The Torch Bearer | Page 5

entire movement on a new footing!
But how is the paper to be put into the hands of all suffragists? They are many and to send them a well-edited, well-printed paper will be expensive. How are bills and loans already incurred to be met? By gifts and legacies from individuals as in the past--in the uphill, undignified way? Or by getting all readers of the Journal, all believers in it as an educator, to join themselves into a mighty army to enroll as subscribers for the Journal every possible member of a suffrage organization?
Until the second way shall be in operation long enough--say, two years--to have a chance to work out successfully, there is absolutely no question but that the needs of the situation must be met in the first way. But must it be done by begging--in humiliation undeserved--or will those who are able consider it a privilege, an opportunity, to take the burden from the backs that are bent and sore from carrying it?
* * * * * In the Balance
If this were the crucial moment in a campaign and you saw that votes for a suffrage amendment were in the balance, you would give of the best that you have, with all the fervency of your heart. But campaigns are not won in a day. They are won only by constant and untiring advance work. The Woman's Journal does a big share of this advance work. The Journal is always in campaign. The Journal needs your help now and it needs it given as freely as if a critical Election Day were only six weeks off. The campaigns of this year and the next few years are in the balance now. A privilege, an opportunity for furthering a great world movement, waits on those who are able.
* * * * *

=Taken Into Our Confidence=
In the following pages our readers and the great body of suffragists are taken quite generally into our confidence. If they see any skeletons in the closets, we shall ask them to remember that we did not want the skeletons there.
All persons who have ever tried to raise money for a worthy cause, all suffragists who have given balls and bazaars, all who have labored to make an audience pledge its last dollar for suffrage, all who have ever tried to run an impecunious newspaper, all who have ever tried to finance any kind of a movement for the betterment of mankind, will know that the figures given here are written in blood and should be read only by those of an understanding and sympathetic heart.
1908--1915
Cost Circulation
1909.................. $5,303 2,328
1910.................. 10,020 3,989
1911.................. 18,510 15,275
1912.................. 24,499 19,309
1913.................. 24,588 20,309
1914.................. 27,509 21,303
1915.................. 38,137 27,634

[Illustration: THE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Left to Right-First row Haxel McCormik, Franklin Grammar School Marie Spink, Western Reverse University, Ethel Costello, Cambridge Commercial College, Second row: Helen Hegarthy, Charlestown High, Eleanor Falvey, South Boston High, Edith Mosher, Comer's Commercial College, Agnes McCarthy, South Boston High, Mary Collins, St. Joseph's Academy Third row: Isabel McCormick, Boston University; Donna Cox, Belmont High, Ethel Johnson, Fisher Business College, Lucia Gilbert, Berlin High.]
[Illustration: THE GENERAL STAFF
Left to Right--First row Vina Smith, Wellesley College, Agnes E. Ryan, Boston University, Elizabeth Costello, Comer's Commercial College, Howard L. Blackwell, Harvard University. Second row Carlisle Morris, Harvard University, Mildred Hadden, Western Reserve University, Henry Bailey Stevens, Dartmouth College, Ethel Power. Third row Joe B. Hosmer, University of Missouri, Mary Gallagher, Bryant and Stratton Commercial School, Thomas Kennedy, Mary Healey, Fisher Business College, Thomas McGrath, Lawrence Grammar School.]

=Some Changes=
To the friends of the Woman's Journal who used to visit its office on Beacon Street, and remember the tiny room with its staff of two or three workers, the pictures of the office staff on the accompanying pages will come as a surprise. This is the 1916 staff, however, and the movement has grown most encouragingly in every branch since the quiet days on Beacon Street.
Every phase of the Journal work, from handling a subscription list of about 30,000 to answering a thousand and one questions of debaters, press chairmen and speakers, has grown to such proportions that it has been necessary to divide the work into ten variously developed departments, which will be described in the following pages.

=It Speaks for Itself=
The Editorial Department in the main speaks for itself and does not need a special report. It has its seamy side, however, and little as people want to believe it, it is not merely the literary branch of the work. On the contrary, the editorial work of the Woman's Journal is, figuratively speaking, divided into sevenths. It is one part literary or journalistic, two parts business, and four parts propaganda.
There is, of course, a great deal of pleasure in editorial work for the mere fun of it, for the variety and fascination it affords, for