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From Fourth International, February 1946, Vol.7 No.2, p.34.
Transcribed, edited & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.
This month we welcome back an FI agent who is again on the job in Philadelphia. Herbert Newell writes:
“Last week I was finally able to settle down to serious work as F.I agent. We are sending you five copies of the July issue, which is requested in your column.
“The past week has seen two new stands carrying the FI One of these at a Penn Railroad station sold the copies I left him the very first day. He displays them prominently and told me confidently that he thinks they’d sell good.
“Another way of selling the FI is by covering forums, meetings, etc., with issues containing articles on the topic for which the meetings, forums, etc., are called. I hope we shall be able to increase our sales of current FI’s in this way as well.
“We are about to begin our call backs on expired and expiring Militant subscribers. We shall be armed with copies of the FI as well, and at all times, we shall be alert to subscriptions as well as individual sales.
“On the subscription cards we have listed $2.50 for 1 year combination to The Militant and Fourth International Is this offer still good?”
This $2.50 combination subscription, which offers a savings of 50c on one year subs, is still good, and incidentally, very popular with readers.
The Militant Renewal Campaign is proving to be a fertile field for new subscribers to the FI. Sara Ross, New York reports that the December 1945 issue, containing Zionism or Socialism – Which Way for the Jews? is an effective sample copy with which to introduce the magazine. Requests for this issue come in every day. The following review of T. Cliff’s article appeared in World Events, Scott Nearing’s monthly newssheet.
“Many of these words (about the Near East) have been colored by racism, others by nationalism. Only occasionally has there been an utterance free from one or both emotional complexes. The Fourth International for December 1945 (published at 116 University Place, New York 3) offers its readers The Middle East at the Crossrossd, written by T. Cliff and dated from Jerusalem. The article carries less heat and throws more light on the subject than anything I have read for many a day. Let me quote one of its paragraphs. ‘The Arab East is important to the imperialist powers for four main reasons: first, as a route to other regions – India, Australia, China, etc.; second, as a source of raw materials; third, as an important market for manufactured goods; and fourth, as a field for capital investment.’
“After giving illustrations of the four aspects of imperialist concern with the Near East, the author presents an analysis of the class structure of various countries, with emphasis on Egypt, the richest and potentially the most powerful country in the area.”
Maggie McGowan, Toledo, thinks that the December cover of the magazine is inferior to the November issue.
“There are about four different kinds of type used, not counting the masthead, and does not give the appearance of orderliness and readability which is desirable. The November cover was really exceptionally well-done ... clean, forceful and interesting and, I believe, is the sort of thing that should be aimed at.”
Agent McGowan wants to know whether the date of publication of the FI cannot be standardized.
“There is some unrest among the newsstands on which the FI is placed in Toledo, and one large newsstand in particular does not wish to place it unless we can assure them it will arrive at the stand along with the rest of the monthly magazines. They naturally feel that a publication should appear on the stands at the beginning of the month, and have questioned me and the literature agent preceding me concerning this.”
Our answer is that with this issue, our publication date has been moved up so that the February Fourth International, should be on the newsstands by approximately the first of the month. Agents can now assure dealers that this issue date will be maintained in the future. This should increase newsstand sales considerably.
A comment from C.M. Hesser, Portland, Oregon:
“I don’t know how it is with other places but we are finding that some intellectuals are looking for a way out – the world and the atomic bomb are scaring them to death. Am enclosing some more FI subs”
****
More and more college students are subscribing to the FI. E.S. writes from Northampton, Mass.:
“In the acknowledgment you sent me last summer for my subscription, you suggested that at the expiration of this subscription, I should write down my impressions of Fourth International. I am afraid I am taking you at your word.
“By the fact that I am renewing my subscription, you may deduce that my impressions were favorable, But they were really more than that. Fourth International has clarified for me things which I hitherto have not understood. I have for a long time felt that there was a need for socialism, and after much reading and thinking, decided that the only kind which would work was Marxism. It had a practicable plan for getting into power and a clear-cut program that covered all phases of life, extending, I recently discovered, into the domain of literary criticism. At first, like so many, I looked to the Soviet Union as my example, but soon saw something was wrong ... Since reading Fourth International I have learned that one can be a Marxist without being a Stalinist, and have learned substantially the way one must think, see and hear to be one.”
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Last updated on 8.2.2009