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From New International, Vol.4 No.4, May 1938, p.130.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
THE April issue of The New International, from numerous reports at hand, everywhere sold more readily than all preceding issues. The greater variety of articles was favorably commented upon. In New York, Chicago and elsewhere, CPers, anarchists and Lovestone supporters went for the April issue.
The Berkeley, Calif., YPSL Circle made the most substantial gains in past weeks. The Circle now tells 50 copies; starting with ten, there has been an increase each month. Fine work, Berkeley!
Chicago continues to do splendidly with the magazine. Karl Shier reports steady progress and rising interest. Comrade Max Weinrib disposed of 15 copies; another 15 were sold at a meeting on the Trials. Over 350 copies continue to be disposed of monthly. On April 16, Chicago comrades held an affair for the benefit of the NI.
St. Louis, Mo. has increased its bundle .to 30 and handled extra copies for the Widick mass meeting. “April issue very good,” writes Dave Burbank. Columbus, Morris Slavin, agent, likewise increased its order to 25, with an extra five for April. Likewise, Detroit. Austin, Minn., and Louisville, Ky., are disposing of small bundles. New orders have come in from Aberdeen, Scotland; Baltimore, Md.; Reading, Pa.; and Leeds, England. Agent M. Kahn, London, increased bundle order and Johan-nesburgh, South Africa, increased once again. Clapham Socialist Book Shop, London, now disposes of 50 copies, but say they expect “to increase the order very materially in near future”. Mark Hall, Fresno, Calif., writes, “Sales picking up; the NI is excellent.” In Boston, “the April issue has been selling very well,” writes T. Leonard; “the stores alone having disposed of 24 out of 34 copies so far”.
Montreal, Que., comrade comments that the “April issue contains real meaty articles, immediately noticeable”.
Some of the New York YPSL Circles proceeded to take an interest in the The New International. The best was the City College, Circle which handled 40 copies. New York YPSLs have still a very long way to go before it can be said that they come near the YPSLs in other cities in interest and activity for the NI. The NI sales in New York Party branches are taking on more, stable forms under comrade Abe Miller’s able direction. Subscriptions too have improved a bit in New York.
Quakertown, Pa., increased its order again, and in Pittsburgh a sympathizer, M.K., sells the magazine and places the NI on stands. Cleveland sales, Gerry Arnold, agent, are steadily improving. In Toronto, Canada, despite difficulties, more copies are sold each month. And in Vancouver, B.C., “The NI is getting a nice reception. My newsstand sold six of last issue and is sure to sell more when it is known the stand handles the magazine,” writes G.S.
Comrade Chester Johnson, Minneapolis, says: “The magazine meets with a very good response and we expect to be able to dispose of a larger bundle soon.” A Newsletter concerning the NI and other Party literature was recently circulated among intellectuals, University of Minnesota teachers and students. Newsstands also handle the NI.
A number of new agents are at work now for The New International: E. Dean, Berkeley, Calif.; Ruth Querio, Allentown, Pa.; R. Ronald Larson, Kansas City; Karl Martin, Lynn, Mass.; Eloise Booth, San Francisco; John Murphy, Los Angeles, Calif.; Norman Gailar, Rochester, N.Y. (YPSL). They are all on the job, even as are tested, reliable agents like Martell, Akron; Sol Thomas, Philadelphia; Morris Gandelman, New Haven; V. Harris, Hartford; C. Hess, Rochester; E. Paniceli, Detroit; Selander, Toledo; Eliz. Ryan, Oakland; R. Negin, Newark, N. J.; D. Herreshoff, San Diego; and others.
Bundle orders are becoming stabilized, as well as increasing, in the United States and also in Canada, South Africa, Australia, England and Scotland. This is evidence that The New International has a number of thousand of steady readers, and there is reason to feel confident of the magazine’s future on that score. Subscriptions, however, are the best and surest base for the maintenance and development of such a publication as The New International. Concerted efforts by the Party and YPSL branches and Circles can convert at least hundreds of these readers of the NI into subscribers. The summer period is shortly ahead. Only through subscriptions can persons desiring to read the magazine be sure to get their copies. We request all branches to give consideration to an early subscription drive. There has been a pick-up in subscriptions in the past weeks, but largely through the direct promotion efforts of the business office, rather than the branches. But subscriptions, it is thus shown, can be obtained quite readily if members and branches will proceed to systematic visiting of prospects. The Upper West Side Branch in New York, as a branch, and its individual members, have the best record in sub-getting.
Comments on the NI from various sources continue to be laudatory and also confirm subscription possibilities if followed through.
So we move ahead, but not swiftly nor surely enough to make certain the maintenance of The New International, much less its extension to 48 pages, which is our objective. Enlargements and improvements are possible – with your help. How? More and large bundle orders. Donations and affairs for the benefit of the magazine. Why not arrange a pichionow? And more subscriptions!
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Last updated on 4.8.2006