assumes that he will reach the people he is after, but he has taken the wrong move. He may strike it right, but he will not be so sure of his investment as the advertiser who goes about it the former way of finding out what his prospective customer reads and then advertising in such publications.

The aggregate circulation of the mail order weeklies and monthlies amounts to about 25,000,000 copies per issue. These papers do not circulate in the cities at all. They circulate in the country towns, villages, hamlets, and on farms.

The publishers of these papers have learned by experience and elimination just what these people want in the way of reading matter, and the last twentyfive years' experience has proven that these publishers have found out what suits the country people best and this is evidenced by the great amount of circulation these papers have.

There is a common rumor that the mail order papers are circulated gratuitously, and once a subscriber, always a subscriber; that the subscribers are induced to take the paper through the extrinsic offers in the way of premiums. and chromos. This is not true.

The

The Honorable Third Assistant Postmaster General for the past five years has shown more activity in investigating the circulation of the mail order papers than he has in any other class. power is within his hands to deny second class privilege to publications which are circulated primarily for advertising purposes; papers whose subscriptions are taken through premiums or other inducements. Not over one-half a dozen mail order papers have been affected by postoffice investigations.

The mail order paper as a rule cuts off the subscription the moment it ex pires. On the other hand, the country weekly and many of the high-grade papers, including many farm papers, carry the subscription several years past the time. It has been shown recently

that some of the so-called "old reliable" farm papers have been in the habit of selling subscriptions in bulk to bankers at nominal rates.

I venture the assertion that very few papers in this country can show as clean a subscription list, as large a percentage of definite subscription orders, as small a percentage of expired subscriptions as the mail order paper of today. The price of these papers is low, because the paper stock used and the character of the publications, enables the publisher to produce the papers on a small margin of profit.

Lincoln said that "the Lord must love the common people, because he made so many of them." The census department shows that 70 per cent of the people live on farms or in country towns, and yet many advertisers continue to advertise articles which are suitable for the country, in the papers which reach the 30 per cent class who live in the larger cities.

Much advertising of a General Publicity kind is placed-that which calls for no replies, and the advertiser has no way of telling what the advertisement is doing, excepting in a general way. If his sales increase, he says the advertisement is good. If 70 per cent of the advertisements in the mail order papers are keyed advertisements, and the advertisers know definitely what the advertisements are doing, then the General Publicity advertiser can do no better than use the publications which are well filled with keyed advertising.

In the past few years incubator manufacturers, seedsmen, poultrymen, washing-machine manufacturers, householdutensil manufacturers and others, have turned their attention towards the mail order papers and spent part of their appropriations in these publications. The results have been satisfactory. Practically all who have tried the mail order publications in the past few years have continued using them, and the only rea

son they continue is on account of the results they receive.

"Where there is smoke, there is fire." The question is, how much fire? You can not tell how much fire there is by watching the smoke from a distance. You must go to it and investigate. There is much talk and smoke about this mail order advertising. It costs the advertiser very little to investigate how much fire there is, and even if a percentage of the claims of the mail order publishers are true, it is the advertiser's duty to investigate and find out for himself about these mediums. If the results are satisfactory, no argument is needed to keep him in the papers.

Ten years ago many advertisers refused to even consider these mail order publications on account of their appearance, but particularly for the reason that they had no precedent to go by in the shape of other advertisers in similar lines. A few pioneers started in and received most wonderful results.

The case of the "farm home" first alluded to in this article is further proven by the facts in connection with Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward & Co. While these advertisers use the farm papers, yet most of their advertising in the farm papers is buggies, wagons, plows, machinery, hardware, tools and things which interest the man.

The advertising of stoves, washingmachines, incubators and such like appear in the mail order papers. There are more farm papers than there are mail order papers; nevertheless, in comparison, we do not believe the farm papers get over 20 per cent as much advertising from these mail order houses as the mail order papers.

The advertiser who has not used the mail order papers would hardly believe that some of the larger publications carry from ten to fifty thousand dollars' worth of advertising a year from one mail order advertiser.

Montgomery Ward & Co. have been in

business for over thirty years. Sears, Roebuck & Co. have been in business about twelve years. It was necessary for the latter concern to get their catalogues and their name before the people quickly if they wished to share in the prosperous times, and they spent thousands of dollars each year making their announcements to the country people through the mail order papers.

The great bulk of goods sold by these great mail order houses are to the people on the farms, and yet the great bulk of the advertising done by these same mail order houses is in the mail order papers, for they have found it a fact that the women folks on the farms read the mail order papers and they can sell their goods much better through the mail order papers than through the farm papers.

There is no question but that the breeder of horses, the manufacturer of harvesting machines, nursery men and concerns of a similar character can reach the men on the farms through the farm papers, but if the thing you advertise is of a nature to interest the women, the mail order papers will get her attention better than the farm paper.

I do not wish to attack other papers or to say that the other papers are not good advertising mediums, but my experience and my livelihood has been gained through my intimate connection with the mail order business for over twenty years, and it is not for me to point out the good facts in connection with the other publications. It is for me and my associates to show the points in favor of the mail order paper.

The truth is exact, and the statements I have made are either true or false, and if they are true, certainly the advertiser is not alive to his interests who does not use the mail order papers; and if the statements I make are false, certainly the advertiser is not alive to his interests who does not prove the statements untrue. It would be poor policy for us mail order publishers to talk so

much about the value of advertising in mail order papers if the results did not warrant our enthusiasm.

