The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-06-24


III dustries and vast business en-
terprises are elbowing each 9TH
IL err for supremacy. which means
life prestige: which means sue
cess. The commercial world IS crowd
ed one. the pace swift, and the battle
fierce. Commerce today plays no waiting
game. and the measure of a mans sue
cess--to use a Western expressish-is his
ability to hustle" for trade.
The first thing a great orator desires
to do is TO gain the attention of his au-
dience. After that conviction becomes
possible, and applause certain. And so
the time has gone by when a man may
sit in his storeroom or office chair, watt
ing. like Micawher, for opportunity 10
overtake him. He must command the
attention of his trade 1t is the old story
OF Mohammed and the mountain. II Is
not enough that he displays hts wares in
fanciful design from the shop windows. to
arrest the attention of the passcrs-by he
must go farther than that. and through
the columns of the daily press. the pages
of our numberless periodicals. upon fence
and roof and rock. in staring type and
flaming headlines. recount the virtues OF
his wares
And so from the printed fences Of the
old crossroads to the add columns OF
great newspapers the matter of which
figured up TO nearly a million dollars in
city the Sunday before Easter this year
of our Lord nineteen hundred. has grown
up an era of advertising wonderful in
it's possibilities and stupendous in its re-
suits.
II is not, however. the purpose OF this
paper 10 discuss this subject from the
standpoint Of the utilities. neither is IL
from the standpoint OF advertising as
fine art, but rather to treat briefly some
of the abuses which have grown out OF
it.
The dollar is great thing. and we are
n busy people. too busy perhaps to think
much and well upon all phases OF national
growth. But there are moral aspects as
well as material ones, and lines OF SYM
metry and grace as well as qualities of
strength and durability, and while we
may not all look at life from the stand
point or aestheticism. we at least have
some vague conception OF the eternal
fitness of things. and since we dwell in
the age Of advertising IT is at least i'm
portsnt that we make these features of
our cycle as inoffensive as possible.
Theo w. Hunt says. that the mission
of literature is distinct one and the
mission Of the man OF letters correspond
ingly clear Just how far the man of
art and the man of letters win be called
upon 10 prostitute his genius to the adj
vantages of trade is question to be
worked out In the near future That
there Is growing tendency to deprecate
those things which tend TO vulgarize art
and cheaper the best efforts of gerius is
good omen
One of the saddest reflections cast upon
the scrdid probability of the age is the
fact that the common end OF many Of our
great paintings is as an advertising me-
dunn In Autograph for. say. cod liver oil,
Pears soap or porcelain bath tubs.
There IL strong protest being made,
not only In this country. but all over
tire civilized world, and notably so in
England. against that ever present phase
of outdoor advertising, from which there
seems no escape. and which Is source
OF constant onense to all lovers of nat
ural beauty and consistent effect
Imagine yourself. for example buried
in the depths of primeval forest for
gotten of man. and lost in the contempla-
tioa OF those great forest kings that had
whilst God the wrath OF centuries 10 be
called to earth again by a little tin sign.
nailed 70 the bark Of one OF those self
same trees. bearing this message to man
kind: "Arnica saive cures scalds burns,
chilhlains. etc"
In Mr. Leckys Democracy of Liberty"
appears passage in which the right doc
trine is clearly asserted The state can
not undertake to guarantee the morals
Of its citizens. but II ought AT least TO
enable them to pass through the srptets
without being seandaiized. tempted or
molested"
The self-same rule applies also TO some
things which have no connection with