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From Fourth International, Vol.6 No.8, August 1945, p.226.
Transcribed, marked up & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.
The July issue of Fourth International was completely sold out one week after its publication. When requests started arriving from agents for extra copies, we began somewhat belatedly to figure up the increased bundle orders. We have raised our press run for August, but the fact remains that the July 1945 Fourth International is now a rare item.
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The new cover, with the drawing of Lenin and the new masthead should make the magazine even more popular on the newsstands. An interesting and instructive criticism (the kind that every business manager like to receive) comes from Bill Crane, Milwaukee literature agent:
“The new masthead of the FI looks very good and is refreshingly in contrast with the previous shoddy head. It is in line with what the literature agents suggested at their committee meeting two National Conventions ago. But I see the editors still insist on a messed up, amateurish looking cover. Why must the table of contents, well almost, be printed on the cover? And why the volume and issue number? And why must Lenin look off the page making the magazine look as though it were made up in a high school journalism class? Don’t the editors realize that one or two of the most important articles should be played up and the rest printed much smaller in a compact area, thus giving the magazine a clean, dignified look and making the cover easy to read?”
Besides the jump in newsstand sales, there has been an increase in combination subscriptions. These are offered at $2.50 for one year of Fourth International and The Militant. The phenomenal success of the recent Militant campaign, in obtaining 22,000 new subscribers for this weekly has stimulated interest in our theoretical magazine. Workers and young students who subscribe to The Militant and whose hunger for more theoretical knowledge is aroused have evinced interest.
We now receive orders from Militant readers for back copies of the magazine containing articles referred to in the news columns and especially in the Workers’ Forum (a department in The Militant which carries letters from workers). Thus, a Washington reader ordered five copies of Fourth International for June, containing Interview With a Soviet Citizen.
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In acknowledging renewal subscriptions to the FI, it is our custom to urge the subscriber to jot down informally his impressions of the magazine. A subscriber in Pennsylvania wrote this at the foot of our letter, in reply:
“Thirty eight years ago I joined the SP in Philadelphia, was active there and later (1912-1917) in Herkimer County, New York State. I was on the New York State Committee a couple of years. ‘Ran’ for State office a number of times. Have not been active for a number of years but still interested in what is going on.
“I like Fourth International because it sticks close to Marx and World Revolution. I suppose I’m an orthodox Marxist.”
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Letters from English readers are coming in more and more frequently. One such letter we feel merits being printed in full:
“Many thanks for the three books, the parcel of pamphlets, and regular flow of periodicals. I have already read two of the books and am just starting on the third. The lessons they contain are of value to the entire world movement, especially the younger sections.
“The FIs I find especially valuable. Lily Roy’s article was admirable (apart from one or two minor flaws in the third part).
“The article Modern Welding and the Welder in the April issue is a good example of the application of dialectics to a field other than the strictly political one. Engels, of course, demonstrated in many of his works the remarkable potentialities of the application of Marxist dialectics to natural and scientific phenomena. Unfortunately this aspect of Marxism seems to have been neglected since then. Certainly political work is of the greatest importance, and there would be little excuse for taking up too much of one’s time with mere theoretical digressions. However, many scientific and other investigators have been unconsciously adopting the dialectical materialist approach to their subject. Freudism, for instance, is one of the best examples; it is pure dialectical materialism applied to psychology. (Incidentally a reading of his works, if one can spare the time, will amply repay, if only for the brilliancy of his dialectical expositions). It is hoped that FI will contain, from time to time, articles of a similar nature to Modern Welding and the Welder. It is only in the application of theory that one really learns.”
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Last updated on 10.9.2008