The Torch Bearer | Page 4

incurs in this way alone, the result would shock the average suffragist into a new attitude toward the paper, which she has called upon as freely and thoughtlessly as a girl in her teens calls upon the time and resources of the mother who has always stood near and ready to meet her every need "without money and without price."
At this point, I want again to call attention to the fact that the Woman's Journal is, with one exception, the only suffrage paper in existence which does not have some organization back of it which helps to meet its financial responsibilities. Although it has always been the organ of the movement, it has stood alone for the most part, depending on the devotion of a few to make up any sum that might be needed to meet the lack of organized suffragists to support it as part of their suffrage work.
It is, of course, easy to see how this has come about. In the beginning the number of suffragists was so small that there was little organization. The movement was carried on by a few and a few supported the paper. Times have changed, however, and all of the other branches of suffrage work are being carried on by organizations with the body of believers meeting the expense of running the work.
There has, however, always been this difference between the expense of maintaining the Journal and supporting the work of the suffrage organization: The Journal has been published every week for over forty-six years; it has never missed an issue, and its expenses have gone on. In other words, it has always been in campaign, while for the most part during those forty-six years the organizations have had comparatively little expense, they have not usually maintained a headquarters, have had few or no meetings, and have had few and short campaigns. Now, because the Journal has survived the times of no organizations, the times of few and weak organizations, it is thoughtlessly expected to go on as it has since 1870, paying its bills as best it might. In the meantime, its work has increased so that it is large enough to be unwieldy without being self-supporting. (Self-support cannot come until its paid circulation is about 50,000.)
We are, therefore, face to face with the fact that, while all suffragists are agreed as to the merits of the paper and the need it fills, very few have considered its problems, few have helped to carry its burdens, and no organization today makes itself responsible for any of the paper's expenses.
With the advancing movement's heavy demands on the paper, however, the time for a change has come. The paper's support in the future ought to be borne by the body of organized suffragists rather than by the devotion and sacrifice of the few. Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell died in harness. Alice Stone Blackwell, their daughter, is no longer young, and ought not to suffer from overwork and worry in connection with the struggle to keep the paper going.
So much for the past. What shall be the story of the future? The paper has been almost inevitably in debt. Its present bills and loans must be met. It will doubtless be possible to raise money to meet them from individuals as in the past, although that is an uphill and rather thankless task. But it does seem as if those who labor early and late in the office, often single-handed, ought not to have to go out to raise money to meet a deficit they were obliged to incur purely in order to serve the woman's movement.
What is the solution? I want to propose a definite, practical, constructive solution,--one that will not only lift the paper to self-support almost at once, but will strengthen the whole movement in the very things that Mrs. Chapman Catt and all others know is most needed,--education and organization of women. What I want to propose is that as suffragists we show what our present power is; that we show the strength of our present organization; that as leaders and workers, organizers and speakers, we get behind our paper and push it with all our might; that, so far as is humanly possible, we enroll as regular readers every member of our respective organizations; that we give our paper a backing as much to be reckoned with as the so-called women's publications that are so conspicuous on the news-stands. It can be done. We have the power.
Doing it is bound to mean more education and more organization. For the Journal fills its readers with zeal for the cause; it makes them want to work for it; and it makes them well informed, efficient workers. By taking this one step we have the power to put the