The billboard (July-Dec 1895)

20 BILLBOARD ADVERTISING is tfie Official Organ of the International Distributers* Association. Billboard Advertijip^ PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT 127-East Eighth Street, Cincinnati, O, XT. S. A. liY BILLBOARD ADVERTISING CO., JAMES H. HENNEQAN, Manager. Subscription, $zjx> rcr Year, la Advance. ADVERTISING RATES: Advertisements will be published at the uni- form rate of twenty-five cents per agate line, except in, the classified columns,- where special rates, prevah. Our terms are cash. Billboard Advertising is-sold in LondonatLaw's Exchange, 5? Charing Cross, and at American Advertising■ JVeutspaper Agency, Trafalgar Build- ings, Northumberland Ave^ W. C. Jn Thru-, at Bretano's, ij Avenue del Opera. The Trade sup- plied by alt News Companies, Remittance shouldbemade bycheque, post-office or express money order, or registered letter. TheEditor cannot undertake-to return -unsolicited manuscript. \lVhenixisiiecessary to voire-us the instructions and'copy for advertisements, great saving in the ~ matter of telegraph tolls' may be had by recourse to the Donaldson. Czpher, Entered, as Second-Class Mailer, at the Cincinnati, Ohio, tbst Office, June 29th, lSqs. Resolved, That the action taken at our May meeting, making the " Billboard Advertising'' the official organ of this Association, be reconsidered. Adopted. "Whereas, We, the members of the New York State Bill Posters' Associ- ation, in convention assembled, do con- demn the course pursued of the accepted official organ, " Billboard Advertis- ing," in its present position of espousing the cause of. and encouraging opposition to, the members of the Associated Bill Posters' Association, Therefore, be it "Resolved, That it is the'sense of the members of this Association, that as the journal above referred to was fostered and encouraged, and supported in the belief that as an official organ of this Association in our interests they -would be protect ed rather than assailed by the same, and as we find to -was laboring under a misap - prehension of the real facts apparently, that we cease all connection with " Bn ,y board Advertising" in any manner, either by subscription or through its ad- vertising columns, and that we in no w ay give it our assistance and support And be it further "Resolved, That we request the several State Associations and the Associated Bill Posters' Association of the United States and-Canada^ to co-operate with us in sup- porting some journal, to be decided upon later, who will devote its colnmns exclu- sively for the benefit and interests of the members of onr organization, and not to our detriment. And that we pledge onr hearty support, both morally and finan- cially, to the above end." *»* Although we have not as yet been formally notified of the fact, we presume Billboard Advertising is no longer the official organ of the New York State Bill Posters' Association We gather the information from an account of the pro- ceedings and deliberation of the conven- tion which we have published in another column. It was sent to us without comment or explanation, which denotes scant courtesy if nothing else. We are rather inclined to believe, however, that whoever was charged with the commission of notifying us, was rather ashamed of his task. We should not feel that we had dealt fairly by the various individual members of the Association, if we did not state frankly that we deplore the matter most keenly. It was an honor to represent the New York Association, of which any paper might well feel proud, and we do not relinquish it without regret. The support, which is also withdrawn, caused us. little concern. The "financial" was little, and the "moral," whatever that may mean, must have been even less, since neither were appreciable. * - * The policy of the paper has always been to give all the news obtainable in the particular fields it covers, to comment on current events, and criticize freely and fearlessly whenever we deemed it neces- sary. - Had we been in the wrong, no one would have made amends more readily; but we cannot find any instance in which we have erred. We wish to state plainly and explicitly that we have no explana- tions to make and no apologies to render. * * * We deem it our duty to disseminate the views of these gentlemen, although they differ., radically from ours as widely as possible. Bi voicing their resolutions, and publishing their proceedings and de- liberations, we feel that, although inim- icable to us, they are yet entitled to a fre e and complete hearing from the rest of the craft, and we are only just in affording them the opportunity of securing it. At the same time we wish to assure bill posters in general, and especially those who are members of the various associa- tions, which we have the honor to repre- sent officially, that the policy of the paper will not be changed. We shall follow the same course in the future that we have in the past, always striving to elevate bill posting and advance the interests of bill posters. time arrayed themselves against the au- thority of the Associated Bill Posters' Association, and by reason