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AndNow...
THE PLAIN TRUTH
ENTERS
ITS 50th YEAR
N
EW READERS
may not
realize that this Feb–
ruary
Th e Plain
Truth
enters its 50th year of
publication.
l ts modest f irs t edition in
1934 totaled about 250 copies.
lt
was an e ight-page, mimeo–
graphed issue.
Today,
The Plain Truth
has a
monthly circulation of more than
five million copies worldwide in six
languages.
The Wor ld in 1934
The whole world then was in great
economic stress. Small, isolated
"hot wars" were occurring regular–
ly. J apan had al ready occupied
Ma nchuria. Mussolini was care–
full y planning the invasion of
Ethiopia. Late in 1934 French For–
eign Minister Louis Barthou would
be assassinated. And in Germany,
Adolf Hitler had proclaimed him–
self dictator of the Third Reich.
The United States was hard hit
that year by drought and lack of
soil conservation ·measures. In the
midwestern United States, farm
after farm was literally blown away
by the winds of the " Dust Bowl."
lt
was in those tumultuous times
that
The P/ain Truth
made its hum–
ble appearance. Here are two head–
lines with drop heads from those ear–
ly issues of
The Plain Truth:
l s a World Dictator
About to Appear?
Everybody senses that something is
February 1983
by
Dan Taylor
wrong with the wor/d
...
that sorne
mighty event is about to occur.
What is it? Bible prophecy rells!
Here is a so/emn warning .
..
and
it
is the plain truth!
What
ls
Going to Happen?
When wi/1 the next war com e?
Which wi/1 befirs t , the war precipi–
tated by R ussia
...
or the reviva/
of the R oman Empire?
A Look at 1983
Today our world is again faced
with severe cconomic problems,
threatening to get out of hand.
Armed conflicts recur like clock–
work. But one thing is very dif–
ferent: nuclear destruction looms
on the horizon like sorne dark
foreboding cloud . Yet ,
The Plain
Truth
has a message of hope, as
well as continuing not only to
inform its readership of what is
happen ing, but why events a re
happening-the
true causes
of the
problems facing mankind today.
In this sense, the
Plain Trut h
magazine is unique.
The world has changed consid–
e rably si nce 1934. And while
The
Plain Truth
remains a
magaz ine
of understanding,
it has under–
gone signi ficant changes too.
r
n
November, 1958, circulation had
reached 175,000. By July, 1967,
the one million mark was passed.
T his figure was doubl e d by
August, 1969. 1n 1973 worldwide
circu1ation stood at more t ha n
three million copies. And fi nally
by September, 1982,
The Plain
Trut h 's
circulation passed five
mi llion, including more than two
million newsstand copies.
Besides the growth in circu1a–
tion, the magazine itself has
undergone s ignificant physical
changes. From 1934 to 1957,
The
P/ain Truth
remained a black and
white magazine with a grad ual
increase in the number of pages
over the years from eight to 24.
r
n
February, 1957, the magazine
received a new look with the addi–
tion of one color, giving the mag–
azine a duotone appearance. Lat–
er, in February of 1965, a color
cover was added to a now 32-page
magazine.
Finally, in February of 1966,
The Plain Truth
became a full –
color magazine.
When he bega n publishing
The
Plain Truth ,
Herbert W. Arm–
strong and his wife, Loma, were
the complete staff. Mr. Arm–
strong wrote the entire magazine,
typed the s tencils and ran the
copies off on a Neostyle printer
whi le his wife kept up with the
subscription list.
Today, there are 133 men and
women employed in Publishing and
Ed itorial Services alone. T hese
people write for , edit, design, type–
set and do all prepress work on
The
Plain Truth,
as well as other litera–
ture prin ted by the Worldwid e
C hurch of God.
The subscription list and litera–
ture requests are handled by the
633 full - and part-time employees
of the Mail Processing Center a nd
Postal Services.
But this is a g lobal work and
5