St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-17
BUSINESS CLANS.

A distinguished preacher recently created
a sensation in the church conference by
preaching from the text, Don't be a Clam.
The effect of his novel discourse was to
arouse his clerical brethren from the lethar-
gic condition into which they had fallen,
and as a result of the stirring up they re-
ceived the church is making better progress
than ever before. The Philadelphia Times
has borrowed the minister's text as the basis
of a first-class sermon to the business adyer-
Users of that city. who still hold on to the
old clam methods of advertising. They
prefer to hold on to the old regulation
musty, dead-rot way of advertising, and the
Times proceeds to tell them that it is
time they were adopting methods
which accord with the progressive intelli-
gence of the age. The Times says: ''One of
the most extravaganza of all the many forms
of waste in advertising is the now common
method of sending circulars to houses.
They come by the score every week, and,
among the first duties of the housewife, is
to chuck them into the fire or the waste bas-
ket And they come in every variety, and
many of them of artistic and costly eXecu-
ton; but they have become bore in every
house, as is the street-boy who annoys pass
ers with his slips. Some interests which
require detailed statements. for people to
study may be wisely promoted by circu-
lars, but, as a rule, the system of advertis-
ing is costly and proftless, and successful
business men seldom employ it. 1t is a
relic of the clam times and methods, which
were created before everybody read news
papers, and while the clam rules in bust
ness clam advertising will be perpetuated
and clam advertisers will rail against adj
vertising because they don't and wont I'M
derstand it.
1.-The time is past when the value of jul
dicious advertising can be disputed. Men
who do business and who advertise as their
fathers or grandfathers did waste their
money and if they prosper it must be in de-
fiance of their clam methods; but there is
not single case of failure in any legiti-
mate business where newspaper advertis-
ing has been literally employed to build up
business and fortune. The most success
full business men in Philadelphia and else
where are living witnesses to the fact that
advertising made their success, and many
of them have entirely created their business,
built it up from nothing but their own ge
MUS. and solely by what the world called
lavish newspaper advertising. And while
the unknown men of genius and energy have
thus created business and fortune many of
the oldest and best-established houses, which
logged along in memory of their fathers on
the clam system. have died of dry-rot. The
great house of 4. t. STEWART 81 Co. fell
in the race in five years of clam manage
ment, and younger, fresher, more progress
sive men took up the advertising that house
had abandoned, and have made business
fame and fortune. Advertising is not only
business problem but it is a science. 1t is
easy to spend much in advertising and get
little in return; but each year weeds out
more and more of the advertising clans
and just as they are weeded out business
improves. Advertisements should be as