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From New International, Vol. I No. 4, November 1934, Inside back cover.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
IT CAN’T be done! So many skeptics have told us from the first day till now. What can’t be done? Get out a publication like The New International at such low subscription and bundle rates. Well, we admit it’s tough going, but here we are: the fourth issue off the press and the fifth number already under way. We look forward confidently to solid financial support from our swiftly increasing number of readers to assure the permanence and growth of The New International.
Yes, we got a little conservative, to our own surprise, with the September-October issue, and so we ran short of copies even as with the first issue; likewise our 4,000 copies of the August numbered vanished among our readers. The reason why? Look below. The circulation just keeps on climbing.
Far-off Australia leads the crowd this time. The Sydney branch informs us: “Please increase our order from 60 to 100 copies.” Despite the fact that our Australian comrades necessarily get the magazine six weeks late, they now sell 130 copies all told.
Buenos Aires, Argentina, sends in its first bundle order. So, too, a bundle order from Athens, Greece.
And Glasgow! Who dares slander the Scotch? From 70 copies, Glasgow increases its order to 100 copies – and pays in advance. What a bunch ! The unusually large circulation of our magazine in Great Britain, Canada, Australia and South Africa is testimonial to its world-wide appeal.
In the United States, the circulation moves ahead likewise. H.L. Goldberg, that veteran of the class struggle, has taken The New International under his wing – and sales mount. An increase to 30 copies for him, plus 25 copies for Foster’s Bookshop. 410 Washington Ave., moves St. Louis sales to 55. And comrade Goldberg writes: “If you can get the November issue to us before our mass meeting, send me a bundle of 100; we’ll sell them all right.” Newark increases its total order to 40 copies. The Newark Spartacus Youth Club writes: “Keen up the fine work. Magazine splendid. Enjoys a growing popularity here. Am placing an independent order for Spartacus.” And while we’re mentioning the youth, it might as wall be told : they’re the ne plus ultra live wires for The New International. Manhattan Spartacus Youth Club, Manny Garrett, agent, sells 75 copies, thereby deriving rent money for itself. San Francisco Spartacus Youth on the job. Pittsburgh, Pa., Spartacus Youth write: “All members fully realize how really worthwhile, timely and far-reaching is the publication of The New International magazine as an organ of revolutionary Marxism. We, the Pittsburgh Spartacus Youth Club have a committee to promote it ... will endeavor to increase its circulation among workers and to increase the quantity allotted for this territory and branch.” Chicago Spartacus Youth push the sales steadily. But not to have the youth get too “uppity”, we leave them at this point and say a word or two about others, and what they have to say.
The Philadelphia North Side and South Side branches have each increased their respective orders to 50 copies: a sort of competition which has our endorsement.
Williston, N.D., through A.C. Miller, disposes of a small bundle among the Marxist-inclined farmers. The Chicago Friends of the Militant Club, through its secretary, Shirley Schlesinger, writes: “We realize your difficulties in getting out this type of magazine at the price” and will find ways to assist. The Chicago, S.S. branch, CLA, says: “We will be able to support The New International to a much better degree as soon as winter organizational plans are laid out.”
Scattered commentaries on the qualities of The New International make one – excepting editors and business managers – blush. Shanghai and Peiping readers write, to put it in one word: “Fine!” Glasgow, Scotland: “Second issue beats the first. Keep up good work.” Boston: “Anti-war number was a splendid one.” Waukegan. Ill., regarding second issue: “Every article of vital importance ... know high quality of magazine ... will make special efforts to obtain subscriptions.” A Pasadena reader: “Enclosed $1.00 for NI. May it flourish!” A subscriber from Virginia says, “Enclosed MO for $1.50. for New International ... It is an excellent magazine, indispensable for diagnosis, criticism, etc. of the political, social and economic interpretations.”
From Antwerp, Belgium: “Received New International. It is necessary to have this theoretical organ in the study of the new positions that have to be taken ... We follow here with great interest the economic and political evolution of the American world. We will try to translate articles from your magazine.”
From Spain, scene of great class struggles in recent weeks, we read the comment of the theoretical organ, Comunismo, as follows :
“The first number of the theoretical organ of our North American comrades is an exceptional contribution to the theoretical movement of our international organization. None of the reviews published in the Yankee labor movement, especially by the Stalinists who have the richest means at their disposal, can be compared with the review of our comrades. Thirty-two pages of choice and compact prose ... Few are the reviews in the international labor movement that can be compared with The New International.”
And so, like Pepys diary, it goes – on and upward. Our immediate goal – in sixty days – is 4,500 copies. Can we make it? Don’t know. Let’s try.
A final word – and request. Despite well-growing circulation, The New International, because of high cost of publication of this size and quality of magazine and the low selling rates, still circulates at a financial loss. We count upon our supporters to help to make up our monthly deficit by sending donations now directly to The New International.
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Last updated on 25 February 2016