The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-09-19
ANTI-BILL.BORRD
CLUB BOOMING
Offer 10 Compromise Turned
Downright Is on Now and
win Be Kept Up.
lion satarAay,a Aaverll.er.l

AANM nNNANNAN AhN'A AAHNAsH
The success which has attended tho
formation Of the Preservation Of Nat
ural Scenery and Resentment Of Insult
Club, +" has already been much greater
than anticipated. The club, as the
name implies, is not intended to be an
organization with officers and dues and
constitution, but simply something
about which could rally those who re-
sent the spoliation of city and country
by the sticking up Of great glazing
signs which jar upon the landscape
and which are as Objectionable on n
residential street as they are when
stuck up in the midst of some scene of
rural beauty.
Those who object to the usually mu-
tilated Bull Durham signs, for instance,
but who do not use the weed, can retail
late for the presence of these by nOti-
flying those responsible for other signs
that billboard advertising is objection
able in any form and likely TO lead to a
loss of trade. Those who believe the
children of the city should not be mis-
led by alluring pictures booming the
use of intoxicants may not be in po-
sition to directly bring pressure to bear
upon the users of the beer signs, but
they can strike at some part of the
use of billboards, and in the general
attack upon the nuisance eliminate it
or reduce it very materially.
In some sections of the city the signs
have been kept out, not because of any
consideration on the part of the bill
board proprietor, as he claims, but be-
cause OF the unmistakable temper of
the people of these districts and the
certainty that n billboard invasion
would be met with reprisal. Kaimuki
is left alone, for instance, because the
Pioneer Advertising Company is afraid
to go into it; Punahou the same way,
and Makiki ditto. The poor people of
Kalihi, however, the company is not
afraid of. There he slams his boards
up regardless of objections. The Por-
tuguese living along Beretania street
and Alapai may take pride in their
little homes, but they are not control
lers of advertising and consequently
double-deck boards surround them. An
alliance with Magoon allows the vicin-
ity of Thomas Square to be infested,
despite the protests of the owners of
many of the attractive homes there,
while on another bit of Magoon real
estate the pupils at the Central Gram
mar School may study the virtues of
cheap cigarettes during recesses.
1t appears now that majority of
the billboard chickens are coming home
to roost. Charley Frazier has offered
to tear down the Objectionable signs in
the country if that will avert the storm,
but his offer to compromise has been
refused. The fight on the billboards is
to go on to the bitter end now.
81 believe that this anti-billboard
campaign is right, E" said the agent for
famous brand of beer on Thursday.
"My firm is using the billboards be-
cause the other brewing companies are,
hut ] have just written my people not
to renew their contract. am also join
ing the billboard club. need two
new tires on my machine, too"
81 am pleased that George Carter
has taken up this billboard nuisance, +"
said a prominent government official
yesterday. "I am with him in every
thing he has said and I have also mott
fed the Goodrich tire people as a start
er on my share of the work"
A prominent tobacconist of the city
has Informed The Advertiser that he
has written to his home office to cut
out the outdoor advertising.
II have not joined the club, says a
member of the legislature, "but have
had club of my own for a long while
I started it over the twenty-seven va
rieties sign and l have not bought a
billboard-advertised article since if
could get any other. Sometimes it has
meant depriving myself of what really
wanted, but I have stuck to my self
made pledge so far"
And so it goes. The yelled threat OF
an appeal to the federal anti-boycott
law has disturbed no one. There may
be laws against boycotting. but at the
same time it is very well known that
there are no laws to make any one buy
something he or she-especially She
does not want TO buy. There is no law
against an individual boycott.
!