Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-05-23

at the meeting of the Ad Club yester,
day noon:
May q, 1915.
Mr.. ". X. harrington, Honolulu.
My Dear Mr.. Harrington: Thanking
you for very courteous invitation to
attend the lunch of the Ad Club to-
morrow noon, | regret to say that. as
feared, my engagements will prevent
my attending. | am very sorry FOR
this, as should like extremely well
to be present at the discussion. and
perhaps contribute my own views.
There are a few things that would
like to say, but the subject generally
has been pretty well thrashed out.
First and foremost | want to have
you and others get rid of the impress
sion, which is absolutely incorrect,
that there is anything like an organ
lied boycott against the billboards, or
the Pioneer: Advertising Company, or
goods which are advertised on these
billboards. / have been present at a
number of meetings of the ladies of
the Outdoor Circle, and in all discus
sions which have taken place any
thing like organizing for. boycott has
been absent There has been no such
thing. On the contrary | know that
some of the ladies have been advised
that any combination for boycott
might be actionable, but of course
this does not prevent the ladies or
anybody else from declining to pur-
chase certain goods, acting on their
own initiative. This is absolutely
justifable, and no one has any right
to complain of it. You may remem-
Der in this connection that, some
little time ago, answering a "direc-
ton" published in the Advertiser per-
haps, to Order Pinectar from your
grocer / replied in a day or two
that could not obey the injunction
as l found it impossible to purchase
that very pleasant drink as long as
1t was advertised on billboards. You
will observe that / did not and do not
propose to prevent anyone from adj
vertising anything they choose on
billboards. While / believe that it is
an injury to the city to have these
boards scattered about from place to
place, yet, at the same time, they have
a legal right to exist, and everybody
has a legal right to put anything on
them he wants to, but there is no OBJ
legation on my part to purchase goods
so advertised, and the sellers cannot
object if l do not make such pur-
chases. Probably indeed my trade
would be so small as not to affect
the matter one way or the other.
AS | have stated before / think this
is indebted to the Pioneer
Company for its refusing
to advertise quite number of I'M
pleasant things, but the fact that these
unpleasant things do not appear on
the billboards does not therefore ex-
cuse their existence, for otherwise
they the Objectionable.
Mr.. Frazier, in some recent adver-
tisement, suggests that Mr.. Thurston
and I get the poles about town taken
down, in consideration whereof he
will remove certain billboards. Prob
ABLY no one is deceived with this pro-
position, which is purely an attempt
to blind the issue by confusing it with
other things. The poles about the
streets are bad enough, and / hope
with Mr. Frazier, and others who de-
sire a real Honolulu beautiful, that all
poles may be removed, but up to the
present time the underground trolley,
speaking only of that, has not proved
a perfect success, particularly in those
places that are liable to sudden and
floods of water, Anyone
can see exactly what my views are
with regard to street poles by visit
ing Lunalilo street from the corner
of Victoria and down to the bounds
Of Mr.. Fred Lowrey's lots towards
Diamond Head, where we erected troll
ley poles of iron at our own expense.
The concerted effort on the part of
the ladies OF Honolulu to have bill
boards removed is simply one move
ment in trying to better our general
and to have cleaner and
more beautiful city so far as such
identifying and cleansing pertains to
the removal of billboards. The fight
for a cleaner and better city will not
be finished when the bill-boards are
all gone. There are lots of things to
be done after that, and | have no
iouEt they will be taken hold of.
| think that the gentlemen who will
meet at lunch tomorrow will agree
with me that throughout the United
States and Europe the opposition to
billboards is not only increasing but
nnifying, and already conditions are
very much improved in some places.
think no one will deny that, no mat
ter how clean they may be kept, no
matter how artistic the painting of
signs may be, vet they are, after all,
simply an impudent thrusting in the
faces of those who use the streets. of
all sorts of attempts on the part of
all sorts of people to get YOU to buy
their. goods. l regard snch use OF
streets, public places or the country
m general as absolutely unjustifiable. |
The newspapers, magazines and the