Really the circulation of the Yiddish Communist press in the Soviet countries is not so bad-200 copies of the “Emess”, 200 of the “Stern”, and a large number of “Young Guardists”, the “Emess” writes in an article fixing the blame for the small number of copies of the Yiddish Communist papers circulating in the Soviet Union upon the Soviet postal service.
The postal machinery, which has lately obtained a monopoly in the circulation and supply of newspapers, including the “Emess”, has shown itself incapable, to say the least, of carrying out this task. It is a fact, the “Emess” says, that since it has been taken over by the Post Office the increasing circulation of the “Emess” has stopped and it has now begun to diminish. The postal authorities are, of course, always ready to prove with hundreds of arguments and documents that there are objective reasons for this decline outside their control, such as the summer vacation, etc., but all these excuses will not serve. Before the circulating of the “Emess” was taken over by the postal service, we warned proletarian public opinion that it must establish a strong control over the postal service and show it how to spread the Jewish Communist press. It that is not done, we said, there is a grave danger that the result will be to put a stop to the growth of our circulation. The negligence of many of the postal servants in regard to the spread of the “Emess” is simply beyond belief, and there are numerous cases, hundreds of them, that we can point to in this direction. Proletarian public opinion must come to our aid, and put a stop to this blow at the circulation of the “Emess”.
Not long ago, the “Emess” then says, we had a press gathering, attended by a large number of Jewish workers, and many representatives of factories and stores promised their aid for a campaign to increase the circulation of the “Emess” and the other Jewish Communist papers, and a scheme was drawn up by which we ought to sell as many as 500 copies of the “Emess”, 500 copies of the “Stern” and hundreds of copies of the other papers.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
