Evening star., 1924-10-16
ADVERTISING MADE
GERMAN LOAN co.
$780, 100000 Being Spent
This Year to EnIighten Pub
lie on Investments.
BY j. c. ROYLE.

special D1spdtcn TO Il ne Star
RICHMOND, Va, October 16.-The
startlingly heavy oversubscription of
the German loan in America could
never have been possible had it not
been for financial advertising. That
statement was made to the writer by
Gaylord S. Morse, president of the
Financial Advertisers Association
now in convention here.
He explained that through financial
advertising, thrift, saving and safe
investment had become SO much
part of the life of the American peo-
pie as to put them in a position to in
vest huge sums when they saw op-
portunity to do so.
Bankers Seen in New Light.
Financial advertising" he said,
has introduced bankers to thousands
of prospective customers. 1t has en-
abled them to get together and do
business. 1t has demonstrated that
the old time idea of the banker with
a long face, a long coat, and ice wa
ter in his veins who took his GUS
toners right eye and tossed it in the
vault as security was as obsolete as
the stage Irishman or the Dundreary
Englishman.
advertising has established conf
dence and has brought out the indi-
vidualities of banking organizations,
which, heing made up of men, have
their personalities just as other men
have theirs. All banks render fiduci-
airy service Of some sort. This is a
service which justifies an extended
campaign of education of the public.
sl2O. 900 600 in Advertising.
Intelligent investment is the cor
11,
a game to be played by the ignorant
or inexperienced. Our advertising
should not be directed to capitalists
already made when so much more
could be done to mark the course for
the wobbly feet Of the misguided
and unsophisticated. We have no
business to be in business demand
ing public confidence If we are not
genuinely Interested in the other
fellows aspirations"
Mr. Morse laid special stress on the
value Of the daily newspaper as a
medium through which confidence
could be established with the public
as whole and predicted that fipan-
cia1 advertising would grow tre-
mendously. He declared his own esti-
mate Of S120.0 100000 as the total Of
the amount spent in advertising an
nually by banks in America was ex-
tremely modest.
Truth Held Biggest Factor.
Carroll Ragan of the United States
Mortgage and Trust Company OF
New York, who is slated to succeed
Mr.. Morse as president OF the adver-
tisers, agreed heartily with the con-
cluSions of the latter as to the future
of financial advertising. and a"ded
that truth in such advertising was an
abSo' ute essential.
"A bank has nothing to sell the
uublic except service" he declared
"It has no concrete object which it
can pass across the counter for the
patrons inspection. 1t must sell an
idea So much the more reason
therefore. that it should be in a posi-
tion to fulfill every detail of the idea
retain confidence"
Mr.. Ragan declared the volume
of bank advertising was increasing
steadily, and the practice of adver-
tising bids fair to become universal on
the part Of financial institutions.
whether large or small. Newspapers.
he said. had done much to establish
the habit of careful and safe invest
ment through improvement in the
character of their financial pages and
the determination to exclude from
their columns any advertising which
had the slightest odor of fraud.
How Advertisements Pay.
Thomas B. McAdams, a former
president of the American Bankers
Association, made 1t plain to the
delegates that the American Bankers
Association and its member banks IA
vored extensive advertising to sta
bilize conditions. He asserted that
the only advertisements which paid
for themselves were those in which
the integrity of the advertiser were
made plain. and that the entire finan-
cial structure of the banks and of in
dustry rested on a foundation of pub
lie confidence, efforts to undermine
which must be strongly opposed.