The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1907-01-17

in an address before the Corn Belt
Editorial Association. at Storm Lake,
Iowa, Mr.. A. NJ. Foster, local Hes.
chant delivered a ihonghtfsl address
on the duties Of merchants TO hoEss
paper He aid many things that il
viii Be profitable TO call 10 the at
iention of tbs business men Of their
respective cities. Duty and ssivan-
iage 60 together. and II b part Of the
work Of the pre-@ 81 educate lis pat
rons a. Ia esth. He placed good will
at the arst ALLEGATION Of the meT
chants to the local press and aid
If You will pardon me for q person
al illustration, this il what | mean,
partially at lest, BY good will Las.
fall for ,h. first time we devoted our
store basement exclusively 10 Christ
mas toys and novelties, We adver-
tised the fact generally in the local
papers, but one day saw one Of our
regular customers coming IN with a
lot OF toys ! asked her If she could
not find what she wanted IN eur toy
department Why she said,
"have you a toy department Where
j. ia" I asked her If she did not
see our adj in the papers, and she
said she did not take any papen.
said to her: my good lady, if ]
were YOU the first thing ] would do
would be TO go over and subscribe
for one and then read the ads. Iou
viii save your subscription many
times over" And the best of 1T Is she
subscribed.
Another duty the merchant owes
the local paper is his patronage II
has been said by those who have
watched the order of events that no
merchant can succeed without adver-
tising in one way or another, and up
to this day and age of the world no
medium has been found so satlstac-
tory a. the newspaper To convey III
formation to the public.
And what is advertising but lntor-
ming the people what you have TO
sell? | say it is the duty of the mer-
chant. and ] would also include the
professional men and mechanics, who
have business of their own, to pat
ronize the local paper not only by
their subscriptions, but by advertis-
ing as we'll If We help to build up
the papers they will help To bulld up
tie town and bring to us increased
t:ade and greater opportunities.
| firmly believe that if a place is
rood enough for man to live in and
| to make his money III 1t Is gooo
enough for him to spend his money
in. be he an editor, merchant, farmer
or anybody else. Some merchants
have told me they don't believe peo-
ole read their ads, for they don T
see that they get any benefit. Well
suppose for the sake of argument
people don't read some ads. Whose
| fault is 1.-THE newspaper Not
much. 1t is the man behind the adj.
1t is a rare exception for the pub
lie not to read anything that Is inter
estine. Perhaps we ought to dress up
orr ads little. For example. fifty
men can 90 down our streets on
hot day in their shirt sleeves and yoh
would hardly notice them, but let
inst che man 90 down dressed III the
hei. hi of fashion. and III tell you
everybody will sit up and take notice
WHY? Because there Is something
about him that attracts. That Is
what we ought to do-dress up our
ads. and make them attractive.
| Among other duties, on the part OF
advertisers or merchants, he enumer-
ated the furnishing of fresh copy,
| and not let the ads get stale, and have
the copy good, plain and eadabie'
and on time. and to pay advertls-
| iny bills in cash every month.