The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-02-21

cdn, we DelleVe, De very confidently
predicted.
ADVERTISING VALUES.
Chicago Chronicles: 1t does not
need much argument to convince the
modern world of the value of adyertis-
ing. There are still some among the
professions, so-called, whose expon-
ents look upon almost any direct
means Of telling the world what they
profess to be able to do as more or
less d%erogating from the dignity of
the profession. But even among such
as these there are not wholly wanting
signs that they are beginning to sus-
pect the mistaken policy of permit
ting the pretenders to take and keep
the a of the world. They give some
indications of a willingness to take
the common sense view of the shrewd
preacher who admitted that it is bad
policy to let the devil have all the
good times"
The modern world has become a
reading world. 1t does not trust any
more to n spoken transmission of
news from man to man any more than
to handing along the history of mems
doings by oral tradition. Along with
this almost universal practice of read
ing has come that of advertising in
printed form or readable form of some
kind that each one of us pursues.
Naturally the leading medium for this
recognized practice of advising u
fellow men of what we can do crawl
tated to the newspaper, the medium
through which men learn what is
known as the news of the world. Es4
sentially the spreading of knowledge
of where forms of business are trans
acted is news as truly as spreading
knowledge Of anything else
Ingenuity of self-interest-the de-
sire to make money''-led some men
to invent other ways of advertising
for which the inventors could get pay
ment and their name is legion. Wal
paper" as it is called, of all kinds,
billboards, programmes of all the in
finite variety of entertainments, cir
culars, many forms of books which
but for the fact hat their cost is de-
frayed by the advertisers who can be
persuaded to use them, would never
be printed, and countless other
schemes for promoting alleged public
ity have grown up until many who
have business to advertise give no
small part of their time to listening
to solicitations. Every manager" of
a doubtful concert or recital seeks to
thus lure the public into paying the
cost of his programmes. The visitor
to every theatre must turn over many
inky pages before he can find the bill
of the play he has come to see. Ev-
cry city street is disfigured with huge,
ungainly ~billboards. Through the
country houses and barns and fences
and rocks are made unsightly with
painted placards of pills and p%otions.
Many business men seem to think it
cheaper to pay for most of these
schemes than to spend time il trying
to say no to solicitors.
Business men, however, give evil
dence Of beginning to discriminate be-
tween the kind of advertising that is
of value and the many kinds that are
worthless. Some time ago the Board
Of Trade of a large New England city
appointed a committee made up of
practical business men to investigate
and report upon the whole question
n the report recently made is de-
tailed and exhaustive. 1t sets out a
great variety of facts which were I'M
earthed in the course of the investi-
cation, many of them very curious
and some very amusing. Touching
the issue of books of ephemeral char
acter, the report details one case
where a large number of advertise
ments were secured on the representa-
ton that 10000 copies of the book
would be printed and distributed.
while the projectors collected from adj
vertisers several times the whole cost
of the work done. In fact, no books
were printed except enough to show
to advertisers, who thought them
selves shrewd in insisting on seeing a
copy.
The committee gave especial atten-
ton to the practice of advertising in
programmes, theatrical and other, and