El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-09-25
ADVERTISING IS
4 GREAT LIGHT
Without it We Would Be
Buying in Darkness,
Speaker Tells Admen.

New Orleans, La, sept. 25-Without
advertising. we would buy in dark
ness-and If all advertising were
eliminated. what a gloomy world this
would be. William C. Darcy, Of St
Louis, president Of the Associated
Advertising Clubs Of the World, at
I the convention Of that association here.
this morning, asked his audience to
attempt to imagine a world without
advertising. In part. he said;
I'VE may comprehend the new in
fluence OF advertising, but I doubt
I it-and 10 emphasize my point, what
would we do in this world without
I advertising Can you contemplate
such a national catastrophe?
suppose that some strange and
mighty power were suddenly to strike
every word, symbol and character
from the worlds entire equipment Of
signals to the human mind-What
would be the effect upon the welfare
Of MANI
Here is a startling challenge to
the Imagination, a sugge stlon calcu-
lated TO strip the problem 10 its naked
proportions. Try for ten minutes to
see the world as il would look If the
alphabet were banished from the
field Of business promotion, and you
VIII De aSLOulEleQ uF LlG SQuEE4l5
vision that viii unfold.
"A world without advertisingi
4 Different World Indeed.
Focus every faculty Of your mind
upon the task of seeing your familiar
world as il would appear If swept OF
every token that advertising now en-
ploys to deliver its myriad messages,
and you viii feel that your eyes have
been opened to an economic reveal
tom
NO thinking man can face that
vision without a shudder' he con-
tinued- "Insunctively he VIII shake
himself loose from its spell at from
the whole world has become con-
fused, fantastic, out a focus.
"A world without Advertising
First, consider only its most su-
perficial SIDE without any attempt 10
trace the bIghting results that would
surely follow TO all industries fed by
advertising funds.
4 Gay Flare of Color.
Look at the city landscape What
G somber and lifeless spectacle with
out a sign, a poster or a busy cleo
trical display to hail the eye with
sage Of busy. hustling, human &C
@Only those who have endured
exile in regions unprecedented before
by civilized man can tell you the
hunger of the cultivated human mind
for the Wayside sign. for mans con-
tribution to the metropolitan land
scape, for the friendly words Of in
dustry that greet MIN from streets
lighted with messages Of the eager,
competitive strife Of commerce No
man ever survived such an exile in
a land beyond the frontier OF the
printed word who did not hail the
first sign or printed advertisement
Of any sort that met his eye on his
return to civilization as a good and
friendly thing. In his sight the com
mercialized alphabet glowed with the
charm Of close and multiplied hu-
man contact
depressing soIidity.7
Then, let your imagination turn
TO the printed page and picture the
dreary desert Of abstractness pre-
scented by books. magazines. news
papers and publications Of every sort
with type-masses. unbroken by a
single advertisement Can you grasp
their depressing solidity, their for
bidding remoteness from the real
world Of wholesome. human affairs.
Of making and carrying and selling
the things that civilized man has
learned, in the evolution of his re-
finement, first to want and then to
need2"