The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-09-28
What Santa Fe Did for Kansas
in Way of Advertising.
Succeeded in Bringing Thou
sands to State in Few Years.
OTHER ROADS FOLLOW SUIT
Pattern Their immigration
Publicity After Santa Fe's.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

What the Santa Fe railway did for
Kansas is included in an exhaustive
article on railway advertising in the
| current issue of advertising and Sell
ing" The article written by Charles
frederick Carter, we'll known writ
er, tells an interesting story of the
| evolution of railway publicity in this
country.
"One remarkable feature of railroad
| advertising differentiates it from the
advertising of any other business Mr.
Garter writes, namely, that the rail-
road must always benefit some one
else before it can hope to realize any
returns itself. First, the state is ben
Gifted by the settlement of taxpayers
upon its vacant lands. Next, the SET
tiers themselves are benefited through
the improvement in their present con-
d1tion and future prospects Vacation
tourists who go to the resorts adver-
1sed by the railroads spend very much
more on hotel bills and incidentals
than they do in railroad fares. If they
didn't go to these railroad advertised
resorts they probably would go to
Europe to spend their money, where
1t would do their fellow countrymen
no good. Without their patronage the
hotels would close; without the hotel
business, the merchants would have to
be content with less trade, which, in
turn, would react upon the farmers
and all other business, including the
railroads.. The fact that the railroads
have a selfish interest in advertising
their Hnes-the sanity of their man
agements would be open to question
if they advertised for any other rea-
son-doeS not alter the twin truth
that others always reap much greater
returns in the aggregate from rail-
road advertising than the railroads
themselves can by any possibility
realize.
What the Santa Fe Did for Kansas.
One of the most picturesque Incl
which at the same time is fairly typi-
cal of railroad methods of exploiting
a new country, was the part the Atch-
iSon, Topeka and Santa Fee played in
the settlement of Kansas. It was an
exceedingly difficult task to raise
money to build the Santa Fe through
a wilderness infested by Indians.
Capital was finally attra cted after a
land grant had been secured. After
the road was built there was no traf-
fic from which to pay interest on
bonds, to say nothing of dividends.
E. Touzalin, the first general passenger
agent, who also held most of the other
undesirable jobs, printed booklets by the
abroad. Soon settlers began to pour in by
the thousand. A single detachment of i'm
migrants numbered nineteen hundred
souls, who brought with them 81, 25O, 600 III
sold. In a short time all the land grant
was sold, while all the adjacent govern
ment land was also taken up. Kansas, u
new state, which had previously been
POOR in population and wealth, became, |
almost at a bound a thriving common
wealth. 1t has grown in prosperity ever
since. The Santa Fe has done we'll too
but Kansas has thriven most At the
prosperity banquet the railroads always |
sit at the second table and take what is |
left.
Other Roads Take 1t I'd.
Precisely the same sort of work is being |
done today by the Santa Fe and other |
railroads that was done in the early days
in Kansas, and it is producing the same |
results The Northern Pacific and Great |
Northern, for instance. are working very
hard to develop the northwest, using to- |
gether through their advertising and i'm
migration and industrial departments half I
a million dollars a year for that purpose
The census for 1910 showed that in the |
preceding decade population increased il
the seven states traversed by the North |
ern Pacific 81 per cent as compared with |
an average increase of q per cent for the |
other states of the union.
Touzalin originated most of the adVer-
Using and promotion methods which are |
now the recognized standard practice in |
railroad advertising. Eastern roads have
followed the lead of the western lines, |
merely changing details to meet the needs |
peculiar to their territory.