plan seemed unsatisfactory to both the subscriber and the paper. Since
people were at liberty to start a subscription at any time in the
year, it was plain that a year's subscription would run out at the
same time the following year, and since this was going on twelve
months in the year, we began sending out bills each month to those
subscribers whose subscriptions were about to expire. That system was
in operation from 1910 through 1915.

During 1915, it was made possible for us to have enough helpers in the
office to make a study of the Circulation Department with a view
to seeing where improvements could be made, what leakages could be
stopped, and what kind of circulation work was paying. The result was
that we decided that along with our efforts to get new subscriptions
we must carry on a new kind of work to keep those already obtained
on our books. We found that it was not sufficient simply to send the
paper to a person for a certain time and then ask her to renew. We
found that we needed to study the source of the subscription, the
motive for subscribing, and how best to appeal to the subscriber
to renew. We found that since we had been keeping the record (1910
through 1915), about 26,000 persons have been on our books and for
some reason or other are no longer there. A careful study and a long
one showed that those whose papers had been discontinued in that
period fell into the following classifications:

1. Those who had died.

2. Unconverted antis.

3. Those who had not paid
after we had sent three