clear across the page. Some printers seem to be slow to learn that this absolutely cannot be done with black ink. The only result possible is a mud streaked page.

The Reo book is a modest affair with good and bad points. The printer again is at fault, this time, in using a rough cover stock for the gilt which sticks only in spots. The absence of a title page is noted.

The catalogues of the Auto Car, Pierce, Locomobile and Franklin were about all the others worth even passing notice.

Country Life cover for March gives one assurance of good things that are fully borne out by that number just received. Country Life is just now enjoying the sensation of competitors entering its chosen field, but it goes on its way apparently undisturbed.

A little booklet of interest just reached me from Thomson Bros., salt manufacturers, St. Clair, Mich. It bears no imprint, but if ear marks are to be relied upon, I would say that something like L. C. C. would be about correct. The plan of the book is all right, and the man who devised it deserves a blue rib

coloring is green, as would be expected from the design. It is a calendar that will be kept through the year by nearly all who receive one.

tipped on the cover and takes the place of a title.

A booklet that will attract attention is sent out by the Register, of Iola, Kansas, giving "Reasons Why" you should read that paper to reach the people of Allen County. It contains a full circulation statement, rates and other arguments. Crash finish, deckle edge stock, now so popular, is used-green for the cover with printing-black and gray, and for the inside cerulean blue stock printed in purple, red and gold. It is not stated, but one suspects that they may have still other colors of ink in the office. However, one sort of expects something like that-from Kansas.

The catalogue for 1905 of the West Michigan Nurseries, Benton Harbor, Mich., shows what can be accomplished with plain type and carefully selected illustrations. A glance through the book shows somewhat a departure from other catalogues in the character and arrangement of matter. From the catalogue view the book is convincing. I note the book bears the Long-Critchfield imprint. The cover is in two colors, yellow stock, and a most effective combination of red and green bring out an apple illustration in lifelike manner. Two booklets and a blotter have reached me from Chittenden, Leyda and Frew, of the "Printing that's Good" house. One of the booklets especially pleases me. It bears the title, "Are You Waiting for Your Ship to Come In?" and the question is answered in this wise:

"It is idle to wait for your ship to come in, unless you have sent one out. It is idle to wait for business to come in unless you invite it."

The color scheme is black and burnt orange on sepia stock-effective harmony. A little scene in three colors is

Herewith is shown a cut of the new catalogue cover of the Gem Incubator Company. The book was printed in Cincinnati, and except for the cover, which is made still more effective by the use of colors, is only ordinary.

Bearing the title, "$73,000,000," one is sure to look into another booklet on my desk. It is one sent out by the Inland Farmer of Spokane, Wash. The first page of this is reproduced here for the sake of calling attention to the use of the initial letter, and our compliments are

herewith extended to the printer. It would have been an easier matter for him to have made the top of the decoration line with the rest of the word. Instead he lines the top of the letter T, and correctly, hence my thanks. I am a crank on initials, and have been often provoked to righteous wrath by the use sometimes made of them, even in the specimens sent out by type founders. Not knocking Will B.

The Keystone is sending out a booklet with a purple cover, calling attention to its Easter number.

An attempt to advertise is an uncertain proceeding, but an endeavor is to attempt strenuously with firm and enduring purpose-and is certain of results.

T

THE INLAND FARMER is the only agricul tural paper in a ter ritory of three-fourths

of a million people that raised last year $73.000,00 worth of farm products

This is a new country and it is only within three years that wealth has started to flow this way But it has come fast The farmers have money There are six purely agricultural banks in Eastern Washington lone, with depos ts of more than a million dollars cach Banks without number show more than $500,000 of farmers' money

The farmers are buying They are in a position now to get new things for the farms and to indulge in the luxuries.

WHEAT IN

THE INLAND FARMER CARRIES MORE LOCAL ADVERTISING THAN ANY OTHER AGRICULTURAL PAPER IN THE COUNTRY

HE American Newspaper Publishers' Association, which embraces 245 leading daily papers of the United States, held its Annual Convention February 21-23 at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York City. The attendance was large and the meeting one of unusual interest.

