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Fourth International, July 1946

Manager’s Column

From Fourth International, July 1946, Vol.7 No.7, p.194.
Transcribed, edited & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.

As we go to press on June 15, the closing day of Fourth International’s two-month campaign for 500 new subscribers, we are proud to report that we have gone over the quota with 551 subscriptions, 110 per cent of the quota! Here is the scoreboard as of June 15:

Even more significant than the successful conclusion to this campaign, is the enthusiasm expressed by many of the Campaign Directors to continue this work locally even though the national campaign is closed. Thus, Harold Josephs of Toledo writes:

“It is our hope to continue to build the FI subscription lists, although the drive ends shortly. Those who have subscribed to the FI in the past have become quite attached to it.”

L. Lynn of Minneapolis which has fulfilled its quota looks forward to the next FI campaign:

“I sincerely hope that we go over the top nationally, and that we will have another campaign sometime in the near future. In the course of our FI work, we have discovered some good contacts. We’re ahead now 26 new readers to the FI, and we are all for the proposition of putting the FI work on a campaign basis.”

And Jerry Kirk of Flint comments:

“Although we have completed our quota, needless to say, we will continue to send in subscriptions and keep pressing or them.”

Among the Campaign Directors who tied up the FI with the Militant campaign which also concluded on June 15, Paul Chelstrom of St. Paul reported immediate success.

“We sent out about a dozen letters last week to Militant subscribers who had renewed, asking them to subscribe to the FI. We also sent them sample copies of the magazine. One subscription came in right away as a result of these letters, and we will have more to report on this later on, we are sure.”

The spirit of socialist competition was not lacking in the FI campaign. A close race was conducted among Philadelphia, Youngstown and Newark, each with a quota of 20. Newark nosed the other two competitors out of the field with a high score of 24. Similarly, San Francisco outstripped Minneapolis, each of which had a quota of 25, with a total of 28. ButMinneapolis generously congratulated its competitor:

“We sure hate to admit defeat, but we can’t let our pride color our estimation of the situation ... Win or lose, the campaign has been very successful method of obtaining new FI subs.”

The response of young people who are for the first time becoming acquainted with this theoretical magazine of the American Trotskyists is noteworthy of attention. During the FI campaign, Carl Frcdricks, organizer of the Los Angeles Socialist Youth Club wrote:

“In the near future many more of our members will get subscriptions to the FI, as those ho are now reading it find they like it very much.”

*   *   *   *

One of the main purposes of the FI campaign was to bring this important magazine to the attention of new circles of readers, people who are today, troubled and perplexed by the complex economic and social problems posed before them today. How thoroughly the FI answers, their questions, is expressed in a letter from Jarvis Dusenbery, Perry, New York, who wants all his friends to share his new found treasure with him.

“Please send me ten copies of the May FI. I have many friends and I wish them to read the article by William Simmons, American Imperialism At Home and Abroad, also Full Employment andthe Fallacy of Keynes’ Economics by Warren Creel.”

Commenting on the latter article, he writes:

“Henry Wallace knows almost as much about economics as a cat knows about astronomy. Remember his ‘Kill Little pigs and plow under cotton?’ Yet some people fall for his bunk. It is too bad that taxpayers have to pay for such things.”

Another new subscriber, Jim Seward of Saskatchewan, writes:

“My only regret is that I can’t find words to express my interest and appreciation not only of the FI but of The Militant as well. You certainly deserve credit for being able to turn out so much valuable information to the working class of the world. The truth was nevermore needed than it is at the present time, when so much deceit and falsifying is being broadcast throughout the world in order to cloak the unnecessary sorrow, misery and suffering everywhere ... never was there more need for speedy action than now.”

From Dublin, Ireland comes an appeal for an FI sub.

“I would like to receive your magazine every month, if it is possible, in view of dollar restrictions. I have come into possession of a few copies which I find most interesting. I was especially impressed by the article on Lackawanna: Steel Town 1946.”

(This analytical article, written by a young steel worker following the great steel strike, appears in the April, 1946, issue of the FI).

 
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