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From Fourth International, Vol.10 No.4, April 1949, p.98.
Transcription & mark-up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The March issue proved popular with friends and supporters of Fourth International.
Bob Kingsley of Cleveland wrote:
“I just finished reading Bert Cochran’s article on The Union Bureaucracy. This article is a masterpiece of concentrated thinking; and, with Art Preis’s article on Roman Catholicism in the trade unions and James P. Cannon’s speech on New Problems of Socialism, fill a long-felt need. Our theoretical magazine is bringing us up to date on the Marxist interpretation of the present epoch in this country.”
The Cleveland comrades ordered another six copies of the March issue.
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Seattle asked for five more copies. “Congratulations on the new trend,” they write. “Like it very much.”
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Los Angeles needed 25 extra copies and Pittsburgh sent in for 10 more.
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Worcester, Mass., asked us to send five extras and P. told us:
“I think the magazine is better. I can remember when I couldn’t wait for the next issue to come out. I read the last one with some of the old drive.”
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Howard Mason asked us to increase Detroit’s regular bundle by six more copies and ordered an additional 25 copies of the March issue.
“A youth comrade is attempting to establish the magazine in a few places around Wayne University. In addition there seems to be an increased interest among regular readers.”
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New York’s literature director, Harry Gold, reports that a promising beginning has been made selling copies of Fourth International on the campus of various schools. I.G. was credited with six sales; K.B. with five; Doris, two. Edith Bartell, Kitty Green and Sarah Ross sold ten copies. In addition, Bob Williams and Gladys Barker of Harlem sold five at a meeting in defense of the Republic of Indonesia. Sales on newsstands, according to Harry Gold, increased last month. Literature agents in other parts of the country please note New York’s experience selling single copies on the campus. Have you tried it in your area?
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From Toledo, Milton Alvin congratulates the staff on “the fine improvements. The March issue is excellent – good articles, timely, and, of course, well-written. Our friends here have expressed themselves very much in favor of keeping up with timely material that answers many of their questions.” Commenting on the editorial about Stalin’s latest moves, Comrade Alvin suggests that we “should not attempt to foretell the precise development but outline the general course, taking into account the various possibilities. The Kremlin line zigzags so rapidly these days that by the time a publication is off the press, Stalin has reversed his policy ... The statements of the CP leaders in France, Italy, etc., crude and not; taking into account the feelings of the workers, prove that Stalin looks upon the European and American Communist parties as so much garbage to throw in his enemies’ faces.”
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J.S. of Saskatchewan, Canada, ordered five more copies of the February issue.
“I think the article by Li Fu-jen is a most excellent source of very useful information for all workers. I will do all I can to have it read. And the article on the old War Dog Churchill is very interesting. It describes the old rascal to a nicety and expresses my own opinion much better than I could do. In fact, Fourth International is a splendid little – or I should say, big magazine for people who wish to learn the facts about world events.”
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Grace Carlson, Vice-Presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party in the 1948 elections, writes from Minneapolis:
“The March issue is first class! Comrades come into the headquarters these days and volunteer the information that they really liked the articles in the FI and that they read it through in one or two sittings. This represents a genuine shift of attitude toward the magazine on the part of our worker comrades. We have ordered 25 extra copies of the March issue and expect to dispose of them all very comfortably. As a matter of fact, we may have to increase this order. A Duluth comrade wrote in today for ten copies to sell to contacts there.”
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And Vincent R. Dunne, 1948 candidate of the Socialist Workers Party for United States Senator from Minnesota, took time out to send us his opinion:
“The new FI is fine. It is my opinion that you are getting somewhere and there can be no real argument about the favorable reception which the magazine gets from the comrades. It is genuine, it is readable, it teaches. I like John G. Wright’s treatment of Bertram Wolfe’s book. His last sentence is worth a basketful of doubloons. The editorials are so useful – I thank you very much for that.”
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Last updated on: 4 March 2009