HE Agate Club of Chicago gave their Annual Banquet at the Auditorium Hotel on the evening of April sixth.

A pleasant feature was the seating of five guests at a table, with a member of the Club acting as host with each group of six. Two hundred and thirtyeight were present. The entertainment committee are to be congratulated on their selection of speakers, who both entertained and edified the members and their guests.

We can give space only to some of the bright things said by each of the speakers. The speeches in full are published in the Publisher and Advertiser, the organ of the Agate Club.

Toastmaster Edward Hazen in his introductory speech among other things said:

The Agate Club is the pioneer advertising club of this country. It was organized ten years ago. From the size of this audience you would be justified in presuming that we have one hundred and fifty members, but the membership is limited to fifty. The organization is composed of solicitors of advertising for general publicity. In the year book, we find this announcement:

"The AGATE CLUB stands for the co-operation of all men engaged in soliciting business from general advertisers, that the greatest benefit may be secured for the advertiser. The AGATE CLUB stands for intelligence, it stands for integrity, it stands for the uplifting and broadening of the work in this field of advertising.”

The membership is not large in numbers, but the influence from the work of the men represented in this club is as

broad as this land. The business interests of this country are very widely affected by the work of this club and the men who are in it. The publications represented have a combined circulation of about twenty-two million; sixteen million, monthly magazines; three and a half million, weeklies, and more than two million by daily papers. If we allow that five people read each copy, we will be reaching (supposing there were no duplications) considerably above one hundred million people-more people than the United States and Canada combined contain. Now, do you believe that the AGATE CLUB has any influence?

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From speech of Walter H. Page, Editor of World's Work:

The growth of usefulness of advertising has possibly been greater than its increase in artistic merit, and most of all, there has been a growth in the character of advertising.

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The old idea of advertising was. that the advertising man went to the man who made the article and found him an easy victim. There are three great people in the contract-the people, primarily, the maker of things and the buyer of things. They are both benefitted and you who constitute the intermediary are simply good Samaritans, men who bring them together for their advantage. A man in a far off state gets the wares he wants and the man who made them sells them.

I think you will agree with me that in spite of the fact that we publish more magazines than there are people born, we have more advertising than we have reading matter. In spite of that fact,

we have hardly blazed the way. By this flood within a few years we have actually proved the two fundamental principles upon which advertising rests; one you have heard of, namely, that advertising pays; the other that we have proved, is the practical value of publicity, the value of publicity for use in the practical things that we buy and put in the house, or

wear.

From speech of Prof. Albion W. Small, University of Chicago:

Astonishing as it will doubtless appear, it is a fact that before I received the invitation to speak to the Agate Club this evening, I had observed that there is going on in the world such a thing as advertising. I had even made the observation which Mr. Dooley put in the chaste words, "Manufacturing breakfast food is different ways of takin' the smell out of oat meal." And then I discovered that the reason why I was temporarily pacifying my stomach with a particular brand of breakfast food was not because I liked the smell that was left, much less the taste, but because somebody had advertised to somebody else that this was the sort of food for everybody to consume.

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Whatever the final interest of the advertiser, he gets in his work in the first place by promoting consumption. Creating a market does not directly increase capital. It increases consumption, and increased human consumption, not increased demand for dividends on capital, is the healthiest symptom of social welfare.

From speech of Mr. George R. Peck, General Counsel C. M. & St. Paul Ry.:

When I was a youth, and that is a long time ago, I read that familiar aphorism, "Let me write the ballads of a people and I care not who makes the laws." I was much taken with that and came near going into the ballad business my

self. But how much wiser he would have been had he written "Let me write advertisements for the people and I care not who makes the laws."

I have been in this business (law) a great many years, but I cannot help saying as I look into these bright intelligent faces that I wish I had not made the mistake of becoming a rather indifferent lawyer, when perhaps I might have made a successful advertiser.

From speech of H. G. Ashbrook, Adv. Manager Glidden Varnish Co.:

Should not we, as manufacturers, use greater effort to interest possible customers, since we cannot come in personal contact with them but must rely on the written or printed method for that purpose?

The preparation of all advertising literature going to the possible customer is an important item.

The advertiser cannot personally explain any doubt in the mind of the inquirer, but must rely on his literature to cover in as simple and convincing a manner as possible any question which might arise.

As I became more familiar with advertising, I made up my mind that four things were absolutely necessary to the success of an advertiser.

First: Goods of equal if not better quality than any others of its kind. Second: Money to spend for advertising.

Third: Courage to spend the money. Fourth: Ability to spend the money judiciously.

Ability to spend money judiciously for advertising rarely comes to a man by insight; it comes to him from experience and close study. Many an advertiser gives up just at a time when a little courage would carry him through to profit and success.