Abstract

The 'Nation' and Its Ownership

At the outset let it be said that into no journalistic enterprise did ever commercial considerations enter less than into the launching of the periodical, the Nation. It was not, and never has been, in the Nation's half-century of existence, a question of profits, but of presenting certain definite literary, political and social ideals and of urging them with all the power of righteous, patriotic purpose as expressed by such able pens as journalist and founder of the periodical, E.L. Godkin's and those of a long list of brilliant contributors, on both sides of the Atlantic. To the editors of the periodical financial profits could naturally make no appeal. Their lives were devoted to things spiritual and intellectual; their rich rewards came in the appreciation and gratitude of men of light and leading.