Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
May,  1920.) 
Association's  Latent  Power. 
339 
good  they  would  accomplish  would  make  the  expenditure  an  even 
more  profitable  investment. 
the;  advertising  of  education. 
In  past  reports  I  have  hinted  in  perhaps  rather  vague  terms  that 
this  industry  needs  a  good  constitutional  tonic  in  the  shape  of  a 
more  accurate  public  conception  of  its  importance  and  a  more  sym- 
pathetic understanding  by  the  public  of  its  problems.  In  the  belief 
that  the  membership  have  grown  sufficiently  strong  in  the  coopera- 
tive spirit  to  perhaps  lend  me  a  sympathetic  ear,  I  intend  now  to 
speak  more  concretely  and  pointedly  on  this  subject.  I  hope  what- 
ever reputation  for  level  headed  judgment  I  may  possess  will  not 
suffer.  To  speak  frankly  rather  than  modestly  I  don't  think  it 
should.  If  my  ideas  seem  radical,  then  I  am  in  the  same  boat  with 
the  best  brains  of  many  other  representative  industries  of  the  country 
foi  fy  are  doing  what  I  believe  this  industry  should  do.  They  are 
cc  '^li  g  out  openly  as  becomes  honest  men,  and  are  using  the  adver- 
tising columns  of  the  newspapers  and  periodicals  to  portray  for  the 
public  their  ideals  and  their  problems  and  the  interest  that  the  public 
has  in  their  welfare. 
This  is  not  the  advertising  of  buying  and  selling;  it  is  the  adver- 
tising of  education.  Those  who  are  advertisingly  near  sighted  and 
coi$oeive  of  advertising  simply  as  a  medium  for  telling  the  reader 
you  have  something  to  sell  should  put  on  glasses  that  will  enable 
them  to  see  the  bigger  field  beyond  in  which  advertising  loses  its 
commercial  character  and  takes  on  the  guise  of  an  educational  force 
that  commands  respect  and  silences  critics. 
We  find  a  host  of  industries  using  it  as  means  of  broadening  the 
vision  of  the  people  as  to  the  useful  possibilities  of  some  utility,  and 
thus  increasing  the  market  for  that  utility  as  a  whole  without  refer- 
ence to  a  particular  brand.  In  this  undertaking  are  enlisted  the 
orange  growers,  the  manufacturers  of  white  pine,  and  a  number  of 
other  industries  whose  names  I  do  not  recall.  This  advertising  has  a 
commercial  aspect,  it  is  true,  but  it  has  not  a  selfish  aspect  for,  to 
increase  the  public  knowledge  of  the  uses  of  white  pine,  for  instance, 
benefits  all  manufacturers  and  growers  of  this  lumber  regardless  of 
membership  in  the  Association  under  whose  auspices  the  advertising 
is  conducted. 
But  the  faintest  taint  of  commercialism  cannot  be  attributed  to 
that  phase  of  advertising  that  is  dedicated  solely  to  the  purpose  of 