of their rebel- lious and revolutionary action, have laid themselves open to expulsion from the National body. They have acted in this matter in direct violation of the sense and meaning of the resolutions covering this ground which were adopted at the Detroit convention, and, unless speedily rectified, their asinine attempt to make the tail wag the dog can have but one outcome, and that will be the disastrous disruption of the New York State Association In rejecting Mr. Gude's application for membership in their association, and binding themselves not to accept work from the O. J. G ude Co., the members of the New Yoik Association enacted some remarkable legislation, and at the same There will be no change in the conduct of this paper. Its aim in the future, as in the past, will be to reflect the opinions of advertisers and bill posters in general, and not those of any one or any partic- ular faction. The utmost care will be exercised in treating each question in a fair, impartial arid unbiased manner. We will criticise the short comings of all or any of the various Associations, and extol their merits. We will speak openly of the various services rendered to adver- tisers, giving credit where it is due, and meting out censure wherever deserved. We have accomplished some good in the past We expect to accomplish more in the future; but we feel that it can only be done when the interests of buyers and sellers of advertising are mutually advanced. ANENT OPPOSITION. QUITE LIVELY BREEZE BLOWING. The New York State Association Revokes the Appointment Making; "Billboard Advertis- ing" their Official Organ. The New York State Association, in convention assembled, has formally re- voked the appointment under which this paper has been representing them. Their reasons for so doing lay principally in the fact that the paper had opinions and the courage to express them. The rest of the State Associations, and the Associated Bill Posters' Association, will probably do likewise, for the paper will continue to discuss matters of interest to the craft as openly in the future as it has in the past. We intend to be fair and just, however. The fact that any one holds views contrary to ours, will not prevent them from hav- ing every opportunity of presenting them to our readers. The editor is a member in good standing in the National organization, and speaks as a member of that body, with its best interests at heart. His opinions are en- titled to the same consideration that would be accorded those of any other member. No more, no less. He is not encouraging or upholding opposition in any manner whatever. He simply believes that the Association is powerless to curtail opposi- tion as an association, and that attempts to do so, while they cannot possibly prove otherwise than futile, on the other hand, may wreck the Association. Van Buren & Co., of New York, have, in conjunction with Messrs Reagan, Clark and Harry Munson, organized a little association of their own. Now, this being the case, what good reason is there that Messrs. Munson, and Reagan, and Clark, should not be admitted to the Association ? Van Buren & Co. recognize them; why should the rest of the members not do likewise? Why, in case of opposition in any other city, would it not be better to have them in the Association rather than on the outside? If keeping them out of the Association did away with them, there might be some reason in it, but it does not. In the five years that the A. B.P. A. has been in existence it has not eliminated a sin- gle opposition firm. Does not this prove that the Association is powerless in this direction. We would like to demonstrate to bill posters everywhere that opposition is a local issue, and not a matter for Associa- tion's consideration. There are many who are with us in this matter. O. P. Fairchild, of Covington, Ky., says that we are right; as do also the Chapman Bros., Otting & Son, Bright Bros., TheSeifert Co., and many others. But there are many who do not. As witness the following letters which we publish in order to give both sides of the question : A correspondent writes us as follows: " Did you know that those fool fellows of the New York State Association have passed resolutions making Stahlbrodt once more the one and only representa- tive of their Association, which, of course, is rank rebellion as far as the National Association is concerned. I wonder what President Campbell and the rest of the members of the Associated Bill Posters' Association will think of this calm and deliberate defiance of the National body. "The great joke about it aU is that Sam Pratt, of Van Buren & Co., New- York City, who, in all probability put up * the job, or at any rate pushed it along, has once more used the vanity and ego of Stahlbrodt to pull a few more chestnuts out of the fire. "New York and Brooklyn are exempt from the Stahlbrodt regime. Sam Pratt and Barney Lick are too cunning to agree not to accept work from Gude. They know the value of his patronage and have no intention of sacrificing it. "As it is, the O. J. Gude Co. has ordered all of their paper out of the towns in the upper end of the state, and