The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-08
N. W. AYER & SONS
 35TH BIRTHDAY
Great Advertising Firm Started in One Room With s25o Capital. Has Since Transacted Busi-
 ness of $a5, ,ooo, ,ooo.

city, the largest advertising agency in the United States, ceIebratei yesterday the thirty-fifth anniversary of a, business whose success and growth can be meas ured only by the progress of advertising itself in this country.
 Starting atIa time when the immense resources and power of modern advertis- ing were unknown, N W. Aver and his son, F, w. Aver, entered the field with the idea of making 1t a business and conducting that business along Philadel- phfa methods.
 They started. father and son, in room only twenty feet square, on Sansom Street, near Seventh. near the present
 Press building, on April 1. 1889 Their capital was $250, and, as Mir. F. W. Aver. the present head of the firm, laughingly said yesterday: Father was the head. was the office boy. and we were equal partners"
 With this capital the firm proceeded to develop newspaper advertising. and in the first year did a business of $15,000 In the thirty-four years since they have fur nished to the newspapers of the United States a total of more than $35.001O00 of advertising To-day they are dealing with 1S,o00 publications and their pay ments to these average s10,000 a day. or. roughly speaking, $3,eOooo) a year.
 Kept Everlastingly at It."
 This enormous business enterprise was started with the settled conviction that Philadelphia was the city in which 1t could be made a success, and that Phila- delphia business methods would make 1t success. In the little room on San som Street. father and son adopted the now well-known Philadelphia motto. Keeping everlastingly at 1t brings suc- cess" On the walls of the two entire floors of the Mariner & Merchant Build ing, at Third and Chestnut Streets. and the two floors of press and work rooms in the rear, that motto is to-day engrav-
 ed for the 229 employees of the big firm to read.
 In 1873 N w Aver passed to his rest and left the business and the name to his son, F. W. Aver. who then took into | his partnership an employe named George o. Wallace. who died in 1887. Be- fore wallace's death another employe. Henry N. Mckinney, had been taken in- to the firm In 1875, and finally Albert G. Bradford and Jarvis A. Wood were made partners in 1898. they also having come up through the business. These last
 three partners, together with F. W. Aver, conduct the business to-day.
 In 1876 increasing trade brought the | firm to the then new Times" Building at Eighth and Chestnut Streets. where it rented one floor. This was before the Times" moved in. During twenty-five years N. W. Aver & Sons gradually spread until they occupied all the upper floors Then they moved to their pres ent quarters, at Third and Chestnut. on
 the site, by the way, of the first adver- Using agency in America, which was es- abolished by Volney B. Palmer, in 1s41. Story of a Success. Speaking of the immense growth of ad- vertising, F. W. Aver, the veteran mem- Der of the firm. said yesterday:- There was hardly such a thing as ad- vertising until after the Civil War. Then the country began to feel its muscle and | to stretch out into new lines. We have seen a great evolution in journalism. When we started 1t was in the days of
 the weekly newspaper, which was a great power There were the Toledo
 Blade the Atlanta Constitution Colo mel Forney's Press and the New York | Tribune and Sun. But now increased postal facilities have rendered the daily paper the vehicle of news in every part of the country. The farmer 150 miles
 from the city gets 1t the same day 1t is issued.
 "Yes, this is the day of the daily, and
 more and more Is the public depending upon 1t for an account or what It cannot personally see and hear; and more and
 more the advertiser is depending upon 1t to tell the people that he cannot meet
 personally of the goods he has to sell. Do I think advertising will increase Yes. We began in the days when staples were not advertised, when business men thought 1t all right for makers of patent
 medicines to advertise because they were supposed to bring great profit. But for
 sugar, bread. biscuits and the like. on
 which profits were close. it was thought there was no margin for advertising. Advertising Staples.
 That was the idea we started to dis prove. and we have by no means ex-
 hausted the list of staples that will be
 exploited. Let me tell you something
 the immense advertising of Uneeda Bis
 cult was done by setting aside a frac- ton of a cent on each package. "Yes, the old idea that certain things
 will not stand advertising is passed.
 Men are advertising to-day who told us five years ago that advertising would do them no good Others who now say the
 same thing will themselves be advertis-
 ing in another five years.
 Why" continued MT. Aver, with A
 smile. there were some who told us
 when we started that this business would
 not be run successfully from Philadel-
 phia. Think of thatr'
 That this theory has long since been
 exploded is we'll witnessed by the enor- nous success of N. w. Aver & Son.
 which has made the name of Philadelr
 phia and Philadelphia firm known from one end of the United States to the oth- er.-Adv