The Coming Nation
1893 – 1913

Introduction

The Coming Nation was a weekly publication owned jointly by Appeal to Reason publisher Julius Wayland and editor Fred D. Warren and initially produced in Girard, Kansas in the Appeal’s state-of-the-art publishing facility. Edited by Algie Simons and Charles Edward Russell, the publication was heavily illustrated and had a decidedly artistic and literary bent, and included regular sections dedicated to women and to children. The paper featured the drawings of Appeal to Reason staff artist Ryan Walker and free lance Art Young.

Beginning as an 8-page tabloid newspaper, the Coming Nation moved to a smaller size and a 16-page magazine format at the end of December 1910. In 1911 it updated its paper stock from newsprint to magazine paper for better reproduction of art. Production was moved to Chicago, likely in connection with this change of physical standards.

Although it claimed to have originated in 1893 on its front page banner, this homage to J.A. Wayland's original socialist newspaper was more whimsical than factual; the two publications had no actual connection.

The Coming Nation was terminated in 1913 due to an ongoing financial crisis at the Appeal to Reason, which had a massive circulation but which charged an insufficient subscription price to cover its cost. Wayland was no longer part of the picture, having committed suicide shortly after the election of 1912 and Warren terminated his own money-losing publication in an attempt to keep afloat the struggling Appeal — in which he had no ownership stake.

This respite proved to be short-lived, however, and Warren retired from the Appeal at the beginning of August 1914, having burned out on the project physically and mentally.

The Coming Nation 1893 – 1913

Introduction

1910

1911

The Coming Nation
1893 – 1913