50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



is generally high and uniform, but that the consumer pays less 

 for them than for goods of equal quality which are not adver- 

 tised is not true. A little investigation will easily show that 

 advertised goods are ^ the highest priced goods on the market, 

 and if life is to be reduced to terms of mere dollars and cents, 

 then it would have been better had the first advertisement 

 never been written, and by it men forced to buy something 

 they did not want, for in that case they could have lived 

 more cheaply. 



But all civilization has been the forcing on mankind something 

 different and better than it already had, regardless of cost. 

 Indeed, cost of any kind is the real stimulus to effort, and 

 luxury is not measured by any material standard whatever. 

 Somebody has said, "Give me the luxuries and I can dis- 

 pense with the necessities of life," meaning, I take it, that as 

 humanity progresses, what at one time seemed luxuries become 

 necessities through the gradual cultivation of taste through the 

 imagination. Civilization is but the story of how the race 

 has gradually builded unto itself luxuries and made them 

 necessities. 



Now advertising increases the cost of living for the con- 

 sumers because the very argument for advertising is that it 

 has the power to create a monopoly. I am here to talk to you 

 about the value of advertising farm products, and my whole 

 argument will be based on the idea that advertising has the 

 power to so gain and hold attention and move men in given 

 directions that it takes away, if you will, their power of 

 choice. In other words, it creates a monopoly; but if you 

 give them the worth of their money, then it is justified. 



Although myself an advertising agent, and making my liv- 

 ing by attempts to create monopoly by advertising, I still 

 watch with Father jealous eye the power of advertising over 

 my own household. I suggested not long since to the general 

 manager of my household the idea of buying cereals in bulk. 

 She did so. Nothing was said beforehand to indicate the 

 change to a more sensible, because more economical, regime, 

 but with the first mouthful my youngest son began to look 

 puzzled and then to dig for something that annoyed him. 

 Soon others were doing the same thing. It seemed to me a 



