The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-15
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS


 course. it pleases me. And there are oth- CTS on the paper whose signed articles are eagerly read, and they are also tickled.
 Those of us who can sign our stun are proud of it Everyone Gncluding newspaper folk) like to see their name in print. It's just human nature to want to get little pleasing publicity.
 To hear one say: "Old fellow, your ar ticle was great" sounds as sweet to the writer on the press as it is for preacher to have some good sister say: Your ser mon today was fine,' or for an artist to be told his picture is beautiful, or singer that her voice was in fine form.
 Now, right here in Birmingham are a lot of bright fellows who help to make The Age-Herald brighter, but they don't sign their names, and the public knows little about the labor they have to produce readable copy.
 The loyal woman who twitted me by saying my Saturday Household Tips were pleasanter reading than my ''Men, Women and Things" without knowing it, pleased me greatly, for hold it is easier to write story or fairly good editorial than it is to produce copy that will sell merchandise.
 
 Kipling once bragged that he wrote tract. He said it was a feat. It was if he got people to read it. It's easy ability comes not merely in getting peo- pie to read them, but inducing the pub lie to buy the advertised articles.
 A whole lot of clever men of letters in- vaded the advertising field. and they turned out ad copy with a high literary but poor selling value They produced literature, but they failed in not pro- ducing business.
 I recall a friend, a man with exquisite fancies, a veritable wizard in the choice of words. His copy was 8 sensation. People read it and said how artistic but nobody rushed down to the department store to buy the goods he was writing about.
 It wasn't long before he lost his job. But he was no quitter. He began to study the ad game, not as an adventure in literature, but as an excursion into business. He cast aside his pet literary phrases and put some punch into them. What his style lost in delicacy was made up in virility. Today he is one of the high est priced men in the entire country.
 Reams have been written to show that ad writing is science, or an art, but for saying it, believe it's a trade for it's purpose is to sell some commodity. Its chief purpose is to promote trade. This is not to say it isn't profession. It takes as much brains to be a suc- cessful ad man as it does to be lawyer, doctor or preacher and the ethics of ad- vertising are pitched on as high a plane today as that of any of the learned pro- fessions.
 
 If honesty is the best policy it has no better place to prove it's truth than in advertising. The honest advertiser is making it harder every year for the dis honest merchant to pull off fake sales. say the above in spite of vigilance Song which in this wise appeared in the Chestnut Corner of Associate Advertis- ing: There was crook, out of jail, said he guessed he'd advertise, so he hopped into the public press and told a lot of lies. When people saw what he had done, they kicked with might and main-the wig. committee proved its case, and put him In again!"
 have known lot of advertising men but I challenge any city to show a brighter, cleaner, more industrious bunch than the men who write the copy for our merchants here in Birmingham
 I said to Blackman, our cartoonist: q want you to go round with me to see all of the advertisers in the city and while I'm talking to them you make sketch" We called on the hard-worked crew and on successive days The Age-Herald is going to let it's readers see one of the men who are helping 1t to make the pa- per so attractive.
 The artist has taken some liberties with the bunch. Each one will be shown with his special side line. Here is hop ing that each one will be able to ride his own hobby horse to his hearts content Just a word about the firms who use the columns of this paper: The policy of The Age-Herald is to encourage legiti- mate advertising and it will not know ingly permit its pages to be Gsed by those who seek to impose upon or fleece it's readers.
 It seems to me there ought to be a great chance for an ad club to do a broad helpful counsel the merchants whom they represent. It would have an opportunity to teach them friendlier spirit of CO., operation, that their business interests are mutually interdependent, that an injury to one group hurts the community. By so doing they could show the public that advertising pays in more ways than in dollars and cents--that there are big ger and better things for which to strive than money alone.
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