ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 351 



the general Index of Industrial Production. (See below, p. 381, also Figs. 7 

 and g, and Tables 41 and 48.) 



Advertising and the Competitive Position of Fishery Products. Commodity 

 goods are generally not advertised (though there are exceptions), even 

 when they have competitors in other commodity goods (coal vs. fuel oil 

 and natural gas). The benefits of expensive advertising would inure only 

 in part to a single advertiser of unbranded and unidentified products, the 

 rest to the benefit of his competitors. Such advertising as is done in the food 

 field is very largely of branded specialities, i.e., low cost, high price prod- 

 ucts, with sufficient gross margin to pay for the expensive advertising. The 

 citrus fruit growers of California and Florida cooperatively advertise their 

 few kinds of fruit. In the fisheries the competition is internal, i.e., fish vs. 

 fish of other kinds and places, or of fishermen and dealers with each other 

 for whatever market exists spontaneously, with little effort to increase the 

 total of fish vs. its real competitors, meat, poultry, and eggs. The fisheries 

 are not a single industry but an assortment of allied mutually competitive 

 industries. Cooperative trade association advertising is frequently under- 

 taken in some industries, as it has been at one time and another in the 

 fisheries (one is under way now), but in the past they have always broken 

 down through failure of support by the many diverse small and competitive 

 interests for the sustained program on a national scale that would be neces- 

 sary for real success. Sporadic advertising programs are regarded by experts 

 as a waste of money. 



The fisheries considered broadly have in fact a most excellent story to 

 tell which would be the envy of many another industry. It has "romance" 

 in the mysteries of the ocean and fascinating life in the sea, in the vastness 

 of its depths and areas, in the marvellous round of world chemistry, in 

 human interest in fishing and fishermen, in the variety of their products, 

 their low cost and excellent food values. The advertiser of fish would be 

 embarrassed, not by inability to think of something to say about his prod- 

 ucts that has not been worn threadbare by repetition, but by the overwhelm- 

 ing profusion of too many things that could be said. 



Competition for a place in the national dietary is severe; every item 

 in it is struggling for a larger place, and there is no golden rule other than 

 the well known formula of better goods, more attractively presented at more 

 places, aggressively merchandised, efficiently delivered at lower cost and 

 cheaper prices where and when it is wanted. 



MANUFACTURING 



Effects of Fluctuations in Supply on Employment of Capital and Labor. 

 Fluctuations and discontinuity of supply of raw material profoundly affect 



