Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-30
WHY sToP?

IN tumult and the shouting dies, th'
captains and the kings depart" why stop
The fine thing about holiday time Il
that It is different from other times Il
every day in the year were holiday
there would be no holidays But this
time of accelerated vitality and vivacious
interest. this week Of fresh realization
that the world is so full of a number
of things, I'm sure we should all be as
happy as kings"-thls has not been a holi
day at all. II has been a week Of most
serious work, and It Is necessary, In after
math, to rewrite the old adage in a new
way. We should no longer say, "All
work and no play makes Jack dull
boy" We should say, rather, that "All
work without play makes Jack dull
boy" For that work which is worth doing
at all is worth doing with joy
The JOY of work-that is the first and
irmest lesson of the convention of the
publicity men. To a good many people
the word advertising" has meant moth
ing more or less than money-grubblng.
But money.grubbers are the saddest of
mortals No one is more miserable than
the miser. But the 10, 900 who have been
with us seemed primarily to enjoy the
business of living and working with
zest that had nothing to do with money,
for very few of them were rich men
the great bulk of them were men of
modest income. Then, II the money
grubbing theory must fall through, in
what lay the reason for this pleasure in
business which other businesses too rarely
emulate? Astronomers do not parade
clad in dark purple garments, spangled
with tlnsel moons and stars. Botanists
do not with music and with song walk
Chestnut street with fronds aloft and vine
leaves in their hair What is the secret
of this fun? Is 1t that publicity work is
easy?
No; the secret is that publicity work
Is the hardest kind of work; 1t is the
fiercest of competitions. Its reverses are
cruel and devastating and Its con-
science must have the keenness of a
blade. One who plays" with publicity is
playing with fire. as every one knows who |
looks at the wreckage of political careers |
that marks the track of the men who |
seek to fool all OF the people all of the |
time. It is because publicity is a hard
and earnest fight that 1t is so jovial a |
fight. 1t is the mean and unfair fights |
that are no fun. Publicity is work that is
so closely allied to the battle of life itself |
that none but those who have stomach |
for that battle can go into it.
The city has shown that 1t can enjoy |
work-play and play-work as we'll as its
10000 visitors. 1t was able to do so with |
clean conscience because it had just |
emerged from two years battle in which |
the very thing the publicity men stand |
for was victorious. The people fought to
make the city public instead Of private.
They won. So why stop? Everything |
is not done, though the groundwork is |
splendidy laid, with the program of city |
improvements equipped and in the saddle.
There are thousand details the desire to
master which must permeate the spirit of
every working man and working woman
in Philadelphia to keep the level of life
here up to our own improvements. The
stately piles of marble we have willed
must rise in a city uniformly appreciative.
For higher level of life is not level at
all II all are not on that level. Nay,
every improvement that is accomplished
but brings to the fore a score of other
If you win better streets
you must also win cleaner streets; If you
win cleaner streets you must win safer
If you win good conditions for
school children and working children you
must win better parents, better homes. in
dustries adjusted to giving the rewards
OF labor to those whose hard work merits
them. The thing mounts up. Success
az dds hI1r1aOa' nnlNy "a NJ ri M tr |
easy.
Take a thing that seems superficial as
a reform-to make Philadelphia first" let
US say, as the city where the police are
most courteous, best set-up and efficient in
America. Suppose you have taken the
first steps to make this true. Imme-
diately you have stirred up hornets nest
OF new problems, into which you must
leap with dashing vigor for harder fray
For the police would never keep on being
polite II their masters in City Hall were
to keep on being only politicians. You
will find. then. that the only way to keep
men who are merely politicians out OF
City Hall is for every man TO be a poll
tician; for It is only when everybody is
In politics that the rule of the politicians
Is ended. 1t is the same way in every
line OF thought--every good that is ac.
cries for another good; every
evil that Is cast on reveals another evil.
The motive power OF the desire for this
endless chain OF Improvement is publicity.
The only kind OF publicity the city
wants is that which makes more public
what is In its nature public. and no indus
try or civic movement can give us good
publicity that does not put public gain
above private gain. Just as patriotism
Is never sound unless man has learned
to feel it for his own city. SO 1t Is with
publicity. Publicity must begin at home.