MEMO FROM THE EDITOR
MEMO from the Editor Hard Times Summer time does not mean easy living at The Progressive. Our financial position is always precarious, but in the vacation months it verges on the utterly awful....
...We don't save our nickels because we never have a nickel that isn't needed right now to pay a bill that's due or past due...
...The summer just ending was no exception...
...the creditors who displayed admirable forbearance and faith in The Progressive, and—not least— the staff members who, in addition to performing their usual tasks at the magazine, devoted time and energy to coping with the funding emergency...
...Actually, the question isn't all that reasonable...
...Fewer new subscriptions are entered, fewer old subscriptions are up for renewal, and our cash flow—a term dear to accountants—slows to a trickle...
...Even the most patient creditors—especially the most patient creditors—must eventually be paid...
...the individuals—some of them strangers to us and to the magazine—who replied favorably to a request for help sent out in our behalf by our friends Philip M. Stern of Washington, D.C., and Frances T. Farenthold of Houston, Texas, when they agreed to co-chair a Committee for The Progressive's Survival...
...So if you are one of the readers we failed to approach with our emergency appeals this summer, or if you have not yet responded to those appeals, or if you have responded but can make another contribution at this time, or if you can't send a donation now but can pledge a later contribution or regular support as a Sustaining Member of The Progressive, please let me hear from you right now...
...His check arrived a few days later, and it helped—a lot...
...But like most political publications in our country—like every political publication I know of that doesn't have a wealthy owner to meet its deficits— The Progressive goes from crisis to crisis...
...The summer's various fund-raising efforts brought individual responses that ranged from $5 to $5,000...
...He had better things to do with his money than prop up a lost cause...
...On the one hand, we must persuade our friends that their help is desperately needed—and it is...
...I'm afraid not...
...I'm immensely grateful to all of them...
...That's the way it has been around here for as long as I can remember, and my association with The Progressive reaches back more than two decades...
...The bills, on the other hand continue to arrive in a steady stream, and they must be paid: Printing and postage, telephone and electricity do not take the summer off...
...Who, after all, would want to subscribe, let alone contribute, to a magazine that won't be around much longer...
...If we had any money to set aside, we would...
...Our friend in Vermont didn't think so...
...We have a backlog of debt that simply must be reduced if this magazine is to remain a viable entity...
...So it's reasonable to ask (as someone did a couple of weeks ago), "If you know the summer's going to be tough, why don't you set aside some money to get you through the lean months...
...And our purpose in publishing this magazine would be poorly served if we did not sustain our efforts to put out the best magazine we can produce for the largest number of readers we can reach...
...That The Progressive made it through the last few months is a tribute to the heroic efforts of a number of people: the subscribers who responded swiftly and generously to our urgent appeals for assistance...
...I told the caller two things: First, that The Progressive is in terrible financial shape and that it can't possibly survive unless those who value the magazine and share its goals rally to its support at once...
...And second that it will survive, no matter what, because those goals are even more important now than they were when the magazine was founded in 1909, and we don't intend to let this valuable institution die for lack of funds...
...Does that sound like a contradiction...
...Every one of them was urgently needed and significantly helpful...
...The summers are worse than the rest of the year, but there isn't any time that's good...
...Is The Progressive now out of the woods—at least until next summer...
...One faithful subscriber who received a letter asking for support called me from Vermont to ask about The Progressive's future...
...It's a problem familiar to all those who try to drum up badly needed support for worthy endeavors...
...On the other hand, we must not create the impression that The Progressive is about to give up the ghost—and it isn't...
...He intended to send a contribution, he said, but only if the magazine would be around for a while...
...in fact, the financial crunch was worse than most we have experienced...
Vol. 53 • October 1989 • No. 10