The election of Officers resulted in the choice of Mr. S. S. Rogers of The Chicago Daily News, for President of the Association for the year 1905; W. L. McLean of the Philadelphia Bulletin for Vice President.

The election of a Secretary was postponed for thirty days, owing to the death of William Cullen Bryant, who had served the Association as Secretary for a number of years.

Mr. S. S. Rogers, the newly elected President, was born in Lee, Mass., in 1857, and graduated at Williams College in 1877. The same year, he came West, and in 1881 entered the employ of Victor

F. Lawson with whose interests he has been connected ever since.

Mr. Rogers, who occupies the responsible position of Advertising Manager and Assistant to the Publisher, is a man of high character and great business ability, and the Association honored itself quite as highly as it did Mr. Rogers in choosing him as President.

One of the numerous speeches delivered before the Association, and one of the best, was by Mr. Rogers on the subject "Commissions Paid Directly To Advertisers." Mr. Rogers said in part:

As a matter of fact, no agency commission can be paid to an advertiser because, if any allowance is made to the advertiser, it is not an agency commission, nor is it a commission in any sense of the term.

Two people dealing directly with each other can not have involved in the transaction a commission. A commission arises only when a third or intervening party comes into the transaction as a

lightened selfishness than the golden rule. I commend it to your careful consideration and acceptance. Put it on your rate cards and stop cheating the customer who isn't smart enough to find you out as to your bottom price.

If you make a better rate to the Royal Baking Powder Company, or the Peruna Company, or Scott & Browne, or Mr. Post, of Postum fame, than you do to other advertisers doing the same amount of business, do not try to cloud your own vision by stirring up a lot of dust and calling the thing an advertising agent's commission.

What is an agent's commission? And what is it paid for? I think I have already suggested that it is paid theoretically at least for brokerage service. To understand the matter we must have clearly in mind what advertising agents or agencies are, and what their relation to the individual paper and the newspaper at large is.

Upon what theory should we allow them a commission on the business which they send us? An advertising agent or agency worthy of the name is one equipped by capital, integrity and experience for the solicitation and development of an advertiser's business. I accede at once to the statement which is running through your minds that many of the agencies which are being recognized by the papers of the country do not qualify, at least fully, under this definition.

I realize the difficulty which arises. when we come to apply the definition to the individual case, but it ought at least be that which we are aiming at all the time in our dealing with agencies.

Has the agency sufficient capital to give a reasonable assurance of its being able to handle its business and to meet the ordinary vicissitudes of business?

Has the agency, or the man or men constituting it, sufficient knowledge of the advertising business, of the trade conditions which prevail in the market

ing of different products, of the various methods of advertising which have been tried in the past and found either efficient or useless, a knowledge of the varied mediums which are used for the carrying on of an advertising campaign and their relative values and cost, and a thousand other things which are necessary in order to make an agency a valued and safe counselor for an advertiser in undertaking his campaign?

Is the agency also equipped with competent solicitors who are at work continuously for the development of new advertising?

Assuming now that we have some agencies, large and small, which meet measurably, at least, the qualifications and requirements which I have set forth, what shall be the relation of the newspaper publisher to them? My own judgment is that the newspapers of the country can very well afford to make a monthly or yearly contribution in some shape for the maintenance and continuance of such organizations.

While I am by no means blind to the faults and delinquencies which have masqueraded under the name of advertising agencies, I do feel that the service which has been rendered to the newspapers in the development of advertising by the advertising agencies of the country as a whole, grouping them all together, good and bad, has far more than repaid the papers for their entire commission accounts during the past twenty years.

I think that it would be a serious loss to the newspaper business of the country if all the advertising agencies of the country were to at once go out of business and there should be none to take their place.

If I am at all right in this position, the newspapers are fully justified in dealing with the advertising agents upon an agency or commission basis, and thus contributing to the continuance of the operation of this entire machinery of