The Alaska daily empire., 1921-03-15
Uncle Sam Proves Value of Newspaper .. Advertising.
(American Press, New York.

EAAii0t'N"ii ioHH' iOlh'i
 .. Uncle Sam has been sold" the biggest adver Using proposition of the last century has given most rigid of tests and has found that it pays big
 For the first time he actually recognized adver Using as a high-powered comercia motor when ht found his surplus materials were either lyins unbid for on his hands had be sacrificed al prices that knock the bottom out of the market fol going manufacturing concerns. Through the power of adv Verising he has sold more than billion dollars worth of this surplus property unexpectedly good prices
 The big thing about Uncle Sans conversion is that it stands monumental evidence of the prac- uca profit resulting from judcious advertising Uncle Sams business everybodys business and his records are open to public inspection and verified. What he has done through advertising does have to taken with a grain of salt-it is a proven and at
 When the Secretary of War after the signing of he armstice, found the War Department blockaded with great mass of commodities of all sorts not needed for military purposes and coming in under contract from plants all over the country, which had been keyed up to unprecedented produc- ton, he started in to try to get rid of it.
 Experts in all ,lines-teXteS, machinery exn1o- syes, electrical equipment, etc-were called into the office of director of sales Besides being experts in their respective lines, these all good prac- tcal business nen, and they knew the value of ad- Yeftslng First the office director of sales essayed to salvage some of*the surplus through printed schedules which we're sent to interested parties who wrote in for them., But the essential weakness of this policy was apparent, because there was no actual demand created for the commodities that made up the vast surplus
 agencies publishers editor of trade journals etc. were called in for aronference.
 That's how Uncle sam came to make such not able test of the power of advertising All adyer. tisements have been paid for out of the money re- eeVed from sales brought about by the advertise ments.
 As matter of fact, the government has gone into advertising very conservathely. The sales promo ton section of the office of director of sales Wal Department, really spends only one-half of one pel cent Of the appraised value the property in adyer bSiHg IL Tor Sale where ial estimate from to per cent
 Before the advertising section was organized the cblef of the surplus property division was selling goods during time when there a big demand for everything. Practically all machinery had beer turned upon government contracts, and the civilian supply cut off And yet the chief reported that tb. sales made though the bulletin system then em poyed-from March to November, l919-showed : recovery of 6l per cent Then. with the establish ment of the advertising bureau-from Noven,ber 1919, to February, 192o-a recovery of 73 per cen was shown and the volume of sales tripled *
 To give particular example of what advertisinl did: The War Department had 100 locomotive called "decapods built for the Russian railways that couldn't be used in the United States withou being greatly modified The best offer the Corp Q. Engineers could get $29 GOO each Afte1 3'9oo had been spent in advertising them over ; period of two months the government sold them a S49.000 each.
 Another illustrations: The Old Hickory nIapt a Jacksonville, Tenn. This powder plant Al C.e machinery was single purpose" machinery buil 'ieflaiiy for making explosives. There was a eft,
 
 VVo- The salvage estimate was only 5000. .OOO an, the salvage concerns eager to get it. Whe, less than $20,000 had been spent in advertising group of Nashville business men got together In o1 capital, paid the government $9 800 900 Tbt means even more. for, besides putting that sun actually back in the Federal treasury it means tba big manufacturing city has been kept on the man The Various units Of Old Hickory are to be trans cfmed SO as 10 manufacture automobile tires textiles Ak, dye works, wagons, horseshoes and as q cannins factory.
 Probably the biggest single achievement for tn, advertising campaign was in dispOsing of canned meats of all sorts. One of the big systems of chaiI iofes has 5000 stores throughout the country Dur nG 1919 all o these $500 stores sold on an ayerag, I00 each of canned goods in the entire year Dur ng the first ten weeks of the advertising drive n, ,anned goods by the sales promotion section ofic )f director of sales. without a single salesman i, he held-eXelusiyely through the pull" of adyer ising-$lO, 100000 worth of canned meats was sold During the last four months $l5. .00O. GOO worth n 'anned meats has been sold
 One of the latest demonstration is regarding 56 100000 pounds Of brass cartridge cases The marke )rice had dropped to cents but when the bids wor 'pened the government the full market price fo brass.
 Tn nutshell, through the demand created h, advertising Uncle Sans percentage of recovery ol Erplus war materials has been 63 Der cent whil. England got 40 per cent and France and Italy mucl ess than that. In that 6 per cent recovery Uncl, Sam sold everything from lemon extract to loco motivcs-sk, socks, candy. helmets. airplane propel .ers, airship engines and all kinds of subsistence