The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-12-20

District.)
In advertising the Fourth Liberty
Loan in the Eighth Federal Reserve
District, we made greater use of
newspaper space than did any other
district. The newspaper space used
for this advertising aggregated above
seven thousand five hundred pages.
This advertising ran in more than one
thousand newspapers published
throughout the Eighth Federal Re-
serve District, which comprises all of
Missouri except the western tier of
counties; all of Arkansas; northern
half of Mississippi; western two
thirds of Kentucky; western third of
Tennessee; southern third of Indiana
and southern third of Illinois.
All of this space was contributed
by patriotic citizens and business
houses. The publishers themselves
contributed quite number of pages.
The total value. of this advertising ex-
ceeded quarter of a million dollars,
which shows conclusively that the pa
triotism of the people in the Eighth
District is very great.
Newspaper Advertising Did Its
Work
This record for the Fourth cam
paign is quite little better than the
record of advertising space used in
the Third campaign, and many times
greater than the newspaper space
used in either the First or Second
Loans. Inasmuch as the st. Louis
District went over the top first in
both the third and fourth campaigns,
and did not lead the country in either
the first and second, this is a pretty
good indication that the newspaper adj
vertising did it's work.
A further evidence that newspaper
advertising was effective is that in the
First and Second Loans a large
amount of the subscriptions were
made by the banks, whereas in the
Third and Fourth Loans the banks
purchased practically none Of the
bonds--the people purchased nearly
all of them. The distribution of bonds
among the people in the Eighth Dis
trio: was very wide.
Used Full Page Space Only
In making publicity plans for the
Fourth Liberty Loan, we made the
newspaper the backbone Of the cam
paign, as we realized that was the
most effective means Of reaching the
public. We worked out a plan of u.s.
ing only full page advertisements, be-
licving a full page more effective,
cost considered, than any other unit of
space.
1t may be interesting also to know
that at the meeting Of the Directors
of Publicity, held in Washington just
prior to the opening of the Fourth
Loan, eleven of the District Directors
favored full page advertisements, and
only one director favored the use of
smaller space. The fact that this enc
District using smaller space brought
up the rear in percentage of over.
subscription might seem to indicate
that its failure to use full page adver-
tisements may have had something to
do with the results achieved.
Publishers COunseled With
Publicity Directors
In making publicity plans for the
Third and Fourth Loans we felt that
the newspapers, being so important a
factor, should be represented at the
meetings of Directors of Publicity for
each State; therefore, in calling these
meetings we invited the newspaper
publishers, and / am pleased to say
they attended in large numbers, and
we got many valuable suggestions
from them. They were also able to
get a clear conception of the public
program we were inaugurating, and
in their usual spirit of splendid CO.
operation, they helped in a way that
left nothing to be desired.
Our schedule for newspaper adver-
tisements provided for four full pag-
es for weekly papers; eight full pages
for semi-weekly papers, and sixteen
full pages for daily papers. These
advertisements started the week of
September 18th and ended the week of
October 18th.
Only One Page in An Issue
We requested publishers to refrain
from running more than one page in
an issue, believing the power of full
page advertisement sufficient to tell
the story in an effective way, and that
the use of more than one page would
be unnecessary. We pointed out that
more loans would follow, and we
should not exhause the possibilities
for contributions to advertising funds
of succeeding loans by over-advertis-
ing the Fourth Loan. This plan, /
am glad to say, was very heartily con-
Cured in by the publishers, and in on
ly few instances did we have more
than one page in an issue.
In many instances the publisher him
self was the Director of the Public
ity, and as such solicited funds for
advertising in his paper. We wished
to avoid this as much as possible, be-
cause we did not want to put any pub
Usher in the position of soliciting pa
triotic advertising for his own paper.
am sorry to say some merchants
were inclined to criticise the publisher
for making money out of the war, but
such criticism was due entirely to mis-
information. No publisher solicited
advertising who was not specifically
requested by us to do so. He was
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