The torch bearer : $b a look forward and back at the Woman's journal, the organ of the woman's movementRyan, Agnes E.
History
The torch bearer : $b a look forward and back at the Woman's journal, the organ of the woman's movement
Ryan, Agnes E.
Woman's journal (Boston, Mass. : 1870); Women -- Suffrage -- United States
[Illustration: The Journal as Propaganda]
If a diagram could be shown of the number of letters we have answered
during the year, the amount of time it has taken, and the number of
writers who do not even send a postage stamp to carry information
back to them, and the consequent deficit the paper 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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