Manager’s Column

From Fourth International, vol.3 No.4, April 1942, p.98.
Transcribed, Edited & Formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for the ETOL.

We’ve received many heartening letters this month, not only from our agents but from readers in other countries as well as in the United State…

J. W. of Los Angeles: “The Fourth International sold better than usual on the stands this last month. A new issue the March issue – is here; it is the best yet.”

If you haven’t been putting the magazine on the newsstands, like our Los Angeles agent, now is the time to do it.

H.S. of Kansas: “It is midnight and I’ve just finished reading the March issue of Fourth International which came today. The contents have got me so worked up – so excited – that I can’t sleep. So I thought I’d better get off the bundle order payment, and get some of this excitement off my chest by writing about it, by telling you what a moving revolutionary message that FI issue is – for the ‘feel’ of revolution is certainly in it!”
M.J. of Pittsburgh: “Enclosed is a belated $4.00 on our FI bill. Hope we can keep it coming in more regularly hereafter.”
J.B. of Montana: “I am sending $1.68 for the March FI. It has taken awhile longer to sell them this time, but I’ve done the job. In a small country town like this there have been many young fellows who have gone to the war and a lot of them were readers of the FI, so I had to look for new readers.”
K.A. of Kansas: “I received a sample copy of the Fourth International for the month of March. I am enclosing check for $2.00. Please send me the publication for one year beginning with the April issue.”
C. A. of Indianapolis: “I have been unable to work much this winter, but I am getting lined up okeh now and will take care of part of my account in a week or two at most.”
A.K. of Boston: “Your system of reminding subscribers – by the large prominent stamp on the cover – is, I think, very good. It is hard to miss it. Glad you got this idea. Enclosed is check for $2.00 for a year’s sub.”
H.A. of England: “I require for filing and binding purposes single copies of back issues of Fourth International. If you have spare copies of these issues in your back number files, you will earn my gratitude by sending them on. Most of my 1938 copies have been either destroyed or lost in their travels around the ranks of the newcomers to our tendency and, if it isn’t asking too much, I would gladly welcome a complete set of the 1938 New Internatonal either bound or loose. I regret having to ask or these knowing the burdens, financial and otherwise, already imposed upon you, without being able to pay for them, but believe me, I would be only too pleased to do so were it not for the currency export restrictions which prevent this.”
M.0. of England: “Many thanks for the letter which you sent us some weeks ago and the copies of Fourth International ... which have been arriving fairly regularly.

“We have followed the events in America with close interest, especially the accounts of the trial and indictment of those prosecuted by the government. Goldman’s speech was a masterpiece, and certainly ranks amongst the greatest revolu tionary defense speeches in history. As a simple but clear exposition of all that revolutionary Marxism, and trotskylsm in particular, stands for, it was perfect. We have not read Cannon’s speech, although we have heard about it ...

“Needless to say, we are grateful for the literature you have sent. We only hope you continue to send it and that it continues to arrive here. We are in great need of basic works on the Fourth International, the Soviet Union, etc. There is a dearth of Trotsky’s work here. Any books, pamphlets, etc. which you can afford to send, we should receive with open arms, and we guarantee that they would be put to a good purpose. Already the papers you have sent us are being circulated around the members here.”

* * *

We were pleasantly surprised in checking the Fourth International accounts to find that the following twenty agents have sent in payments during the past month on their bundle accounts: Buffalo, Chicago, Kansas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Rochester, Montana, St. Paul, Newark, New York, Detroit, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Akron, Boston, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Allentown, New Haven, and Quakertown. For some of these agents, it is usual; for the others, it is an event. But each month the list of those who have paid lengthens and we hope that soon we won’t have the following list of those who have not paid during the month: Texas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Flint, Youngstown, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Reading, and St. Louis.

While monthly payments from agents become more regular, subscriptions are lagging. Chicago is so far ahead with the number of subs sent in that they stand alone in the field. Minneapolis is the only possible runner-up.

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Last updated on 19.8.2008