New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-08

purposes; also from nelghoorlnS stores.
| The Advertising Club secretary, an
energetic and interested worker, visited
the place. found conditions even worse
than represented, and set about getting
action. He went to half dozen of the
principal clothing concerns in town to
get their help. Would they send eX-
pert buyers with him to point out the
best evidence to buy? No; tEeS
couldn't spare their men. Would they
furnish expert testimony in court, if he
got the evidence? No; they didn't
care to appear in court proceedings.
Well, would they make up fund to
cover the expense of getting the evil
dence, and let him do the rest? Sorry;
but they couldn't see their way to con-
tribute money for such a purpose.
Discouraged. but not defeated. the
secretary went ahead by himself. He
investigated the stock, traced up part
of it TO its sources and wrote letter
to the manager of the sale quoting the
Washington has a modified form
of the Printers Ink statute-and
threatening action. 1t was pure bluff.
The bee had no singer. But the fake
sale manager didn't know that. The
thing buzzed like bee at one end; he
inferred that the other end was equally
bee-like. So he quit. Vigilance work,
thanks to one lone, unsupported indi-
vidual's persistence, scored.
Cheered up by this. the official then
went after one Of the biggest depart
ment stores in town, which had been
advertising white Fox" furs at an alb
surd price. This time he succeeded in
enlisting the services of an expert from
another store, who examined the fur
and uttered a code word which was to
be the signal for purchasing. The code
which the vigilance worker received
was written white Fox" but the tick
ct on the fur read white Fur" The
ticket was correct. It was "white fur"
of the "miaow" species. A letter was
written to the store. II was ignored.
A second letter followed, quoting the
law. The advertising Of white Fox"
abruptly ceased. Later an attempt was
made to check the prevalent practice of
filling in department store silk sales
with obsolete "stcker" designs and
short lengths, but this met with poor
success. SO far as | can discover, this
represents about the total Of Seattle's
vigilance work in recent times.
Outside Of the store world there is
a good deal of dishonesty in local trade.
Since leaving New York and the area
infested by Mr.. Benefits pink Tele-
gram | have seen no such amount of
"hoax-house" advertising as in Seattle.
The method is precisely the same as
that to which the Bennett papers have
habituated New Workers. In fact, the
ads might have been copied from The
Telegram, with only the addresses
changed. "Going East: Must sell at
once my high-grade passenger
car; as good as new" widow, lately
bereaved, must dispose of household
furniture" and so OH. OF course the
articles for sale are planted" by regu-
lar dealers. In the automobile trade
practically all Of the secondhand bust
ness has been done on this fake basis,
with the result that the public has be-
come suspicious and the trade has
fallen off badly. Whether it ever did
really pay is question. One of the
largest dealers in town who had used
this method for years, in the preva-
lent belief that it was the only feasible
way to get rid of second hand cars,
abandoned it in favor of straight ad-
vertising few months ago. He tells
me that his sales in this department
have more than doubled. Taken in con-
junction with the success of the mod
ernized advertising of Frederick g. Mel
son and the Bon March6, this would
seem to indicate that Seattle is getting
tired of being fooled.
In city whose store advertising so
Tags behind the times it might be in
ferred that newspaper standards would
be low. This is not the fact. The
average would compare favorably with
Portland, and is far above San Fran
cisco or Los Angeles. though one local
paper, The Star, of the Scripps North
west League. is one of the most vicious
examples Of daily journalism in the
country. All of the Seattle papers
present an unsightly appearance be-
cause Of the glazing type and claims
Of the bargain fends in print. Even
/ The Post-Intelligencer, which attempts
to maintain a certain standard of an
pearance, suffers from these eruptions.
In other respects, however, the "P.-I.,"
as it is locally called, has been real
influence for improvement. In finan-
cial advertising it is scrupulous. Up
TO four years ago it accepted stock
promotions with closed eyes and omen
hands. Then came the big local oil
BOOM" mostly fake. For time the
"P.-I." took the ads. then woke up TO
the disastrous effects of them. particu-
larly upon the poor. threw them all
out and opened up campaign which
practically drove the blue sky" pro-
motors out of the field In the course
OF the proceedings it adduced the in