if the poor fellows in the little towns are faithful to their resolutions, when Gude has a five or ten thousand dollar appropriation to split throughout the state, why it will hayd to go entirely to New York and Brooklyn. Sam Pratt is cunning, a little more sothan the boys from up the,state. Don't you think so? " Cleveland, o„ November 19, 1895. Editor Billboard Advertising, Cincinnati, O. Dear Sir—la reply to your favor of the 15II1. asking our opinion as to whether President Campbell has the power to withdraw your ap- pointment as official organ of the association, will say that we are not familar enough with Ihe constitution of the association to make a statement. We believe, however, that if lie has not the power, he can very soon call those t° piov tentl gethcr who have. Looking at this matter from our standpoint, and from what we have reason to believe others think of your action in uphold- ing Hwise who are in direct opposition to the members of the association, which you are sup- posed lo represent, and in whose interests your magazine is published, we have no hesitancy in saving that they will meet with the hearty ap- al.aud receive the hearty support of nine- of the members of the association. We" would be very sorry to see the time when it will- be necessary to take such an action, and • hope that you will recede from the position you have taken, which we believe to be a wrong one, ami against your own interests. As you must realize, the business of commercial bill posting is still in its infancy, and is rapidly growing to a very large business, and if your journal keeps in the right path, it will grow to be a power in the bill porting fraternity.; and must being good returns. Our feelings are very friendly towards you, and we have watched with a great deal of interest the growth of your publication from a little four page circular to a journal that none of us in the business need feel ashamed of as our official organ. ■ " ... If vou voice the sentiments of a majority of the members of the association, and speak to the advertiser from our standpoint, you. can be of much service to us, and help us in- o.ur busi- ness, but if you take a stand that is detrimental to our interests, you may work us harm, and measures should be taken to try and prevent vour doing so. ' whai we have said has been in the kindliest of spirit, and we trust will give no offense. Yours sincerely, Bryan & Co. members, and not try to undermine by cutting off our profits or making the national advertiser dissatisfied. Now. Mr. Editor, /- write this- letter lo yon in a friendly spiril, and I want it lobe accepted as such. I for one, in speaking for the Rocky Mountain Bill Posters' Association, will uphold and stand by Association prices. The Rocky Mountain Bill Posters' Association voted your paper as their official organ, and agreed to support it all they possibly could. That was a very good article you had in the last issue headed " Service—Good and Bad." ' I read it over twice, and agree with you in a good many sentences in that article. Yours very truly, Jas: A. Currax.-- Chicago, November 11, 1S95. B11.L110ARD Advertising, Cincinnati* Ohio: Gentlemen— After looking.overyour November issue and reading your several letters, I hasten to write you regarding your position as proprie- tors of Billboard Advertising, and Bill- hoard Adnertising as the officicial organ ol the Associated Bill Posters' Association of the United'States and Canada. If you desire to have your paper the ofSciaf organ of the National Association, and can vouch for vour paper's loyalty to that Association, and will* publish no proceedings, advertisements or write-ups of any others, in opposition to our Association, you can still be the representative organ for the; Association ; but not unless you promise to do so, and that at once, commencing with vour December 1st issue. Yours truly, R. C. Campbell, Pres't. Denver, Colo., November 13, 1S95. KlIITOK BILLBOARD ADVERTISING, Cincinnati. Ohio: Dear Sir— Yours of the 4th is at hand, calling attention to Billboard Advertising for the Christmas number. We will send you an ad for that number, "with this mail, which I hope you will receive all right. - I am very much surprised to see an ad, in the last issue of your paper, of the Inter-State Bill Posters' Protective Association, giving their rates, which is in direct competition with the Associated Bill Posters of the United States and Canada, which,Association has voted and made your paper their official organ, and subscribed "10.00 for you to send the paper to the different advertisers of the country. Now what will a new advertiser think when lie reads that ad, and sees that he can get posting done for those prices, which, candidly, no bill poster can do the work for, and live, and then have the Associated Bill rosters' Association quote them a different price. They will think something is wrong, and that a screw is loose somewhere. Now, Mr. Editor, the old bill posters of the Association have built up the bill posting business to what it is, and you must certainly give them credit for it. Our I riend Stahlbrodt worked hard to have a uniform price all over the country, and has spent both lime and money to do so. Now here step in opimsition bill posters and pill! their price down, where they have tried hard for three years to build it up, and knock the props from under it. I heartily concur in what our friend Mike Bres- lauer, city bill poster of Minneapolis, sent in to your paper last issue. Of course there are some good men in opposition to the regular bill post- ers, which I admit, is all right, and 1 would like to see them with us; but business is business, a nd friendship is another thing. 