The Torch Bearer | Page 3

the Atlantic to the Pacific and abroad,--and yet there is no organized,
systematic effort made for its support and maintenance.
There is, moreover, no suffragist but will say at once that this paper,
which is for the advancement of all women, should be supported by all
suffragists in an organized way rather than by a few--out of their own
pockets. I am working to bring this to pass. I believe one of the results
that will follow the heavy expenditures made by the Journal in 1915
will be organized support of the paper.
Since the Woman's Journal is the organ of the movement, since it gives
the news of the movement, voices the wrongs of women, and furnishes
data as well as inspiration with which to work, it is important that it
reach the largest number of women possible each week with its
message, and so far as is possible for a paper, convert them into
efficient, consecrated workers, possessed with the ideal of equality and
justice for women. It is, therefore, obvious that, however good the
editorial output, it counts for comparatively little if it goes to only a

small number of people.
From 1870 to 1907, there is no record of the number of subscribers to
the paper, for the price of the paper was changed from $3 to $2.50 to
$1.50. The price is now $1 per year. The last change was made in 1910
because it was becoming clear that a lower price would mean a larger
circulation, while a higher price made it prohibitive to many.
Furthermore, the lower price was in harmony with the growing
tendency to remove the membership fee in suffrage organizations
because it had proved a handicap in having a large backing of women
for the cause. So many women of humble means, or no independent
means, wanted to take the paper and could not!
Bearing in mind, then, that the aim of the Journal, both from a
propaganda and business viewpoint, is to reach large numbers, that is,
to have a large circulation, I have had two charts drawn which will
show that, although the cost of publishing is heavy, the cost of
production is not advancing as rapidly as is the increase in circulation.
In other words, the circulation of the paper has multiplied over eleven
times in the last eight years, while the cost of publishing for the same
period has multiplied less than eight times. The following charts show
this graphically.
Compare the two long vertical lines. The longer one shows the increase
in the number of readers. The shorter one shows the increase in the cost
of publishing the paper.
[Illustration: Increase in Circulation Increase in Cost of Publishing]
As a propaganda paper, the Woman's Journal has, of course, always
sent out many papers per year purely for educational purposes.
Hundreds of papers have gone each year since 1870 through 1915 to
campaign states, to legislators, to libraries, to newspapers, to ministers
and teachers, in the attempt to make converts, and every suffragist
having any perspective of the movement knows that such propaganda
work by the Woman's Journal is to a great extent what has advanced
the movement to its present status. In other words, the Journal has from
year to year carried the torch on,--but it has always been at the sacrifice
of a large sum to be raised, over and above the receipts, either from the
Stone-Blackwell family or from a few friends of the movement.
The year 1915, with the advance of the movement in general, and in the
four big campaign states in particular, has been exceptional as a

propaganda year for the Journal. When a call came for Journals or for
information which the Journal workers could give, whether from New
York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, the call has been
answered promptly; we have not said,--when the amendments were to
be voted on at a definite time,--"You must wait until we have raised the
money to pay for what you ask." We are proceeding in the same way
with the campaign states of 1916. What else can we do when the need
is so great?
The following illustration shows the extent of our propaganda work,
measured in papers, for 1915. It does not show what has been done in
the way of furnishing information and argument, refutation and data,
material and articles for the press or for special articles, debates, and
speeches.
This chart shows the free propaganda use of the Journal as compared
with the paid circulation. The black lines show the paid circulation of
the Journal per month, that is, the number of papers paid for by the
subscriber or by the single copy. The gray extension of the lines shows
the number of papers furnished by the Journal, for