Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/548

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of woods and their uses , fruit, flowers, vines , shrubs , trees, birds, animals, leather, and furs, — and finally to have an insight into

the qualifications needed in the writers of advertisements in order to produce successful advertising How do these advertisements fail to reproduce the life of the time? The advertisement of the great department store in its appeal to persons of wealth and leisure looks out on a world

where all is fair and smiling, — it has no hint of disaster , of hard times, low wages, lack of employment, poverty, sickness, mis

fortune, political struggles, tariff controversies ; for it, crime, evil, and sin are non -existent; fire and flood , tornado and earth quake, the horrors of war pass unnoted. Yet the advertisement records unerringly all of these condi tions. Fire destroys a great building and within twenty -four

hours advertisements referring to it appear. They concern insurance and safe deposit companies; fireproof buildings, vaults , cabinet safes , and floorings ; metallic doors and interiors ; auto

matic sprinklers ; bonds covering burned securities; office rentals

with immediate possession ; offers of free rooms for limited periods; removal notices; night and day service for the furnishing of offices of those burned out; new addresses of former tenants asked ; club privileges extended to the members of a club burned

out, and library privileges offered those whose professional libraries have been destroyed . Do the advertisements of great establishments ignore strikes and all labor troubles ? The advertisements of others lay bare their difficulties and disclose their methods of dealing with

strikes . The advertisements " we break strikes ” show the fre quency of strikes, the necessity felt of breaking strikes promptly , the inability to cope with a strike situation unaided, the hostile attitude towards trade unions, violence attending strikes, the attempt to establish the open shop , and the difficulty suggested

of lodging and boarding imported workmen.15 Are men and women out of employment? The “ want ad ” columns answer the question, — " willing to work at anything,” “ unfortunate , without work , good worker ," " well- educated man

needs work ," " carpenter,wants any kind of work ," " man, 40, 16 Suggested by G . L . Price.