“Information,” says the Century Dictionary, “is timely or specific knowledge respecting some _matter of interest or inquiry_.” It is, as it were, vitalized knowledge; knowledge imbued with life and activity. Nor when we come to the next phase do we find any change in the idea--or devoted to literature, the sciences, arts, or some special industry. _Devoted_ to literature. Mark you, not that the publication shall be literature or contain literature, but that it shall be devoted to literature. What is meant by devoted? The Century Dictionary puts it thus: To direct or apply chiefly or wholly to some purpose, work, or use; to give or surrender completely, as to some person or end, as to _devote_ oneself to art, literature, or philanthropy. There again we have the idea of a permanent continuing entity, a thing existing for a given purpose, appearing regularly at such intervals (not greater than three months), as may most effectually meet its needs, in the interest of art, of science, or literature.
Do we say that a book--a novel, a history, a drama--is devoted to literature? It is not devoted to literature; _it is literature_, and it would be an absurdity to speak of it as devoted to itself. Such a locution would be merely a willful perversion of language.
On the other hand, a review or a magazine may be said to be devoted to literature with perfect naturalness and propriety. For we rightly conceive of the review or magazine as one definite recognizable entity--a continuing whole, originated for a given purpose, and made up of similar parts having a common object--literature, for example, or art, or science, or whatever else it is to which the whole is devoted.
Taking these words, originated and published for, dissemination, information, devoted to, they all point to one conclusion. They are, we repeat, strong and pregnant words. There is but one concept consistent with them all. We confidently submit that an attentive reading of the statute will leave no doubt that what Congress constantly had in mind in the creating of this privileged class of publications was the _universally recognized, commonly accepted, and perfectly well understood periodical of everyday speech_.