Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-11
POWER OF PUBLICITY
GREATEST IN "ADvS"
Experts Tell Utilities or Private
Concerns How to Make Most
Effective Appeal.

A stirring, forceful and logical address
delivered to the New York Newspaper
Managers Association in New York City
a day or two ago, is republished in Every
Evening as definitely pointing the best
way for big and little business, and
especially public utility concerns, to
get their pleas, needs or desires most
effectively before the public
The address is by Il. A. dc Wecse,
director of publicity of The Shredded
Wheat Co, which fact carries the con-
viction that it is based on wide, successful
experience:
"rhc power Of the press to mould
public opinion has passed from tho cdi-
torial page TO the advertising pages.
when a public service corporation
wants to convince the public that it Is
not managed by crooks it uses the adver-
tising columns of the newspapers.
when n telephone company wishes To
justify an increase In rates it presents its
arguments to the public through signed
advertisements in the newspapers
'Nhcn corporation like Swift d Co.
of Chicago wishes to bring about bet
ter understanding of its business on the
part of the public, and to disabuse its
customers of the notion that it is making
inordinatc profits on its products, it con-
ducts an educational campaign i'll the
advertising columns of the newspapers.
Ii docs not trust it's good will asset TO
editors or editorial writers, who are more
or less influenced by politicians who are
looking for the votes of those who would
destroy all the great productive enter
prIscs IN the country. II proceeds to take
the public into its confidence by publish
ing frankly and openly from day to day
the facts upon which the public may form
its own judgments without bias or
coercion.
When the government uses news
paper space on vast scale to sell Liberty
Bonds; when business and public service
corporations use newspaper space to IN
fluence public opinion, when magazines
use newspaper space TO increase their
circulation; when candidates for public
office Use newspaper space to convince tho
public that they are honest and capable
and ut for the Job, does the manufacturer
or merchant need any further argument to
convince him that the newspaper is a
valuable medium through which TO ex-
pand the market for his goods
w hen a man runs for office nowadays,
does he trust himself 10 the party predi-
lectiOns and preJudIces of the editor OF his
local newspaper lie does not. The editor
Is only human. You cannot always get
away from editorial tradition or monastic
journalism. The candidate for office may
have called We editor a dispenser Of drivel-
ling druel a mcndaclous viliher and
calumniator, or some other equally en-
dearlng cpithet at some time in hIs lfe
He, therefore, does the sensible thing
and what custom has now made the
Al - 10 H. IL a.
in paid advert ising IN the newspapers over
his own signature.
At the present time the city OF Buff
fslo Is without street Car service. BY
what seems TO be collusion between the
Street Railway Company and their en-
ploves the people Of a city of half n
million population are deprived Of tans-
portation. By some freak of municipal
idlocy the question of street car fares was
submitted TO popular vote, and, of course
the people voted for fve-ccnt fares. You
might as well ask the people 10 vote on the,
price of laundry soap. OF course, they
would vote for cheap soap, no matter
what the cost of the materials or cost OF
manufacture.
When the public voted for a five-cent
fare the employees, who saw no oppor-
tunlty OF increasing their wages, walked
out, and the Street Railway Company
walked out with them, declaring they
could not operate street cars for 4 i've
cent fare And while the people are walk
ing and the lawyers are issuing learned
dissertations on the Constitution, the
president Of the Street Railway Com
pany publishes in the newspapers each
dav over his own signature series of very
lucid and very logical arguments TO con-
vince the public that II is impossible 10
pay the wages demanded and give salts
factory service for a tive-cent fare These
advertisements are personal appeals by
the president and are, therefore, read by
thousands who would never notice an un-
signed advertis isernent or an unsigned edi-
torial-such is the power OF the personal
appeal in advertising
The public knows this advertising is
paid for, but it also knows it is the only
way in which the company can present its
side of the case: and do not believe this
fact detracts from its power to influence
public opinion, especially when the mes
sage is presented with manifest cand0r and
is devoid of rhetorical camouAage or
equivocation.
"A great brewing association has used
thousands of lines Of newspaper space,
not to sell beer, but 10 convince the public
that in buying German bonds in October,
1915, it was not aiding Germany TO make
war on the United States, and in order to
press home this idea into the public mind
it published in great detail facts concern
ing the subscription OF the company and
its employees 10 Liberty Bonds and the
Red Cross.