El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-21
POLITICS ON BILLBOARDS
ENGLAND UPTODATE IN CAMPAIGN
1.-The English Elections.

i cellOr Of the exchecker was not a
supporter OF the war and he was biIled
| to speak al a cr0 Boer meeting N
birmingham He got 10 the hail. but
! crowd The article alleges that he es-
capped bodily injury oy leaving the
hall disguised as a policeman.
| Tories R--.r'
| The tory poster IS dizideI into two
parts and bears the command: Look
| on this picture and then on that" One
| half shows LlOyd-GeOrge in a police
mans uniform sneaking away from
| the Birmingham hall. and the other
half shows a South African kOpje with
the graves of the titled soldiers who
gave up their lives for England in the
struggle with the Beers. No poster
! issued during the whole campaign so
delighted the tories as this one.
| A little later the conservatives is
sued poster showing a peer at the
telephone, connected with the British
i voter. and saying: Hello. Are you
there? We will put the budget up to
the people for their verdict"
/ Each party issued about 500 differ
ent posters, each one being sent out
| in different sizes. There was much
rivalry to obtain positions on the
| boardings, and the English landscape
| has been marred by flaming posters
/ in many places heretofore sacred from
the intrusion of the man with the
paste bucket. The lords did their part
! by giving up their walls.
Campaign Expensive
The poster campaign was very ex-
pensive Series after series was is
sued and new posters were put up al
most daily. 1t is impossible to es
innate the total cost of the work in
/ ADVANCE OF the publication Of the cleo
tioh expenses, but it Will amount to
several hundred thousand dollars.
II an American politician who has
been actively connected with the ma
tlonal headquarters of either the Repub-
! mean or Democratic party should walk
into the national headquarters of either
the Liberals Of the conservatives. and
should inquire into the poster business.
ne probably would fail dead at the first
! reply FOR the national headquarters
do not send out these posters
They are prepared and printed for
the national association, which CORES
ponds 10 the American committee and
then they are sold to the public at a
profit What would Frank H Hitch
cock or Norman E. Mack think of
that? And not only is this true of the
posters. but Of the thousands of diff
ferent pamphlets. leaflets, speeches
and other campaign literature.
Candidates Pay Cost.
Each candidate for parliament buys
the literature for his own constftr
ency and pays for ii. In the United
States each candidate for congress de-
mands the literature from the COM
mittee and asks for money besides.
Not only the candidates but the peo-
pie generally buy the posters The
newspapers publish price-lists and the
people are invited TO purchase and
post the pictorial arguments for their
side Thousands of voters buy one.
two or three posters. at a cost of from
two TO ten cents, and post them at
their respective homes.
One liberal newspaper solicited sub
scriptions to a Gladstone centenary
fund. The subscription was begun on
December %, the Tooth anniversary of
the birth of the grand old man, for the
purpose Of buying and putting up post
ers. Over $4,000 was contributed to
this one poster fund in less than two
weeks time. The national headquar-
tiers permit the individual candidates
and the party at large to do all the
worrying about the campaign funds
How would Mr.. Hitchcock and Mr..
Mack like that?
Proud OF Uptodateness.
The English people are proud of
their conservatism and they are equal
ly proud of their uptOdateness. The
chief director of campaign publiica-
tions of the liberal party sat at his
desk in an underground room opposite
the parliament houses, and explained
the psychology of the poster in poll
tics No man could be more progress
sive, more modern, more abreast OF
the times He deScanted on the pow
erful appeal of the picture TO the hu-
man mind, carefully pointing out the
Introduction of the aeroplane and the
newest type of Dreadnought as back
grounds for party preachments-
But he did not note the anachronism
when he recorded an order for 1900
flying machine posters with a quill
pen This progressive radicals desk
boosted no less than three dozen old
fashioned gOose-quil pens.
The conservative first lord of the
posters deplored the modern tendency
to the bizarre in billboard art. but he
wrote with a fountain pen made in
the United States Old England will /
be old England still in spite OF every
modern continuance and in spite of
dozen such battles of the billbOardS |
as she has just witnessed.
Tomorrow = III. - The LoydGeorge I
Budget.