Manager’s Column

From Fourth International, vol.5 No.7, July 1944, p.194.
Transcribed, marked up & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.

One of the best ways of increasing sales of Fourth International is the newsstand method. Realizing this, our agents are building up FI newsstand routes in their various localities, as will be seen from the following letters:

Los Angeles:

“Due to San Pedro’s having obtained two newsstand you’ll have to boost their bundle up by ten. Los Angeles, which has been running pretty close to the margin, will also have to be raised by ten. I don’t have the addresses of the Pedro newsstands and have asked them to send them directly to you so as not to lose any time. Our next step will be the stands in the Negro neighborhood where we got many of our 25¢ subs to The Militant.

“We ran out of copies of the June issue and for the first time actually had to turn people dawn who wanted to buy them at a meeting we held on England. Please rush us another ten copies of this issue.”

Another letter from Los Angeles, air mail special delivery, followed closely upon the heels of the one quoted above:

“I was passing by one of our newsstands and noticed that he had run out of FI’s (he carries 15) and another stand nearby which carries 30 has only 7 left. This is after a period of two weeks. Rush us ten more copies of the FI in addition to the ten I asked for two days ago. I can’t take any more chances on being caught short.”

Minneapolis: “We have been able to place Fourth International on one of the newsstands here – Shinder’s located at 6th and Hennepin Ave.”
Philadelphia: “The FI is on sale at one stand along with The Militant and we hope to place it on some stand near the housing project here.”

* * * *

Our agent in Los Angeles is putting (back issues of Fourth International and ‘The Militant to excellent use. Other agents will appreciate this suggestion:

“Please send complimentary copies of the FI and The Militant to the L.A. Public Library. I have enclosed the sub blanks. I notice that they carry other magazines and papers. This week I am going to try sell them some books, and will give them the back issues of the magazine and paper. The sociology department is the place where they keep most of those on the labor movement.”

* * * *

Readers of the Fourth International comment about the magazine:

New York: “The June issue of FI is one of the best in a long time, maintaining a high theoretical level throughout. Particularly excellent is Simmons’ article ‘US Capitalism Heads for Bankruptcy’, an outstanding example of Marxist theory applied to current developments. Jeanne Sorel’s analysis of the French political situation is also much appreciated, and the article by Felix Morrow on religion is a gem. The issue is very well balanced.”
Plentywood: “I am sending $1 for the June FI Have not had a chance to look it over carefully yet, but it is always good.”
Milwaukee: “I want to buy the 1940-41 bound volume of the FI I think it is a dandy magazine.”
Cleveland: “I have not received the June issue of Fourth International; it would be very much appreciated if you would forward this to me, as I do not like to miss any of them.”
Kentucky: “I would appreciate it if you would start my subscription with the copy that contains the tribute to the American Trotskyists who went to jail last December. I mean the one that Macdonald wrote about in his Politics.” (The article referred to, How the Trotskyists Went to Jail by Joseph Hansen, appears in the February 1944 issue,)

Readers abroad write:

Ireland: “We find Fourth International invaluable, and I say without exaggeration that we could profitably dispose of many more copies. Cannon’s Dog Days of the Left Opposition’ in the March issue is superb. Simply written and yet profound in content, it is ideal for workers. Cannon is our best selling writer here, and his reputation second only to Trotsky’s.”
Ann Keen, London: “Thank you for your letter and the cutting of my article in the March issue of Fourth International. It was forwarded on to me in Durham prison and I felt extremely bucked up that it was considered good enough to go into the Fourth International.

“I am sorry not to have replied sooner but since we have been allowed out on bail there has been a tremendous amount of work to get through.

“I can’t at the moment recall if I wrote to thank you for one parcel of back files of Fourth International. Did you send any more? Because it is quite possible that a parcel may have gone astray whilst I was in prison for four weeks.”

Ann Keen is one of the four members of the Revolutionary Communist Party involved in the recent Government case against the British Trotskyists, which is commented on elsewhere in this issue.

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Last updated on 12.9.2008