Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/404

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gives no hint of this when " guaranteed advertisements " are in the forefront in all business advertising.

The various liberty and victory loans were entirely different and had a definite educative value. The appealmade by them was largely to honor, duty, patriotism , loyalty , hatred of the

enemy; to history, — “ Columbus was in quest of a liberty loan," while Washington , Franklin , Jefferson , Lincoln , and Grant were

all commandeered , and a description was given of the invasion of France by the Huns in the fifth century . But the appeal was also made to discouraging the enemy, shortening the war, and

preventing greater bloodshed . Most of all, the advertisements emphasized the investment character of the loans and they became a text for many a sermon preached against waste and

extravagance and in favor of thrift, saving, and the rainy day . “ As safe as a governmentbond ” had for the first time a meaning to millions of small investors. The advertisements themselves

were definite and exact, - one manufacturing company donated an advertisement " expressing its idea of exactly how Liberty Bonds should be advertised to make those who are unaccustomed

to bond investments know what a bond is.” Other advertise

ments gave forms of bonds, illustrated the blanks to be filled out in subscribing to the loan, discussed the important points to be kept in mind in making investments, and gave a mass of expert advice on securities , investments, and business methods and principles never before so readily available to the general public. Precisely what a fifty dollar bond would buy and the

extent to which the loan would help the government was

explained , and then the shield was turned and the advantage of the loan as an investment also shown . The advertisements of the loan illustrated, better than had ever been done before, the value of collective advertising, - hundreds of forms of business, from art dealers and automobile manufac

turers to the tobacco trade and upholsterers, combined to con tribute advertising space where the advantages of the loan as a

business investment were definitely stated. The industrial and commercial advertising of the government

during the war assumed various forms. The government control of the railroads led to a decline in national advertising since the