HARDWOOD RECORD 



gives all tlie iuformation that a man needs and without having 

 to refer to the letter files to get out the original contract with 

 the paper to set or get points about dates for copy to be in iDy, etc. 

 It serves as a check on all the advertisements. 



There are a few general points in regard to mediums that will 

 assist the advertiser in making this low-sales-cost-per-thousand-in- 

 merchandising-lumber most efficient. Here is another thing to 

 consider and one that is apt to be forgotten. When you are 

 planning to advertise stock that goes only to furniture manufac- 

 turers, you should write the copy for your advertisement to suit 

 that class of trade. In other words, just imagine that you are 

 going to address some particular man who is a manufacturer of 

 furniture. Then bring out the points about your stock that you 

 know will interest and help you sell him. Although but a small 

 matter, but few men realize the importance of writing the copy 

 to suit the readers. 



The location of your advertisements in the paper (position) is 

 another matter of importance, although but few of you realize it. 

 Advertisers in general have found that an advertisement that is 

 placed on a right-hand page pulls better results than one placed 

 on a left-hand one. None of the class mentioned gives any reason 

 for this statement, but the writer has found by studying the 

 methods of people looking through a paper that they lay the 

 right-hand side of the paper or magazine flat, and roll the left- 

 hand side. This conceals that side somewhat, and as a conse- 

 quence, unless the advertisement is a half-page one, it is not 

 always seen. Again, your advertisement placed on the outside 

 column commands more attention than one placed inside and next 

 to the binding. Therefore, if you have a quarter-page space, specify, 

 "Outside column, right-hand page" — then you are assured of 

 having your advertisement in view, and it is then up to you to 

 hold the reader's attention with interest-compelling copy. 



The character of the reading matter that a paper publishes 



should have the prospective advertiser's attention. Does the 

 paper cater to its readers in that it publishes articles and reading 

 matter written by "men who are authorities" and who are 

 qualified to give their opinions? Does the paper pay these con- 

 tributors well? — if it does not, it cannot hope to keep them a» 

 writers. There is too great a demand for good writers, and 

 unless good rates are paid the paper cannot hold its staff of 

 contributors. Are there evidences of interest in the shape of 

 letters, testimonials, etc., that come unsolicited? Is the editor 

 or his assistants biased in any way on any subject? Is the paper 

 full of personal "puffs" that make the reader feel as though he 

 had been" tricked when he reads them? Is the paper one where 

 an exchange of views is looked for on all sides; where questions 

 can be threshed out and where the editor will publish all — not 

 only one side, because he happens to be prejudiced in favor of 

 one side? 



The writer does not believe in placing advertisements in large 

 and voluminous trade papers and those that are published too 

 often. It is too much to expect of the readers to try to wade 

 through all of them. The papers that are small, concise, deal with 

 points bearing only on one phase of the business instead of it 

 all in general, and that come out once or twice a month, are most 

 desirable to advertise in. Again, class circulation enters into the 

 matter. It is not so much the total circulation of the paper — a 

 point that some trade papers make a special boast of — but the 

 number of possible buyers, of the particular goods to be adver- 

 tised. Always keep this in mind, and when the representative of 

 a newspaper comes into your office to sell you advertising space, 

 ask him, "How many trim mills in Pennsylvania, New York and 

 Massachusetts do you reach?" or, "How many hardwood con- 

 sumers do you reach?" By bearing these suggestions in mind 

 and treating the question from a business viewpoint, you can soon 

 tell whether the paper will serve your purpose or not. 



T roa^wi^ii ma^wiWiW^'^myiM^^ 



The Business of Government 



Editor's Note 



The following address was delivered b.v Alfred B. Cruikshank of New York City, before the National Lumber 

 Manufacturers' .A-Ssociation in session at Kansas City, Mo., .June 3 and 4. 



T have come from New York City to address you today by invita- 

 tion of your officers upon a subject selected by them with a title 

 proposed, I think, by your secretary, namely, ' ' The Business of 

 Government and the Government of Business." No general subject 

 more worthy of the attention of American business men at this time 

 could possibly have been selected than this; for government in this 

 country of our is, or ought to be, principally a business affair and 

 conducted in a business way; but unfortunately, instead of directing 

 themselves to the business of government, the politicians in charge 

 of governmental affairs are misapplying their energies to the gov- 

 ernment of business. Not merely to the government of business 

 men, not merely to make them behave properly, to refrain from 

 violence and cheating and to render every one his due — that is the 

 legitimate function of go\ernment — but government here is now 

 more and more endeavoring, as other governments have endeavored 

 over and over agam in days gone by, and always without success, 

 to rule business itself; to replace the ancient maxims and usages 

 of trade by political sayings of the hour; to enact arbitrary laws 

 to govern its operations instead of the natural laws which business 

 itself evolves in those operations. Now, there are many men in this 

 country who believe that the only laws which government should apply 

 and enforce in business transactions are the laws which business itself 

 has produced and recognizes as binding; there may be others who are 

 willing to have these business laws artificially modified or restricted 

 by the lawmaking power; but I am sure you all feel, and that 

 every reflecting business man feels, that legislation and government 

 administration affecting business methods, whatever it may be, 

 should be planned and carried out by those who have a thorough, 



practical knowledge of the subject and not as at present by students 

 of theories, amateurs, political quacks and time-serving place hunters. 

 I heard President Wilson say during his canvass that business was 

 meddling loo much in politics. He was mistaken; the opposite is 

 the ease. Business has had too little, not too much, to do vdtb 

 government. Certain special interests have meddled too much in 

 politics. They have been tempted to take advantage of this very 

 interference by government with the laws of business in order to 

 obtain political favors for themselves, whether tariff legislation or 

 whatever it might be. This was politics, not business; for in true 

 business there is no favoritism, whereas politics is all favoritisnri 

 •and nothing else. 



Now, the best way to keep special interests and crooked business 

 out of poUtics, and the only way, is for legitimate business to step 

 openly in and expel crooked business from legislative halls. The 

 subject is not a new one to the thoughts of any of us. For many 

 years I have discussed privately with my friends, as no doubt some 

 of you have done with yours, the sad conditions in which government 

 in this country is being carried on. And now I believe the time 

 has come when business should take hold of politics, not only to 

 secure its own rights, but to reform politics in the interest of the 

 whole nation. It must be clear enough to every practical man 

 familiar with the subject that one of the principal causes of the 

 present political degradation is the absence of representative busi- 

 ness men from the councils of the nation, and the want of the 

 application of business principles and business methods in the con- 

 duct of government. And I have come today to present to you, as 

 representative business men, an argument in favor of the immediate 



