-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf