Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1909-05-19
NEED OF PUBLICITY FOR IOWA.
Continued from page y


Moines have organized the Greater
Iowa club state commercial or
ganization. The Greater Iowa club
stands for publicity. This organiZa-
ton will do for the state of Iowa
what local commercial clubs are do
ing for their own localities.
I'VE will maintain a news bu-
reau which will supply Iowa ma
terial to our own state press and to
the press of other states. We will
supply stories of specific success in
Iowa. We will tell men of the east
of Iowa and will tell them of Iowa's
yearly purchase of $300,000,000
worth of manufactured goods. We
will leave no stone unturned to push
forward the merits of Iowa. We will
go to the legislature two years hence
with a bill to establish state pub
licity bureau in connection with the
agricultural department as other
states have done in their moments
of need.
Realizing the value of factories
to an agricultural state and espe-
cially to one situated as Iowa is, we
will preach the gospel of Industrial
Investments This will cause the
surplus of Iowa, which now goes in
TO all sorts of outside investments,
good, bad and Indifferent, to work
for the state, and will insure the in
vestor a far better return, also a
greater factor of safety. We will
tell the truth about Iowa, and the
truth about some of the localities
that are bidding so high for our
rxyf1 ta1r - h.
list of exporters of brains AS a
commercial organization the Greater
Iowa club is unique. We do not de-
pend upon large subscriptions from
merchants and manufacturers, and
the work of few, but we are en-
rolling all classes of men who be-
lieve in their state at a membership
of one dollar per year. We are CO.
ing to have fifty to one hundred thou
sand men in the state working for
Iowa, preaching the gospel of
greater Iowa, creating an Iowa spirit
and establishing a personality for
their state.
1--WE expect the state press to CO.
operate with us to this extent. We
will dig up the data and figures re-
quired in this work and will supply
you with the storieS-you give them
publicity. You can supply us with
matter from your own locality and
we will pass it along through the
state. We will not expect you to
handle the proposition as the Kan
sas editors do. The state press of
Kansas, cooperating with an agrees
sive state publicity bureau, have
built western Kansas. When Kan
sas is flooded with rain the press
quietly announces that Kansas is
the greatest agricultural state in the
world and points to the immense
rainfall to prove it. When Kansas
suffers severe drought is it pub
lished in that shape? Not on your
life. The Kansas press selects a
state that is having too much rain
and makes comparisons favorable to
Kansas. They do not allow the peo-
pie to become dissatisfied. If Kansas
| has a late snow, such as we had the
other day, the publicity bureau puts
it on the wire as a news story, point
ing out that Kansas Is the only To-
cality where they regularly have a
| light fall of snow to blanket the
| crops. The attitude of the press has
| created the Kansas spirit They
| are for Kansas first, last and all the
| time.
THE advertisement of state is
| not theoretical. Railroads did it
years ago when they wanted settlers
| along their new extensions. Three
| of the large railway systems are dis
tributing carloads of booklets, fold
ers and circulars advertising their
Pacific coast extensions, Wyoming,
Minnesota, North and South Da-
kota, Tennessee, South Carolina and
Wisconsin spend in excess of $69,-
900 for publicity work. Watson in
South Carolina has done wonderful
work. He has pulled South Carroll
ma out of decline, new crops are
being grown, people who never
heard of South Carolina are CIV
it attention. If aggressive publicity
will do this for South Carolina what
| won't it do for Iowa. When Iowa is
| accorded the publicity that is her
due the entire state will experience
wave of prosperity the like of
which has never been seen in the
state. Every man in the state will
benefit. Iowa's need of publicity,
gentlemen, is a subject that merits
the attention of every man in the
state whose interests are one with
the state, and you, the editors of the
state press. must take a large part
in publicity campaign"