The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-06-24
NEEDED REFORMS IN ADVERTISING.
womn Club, at North Yakima


morals: TO unnecessary street noises.
which are occasions of acute annoyance
to numbers, to buildings which destroy
the symmetry and deface the beauty of
a quarter. and TO gigantic advertising by
which private firms and vendors of quack
medicines are now suffered to dshgure
our public buildings. to destroy the beau
ty Of both town and country, and 10
pursue the traveller with these hideous
eyesores hundreds of miles from the
metropolis.
This great evil has increased In our day.
until IL needs the interposition OF the
legislator. But If this degradation Of
art and disiiguration of scenic beauty Of
tends our aesthetic sense how much
greater must be the shock to our moral
sensibiities, when We are called upon to
gaze upon that class Of advertising cal
culated TO show up in all its abasement
the degradation and depravity Of human
kind. That there should be limitations
placed upon this class OF suggestive add
vertising goes without saying and il is
high time to call a halt to this obnoxious
not 10 say obscene. use of the daily press
There is one other point which | wish
TO touch gently upon. and that is the use
or the female figure for the purpose of
advertising. II We are not born with
certain innate modesties. we have surely
incuicated them from a respectable par
entage. And while we have grown accus-
TONED 10 gaze upon the nude in art with
some degree of serenity, we are / take
IL. opposed absolutely to that pictorial
form OF unblushing womanhood made to
do negiigee duty as a placard for soaps.
corsets and hosiery There are some
things which sordid world still holds
sacred-our flag. our homes and the name
OF woman. Trail the flag In the dust.
tear down the hearthstones. take from the
name of woman the one thing which
makes her the altar stone around which
gather and Irvine the best hopes Of the
world. and you have destroyed the foun-
dations upon which rest the civilization
of our times And when In our quest
for gain, we forget the name of country,
lose sight of the beauties OF nature and
degrade the name and the form of wom~
an, we have taken one step back into
the darkness which leads down to bar
barism.
II may be a good thing for certain deal
ers In ladies' hosiery to make a window
display Of said article with poses and
appropriate remarks from Blanche Bates
In Naughty Anthony" but straws point
the way OF the wind and the evident APP
probation of spectacular effect by all
classes OF people shows a certain drift
that is 10 say the least, demoralizing in
its effect.
In the year 1898 there was formed In
England a society called The Society for
Checking the Abuse Of Public Advertise
ing" under the abbreviated name OF
'Scapa." 1t started out with a member
ship of over one thousand names. includ-
ing in. It's list OF members such noted peo-
pie as Alfred Austin, poet laureate. the
Earl of Carlisle, Walter Crane. Mrs. Faw-
cett, widow of the late lsmenied political
economist; Rudyard Kipling and others.
Its object was to promote legislation re-
stricting the abuses of advertising. and
even went so far as to advise its MEM
bers TO give preference in their private
transactions 10 such firms as do not re-
sort Of Objectionable modes OF advertising
They were so far successful in their work
as to secure the forbiddancs of all species
of advertising along the banks of the
beautiful and historic river Thames.
While public sentiment has been aroused
10 considerable degree upon this sub
iect In this country, there has been. as
far as my knowledge goes no societies
formed looking to the regulation Of these
abuses. That there Is a crying need for
concerted action along these lines IL self
evident, and IL IL is our wish and our
purpose 20 get relief by legislative en-
actment from this fragrant abuse Of the
privileges OF free press and a free coun-
try. then the time is ripe for some or
ganization which, II Il may not reach
far enough to outline the policies OF legis-
lation. may at least tend to educate
the people along better lines of thought
higher ideals in literature and art. and
Amer appreciation OF the beauties of
nature. unmarried and unscathed by the
vandal hand of man.
CLARA DEAN GARTER.