Albion W. Tourgée to Charles W. Chesnutt, 8 November 1893
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Mayville-on-the-Chautauqua, N. Y.
Nov. 8th 1893.
My dear Sir:
The responses to the annexed Circular have been such as to lead to the organization of THE CITIZEN PUBLISHING COMPANY., under "The Business orporations Law" of the State of New York; all of the stock to be fully paid up, non-assessable and without liability of any sort, to the holder.
Capital, $100,000, in 20,000 shares of $5. each. One half of the stock (10,000 shares) is common or profit-sharing. The other half, (10,000 shares) is convertible stock.
- 1—To one copy of THE NATIONAL CITIZEN for one year, price never to be less than $1,50, per year.
- 2—To a right to convert at the end of the first year into an equal amount of Profit-sharing stock, or
- 3—To exchange each share (costing $5. only) for six (6) subscription coupons, each entitling the holder to receive THE NATIONAL CITIZEN for one year. A
fs the price of the periodical remains at $1,50 this would be equivalent to $9,00, or $10,50, including the first years subscription, making a profit of more than 100 percent n the original investment of $5.
Of the Profit-sharing stock, two-fifths, (4,000 shares) are to be issued for my benefit, and 2,000 shares ($10,000 face value) are to be sold as promoter's stock for 50 percent off. The remainder of the Profit-sharing stock, and all the Convertible stock is to be sold only at par, with agent's commission, not exceeding 10 percent to be paid only in stock of this character.
The business of the Corporation is not to begin until one-half the stock is paid in, and the amount paid for the promoter's stock can only be used for printing circulars, prospectuses, postage on the same and clerk-hire in sending them out. Nothing to be used for advertising or editorial or other salaries.
I have no doubt that enough of the stock will be sold within thirty days after it is offered to make up the amount required to begin business. This will give $20,000 in hand at the outset, besides what may be left of the amount received for the promoter's stock. By that time, it will also have at least 10,000 bona fide, full price subscribers. I believe it will have 15,000 or 20,000, as soon as the Members of The National Citizens' Rights Association realize that it is to be a certainty.1 They already know its character for they know its editor through his publications and his "Bystander's Notes."
The mechanical cost of the weekly periodical, THE NATIONAL CITIZEN,—that is composition, press-work, paper, plating, binding,—for an edition of 10,000 copies, of a size containing 38,0000, words each will be $30,00 per week according to the estimates of responsible parties who are desirous of doing the work at the rates they give. Adding $30. for mailing and postage, it would make $260., which for 52 weeks would amount to $13,520. It will be soon, therefore, that a subscription list of 10,000 will pay the material production, without containing the amount received for advertising. It is the getting of this initial circulation which is the difficult and costly thing
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when sought by ordinary means, that is through newspaper and general advertising. This can be secured at almost no expense in this case, because we have already some hundreds of thousands of known friends and supporters ready and willing to become canvassers and promoters each of whom can be reached by mail directly. This greatly reduces cost and practically eliminates all danger of loss. With a circulation of 10,000 copies and a reserve of $20,000, in the treasury, which there must be before publication can begin, every dollar of the stock will be worth its face and all that will come after will be substantially profit.
I make these statements because I wish to ask a few friends to venture small sums in the purchase of the promoter's stock, and I wish them to know exactly the conditions and see that it is not the result of any mere rash desire on my part but the result of cold and deliberate scrutiny of existing facts. I believe that every man investing $500., in that stock (200 shares), will be able to sell the same for $2,000, one year from the issue of the first number, and will refuse to do so, unless hard-pressed for ready money.
- 1—The character of the people composing the membership of the National Citizens' Rights Association. They are almost entirely earnest American liberty-lovers—the sons of old Abolitionists and the like.
- 2—The colored people are waking up to the necessity of doing something. They do not want to migrate nor relish being exterminated, one or the other of which must result unless public sentiment is awakened in their behalf.
- 3—The repeal of the Federal Election Laws is now assured, and such repeal, putting the South and Tammany again, "in the saddle" with unrestrained power of perpetuity will awake renewed and intense interest on the part of those who believe that the fall of the Confederacy meant something more than a mere resumption of nominal control of the ancient territory.
- 4—Such a crisis in affairs needs a weekly organ of high literary character and unquestionable stability and such a periodical devoted to this subject and all the rights and duties of citizenship will not only be of great profit to its owners, but a trip-hammer on the Nation's heart and moulding it to a better destiny.
If I might have it as I would, I would like the stock to be taken equally by white and colored men, so that the sincerity of the periodical is the representative of both races might be avouched in its ownership and control. The remainder of the stock will undoubtedly be taken in small sums, $5., $10., and $20. holdings. A few may take as much as $50. This will give us the ideal of a true profit-sharing business—one with thousands of owners, all interested in its extension and so situated as to serve the purpose of agents and canvassers which the mere capitaliszed enterprise must pay for.
Will you be one of the parties to take a portion of this stock and set this enterprise on foot?
Respectfully, Albion W. TourgéeCorrespondent: Albion Winegar Tourgée (1838–1905) was a White activist, author, and judge. During Reconstruction, he settled in North Carolina and became an advocate for racial equality. Tourgée wrote his bestselling autobiographical novel, A Fool's Errand (1879), before moving to Mayville, New York, in 1881. He published fifteen more novels in the next seventeen years, and several times attempted to found magazines, often inviting Chesnutt to serve as editor. In 1891, he founded the National Citizens' Rights Association, an organization devoted to equality for African-American citizens, and in 1896 served as Homer Plessy's lead counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
1. The reference is to the National Citizens' Rights Association, which Tourgee launched in October 1891. At its peak, the Association had 250,000 members (Carolyn L. Karcher, Refugee from His Race: Albion W. Tourgée and His Fight against White Supremacy [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006], 149). [back]
