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From New International, Vol.4 No.2, February 1938, p.34.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
AS WE go to press with the February issue, individual and bundle orders continue to come in for the January number. Regretfully, we cannot fill all the orders, since the first issue is a complete sell-out, despite the fact that January had the largest number of copies ever printed of any issue. Let that be a lesson to you: get your orders in on schedule.
Chicago, directed by the widest-awake agent of all, it appears, Karl Shier, is setting a hot pace. The Youth comrades are especially alert to the need and value of selling The New International as widely as possible. Paul Picquet of the Youth is spurring the NI work. The bundles of the magazine were distributed to the branches on the day they arrived in Chicago. To date 425 copies have been ordered, “but the Chicago Bureau believes this number can be boosted to 600 copies”. Reva Craine, Chicago, thus far tops everybody in subscriptions. It is planned to run several affairs for the benefit of The New International specifically. Chicago has started out well. Go, Chicago!
But let’s look afar for a moment. From Sydney, Australia, six mail weeks away, the Secretary of the Workers Party, comrade Origlasso, sends in an initial order for 30 copies (others have placed orders too), and comments: “In view of the magazine’s previous popularity, we are confident that the sales will grow. Our payments will be regular. We await with impatience The New International’s appearance.”
London, England. Margaret Johns, secretary of the Militant Group: “Send 120 copies to begin with; we will undertake to cover other points in England.” Wake up, America! A London bookshop places an order for fifty copies, pays for them in advance, and says, “Pleased to hear of the re-publication of The New International.”
Capetown, South Africa. From a bookshop: “I saw a notice in the Socialist Appeal that The New International is coming to life again. Hooray! Please send me 20 copies of first issue until further notice.”
From various spots in Canada: Vancouver, British Columbia, “Am sure the magazine will go over here and it won’t be long before we double the order [ordered 25] ... Hope that The New International grows and prospers, and if it comes up to the same high standard as its predecessor, there can be no doubt as to its success.” ... The Toronto literature agent: “We are pleased with the contents of the first issue and glad to see The New International published again. It fills a long-felt want in the revolutionary movement.”
In New York the magazine got off to a fine start also and the NI is selling well on newsstands, bookshops and in the Party and Youth branches. A large number of copies were sold outside the hall at the mass meeting of the International Commission of Inquiry on the Moscow Trials. Branches are planning subscription drives during the months of January and February. Comrade Mary Green of the Upper West Side Branch has been the most successful sub-getter so far in New York, and Hilda Ageloff of the same Branch has been runner-up. New York will soon put on speed and then the names of excellent sub-getters will pile up.
A Detroit subscriber encloses a check of $5.00 as a contribution and pledges $2.00 monthly. Let our readers emulate him by making pledges for the maintenance of The New International.
An ex-class war prisoner, Norman Mini, Sacramento, Calif., subscribes and hopes, too, that “The New International turns out a bigger success, even, than did the previous one”. We think it can; with the cooperation and support of our readers. The Berkeley, Calif., YPSL pledges to push the NI to the fullest extent.
The first issue of the NI got a good start. We’re sold out. But help us build the circulation still higher. More bundle orders and prompt payment of bills, literature agents. AND SUBS, SUBS, SUBS! Send them in; we’re equipped to handle any amount. It’s cheaper that way, and a subscription is insurance that anyone who wants to read the NI will get a copy. Can’t depend on picking it up on a stand or through an agent. The magazines sell out too fast.
Since the January column was written, orders flowed in from many localities. The St. Paul, Minn., literature agent has sent in a number of subscriptions and comrade H. Geller says further: “Am sure that every member will subscribe, and we also have quite a few contacts in line and are waiting for first issue to sign them up.”
Newark, N.J., has done very well with sales of the magazine. Disposed of 70 of the first issue, and also sent in contributions on a monthly pledge fund started for The New International. Newark comrades are wideawake to the need and needs of a bona fide publication of revolutionary Marxism. Boston, Mass., too, has made a monthly pledge. Other cities, please follow suit.
Orders have come in from Cleveland, New Haven, Lynn, Toledo, Indianapolis and other points. Columbus will undertake a subscription drive, saying, “I do not know of any other literature that can be sold as readily as the NI.” Akron, Ohio, ordered a large bundle of the magazine and has been busy after subscriptions. Allentown, Pa., comrades write, “We are trying to get subscribers for the NI though most of our members are unemployed.” A McKeesport, Pa., subscriber says that “The New International must be made the classical magazine of today. I am alone here and have to work under the greatest of difficulty, but am pounding away to get response.”
The foregoing speaks for itself. There is a solid base for such a publication as The New International.
But it needs, besides bundle orders and subscribers, DONATIONS in order to maintain itself. Run with the greatest economy, The New International nevertheless is not yet able to sustain itself through circulation income only. When you have read At Home and this issue, won’t you proceed to send us a check or money order to help sustain The New International? Thank you – a receipt is enclosed.
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