Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/429

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suggestion of the dykes and barriers that have been erected to

protect the readers of the periodical press from mischievous and even criminal advertising.92 The effect of this campaign for honest advertising has been seen in the reports of the post office department that show a decrease in fraudulent advertising ; 93 in

the great decrease in the sale of patentmedicines by drug-stores and the consequent development by them of departments for

the sale of confectionery, cigars, magazines, newspapers, station ery, and similar lines of business ; and in a voluntary relinquish

ment by the press of more than one line of remunerative ad vertising. The student of history finds in this campaign for honest ad vertising records that show how widespread have been dis honest business methods, - a dishonesty due in part to ignorance of better methods, in part to lack of a sensitive conscience, in

part to sheer carelessness and indifference; he finds a record of the study of psychology on the part of the seller of commodities , while the study of psychology on the part of the buyer has been

as yet but imperfectly developed ; he finds records of the influence of the advertiser on the press, but also by a turning of the tables of the influence of the press on the advertiser; and he sometimes finds records of the presence on the same paper of what has been termed “ Editorial Dr. Jekyll and Advertising Mr. Hyde.” 92 Newspapers now vie with each other in showing their efforts made for honest advertising. The Philadelphia North American in 1913 advertised that within the five years previous it had excluded from its columns adver tising matter to the amount of $ 250 , 000 . - Editorial in The Dry Goods Economist, November 28, 1914 , republished in New York Tribune, December 3 , 1914 . C . F . Reisner gives many detailed classes of advertisements rejected by the North American . - Church Publicity, pp . 125 - 126 . — The New Orleans Item threw out in a single day $ 30 ,000 worth of advertising, – A . G . New myer , Convention of Advertising Clubs of the World , June 23, 1915 . — The New York Evening Post, March 26 , 1918, stated that the previous week it

had rejected nine different financial advertisements and that it had “ turned away thousands of dollars in financial advertising .” — The New York Times states that all its advertisements are censored and selected . - May 25 , 1919 . - The Times still later developed the point that “ the exclusion of suspicious

offers makes the Business Opportunities advertisements in The New York Times worth consideration .” — January 18 , 1921.

In 1921, the budget of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World

included the item of $ 70 ,000 to be used in the further promotion of truth in advertising. – New York Tribune, July 30 , 1921. 93 Report of the Solicitor of the Post Office Department, December 26 ,