Evening star., 1921-01-09
UNCLE SAM FINDS IT
PAYS TO ADVERTISE
Has Recovered 63 Per Cent Through
Publicity In Selling Surplus War
Material.

! "iae@t huN NSl eiSihS hC w dI lOO-
partment had 100 locomotives called
'decapods." built for-the Russian rail-
| ways. that couldn't be used in the
United States without being greatly
modified. The best offer the Corps of
Engineers could get was $4,000 each
After $500 had been spent in adver-
tising them over a period of two
months the government sold them at
s49, 900 each.
Another The Old Hickory
plant at Jacksonville, Tenn. This was
powder plant All the machinery
was single purpose" machinery, built
specially for making explosives. There
was a city of $4,000 inhabitants that
had cost Uncle Sam. $S0,0OO.0O0 Ihe
salvage estimate was only $5.oO0.0oo'
and the salvage concerns were eager
to get it. When less than sz''oVo
had been spent in advertising group
J of Nashville business men got toSeth-
] er lot of capital, paid the goverhr
ment $9,5OO,O0O. This means even
more, for. besides putting that SUI"
! actually back in the federal 1reas
ury, it means that big manufactur-
| ing city has been kept on the map
The various units of Old Hickory are
| TO be transformed so as to manu-
facture automobile tires, textiles siih'
dye works, wagons. horseshoes ana as
a canning factory.
Selling Canned Goods.
Probably the biggest single achieVe-
ment for the advertising cahpaisn
was in disposing of canned meats OIL
all sorts. One of the big systems OF
chain stores has $500 stores through
out the country. During 1919 all oA
these $500 stores sold on an average
800 each of canned goods in the en-
tire year. During the first ten "eehs
of the advertising drive on cahhe"
goods by the sales promotion section'
Office of director of sales. without
single salesman in the field-exciu-
sively through the pull OF aoVertis-
ing-$1O ,000, 900 worth OF canned
meats was sold. During the last 1our
months $15,o00.oo0 worth of canned
meats has been sold, more than all the
packers soil in the United States IN
year. Approximately $14 100000 worth
of wool was sold in one week. ana
SIC. .O00.O 900 worth of textiles sold in
one week.
One of the latest denominations Is
regarding 56.5O0.000 pounds OF brass
cartridge cases. The bottom had
fallen out of the bras market. The
market price had dropped to cents
but when the bids were opened on
Wednesday the government got the
full market price for it's brass.
Recovered G3 Per Cent Of Value.
In a nutshell, through the demand
created by advertising Uncle Sans
per .centage of recovery on surplus
war materials has been 63 per cent,
while England got 40 per cent ana
Frarce and Italy much less than that.
In that SO per cent recovery Uncle
Sam sold everything from lemon ex-
tract to locomotives-silk, SOCKS,
helmets. airplane propeliers.
afrship engines. and all kinds Of sub
sistence.
The office OF director of sales has
been militarized as Of January !. the
House appropriations committee was
told. Lieut.. Col. +. S. Hartshorn. gen.
eral staff. taking charge. The only
active section today is the sales pro-
motion (advetisine) section, OF which
Charles NJ Willoughby is chief-the
other sections acting merely In ad-
visory capacity. Col. Hartshorn told
the committee that the estimated
value of surplus stocks in the War
Department services now Is $319,S15,-
900 and that he is retaining force OF
forty-six employees, three of whom are
experts. to dispose OF this
property, for all of the supply
branches of the War Department.