8io THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
place in such a medium at least until he could show a circulation of 15,000. At one time in the first eighteen months the magazine was nearly sel : supporting, and it is conceivable that if the original character derived from the translations had been main- tained the International might have found a permanent place for itself. Mr. Brower sunk $10,000 a year in it for six years, and in July, 1901, discontinued experimenting. Today he says:
To publish a literary magazine, three things are needed: business sense, literary sense, and money and the business sense must be that of the publishing business.
The influence of the University of Chicago upon the literary interests of the city, during the fifteen years in which the uni- versity has been one of the institutions of the community, has grown to be great. At the present time it is to be seen in many directions, and is recognized as specially direct in one of the general magazines published in the city. From the day the uni- versity opened its doors, its potential influences were regarded by men down-town as including a new force for development of literary activity. In 1893, when the professors and students on its quadrangles were living in a university atmosphere vibrant with the noise of natives of foreign lands which came to the campus from beyond the fence of the Midway Plaisance, the university's unofficial sanction was sought for Current Topics, a magazine begun in that year by a promoter of certain business schemes named David Wever, who had a publishing office for the periodicals in the Masonic Temple. Mr. Wever, as both editor and publisher, endeavored to give and, judging from the recol- lections of down-town literary workers, and also from those of some members of the faculties, succeeded in giving the im- pression that the magazine had some sort of University of Chi- cago sanction. The publishing of contributions from the pro- fessors and students of the university was the method followed in giving this impression. These were articles in the more serious vein of literary criticism, and helped greatly to fill the eighty- four pages in the rather solid-appearing journal printed in the regular magazine form, and bound in a heavy blue cover. Not only contributions written especially for it, but also papers pre-
