The Glenwood post., 1911-01-21
Advertising i
7 ['Ta|kSe
HAS PRAISE FOR NEWSPAPERS
Business Men Arc Warned by To
pekan Against Advertising
Abuses.

IF you merchants want advertising,
go to the plants that have built your
city-the newspapers. They advertise
ad you place in one corner of them
can pay for. They sometimes say
nice things about you. and often they
don't say things about you which are
not nice. The newspapers are the best
advertisement q city or a group Of
business men possesses
This was the keynote Of a talk de-
livered before $50 representative busi-
ness men of Kansas City. Kan, by ].
M. Robinson. a well-known business
man Of Topeka, Kan, who discussed
the system used by the business
houses of that city in avoiding the
advertising abuses forced on mer-
chants by lodges. churches and other
organizations in the form Of programs,
etc. He said In part:
I'VE formed our association seven
years ago at committee meeting of
the Commercial club. Each member
of the committee present had been
held up that day for from IS to $40
each by some organization for adver
tising space in programe for a So
cial or something of the kind. We de-
cided right there to eliminate objec-
tionable advertising and public sub
scriptions from our daily business
life, and after dividing advertising un-
der the heads Of legitimate and ille-
gitimate, we decided that outside of
the newspapers 95 per cent of 1t was
illegitimate.
We have formed an association of
representative business men, and now,
when a committee from church,
lodge or other social or civic organiza-
tion comes into our business houses
for subscriptions or to sell space In
an advertising program, we refer
them to secretary, whom we pay to
look up such requests. If the propo-
sition is good one. we subscribe to
1t; but the merchants are not both
cred by solicitors or forced to give
money for advertising which does not
bring results by the fear that a COM
petitor down the street will get into
the good graces of the solicitors by
giving money
In Topeka 1t used to be that a
lodge which had a deposit in a bank
would go to the officials of the insti-
tuition with program. and they eth
cd had to take 81 or IS or SO of ad-
vertsing or to lose the account. and
BY taking the subscription the bank
omcials gave the solicitors a leverage
On every other bank in town We do
. great deal Of charity work at
small cost to each member Of the or
ganixation.
In the case Of public enterprise
like building new Y. M. c. A.
building. we pledge ourselves to give
$1,000. for instance. provided the So
liciting committee raises like
amount from the business men who
are not members of the organization.
One member Of our association, whose
annual assessment is $24, found that
he WAS saving SO much in the first
month by our plan that he wrote the
secretary and wanted to send an addi
tional $24 to the fund We never have
less than 10000 in our treasury, and
never have eve failed to contribute
literally to every public enterprise,
such as street fairs, conventions and
all forms of charity We allow our
members to advertise in any legiti-
mate newspaper. In the city directory
and to contribute to the Provident
association, but We fine them II we
catch them advertising in the illegiti-
mate forms"