Religion: Bible Shortage

Many a person in the U.S. stepped into a bookstore last week to buy a Bible, was surprised to find he could not buy one.

Despite the fact that Bible publishers have upped their output (the American Bible Society last year printed 5,371,293 Bibles for U.S. readers, a 21% increase over 1940), men & women in the armed forces and civilians at home have snapped up Bibles faster than they have come from the presses.

There are also manufacturing difficulties. Leather is scarce (some types cannot be got at all), paper is not too plentiful. But the big snag is the shortage of men in binderies and shipping rooms.

The World Publishing Co. has a backlog of orders for 1,000,000 Bibles and Testaments, is refusing all new orders until these are filled. Oxford University Press (which manufactures 80% of its Bibles and Testaments in the U.S.) now fills back orders on a percentage basis, has announced that beginning Oct. 1 it will ration Bibles, giving bookstores a quota based on previous sales.