The Washington times., 1925-10-31
New and Amazing Serial Describes Ont
Mans Long But Losing Battle
for Freedom

THAT will Introduce it to some
i of the best business men In town
and get them sold on the idea"
We agreed to attend the luncheon.
Out on the street again it was
hot-terrlbly hot. was for start
Ing right in on the job. but Mont.
gomery couldn't see it. 1--WE work
cd in this hot country before"
he said. after 10 o'clock in
the morning everybody's cranky.
Wen do nothing today. Besides,
we've got to wait for our contract
books. anyway. You can start
In gathering data on the towns
history, the police department, the
fire department, and all that
stuff, but the advertising end of
the work will be done chiefly be-
tween 9 and 10 o'clock mornings"
At the hotel went up to my
room and had a cold bath-my
second that day. At noontine
we met the members OF the Lions
Club in the lobby and went In
to lunch with them. Fisk intro,
duced us. Montgomery made u
very creditable speech about the
value Of advertising. / followed
with an outline of what a well
prepared special edition Of news
paper could do for the commu-
nifty. and pointed out that thou
sands of visitors would be in
town during the fair, and that the
merchants who reached these in.
tending visitors in advance with
good advertising could thereby
feel certain of doing tenfold bust.
ness during fair week.
Club Members Pledge Support.
The proposed special then re.
ceived the Endorsement Of the
club, which meant that every
business man present practically
pledged himself to patronize &c
with his advertising.
Montgomery was jubilant. The
secretary Of the Chamber OF
Commerce had been among those
present, and Montgomery was so
pleased at our prospects that he
seemed to forget all about his 8
to 10 q. m. rule, and announced
that we would call on some OF
the prospects that very afternoon.
Our first call was upon the
secretary Of the Chamber Of Com
merce. To me he seemed frigid-
despite the los degrees Of tern
perature. He said the chamber
would undoubtedly take a page of
advertising, but that it was too
soon to sign a contract. Some
how or other / sensed antagogl-
ism, nor was wrong, as will de-
velop. watched him closely
when Montgomery. in reply to
his question, stated that the price
would be 500. The secretary's
expression didn't change exactly.
but he seemed to be calculating.
Next morning we called at the
printing office and received our
sales contract books. Montgom.
cry headed STRAIGHT for the banks.
Within an hour he had three Of
them sold for a half page each.
The fourth bank-and the largest
IN town-balked. We then called
on two or three OF the large
business houses and sold them.
Very early In the game It devel-
oped that by agreeing to write
the advertising for them we were
much better able to sell pros
poets.
OF course, that meant extra
work for me. but the ease with
which We got contracts and the
checks in payment made me feel
ready to undertake anything,
had already installed a type.
writer in my room at the hotel,
and figured that, with an electric
tan. would be able to work from
3 o'clock on each afternoon.
Competition Develops
That first day we sold close to
u 900 advertising space. our share
being nearly 5000. OF course. that
was our banner day. as 1t included
the biggest concerns in town. but
other days following ran as high
as $500 TO $500.
Then. after we had been at work
about week. with our first Sec
ton on the press, we learned that
the local daily paper had decided
TO get out a special edition" also.
and that it's advertising rate was
to be S85 per page. After that we
make. We were continually con-
fronted with the query. "Why do
you charge at the rate Of 500 d
page while the other paper is
charging only 1857"
Montgomery didn't hesitate. He
claimed that our paper would be
superior in every way and have a
much wider circulation than the
other. It developed that the Sec
rotary of the Chamber Of Com.
merce. he whom we had first ap-
preached In our sales campaign.
was interested in the daily paper
and was largely responsible for
the opposition special"
The mistake. however. was that
our opposition was slow in getting
started. We had two-thirds of the
prospects sold before they began.
and when they advanced the ar
gument to merchants that It
wouldn't be fair to patronize out
special without also patronizing
theirs. the merchants felt they
were being held up.
Our rate of sale fell off rapidly,
but we slipped one over on the
opposition by taking two days in