Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08
AMERICA MAKES HEADWAY
in WAR ON BILLBOARDS
Organized Efforts to Remove Signs
Which Mar Natural Beauty Along
Highways Bring Results.

ORGANIZATIONS nave DeRun 10 CUIlCcfu
themselves with Landscape gardening"
roads of New England, with their
glimpses of wayside lawn and garden,
illustrate what can be done with a road
plus a little care and sense Of beauty.
A civilized idea, 1t has It's commercial
Importance. With tens of millions tour
ing every Summer, the tourist trade is
important to almost any community:
and In this case, trade follows the line
of beauty.
But this movement is futile so long
as any Tom, Dick and Harry can plaster
our roadsides with garish advertise
ments varying from crudely startling to
merely hideous. So in its infancy, this
movement found 1t necessary to join
forces with another-the attempt of the
Federation Of Women'S Clubs and other
bodies to abolish roadside advertising.
For at last, after half a century of
sniping in the newspapers and comic
sheets, we seem to be getting into our
typical American swing. We are join
ing battle by the method Of organiza
ton and agitation. However, the prob
lem has grown complex. The State or
the road district has absolute property
rights in its highways. Under pressure
from their citizens. many districts have
wiped out advertising along the shoul-
ders of the road. Thereupon, the ad-
vertiser merely makes his signs a trif1e
bigger and moves them back 20 or 80
feet on to private property. Protection
OF private property against encroach-
ment by the State is implicit in the
spirit of our laws. Before the road
reformer can take this last sector. he
ments.
Most BiIlboards wildcat"
Recent experiences of the national
committee for restriction of outdoor'ad-
vertising serve to illustrate this point
The outdoor Advertising Association
has, through its membership, control of
most billboard advertising for national
products. This, as the association It
self points out, comprises only per
cent of all billboard advertising in the
United States. The rest is wildcat
casual signs of local tea rooms, hotels,
filling stations, eggs-for-sale and what
not.
On the other hand, the signs adver-
Using nationally known commodities are
usually very large, conspicuous and
perniciously well placed. And at least,
to eliminate national advertising would
be splendid start.
Approached by ladies with fire In
their eyes and business In their hearts,
the Outdoor Advertising Association
promised to cooperate. 1t passed and
enforced a rule that it would erect no
billboards on scenic routes. Pressed to
define scenic route" the association
replied that 1t meant any highway
which forbade trucks or other COM
mercial vehicles!
Any motorlst knows that this cate
CORY comprises not one scenic route in
thousand. In this region, the Boston
post road. the glorious highway up the
Mohawk Valley, the routes across the
Berkshires and into the Adirondacks all
admit trucks as we'll as pleasure We
hicles. There, the association stopped
and dug in.
Massachusetts. which offers to the
tourist great historic interest as we'll
as beauty. has long concerned itself
with the billboard problem. In 1918 1t
amended its constitution by popular
referendum 70 permit legislation regu-
lating billboards on private property.
In 1920 and 1924 enforcement laws
were passed, which, among other pro-
visions, permitted townships to take
this matter into their own hands.
Concord Enforces Law.
Now Concord, as all the world knows,
fired the shot heard round the world
and still preserves with amazing COM
pleteness the very buildings where the
trouble started, the very stone fences
behind which the embattled farmers
sniped at the British retreat. 1t had
grown weary of craning its corporate
neck around billboards in order to be-
hi - lee v1A
past. It started to enforce the law.
In jumped the Outdoor Advertising
Association with an Injunction This
threw Massachusetts, law into the
crucible of the courts. There 1t is yet,
awaiting the outcome of long, tedious
proceedings fostered by able counsel.
One would regard this attitude with
less Impotence II the whole billboard
business were at stake. But the Out
door Advertising Association itself adj
mits that the signs along our rural
highways comprise less than l pei, cent
of its total footage. The rest stands in
the towns and cities-quite a different
matter.
Well, as the American people are
gradually learning, the law Is often the
last and poorest way of correcting a
bad national habit. OF late, the N.
G. r. o. A. has gone at the matter in
another and better way; and things
are moving. Through its subsidiaries,
and especially the powerful Federation
of Women's Clubs, it has approached
the great national advertisers, asked
them to withdraw their signs from the
rural districts, and has scored an I'M
expected success.
vertisers and Is advertising agencies
had pledged themselves either to stop
using the highways for billboards, to
restrict such advertising to CONNER
cial districts" or to fall into line when
existing contracts should expire.
Large Concerns Cooperate.
Nor are these converts one-horse con-
Germs. On the list. for example, are
eight of our most widely used automo-
biles, six or seven Of our most popular
tires, our best known oil company, at
least score of our most heavily adver-
Going further, the reformers have
started another campaign which, If only
halfway successful, may end the mat
ter so far as national advertising Is
concerned Organizations are pledging
their members not to patronize firms
and products which use the scenery for
advertising. Again they have met
G. r. o. A. has already won this battle.
However, there must follow years OF
guerilla warfare against the wildcat"
local advertisers. The Massachusetts,
case involved a constitutional question.
Other States must wait its settlement
before they can pass laws giving town.
ships or counties the right to regulate
advertising on private property. And,
at any rate, extra-legal methods offer
the best promise of success.
Already this phase of the war has
begun. Chambers Of commerce, shamed
or persuaded into action. are putting
private pressure on their members. The
Federation of Women's Clubs comprises
1000, 900 of the sex with q talent for