—That's a new idea in book publishing!
—You were speaking of the pressure of industrial conditions since the war. Under these conditions what percentage of the traditions of the craft can you preserve, would you say?
—The traditions of what craft?
—The craft of printing, obviously. What I am trying to get at is this:—There are certain precise and matured standards of workmanship in the printing craft; these standards are the results of experiment through nearly five hundred years. How far are these standards effective under your present-day conditions?
—Those standards, so far as I know anything about them, are what you would call academic. In the first place, book-manufacturing is not a craft, it is a business. As for standards of workmanship—I can understand the term in connection with cabinet-making, for example, or tailoring, but I should not apply the expression to books. You do not talk about the "standards of workmanship" in making soap, do you?
—Then in your mind there does not linger any atmosphere of an art about the making of books?
—When you talk about "atmosphere" you have me out of my depth. There isn't any atmosphere of art lingering about making soap, is there?
—You would class soap-making with book-making?
—I can see no reason why not.