1 myself have had these prices quoted to me by other adver- tisers, and they can't understand, till I explain to them why we can't do bill posting the same as some other fly-by-night poster. If the Inter-State Protective Association want their competition, why don't they get business prices, get as good locations as the associated Springfield, Ohio; November 23, '95. Editor Billboard' Advertising, - , ' Cincinnati, O. "'"-' Dear 'Sir —After careful' consideration and careful reading of "your few-past'editions;'I think the Associations, both"National and State, made a great mistake when they made your pa- per their official organ. 1 am sorry to see- it take the stand it does* against the bill 'posters, after doing what we did and are willing to do, to make the paper a success. And to have you sim- ply cut our throats, and do and say all you can to ruin our business, is, to say the least/unkind. - I supposed that you were running a paper in the interests of bill posting, endeavoring to im- prove the business, getting bill posters to take more interest in their work, and establishing our Association on a solid business basis; but it seems, however, for some unknown reason, you you are trying exceedingly hard to get every bill poster in the country opposition. I, as president of the Ohio BiU Posters' Asso- ciation, thank yon for the kindness your paper has extended towards us in the way of notices, etc., but I shall endeavor to have all members withdraw all support whatever, from your paper, and I assure you,I regret it very much, but busi- ness is business. If you insist on bumping us, we can only do the next best thing, and that which is natural in human beings, to kick back as hard as we can. It may not do us any good, but it will be a source of considerable satisfac- tion to us, and there you are. I want you to understand I am not cranky upon any subject, neither will I let any prejudice from an outside source, come between me and my business friend, but on the dead, I think you have given us all very much the worst of it. What do you say ? Yours fraternally, H. H. Ttner. Mr. Ty ner falls into the common error of as- suming that we are encouraging opposition; nothing could be further from the truth.— Editor. TO THE PRESIDENT AND MEM- BERS OF THE ASSOCIATED BILL POSTERS' ASSOCIATION: Well, boys, this is what you call very stormy weather. The winds are blowing and paper is coming down in all directions. The editor's table is littered with paper, that tells the story of the different bill posters in terse and forcible language. That is right, boys. Pour in the hot shot. Every time anything is said to Billboard Advertising that you don't agree with, bang the editor. There is more fun and experience in opening the mail of Billboard Adver- tising than can be got out of the best circus that ever traveled throughout the country, and the editor thinks he has seen them all Gee whizz! but wasn't that a hot tamale from President Campbell: "If you don't edit Billboard Advertising as I and the executive committee of the Bill Post- ers' National Association think it should be edited, why you will be no longer our official organ. We like you, Mr. Editor, but you must put on our spectacles and look at everything as we see it. You must preach our policy, otherwise be silent for- ever and ever. Amen." Now, my dear Mr. President of the National Bill Posters' Association, let us say to you in the most kindly and friendly spirit,.in a spirit filled to the brim with the good-will and friendliness engendered not only by our high personal regard for the boys of .the bill posting fraternity, but intensified by the thought that this little say pfc ours will be spread before the trade .during the.Christmas days, when peace and goodrwill to all should prevail—that .Billboard Advertising is conducted in the interest of bill posting and all other methods of publicity that help the adver- tiser. •. ; That when we help the advertiser we are giving you the greatest help, and that •the past record of your Association is too pregnant with errors for us to accept the dictation of the people that:have made them, as to what should be the policy of this publication. Let us get right down to paste-pot and paper, and talk straight. . What has, been the history of your organization up to recent date? Only chaos and confusion. What has been the best convention ever held by your organization? The one in Detroit! and that was better than the pre- ceding ones only because the rank and file of the Bill Posters' Association, the men who were in the organization f or-'jLhe