, 1904-01-27
OFFENSIVE ADVERTISING.

The suggestion in the second annual
message of Governor Murphy, of New
Jersey, to the Legislature of that State,
urging a concerted effort to remove the
advertising signs placed along the
lines of railway through the State, is
one which has the hearty support of
The Outlook, and which ought to have
the support of every citizen who cares
for the dignity and beauty of the land
scape. The Governor has caused an
enumeration to be made, and finds
that no less than sixteen hundred sign
boards of all kinds, "disfigured by all
sorts of effigies of impossible men and
women ~ and advertising 'rem-
edIes for all the ills that human flesh
is heir to, as well as all sorts of foods
and drinks" greet the passengers on
the railway trains as they pass through
different sections of New Jersey. The
scores of thousands of men and women
who live in the New Jersey towns and
cities near New York are compelled,
whenever they come to or go from the
city, to pass a long procession of mon
strosities in the way of advertising signs,
and vigorous condemnation is heard on
all sides. These signs are an outrage
on the travelling public, which finds
itself forced to read about remedies,
articles of food and wearing apparel,
instead of securing a clear view of what
is, in many seasons of the year, a bit of
landscape of exceptional interest and
beauty. The journey from New York
to Philadelphia is made hideous by a
long procession of signs which seem to
move with the trains, many of which
are vulgar, all CT which are offensive;
GOD thu Iox- 10 NOT diofnnt urhiab EDx,
ernor Murphy foresees, when the pas
senger "will pass through a continuous
and unbroken lane of signboards that
will trouble his nights and days with
suggestions of things that are disagree
able" Governor Murphy proposes to
strike at this abomination by levying a
high tax. If the State is 10 be used for
advertising purposes and the public are
to he offended, somebody ought to pay
for the privilege; and the rate of pay
ment ought to be made so high that
this kind of advertising will cease to be
profitable for the proprietors of patent
medicines, or the inventors of gigantic
elephants, monstrous colognel bottles,
and o.her things. Advertising by the
use of the billboard has been greatly
abused; and good taste, sound morals,
and a proper regard for the education of
the people and for their feelings will
some day compel a rigid restriction of
this form of advertising. Some forms
of advertising are offensive, not only in
themselves, but because they Obtrude
upon and destroy privacy-one of the
most precious rights of the individual,
and one of which the American citizen
possesses least. 1t is very much to be
hoped that the Legislature of New
Jersey will follow the Governors initia
tive and levy a prohibitory tax on bill
board advertising along railroads. In a
Southern city certain advertisement of
a patent medicine which are familiar to
travellers in all parts of the country, and
which are unpardonably vulgar, are
torn down as fast as they are put up,
out OF respect to the women of the place.
The Outlook is opposed to mob law in
all forms, but this irregular action is the
expression of a righteous indignation. =
From The outlook Of Jan. %, 1904.