have,” he says, “ a capital sufficient to contend with advantage against any private newspaper, and this capital should be raised in £5 shares , which should all be paid up at once , which would
giveat once a large circulation and a large advertisingmedium .” 73 But a joint stock company, operating a newspaper, and looking to profits , can not be considered as providing an endowed news paper and as safe-guarding the public from the control of its policy
by the business administration . It seems questionable whether an endowed newspaper in the true sense of the word has ever existed , — in the opinion of some, “ the endowed newspaper is an impossibility,” and “ endowment of brains rather than ofmoney
is what is needed .” 74 This lack of enthusiastic support of the idea of an endowed
press must be in part explained by the inherent difficulties in the
way of carrying it out. In spite of its name, the function of the newspaper " to give the news ” is only a temporary one. Its permanent function , perhaps not yet fully recognized by the press itself, is to record contemporary conditions. Any endowed institution seems predestined to be conservative rather than progressive and an endowed newspaper would almost inevitably fail to record progressive movements , - that its failure to do so would be unconscious on its part does not alter the probability.
Every newspaper is as truly published for a definite constituency as is a technical trade journal75 and an endowed newspaper , it may
reasonably be assumed ,would quickly take on protective coloring.
It would not necessarily lessen the inaccuracies and ignorance 73 Goldwin Smith's Correspondence, collected by A . Haultain , pp. 7 - 9 . Apparently nothing resulted from this earliest proposal.
74 W . M . Payne, “ An Endowed Newspaper," Little Leaders, pp. 178–185. The endowed newspaper has been advocated by C . H . Levermore , “ A Plea for Endowed Newspapers ,” Andover Review , November, 1889, 12 :
485-490; W . H . H . Murray, “ An Endowed Press,” Arena, October, 1890,
2 : 553- 559; “ An Endowed Newspaper," Dial, January 16 , 1893 , 14 : 35-37; Hamilton Holt, Commercialism and Journalism , pp. 99- 101, and “ A Plan for an Endowed Journal," address before the First National Newspaper Conference, Madison , Wisconsin , August 1, 1912; E . A . Ross, “ The Sup
pression of Important News,” Atlantic Monthly ,March , 1910, 105: 303–311. - Articles opposed to it are , F . H . Page , “ Endowments for Newspapers:
A Rejoinder,” Andover Review , January, 1890 , 13 : 25 -31; W . P . Hamilton, “ The Case for the Newspapers,” Atlantic Monthly ,May, 1910, 105 :646-654 . 75 C . M . Harger, “ The Country Editor of To -day," Atlantic Monthly,
January, 1907, 99: 89-96.
