Madison, Wis., Oct. 12, 1906.
Dear Miss Addams: --
I return Mr. Brett's letter enclosed herewith. If I understand you correctly, you have already signed an agreement to take the royalty for the special Chautauqua edition, -- if one is published, -- on the prices received by the Macmillan Company for copies of the book sold to the Chautauqua people instead of on the ordinary retail price. Doubtless you know that this will make the royalty for this special edition a very small one. I had a somewhat similar agreement for my last book, and the total royalty on 10,000 copies was $145. Of course it is a great thing to carry your message to so many earnest people, and I think, apart from the Chautauqua edition, you will have a very good return on the book.
I kept the book some time, as I gave it more careful consideration than I ever have any manuscript of yours heretofore. I read it through carefully, and then began at the beginning and reread considerable parts of it. I believe that it is a great book. The style, however, does not seem to me equal to that of your "Democracy and Social Ethics", -- especially the style of the earlier chapters. Some of the [page 2] sentences are rather long and involved, and I would have you bear in mind in looking through the proof the importance of simplicity and lucidity in style. I think that without running up a heavy bill for corrections you can change sentences here and there so as to help matters. I did not return the manuscript to you because I thought that probably seeing things in "cold print" you could form a better judgment, and also because I did not think that you would want to change many places.
You will observe that I have made changes here and there in order to make your ideas clearer. These changes consist largely in punctuation, -- putting in a considerable number of semi-colons to break up the sentences, also here and there dashes to set off parenthetical clauses. Occasionally I put in a word or two to bring out your meaning more clearly. I believe that every change that I have made is so obviously desirable that you will endorse all of them; if not, you can change freely as you please. It goes without saying that in no case have I changed your meaning.
The page of dedication was sent in yesterday.
Sincerely yours,
Richard T Ely [signed]
(Enclosure)
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