the American railway mission in Siberia. Needless to say, the capitalist press will provide the "National News" with a complete monopoly of this sort of work. Also it will provide the paper with many deliberate falsehoods to be nailed. When this is done, groups of truth-loving people will buy these papers by the thousands, and blue-pencil and distribute them. So the "National News" will grow, and the "kept" press will be moved by the only force it recognizes—loss of money.
There are in America millions of people who could not be persuaded to read a Socialist paper, or a labor paper, or a single tax paper; but there are very few who could not be persuaded to read a paper that gives the news and proves by continuous open discussion that it really does believe in "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." I do not think I am too optimistic when I say that such a publication, with a million circulation, would change the whole tone of American public life.
What would such a paper cost? To be published without advertisements, it would have to charge a high subscription price, two dollars a year at least; and there are not enough who will subscribe to a paper at that price. It would be better for the people to go without shoes than without truth, but the people do not know this, and so continue to spend their money for shoes. If the "National News" is to succeed, the few who do realize the emergency must pay more than their share; in other words, the paper must have a subsidy, and the subsidy must be large enough to make success certain—otherwise, of course, no one ought to give anything.
I have telegraphed to publishers of liberal sympathies in the East, and present herewith the following estimate of the cost of launching and maintaining the "National News":
Weekly cost on basis of half million circulation: Editorial,
overhead and paid matter, $1,000; paper, composition and printing,
$9,000; addressing and mailing, $1,000; stencil list, $1,000; postage,
$1,250; telegraph $250; business and circulation, $500; total, $14,000
per week, $728,000 per year.
The above is figured, as requested, on 64 page paper, size nine by twelve. Such work has to be done in a job plant and is more expensive. By making 32 pages, size twelve by eighteen, the cost could be cut to $650,000 per year.
Income on basis of 500,000 circulation, three-fifths consisting of paid subscriptions at one dollar per year, and two-fifths of news-stand sales at five cents per copy retail, three cents wholesale: $612,000.