purpose of having their business bettered, got together, rose in their might, and knocked out the little New York ring that was endeavoring to use the Bill Posters' Association for personal use. You, Mr. President, acknowledged be- fore the entire convention the mistakes that had been made, and your re-election was the result of that manly acknowledg- ment You regained the esteem and con- fidence of the members by your earnest endeavors to undo the harm that had come through the narrow, short-sighted policy that aimed to turn over your organization and the general contracting of all com- mercial work into the hands of one favored individual, who was to be sole dictator to the bill posting fraternity. You had found out the motive that influ- enced the ring to favor one-man power. You saw that the greatest beneficiary would be the New York member; yon found that while the scheme of taking work through one man only, and at one price; was being urged on the small cities throughout the country, at the sacrifice of much business; your New York member was continually taking business from wherever it could be got, making no sac- rifice to help the country at large, pulling every dollar's worth.of business he could get, and willing, very willing to use the Association to crush his two rivals in New York City, if the Association ever grew powerful enough to do it. New York City was playing a waiting game at the expense of the smaller cities. You, Mr. President, dropped to the game, jumped on and helped stamp it out You also tumbled to the injustice being done to the smaller cities that were forced to charge a price equal to the large cities, and at the convention we had the peculiar spectacle of the majority of members pleading for a lowering of the rates, threatening to abandon the Association if they were not permitted a lower price schedule. There was no romance or theory in this plea. These members wanted business. They had found out, by practical experi- ence the difference in making a price and getting it. They had found that when they refused business at a fair price, or except through aTavored individual, that they got no business, and thus the big . kick, a revision of prices, the inviting of other contractors into the Association; the smash-up of the ring, and the apologies of the Association for errors committed, ex- tended to The O. J. Gude Co. Now there has arisen an awful howl about our paper printing the proceedings of the Inter-State Association, Just let us reason together in a perfectly friendly way. Are you afraid of this other Association ? Are their prices and their plans more equitable than yours? If so, take our advice, copy them. If not, reason with them. Call a conference of your executive committee and advise one with the other for the common good. If . they are not of that much importance, then hold your peace until they are. There is work for the bill posters, good work, other than fighting among them- selves. There are methods, numerous methods of publicity other than the bill- boards that they should contend against. They have much to do in 1896 in im- proving their plants and services. A new era of prosperity is opening to them if they but see the possibilities of the hour. The commercial people have awakened . to the benefits to be derived from bill posting. They are ready to come into line, but the worse enemy to-day to the . growth and development of bill posting is the narrow-minded bill poster who wants to rule or ruin. We are sitting in our chair, calmly sur- veying the field. We are not talking hap- hazard or with any lack of knowledge, and we now say to the bill posters of the country, in thisr our Christmas greeting, that we are with you, heart and soul, in everything that tends to better service; that we believe in good prices for good work. We believe that bill posting, properly done, will produce more results for an advertiser for the dollar invested than any other given line of publicity. We are going to push bill posting for all we are worth. We are going to preach its possibilities with all the power of press and printers' ink. But we are going to preach it in a way that we think is for the best interest of the! trade at large. We are going to keep on following the policy that we think is right, whether we represent Association Bill Posters of the United States and Canada, or only onr- , selves; whether its members subscribe for the paper and advertise in it, or : whether they condemn it. We are going to hold right to our course, because of our faith in the under- lying American common-sense of the fraternity at large, which we believe will eventually dominate in this organization, as it dominates in all affairs in our great and glorious country. We would not be the great people we are; we would not hold the foremost rank in the civilized nations of the world, that is ours to-day, were it not for this same American common-sense. On this we have pinned our faith; on this we will sink or swim. We have placed our poster on the board; we own the board and all the ap- proaches to it, and no one can stick any- thing else over it unless they buy us out