" for
three cents. This is all the more remarkable, because advertising is
the most sensitive feature of a most sensitive business and is sure to
suffer first in any industrial crisis or depression.

No wonder that the man who realizes the significance of all these
figures and the trend disclosed by them is coming to look upon the
editorial department of the newspaper as merely a necessary means of
giving a literary tone to the publication, thus helping business men
get their wares before the proper people. Mr. Trueman A. DeWeese, in
his recent significant volume, "Practical Publicity," thinks that this
is about what Mr. Curtis, the proprietor of "The Ladies' Home Journal,"
would say if he ventured to say what he really thought:--

It is not my primary purpose to edify, entertain, or instruct a
million women with poems, stories, and fashion-hints. Mr. Bok may
think it is. He is merely the innocent victim of a harmless
delusion, and he draws a salary for being deluded. To be frank and
confidential with you, "The Ladies' Home Journal" is published
expressly for the advertisers. The reason I can put something in
the magazines that will catch the artistic eye and make glad the
soul of the reader is because a good advertiser finds that it pays
to give me $4000 a page, or $6 an agate line, for advertising
space.

Yes, the tremendous power of advertising is the most significant thing
about modern journalism. It is advertising that has enabled the press
to outdistance its old rivals, the pulpit and the platform, and thus
become the chief ally of public opinion. It has also economized
business by bringing the producer and consumer into more direct
contact, and in many cases has actually abolished the middle man and
drummer.

As an example of the passing of the salesman, due to advertising, "The
Saturday Evening Post" of Philadelphia, in its interesting series of
articles on modern advertising exploits, recently told the story of how
the N. H. Fairbanks Co. made a test of the relative value of
advertising and salesmen. A belt of counties in Illinois were set aside
for the experiment, in which the company was selling a certain brand of
soap by salesmen and making a fair profit. It was proposed that the
identical soap be put up under another brand and advertised in a
conservative way in this particular section, and at the same time the
salesmen should continue their efforts with the old