Imperial Valley press., 1944-08-29
LABOR VERSUS ADVERTISING
FACTS AND MISSTATEMENTS

organization an attack on advertising
such as emanates from what is known as
the Labor Research Association with
headquarters in New York. To read a
late issuance from that source, it would
appear that all advertising mediums are
committing crimes.
Circulated extensively by way of a
mimeographed Bulletin" entitled Eco
nomic Notes" this self-styed research
buries levels a general TRADE, entirely
devoid of facts against advertising as
such. 1t sets out in holier than thou
language that every penny spent for
advertising during wartime Is a waste
of money because "the companies are
selling mainly to the government. Then
this:
"On the whole the advertising racket
is one of the most convenient devices for
shifting tax burdens from corporations
to individual income taxpayers
And there it leaves it. No further ''en-
lightment" as to how this asserted ne
farious racket is carried out. In an at
tempt at further reasoning there is the
pitiful assertion that because there are
small quantities of consumer goods, all
this advertising is unnecessary. Of course
the implied argument is that the cost OF
advertising is passed along in some de
vious method to the consumer. Even II
this were true it would require more than
the whole new deal, for this alleged re-
serach outfit is an inspired new deal
aggregation - sharp-shooter bookkeeperS
to figure the percentage added down to
proper decimal. 1t further mentions pa
per shortages and then goes on to note
the increase in advertising despite that
shortage. Certainly advertising mediums
know more of paper shortage than any
f-baked research bureau and mo-
ment's investigation would reveal how
white paper has been conserved.
But here is an outfit, by its own name,
speaking for labor when data available
to even the dumbest shows the trend up
ward of pay to labor, skyrockated in
groups to which the new deal is beholden
while the cost of consumer goods has been
held to an average increase of only %
percent since pre-war days. Some of the
favorite labor leaders have obtained wage
raises from 100 to 1000 per cent over
befoe the war time SO why be so con-
cerned about the consumer public, espe-
cially from that portion Of the public
which has such marked increase In IN
come as to laugh at any extra cost as
small as might possibly attach through
advertising?
But there is another phase to this
screed that is even more important, when
it ignores the tremendous service ad-
vertsing has been to the war effort and
how this medium of information between
the war needs and the people has func-
toned.
This information, and there is no guess
work about it is available to any and
all researchers, honest or otherwise.
Among these facts: private companies
have invested S100,000,00O in advertising
to aid the government in the sale of war
bonds: another S50,000.000 has been ex-
pended by food manufacturers to push
food production and conservation = the
primary war weapon and these same ad-
vertisers have spent more than 300 mil
lion to make a success of all the other war
drives
These drives include enlistment of men
and women in war work, to avert infla-
ton (Which means that labor's dollars
can buy more than they could in 1929
and to get these workers into those IN
dustrial areas where they could be more
productive. And so on. Here are the
plain facts that brand this research as
sociation as absolutely untrustworthy 1t
is a shame that it bears the stamp Of Ia
boris approval.
If wartime advertising has increased
it is because of its efficiency and its effec-