Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-11
GOOD WORK.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE BY THE STATE
BOARD OF TRADE.
Suggestions of W. II. Mills as to Exhibits
of California Products in the
Eastern States.
rs. F. Bulletin, July 10th. |

W. Il. Mills, Chairman of the Committee
on Publication and Advertising of the
State Board of Trade, yesterday presented
the following report at the meeting of that
body:
The work accomplished by your Board in this
department OF activity has been varied and ex-
tensive 1t has embraced within its features
permanent exhibition of the products of Cali
fornla In the city of San Francisco accessible to
Eastern and home visitors. The average daily
attendance upon this means of advertising our
resources has been forty per day, for the DAYS
upon which the exhibition has been omen the
number OF visitors for the year exceeding
twelve thousand. A considerable number OF
Eastern visitors decline to enter their names
upon the register, giving as an excuse for their
reluctance in this matter that they are liable TO
opportunities from real estate agents and
brokers.
The second branch of advertising effort re
lates to the issuance OF circulars and Damphlets
The printed matter distributed has been very
voluminous. The Board has obtained the adj
dresses OF 1000 people scattered throughout
the United States who have manifested an in
terest in this State, and to whom printed matter
is being sent and can be sent by the County
Boards OF Trade. This list has increased from
TWO sources. Inc Board has advertised through
out the United States that it will answer all in
qulries on the subject of California and will an
sWer all inquiries concerning matters which the
intending settler would desire to know, and in
Board making such inquiries. The names of
those obtained are added to the register of adj
dresses. The register of visitors kent at the
headquarters OF the Stale Board of Trade is also
another source of augmentation to this list
Publications, therefore, containing valuable in
formation as to the resources of our State may
now be circulated economically and with a
reasonable guaranty that they will reach the
hands OF those to whom they will be interesting
and in whose minds the information thew con.
tain will find lodgment.
The third feature or branch of our advertising
methods relates to exhibitions in tue Eastern
States. Since the organization of this body two
of these have been made, one at the annual as
sembly OF the National Grange at Lansing
Mich, and the second during the wear for
which this is report, was made at Columbus
Ohio. A full report of the success attending
that exhibition has heretofore been made, and
is of record.
The fourth branch relates to the exhibition
which has become known to US and to the pub.
lie as California on Wheels" 1t will only he
necessary for the purposes of this report to saw
that the representative of this Board traveIino1
with the exhibition reports TO the present date
100000 visitors under whose observation the ex-
hibit in the cars has passed. Wehave sus aimed
the exhibition train in the field for seven
months. II has been prolific of very extensive
advertising. The exhibition itself is highly
suggestive of the varied resources of our State
is very attractive. and while in many resnerts
II TAILS short OF presenting fully our resources it
IS measurably adequate exhibition Incl
dental TO its pilgrimage, we have obtained a
vast amount of newspaper notice and criticism
always favorable to the exhibition and favora,
pie TO the desirablllty of California as a place
of residence. We have no satisfactory data nv
which the value of this advertising NAV be
ascertalned or estimated. The great body of
notices given the car, and the incidental discus
SION OF Callfornla, It's people, its resources ana
It's deslrablllty as place OF residen e. have
come under our observation. Considering tn =
character of the notices given and the Space
occupied by them, and estimating their yaIne
StAn0Ar0 aHy fisi,, ,,0,
that is the commercial value of the space they
occupy, and we feel it to be within conseTystive
estimate to say that the space could NOT have
been purchased for $780, adding to this the
moral weight of the opinions expressed and the
moral responsibility of the papers making them
III the premises, and it is, perhaps, within safe
computation TO say that the expenditure of half
a million dollars by the ordinary methods of adj
vertlslng could not have diffused so widely or
effectively the information which we are seek
ing to place before the world concerning our
commonwealth. The plan, therefore of adyer-
Using the State by u moving exhibition has
conferred upon the state possibly all the adyan-
tages which would have accrued bv the ex-
pendlture upon publications of $500, 900. 1t has
Deen Obtained at cost to this Board of a little
IN excess OF $3.50 per month for seven months
II is now proposed to have the cars return
nome, removing, however, at some convenient
place, some Eastern commercial center the ex-
hlo!tlon from the cars, and establishing the
rolling exhibition of lSSS-S9 in some city nos
sibly chicago. The exhibition is composed in
very large measure, of imperishable articles
and may, therefore, be established as a very
creditable permanent exhibition in some lead.
ing Eastern center. Consultation with railroad
authorities develops the TACT that two very fine
cars may now be had for the campaign of 1889
", ana upon this subject L. II. Goodman the
General Passenger Agent of the Southern Pa
chic Company, will address the Board TODAY
An improved exhibition, with three cars in
stead OF Two, and travelling by a new route is
the cheapest and most effective method of adj
vertising this State which could possibly be de-
Nised. Two exhibition cars instead of one will
also afiord better opportunity for classification
whl!e the additional space will make il possible
to introduce features omitted in the exhibition
now travelling.
Your committee earnestly recommends the
placing OF travelling exhibit for the season of
lSS9-90 under the control of the speciaI com.
mlttee, and particularly is this desirable in the
matter OF collecting the exhibit itself II is the
Judgment OF your committee that the travelling
eAnlDltion by railroad is the cheapest and most
efiectlve means of advertising the country that
has yet been discovered. The number OF
persons visiting these exhibitions as already
SHOWN, IS very great, but the benefit in that di-
rection is to be compared with the extensive
advertising received at the hands of the press
Considering the broad circulation of the uapers
whlch nave given the exhibition, and in
cldentaliy, the State il has Represented favor
able notice, and it is within reasonable state
meDt to say that the attention of millions of
people has been called to the cifc coast
through TINS fundamentally, IL would, there
lore, appear 10 be consistent with the demands
OF good administration to profit by our past ex-
perience, and improve the cars by remedyiug
some of the unavoidable defects which are re.
ferable to the haste with which the whole
enterprise was planned and launched, and by
this Improvement prove 10 our fellow citizens
OF the East that the first exhibition by no means
exhausted the possibilities of representation of
the varied products and industries of our
country.
The work of the year has been persistent.
thoughtful and methodcal. We cannot fail in
the accomplishment of great good to this com
mouwealth
We take this occasion 10 call the attention of
the state Board of Trade to the announcement
given the work or this Board by the press of
California. This encouragement in many in
stances has amounted u efficient and hearty
cooperation, for which some suitable recogni-
ton and acknowledgment should be made