Businessman.

JOURNALS of opinion have never earned their way. Typically they have been subsidized by wealthy liberals and conservatives who believe, and are willing to invest their money, in their respective causes.

So when NATIONAL REVIEW was launched in November 1955, the general assumption was that it would be subsidized by Bill Buckley's father, William F. Buckley Sr., who had made his fortune as an independent oil operator in Texas, Mexico, and Venezuela. And so it was. But the Buckleys, though wealthy, were no Rockefellers, and within a year or two it was plain that the magazine's appetite for cash was greater than the family was going to be able to sustain.

Where to turn? In those early years, NR had about 16,000 subscribers, and Bill sent each a letter outlining the problem. To our surprise and gratification, several thousand responded with contributions of the suggested amount--$100. This tided us over for a year, and it soon became apparent that NATIONAL REVIEW could expect a similar amount of support from those readers each year for the foreseeable future.

That was the basis on which NR managed to survive, and so it is to this day. In this sense, Bill's magazine has been, almost from the start, a joint enterprise with its readers.

Mr. Rusher is a former publisher of NR.