Connecticut western news., 1872-02-02
Newspapers, Advertising and Business
 Thrift.

tIo uSpeun!oA ol US uully euRlOA, says
 Danbury is not to-day in 9 condition, financially, to warrant our merchants advertising as they want to. Trade has been very much depressed in the past two months, and money has been very scarce.
 This suggests few remarks which | properly fit into any series of considera- tions bearing upon the prosperity of business places. There are seasons of course land prchaps Danbury is enjoy ing one of them) when merchants would, for the time being, make more money by shutting up shop entirely. But till they get ready to resort to this simple expedient of economy they are not ready to stop advertising. The Question whether advertising pays in individual cases may be considered as settled. Men do not always make money by advertis- ing, nor do they always make money by going into business. But we have never yet found a man who reasoned that go- ing into business did not pay, even though nine out of ten men fail at one time or another. Advertising will not make 8 business remumerative, if other requisites are lacking, but to properly conducted business it is as valuable an adjunct as an attractive sign, a good To- cation, courteous clerks and honest deal ing.
 But there are some views of this mat ter which merchants to often do not con- sider, and of these we desire to speak. | A little story will illustrate one of them. A certain merchant in this town who has often said he thought advertising did not pay, undertook the sale of new style of goods. A neighbor of his in- quired of him how he got along with it, and he said with considerable disgust that he had not been able to do any thing; could not induce anybody to touch it. Shortly afterwards this neigh Dor took lot of the same style of goods, advertised their merits iberally accord ing to his custom, and soon started a brisk sale. Meeting his friend who nev- CT advertised, few days after, he in- quired how the goods went then. "Oh, first-rate, was the reply, |" we sell hard ly anything else." And yet we presume that to this day it has not occurred to his mind how much it paid him to have his neighbor advertise.
 The principle suggested by this little true story has broader application, and it was of this that the remark of the Dan- bury Neps more specially inspired us to speak. We take for granted that no New England community needs to be told of the value to it of a good newspa- per. It is of advantage in the same way that good schools, roads, parks, churches, libraries and other good things -are of advantage-all these going to make the place attractive and valuable both to it's residents and to the surround Ing country. And to be valuable it is not necessary that newspaper should suit everybody, or be confessedly the best of it's class, though it may be ex- pected of every newspaper that it will be as good as it can afford to be. If it commands readers, if it reflects the en- ergy and prosperity of it's town, if it keeps up with the times-it matters very little whether its political or other opin- ions are generally agreed to. We mean, of course, as far as its value to the growth and business of the town is concerned.
 Were circumstances such that the news papers of this city could not live here,
 but could live in Willimantic and should remove there, it would be safe to bet that in five years Norwich would only be spoken of after Willimantic. We say this to briefly illustrate our meaning, and think nobody will dispute it. But it Is well known that newspapers are supported mainly by interchangeable papers costing the publisher double the sum he receives for them, or more. If, then, newspapers is more valuable to a town, and is to be supported by adver- Using, is it not plain that it would be good policy for every merchant to do his fair share in this direction as matter of public spirit ?
 Public spirit, however, is not the ground upon which live newspaper bas- es its appeal for support. No more is party service. To be sure political party will do well to see that it's journals are handsomely supported but news paper that is kept alive solely for parti- sln uses, and depends upon party funds for it's breath, cannot be of great advan- tago 10 the public at large, for it is sure, sooner or later, to have the grip of some clique CT faction about it's throat. Yet as newspapers are not published simply fo1
 the amusement, as they come fairly
 within the list of commercial ventures,
 they make their appeal to the pockets ol
 merchants on the mercenary argument
 also. We have already illustrated how
 one merchant advertising helped an-
 others business. It is true as rule, th1
 all advertising helps the general business
 of town, and thus adds an indirect val
 ue to tine direct advantage of advertise
 ments. It is also true that the more universally the merchants of any towr or city advertise, the greater is thist in !, direct benefit to the business of the town This consideration of itself ought to be sufficient (and would be if thoroughly weighed, to induce all merchants to ad vertise, even if they could not trace ou the direct effects of their doing so.
 , There are two prominent reasons why universal advertising so greatly helps |, business. The newspaper is in fact, { picture of the business of a town. IG goe day by day into hundreds of families and stores, in company with newspaper , from other places. If now, the coluann of the papers from one city are throngee : with advertisements great and small, o all sorts of business, wholesale ant
 retail, while those of another represen
 comparatively few advertisers, and d'
 not have line perhaps concerning som branches of business, it is evident wha 9 sort of impressson must be produced up . on the mind of the constant noticer o : this difference. When he has any amour : of goods, he instintively starts for tn place whose business is evidently so va 3 ried and extensive. And, in the secont ? place, purchasers have come to have suspicion that where ther : is little advertising there is lit 7 tie competition and high prices pre- vail. Singularly enough also, as 8 rule 5 it is the merchants who advertise leas F who complain most that people go t. 3 other towns to trade. The principle , we have stated are so correct that tb , advertising columns of newspapers hay, F become an unfailing index of the advan . taees of their towns as trading centres