The future of this paper will be according to its success or its failure in gaining subscribers. A publication of this kind does not live on advertising, but on the returns from subscriptions.
The French organ, VERS DEMAIN, is on a healthy footing, with more than 55,000 paid subscribers. Our canvassers, working without commission, moved only by their love of the cause, turn in an average, presently, of 1,200 subscriptions a week (new and renewals).
Compared to its elder brother, SOCIAL CREDIT is only an infant, not living on its own. Its paid, subscribers number less than 1,000. And nearly half of these are French readers, already on the mailing list of VERS DEMAIN, who subscribed to SOCIAL CREDIT just to help this new paper financially. This slow pace was not unforeseen, and our Institute of Political Action was ready to support the first steps of SOCIAL CREDIT with proceeds of subscriptions to VERS DEMAIN. This can be continued, for some time at least.
But finance is not the only consideration. The publication of the English paper was not undertaken just for the sake of printing it. It was done with a purpose: To help English Canada learn about the Social Credit doctrine and movement, and to correct the false impressions arising from distorted notions and news too commonly fed by the lay press to uninformed readers.
This purpose can never be attained by a paper reaching only 540 English subscribers in ten provinces. Its circulation may surely grow: but the present rate of growth is far too slow.
It would be foolish to expect the rate to increase automatically. Such things just don't happen. What is not done by interested parties won't be done at all.
Subscriptions have to be solicited. This is done for the French paper by canvassers of French-speaking communities. These canvassers are simply subscribers who want their paper known and read by many more people.
Those who take it at heart more earnestly pledge themselves to a regular weekly objective; hundreds of them make it three or more subscriptions a week.
Similarly, if SOCIAL CREDIT is to live, it will have to increase its circulation; and new subscriptions will have to be solicited by its present subscribers in English-speaking communities.
This is for you to decide — you, individually — Friend Subscriber of SOCIAL CREDIT.
Either you like this paper, or you do not care. If you do not care, it is immaterial to you whether the paper lives or spells finis. But if you are interested, if you would like the Social Credit idea to get hold of minds — which is the necessary way for the implementation of what Social Credit stands for — then, get the paper known and take subscriptions to it in your community.
You may use for this purpose the form at bottom of page 2 of this issue.
The future of SOCIAL CREDIT rests in your own hands.
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