Mexico weekly ledger., 1886-05-13

they charge their home merchants,
manufacturers and professional pa
irons. In this they not only do injus-
tice to every publisher who demands on
all occasions what the space in his pa.
per is worth, but they wrong in the
grossest ann the liberal home adver-
tiser from whom they receive the larger
share of their business, by denying him
rates which they grant to a stranger.
The agent makes the specious plea that
his patron is such an extensive adver-
tiser, and has to use so many papers,
that he cannot afford to pay regular
prices; and also that the home adver-
tiser is presumed to derive more bene-
fit from his publications than the for
eign advertiser. The first is not a sem
sible view of the case, and the latter is
not true. If he cannot afford to adver-
tise largely in SO many papers, let him
occupy less space and select the best
papers In each state. Better results
would follow. AS to benefits, the
home merchant realizes only on the
circulation within a limited area of the
place where the paper is published, as
his trade is strictly local; while the
foreign advertiser, who is seeking to
introduce his wares or nostrums into a
dozen or more states, secures the ad-
vantage of every paper SEM out from
the publishing office-those that go to
adjacent counties and to dozens of post
offices in as many states, as we'll as
those distributed at home. Ifeach and
every publisher would establish living
rates for advertising, based upon circu-
lation and the necessities of his sur
roundings, and exact of all the same
price and terms, it wouldn't take the
average advertising agent long to find
it out, and publishers would have little
cause to complain of them on the score
of prices. Why, there is nothing
simpler in the world, when an agent
makes you a ridiculously low offer, or
wants to "a you in chips and whet-
stones. than to tell him you will not
| sell at his price and on his terms, or
to pitch his circulars into that conven-
lent receptacle of spring poems-the
waste basket.
1t would be a difficult matter to form
| ulate rules for the universal conduct of
the advertising department of a news
paper, and l do not suppose that, in
assigning me this subject, the commit
tee thought that would come within
the province of this paper. Publishers
must be governed in a large measure by
their surroundings, and special laws
would not in a majority of instances
prove practical. But there Is one gen.
eral rule that should be kept IN view 4:
Be just and fair with all patrons, show
ing no distinct favors that are not paid
for at special rates. Advertisers are
not slow to discern any discrimination
against them. Do not waste precious
time ~endeavoring to convince the mar
who does not believe in advertising
that it will pay him. You may occa.
sionally worry a small card out of him
but he will pay the bill grudgingly and
then declare that it is so much money
thrown away. That card might be the
means of his making a dozen sales but
he is too blind to ever see it. He ex
poets every man, woman aud child, who
buys a paper of pins of him to say, 81
saw your advertisement In the Bodug
ger, and 1 thought I'd call around ant
see you" But as shoppers are not il
the habit of doing this, you cannor
, convince him that advertising pays ano
L would not advise you to place too
much store by the man who says 20
|, [ don't believe it will do me any goo(
) but l would like to see your pape,
succeed, and will give you a small care
to help it along" He imagines he il
r ~bestowing a charity or a great favor OF
!, the local publisher, instead of doin,
, the wisest business act of his life, an,
r will always consider the publisher un
, der obligations to him. Be independ
r ent enough to tell him that you are do
ing a legitimate business, that you ar
: not an object of charity and are no
seeking aims. Tell him you are salts
fed that it would pay him to advertis
but that you do not want him to Civ
f you something for nothing. If h
S doesn't advertise with yeu then, b
r will have a more profound respect fc
t you and your business than he ever ha
: before.
! In contrast with these two classei
s and with whom it is a pleasure to trea
is the man who not only believes bu
knows from experience that advertiser
n pays. He would as soon think of doir
e business without advertising as wit
a empty shelves. He pays his bill
o cheerfuily and regularly, and doesn
e expect to reap the Dutchman's one p'
cent. profit off of every dollar investt
in advertising any more than he do
off of every yard of calico or pound
J. coffee be sells. Cultivate that man
5ftacquaintance. for he is always success
full in business, is never found laggir
" a generation behind the procession
Il and is up to his eyes in every publ
enterprise calculated to advance I'll
ID town and community in which he live
2, But, lest / weary you, permit me
he close with these ~toasts, to be drur
y standing:
f. 1.-THE advertising department, ii
re great newspaperial heart, whose mu
r cular throbs send coursing through {
D, the arteries of the world the v~italizil
to principle of intellectual advanceme
it and material progress"
D. "The advertiser, the man of broa
lg comprehensive views, the publisher
c. friend, the benefactor of mankind
A may his species multiply and repleni'
is till in him all the nations of the ear
of shall be blessed"
or The Duty OF the Press During Prelun
,el nary Canvass Toward the Candidat
e. for Public Office.
,o BY II. Al. WHITE, MEXICO LEDGE
1t is the duty of the press to
il outspoken, truthful and unprejudie'