The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-01-06
FAIL TO sUsslDIzE THE COUNTRY,
EDITOR:

FAILTo sUsslDIzE THE COUNTRY,
EDITOR:
In waging a campaign for In
creased mall order business I wanted
the country press on my side. 1
wanted to get more kind words into
the columns Of the small newspapers
and country weeklies because l real
ICED then, as / do now, the power Of
the country press and the great
value it possesses to present a claim
for preference before the people of.
the community.
I outlined a plan to whip the coun-
try newspapers into line and arrange.
for them to carry my advertising mat
ter as well as to persuade them to.
give me free reading notices and ed
itorials, telling what s(great help and
comfort the mail order houses were
to the people of the country.
1t was nothing more nor less than
bribery. / believed that I could get
the editors Of the country newspa-
pers to be false to their home inter-
ests and foster ours, for g price.
I had the money to pay them and /
thought lots of dollars could do the,
work easily and readily.
I worked months over that cam;
ipaign. prepared ain el%ectrotyped
advertisement In which advised.
the use Of the mail order medium and
urged the readers OF each newspaper
to send into the big cities for the cat
alogue. I prepared sheets OF "press
notices" and editorials, with elab.
crate and plain instructions for their
ufe. I was going to convert the peo-
pie Of the whole country to mail order
buying.
expected to spend thousands Of
dollars during the course of the noxt'
few years, but 1t would be worth It,
i'll obtained the results. I was after
the peoples dollars.
A strong form letter waB prepared
as the first stepisthis letter to be sent.
out to the editors Of the country news
papers From advertising agencies,
and from various other sources I
compiled q list tof something Ike 49,
900 newspapers, alFof which were pub
nshed in small towns. 4 was already
fixed with the big daily newspapers.
The only touble was couldn't some
how or another fix 1t with the coun-
try newspaper.
The letter read something Ike this:
TO the Editor:
Dear Sir-You are publishing a newspa-s
per for business reasonss-.=not for your
health. $500 y, !, Iii
YOU fnd Ii dificuIt to obtain adequate
support fronStheS merchants Ia your town.
They do not appreciate the Of YOUR
newspaper as an advertising medium.
! We5know that you are printing q live,
newspaper I'M your community and that
you are entitled to more support than you
are Ssreceiving. nc ( I
The postal laws, under which you enjoy
the privileges or second class postage for
mailing your newspaper, require you to,
aecebt all legitimate adyertising offered
at your rates. ,9
Enclosed please md d contract for ad-
yertising to the amount Of. s..s... doll
lars. Please sign It and return to us and.
we Wnl forward electrotypes Of adyer-
ttsernents TO be run together with n
s3 Z
In giving you this business It Is but
natural that we shall expect you to run,
each week. the reading notices and edi-
tdfials sent herewith. Il
Very truly yours. f}tf.g
BLANK ADVERTISING AGENCY.
Yes, 1t was q great scheme, l ex.
tpected to swamp the country with.
sugared editorials and splendid mo-
tides about the mail order business.
4 cheerfully anticipated that I would
pit the country merchants out of bust
ness. II even went so far as to Hg.
ire out a plan for taking advantage,
of the conditions Of business depres.
fion that would inevitably follow such,
d sweeping fall In values and consid-
cred the organization of some sort Of
q land trust to buy up the richest
farms and most desirable town prop
erty In the communities where the pol
Icy would work out the quickest. I
was becoming a multi-nillionaire with
out delay. ~
But | experienced the most aston,
disappointment of my life. The
PLAN SO we'll considered, so carefully
planned, so craftily laid out. was an
absolute fzzle.
Why? 1t was the p~erversity Of the
newspaper editor. He would not be
bought, he would not be bribed, he
would not be cajoled or threatened.
In reading the preceding letter You
have noted the Chunk" and the jolly.
followed by the appeal to his
business instincts and then the covert
about the postal laws. Yes, the
plan was well laid.
But who can rdelve into the soul Of
the man who will spend his days and
in running q country newspa-
per In a community that will not give
adequate support? Who can fathom
the motives of a man who hustles all
the time to boost his home town, but
who has difficulty at times in collect
ing the subscriptions to his paper and
who fails to obtain more than a grudg-
Ing pittance in advertising from the
in his town?
/ could not understand 1t. I be-
lieved that every newspaper editor
would be oterjoyed to receive real