"There are Socialist daily publications in the United States in six different languages; about 50 weeklies in a dozen languages, and a few monthlies. Probably the most powerful and influential Socialist daily is the Jewish Daily Forward of New York City, which is now planning to establish a daily in Chicago, where it has hitherto had a large circulation. Next in power we may list the three Finnish dailies at Fitchburg, Mass.; Superior, Wis., and Astoria, Ore. Then there are the two German dailies, the Volkszeitung, of New York City, and the Arbeiter Zeitung, of Chicago. There are Polish and Bohemian dailies in Chicago and an Hungarian daily in New York City. The two English dailies are The Milwaukee Leader, edited by Victor L. Berger, the first Socialist congressman, and The New York Call. It is a peculiar fact that the Polish and Bohemian dailies have increased in circulation owing to the war, since those who had been hitherto reading only weeklies, now wanted a daily paper to keep in touch with what was going on in Europe. These daily publications are gradually increasing in strength financially, most of them now being an asset to the party rather than deficit producers. They are all more or less party owned. "It is among the weeklies that we find the great struggle for existence going on continually. There is no nationally organized effort to publish weekly Socialist papers. Those that do exist grow out of a local demand. Thus we find that the biggest Socialist weekly, The Appeal to Reason, of Girard, Kan., is privately owned. The only other weekly with a national circulation is The American Socialist, of Chicago, the official organ of the national Socialist Party. A local weekly usually proves a success where there is a strong local political movement to support it, as The Schenectady Citizen, of Schenectady, New York; or where it is supported by the labor movement, as in the case of The Cleveland Citizen, of Cleveland, Ohio, edited by Max Hayes. Prominent among the monthly Socialist publications, all privately owned, are The Rip-Saw, St. Louis, The International Socialist Review, of Chicago, and The Masses, of New York City. The future of the Socialist press depends upon the gradual growth of the Socialist Party as a political movement, and upon the extent of its co-operation with the economic movement of the working class. The Socialist press cannot grow without having something concrete to fight for and this is found in the support demanded by elected Socialist officials. The Socialist press must also have the support of labor unions as well as the Socialist Party in order to achieve the desired success.' |