The Press: Plaintive Lion

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A lion roared legally last week; a mouse hid defiantly behind its lawyers. The Crowell Publishing Co. sued the Italian Monthly Co., Inc., seeking to enjoin them from printing across the cover of their new magazine The New American. The lion complains this title might be confused with The American Magazine, giant of 2,162,252 circulation. The mouse doubts it; seeks chiefly to stimulate Italian Americans. The new magazine is soberly manufactured; contains writings of Benedetto Croce, Margaret Widdemer, etc.

Bystanders wondered why the lion bothers with such a tiny antagonist. Crowell Publishing Co. distributes its magazines in masses to the masses; is second only to the Curtis Publishing Co. in volume of circulation in the U. S. The Curtis magazines are: the Saturday Evening Post (2,795,388 copies); The Ladies Home Journal (2,498,310); Country Gentleman (1,459,154). Crowell challenges with Collier's (1,327,875) ; Woman's Home Companion (2,235,488) ; American Magazine (2,162,252). Crowell's three leading magazines lag behind Curtis's by a mere 1,000,000 circulation.