The Circulation of the Southern Watchman
By George I. Butler
This periodical has recently been enlarged to double its former size, and is now a sixteen-page weekly paper, with a page about the size of that of the REVIEW AND HERALD, which has twenty-four pages. The page of The Signs of the Times is considerably larger, and it has the same number of pages that the Watchman has. So it is seen that the Watchman has not the same quantity of reading matter that our largest periodicals have. Its price is one dollar a year. The reasons for enlarging this paper are mainly these: It has been felt that our papers as published hitherto have not properly represented the importance of our great Southern field. They were two in number, but because of the small constituency, they have been quite a heavy loss to our weak publishing house. So The Southern Watchman, as now presented, will contain pioneer matter for those not of our faith, as well as some, at least, of the matters relating to the progress of the work in the South. Published as one paper, it will be more presentable and interesting, and the expense will be less. This paper will be the organ especially of the Southern work. It has been found by many other denominations that it is necessary to have a Southern department. The people of the South really look for their organs of public opinion to be published in the Southern States. Our friends, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, and other denominations, have their Southern headquarters to meet the feeling of devotion to their own Southern locality. We as a people are finally really driven to the same conclusion. The Testimonies have emphatically indorsed this move, have most positively recommended the establishment of a publishing house in the South, and indorsed the idea of a separate paper for that field, and the issuing of books from the Southern office. It is impossible to be in harmony with their teachings without indorsing the propriety of an office and a paper in the Southern field. This Southern field really embraces the territory of all the old slave States. If there is any need of a Southern paper in Tennessee or Louisiana, there is equal need of it in Texas, Virginia, Missouri, and other States. Some of these peculiar Southern feelings and customs have grown out of the fact that slaves once were held in all these States. Though this central office of publication is in the State of Tennessee, one of the conferences of the Southern Union Conference, the same conditions must exist also in other States which were under the same influence. This great field has a population of about twenty-six million, one third of the population of our whole nation. If this work of publishing is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well, and we are making a great effort to furnish this people with a proper periodical. Our paper will be moderately illustrated. We shall seek to make it pointed and earnest in the great principles of our common faith. We shall make a great effort to extend its circulation all through the South, not merely among our Sabbath-keepers, but largely in the various denominations and among all those not of our faith. An organized canvass will soon be begun in order to extend its circulation, and thus place the paper where it will not be a burden upon the office. All know that the cause in the South is poor, and struggling with difficulties, hence we naturally desire to get the help of our brethren as far as it can consistently be bestowed, even in fields outside the South itself. Right at this point we wish to express our convictions. We wish to say that we shall not by any means seek to get subscribers away from our good old REVIEW or the Signs. We shall carefully avoid doing so, and to show our sincerity in making this statement, we most heartily invite the managers of those two periodicals at any time to feel at liberty to obtain all the subscriptions possible for their papers in our Southern territory. We love both these periodicals, and wish them all success. While our subscription list is so meager that the paper is being published at a loss continually, it would hardly be reasonable to expect that we should devote our time especially to securing subscriptions for other periodicals, though we wish them most hearty success. We must consider our responsibilities, in our first and greatest work, the working up of a list that will make our paper self-supporting. But we will by no means hinder those who are especially placed in responsible positions in the REVIEW and Signs managements, if they desire to extend the circulation of these papers in our Southern field. Our paper is not as large as either of these; their offices have many facilities which we do not have, and many advantages in their able corps of editors of experience. They are our great representative papers. God forbid that we should try to steal away any of their supporters. We have a better business to do than that. We shall be most glad to have our people read both of these periodicals, as they may feel able to do so. As an individual, I can say I would not take a subscription for The Southern Watchman if that meant a dropping of the REVIEW or the Signs. I have loved these two papers too long to pursue such a course at this stage of our work. May they ever go forward in their great field of duty. When The Signs of the Times was established, the REVIEW held all the territory in the whole field, yet through the servant of the Lord light came to us who were at that time holding offices in the General Conference, to do our best to secure subscriptions throughout the whole Eastern field, where our largest churches were located. A large list for the Signs was thus obtained, because we believed this light was from the Lord. We know of no reason why the same principle does not hold good in reference to The Southern Watchman. Where there are persons interested in the Southern field who would like to read the writings of those who are special contributors of it, editorially or otherwise, and who are able and willing to subscribe, and thus help our office in its time of great need, is there any principle in the world which would forbid their taking The Southern Watchman? If so, we are unable to discern it. As the writer of this has been chosen editor of the Watchman, and has acquaintances in many parts of the country, we can but feel that such have the right to become interested in the Watchman if they choose to take it; and so saying, we do not feel that we have become in any sense an enemy of the dear REVIEW or our excellent pioneer paper the Signs. We have no thought of making such efforts in the Northern field to obtain subscribers as we expect to in the Southern field. This, of course, would not be reasonable; but we do ask our brethren who are interested in the South, and who wish to keep in touch with the progress of the cause there, to help us by becoming subscribers to our Southern paper. This would be helping us in a time of great need, when our list is quite small, and the paper is not paying its way.