The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-20
.srHE ADVERTISING UPLIFT." !"

; banqueting room of the Midday club
on the fourteenth floor of the new
Commerce building. 1t was put on un-
der the auspices of the Kansas City
advertising club, one of the liveliest
organizations in the west, striving for
the continued Advancement of its own
city and the territory about 1t.
The dinner was called "The Sun
flower Banquet" There were only
five speakers on the program; all were
Kansas newspaper men. Mr.. Murdoch
of Wichita was absent. Mayor Crit
tenden of Kansas City was the fifth
speaker. Three of the Kansas men,
T. A. McNeal of Topeka, Henry J. AL
len of Wichita and Ewing Herbert of
Hiawatha are after dinner speakers of
| statewide reputation. What they said
was warmly applauded and gave en-
| tertainment and instruction to the
large and intelligent audience"
Each speaker grasped the oppor-
tunity to advertise the Sunfower state.
and each did it with rare discrimina-
tion and effect. The speeches were all
| "offhand" and each would be worthy
OF publication in full, but this writer
was too busy with troubles of his own
at that dinner to do any reporting ex-
cept to remember what he himself
said.
| Mr.. MacLennan of this paper was
the fifth sunflower of the bunch, and
inasmuch as his remarks, on 1.-THE
Advertising Uplift,'' covered views and
opinions upon advertising, Kansas,
utilities commissions and railroads, it
is thought that they may be of in
terest to the readers of this paper and
are accordingly given herewith:
Mr. MacT aennan said
Mr.. Toastmaster and fellow adver-
tisers-fOr. in the grand roundup to-
night we will be told by the last speak
er that all men are advertisers.
''At the outset I would like to set
Mayor Crittenden right and wish to
assure him that no word of opposi-
tion to his candidacy appeared in the
State Journal, and L might say that
understand that he was not opposed
by Mr.. Allen in the Wichita Beacon,
[voice from Allen: That's right !
nor by Mr.. McNeal in that humorous
agricultural paper, the Mail and
Breeze, nor even by Ewing Herbert in
the Hiawatha World; in fact, we all
had troubles of our own about that
time. We were striving to elect Re
publican mayors in our respective cit
les. Indeed we did not really know
that Mr.. BeardsIey was running for
mayor in Kansas City, Mo, and from
the election returns there seemed to
have been a great many people in !
Kansas City who did not know he was
running. |
Concerning what your distinguish |
ed mayor who graces this occasion |
has said about the surplus water in |
Kansas 1 beg to call your attention |
to the fact that a few days ago in |
the Oklahoma legislature Col. Bill Du- |
rant introduced a bill to make the wa
ter wagon a common carrier in order |
that it might be brought under the |
supervision of the interstate COM |
merce commission.
Water Wagon Common Carrier.
Now that is the kind of a bill. or
islatures of Kansas and Missouri. /
which we need. At present when
there is spring freshet in Kansas
the Kaw river spreads out all over
Kaw down here. Not with words, of |
course, but by the numerous bridges
which you throw across the stream
in order to connect the several parts
of greater Kansas City. You block
the waters at the mouth of the Kaw
so that they cannot get away and they
back up into our country Now what
we want is a suitable outlet for our
water supply and what you really need
is more water so this concurrent reso-
luton if placed on the statute books
of our respective states would give
you a greater supply of water, and
would permit us to dispose of our sur
plus fluid; and the interstate COM
merce commission would surely take
care of that.
'I would also say that in sitting next
to the mayor 1 have absorbed wisdom.
He says that most of our Kansas peo-
pie come down here to buy most of
their goods. He also says that the
great trouble with the newspapers is
that their editorials are not as truth
full as their advertising; that one even
sometimes contradicts the other, and
that the editorial columns should be
in harmony with the advertising col
ENOr 4v,k1 IT.
peka to adopt that policy. When the
Topeka merchant advertises, truthful
ly of course, that our readers can buy
merchandise of as good a quality, and
at a lower price, at home, in Topeka,
I am going to see to it that the edi-
torial columns are consistent with this
and advocate and assist the Topeka
merchant in competition with his
Missouri competitor.
The Mutual Ad. Club.
1.-The country from the Atlantic to
the Pacific knows of the Kansas City
Ad Club; it landed the National Con-
Vention of Ad Clubs for Kansas City.
You have heard of the St. Joseph Ad
there is new one of which will tell
you about confidentially this evening.
1t is the Mutual Ad Club. 1t is an
exclusive organization. 1t is composed |
only of those who are on the speak
ers' program tonight, the bunch of five
Sunf1owers before you. The last to be
initiated is Mr.. Murdock. The forma-
ton of this club was forced upon u.s. |
'Mr. McNeal, Mr.. Allen, Mr. Her
bert, Mr.. Murdock and myself have
been thrown together so often of late
that we were tired applauding and
laughing at each others old Jokes
sprung upon each new audience We
were knitting each other and ridicuI-
ing the old stories until we were like
the misunderstanding each others
throats before the Interstate Com
merce Act; we were compelled, you