Our commodity is generally profitable and our publications will bear the closest investigation. We have confidence in Our wares and that accounts for our enthusiasm and earnestness in trying to attract the advertiser's attention to the great common people in the country who read the mail order papers, who buy ready-made clothing and not tailor-made, who ride in accommodation trains, and not in the sleeper; who go to the country school and not the high school; who wear buckskin gloves, and not Dent's gloves; who wear $2.50 shoes, twentycent sox, two for a quarter handkerchiefs, and not the high-priced sox, and handkerchiefs the advertiser is accustomed to buying. These people in the country have simple tastes. They go in for the substantial. They figure closely in the matter of pennies. They are good advertisers when they are treated right. They tell their neighbors about the bargains they receive. They promote the advertiser's business in this way.

The people in the cities will not readily admit that they are affected by ad

vertisements.

Go among your club friends, Mr. Advertiser, and ask them one after another if they read advertisements and if they buy advertised articles and you will hear some truths you didn't expect.

If you wish to attract the attention of a child, you must speak to the child in child-language. If you wish to attract the attention of J. Pierpont Morgan, you must go to him and talk to him in the language he understands. You can not reach him through the mail order paper. Tiffany & Co. would fare poorly advertising diamond tiaras in mail order papers, but the man who sells the plain band gold rings cheaper than the local dealer sells them, finds the big audience in the mail order papers.

If you want to reach all classes of people, you must use all classes of papers. The class we are interested in is the great common people in the country who do not read the daily newspapers, the high-priced magazines or the artistic publications. If the thing you make or sell is suitable to this great country class, then you are not getting full efficiency from your advertising, unless you use the mail order papers.

O

NE has to go back only a few changes of the moon to the time when the mail order publisher and the mail order advertiser were referred to with about as much enthusiasm as Sousa would refer to the music of the hurdy-gurdy. Today they are envied and respected by their brother publishers appealing to a different class of readers; by advertisers who are after "publicity" pure and simple, and together they enjoy the confidence of millions of residents of all parts of the continent, and are "getting-rich-quick-honestly."

The conditions responsible for the bringing about of these changes were as natural as the law of gravitation. Honesty on the part of the mail order man gave the business a good start-rural free delivery helped some, low prices assisted, but it was the supplying of at least a reasonably "long-felt want" that made the plan "get a hump" on itself and prove profitable.

History does not give us the name, location or the line of business of the first mail order man. More than likely he "just happened." Certainly he could have had no idea of the extent to which his unique way of doing business was to spread he surely never flattered himself that he was handing down to posterity and the postmaster general the "good thing" that he unintentionally "tipped off."

Beside the origmator of the mail order plan of doing business the inventor of patent leather shoes, patent medicines or patent inside newspapers pales into insignificance as the chorus girl pales before the prima-donna. Compared from the standpoint of the "greatest good to the greatest number," the original mail order man "left at the wire" all such "public benefactions" as bloodless sur

gery, cowless butter and motherless chickens and though a statue of him does not adorn a niche in the Hall of Fame he's "it" with a capital "I," and here are some of my reasons:

When the original mail order man placed his first "ad" in the original mail order paper-when he wrote "Dear Friend" on the head of his first "follow up," he "started something" the rattle of which can be heard in every corner of the globe. He threw precedent to the wind. He annihilated distance. He defied time. He sent "commerce" scurrying to out-of-the-way places frequently AHEAD of the flag.

Since that eventful day he and his "heirs, executors, administrators and assigns" have leveled forests in their greed for wood pulp and print paper. They have caused to spring up and flourish one thousand perfecting printing presses where only one measley, antiquated, old Washington hand press had stood before. They have provided cigarettes and meal tickets for the artist who was starving for "Art's sake," by using his talent for commercial purposes only. They brought forth from their hiding places the advertising writer, the advertising counselor, and the fellow who makes rubber stamps.

They made "correspondents" out of ordinary clerks, printed "original" letters on Gordon jobbers, and "coined" by the hundred, new words to save space and add to the strength of their statements.

They have demanded the erection, have paid for and are sustaining postoffices on the village green that in former years had been used solely as a place for pitching horseshoes.

They have compelled the "man with the hoe" to "move on" and make way for the "man with the hod" who had a

contract for a ten-story "distributing warehouse" in his inside pocket.

They have switched onto side tracks the passenger, local and freight trams to make way for the "limited mail." They have loaded the letter-carrier with merchandise till he staggered over his four-mile route like a department store in distress and sent him back for another load-sad eyed and sore shouldered. They have turned "cross roads" into towns, towns into cities, and territories into states. They have made the desert to blossom as the rose, villages to spring up as if by magic, and have brought joy and gladness and a steady diet to the inhabitants thereof. They have furnished "food for thought" to our lawmakers in Washington, campaign topics for our congressmen, and have insured for all time to come the stenographer's standing in society.

T

The Mail Order Buyer

HE mail order buyer is ubiquitous. Formerly he resided about six miles southeast of Smith's Falls, Iowa-today you can find his name in the city directories of New York, Chicago and Kalamazoo, on the voters' list of Bloom county, Oregon, and in the List of Subscribers to the Home Telephone Exchange of Brinkly, Florida. He resides in apartments, flats, tenements and detached residences in the larger cities-in castle and cottage in the smaller places, and his broad acres stretching from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, are piling up wealth for him whether school keeps or not.

The mail order buyer is married. Race suicide is not for him. His family, from the youngest to the oldest, has the "mail order habit" just as bad as the head of the house. He's as honest as the fellow that he sends his orders to, and that's honest enough for all practical purposes. He isn't looking for the best of it-continually. He wants an even break andwith a little assistance from Uncle Sam-he's going to insist on having it.

No matter how far his little order travels, when the seller "delivers the goods" it does not take the buyer more than a month of Sundays to figure out whether he has been given "a square Ideal" or has been flim-flammed.

If he decides in favor of the former he will shout the seller's name in praise from the roof of the old red barn, he'll 'phone the glad tidings to every person on his "line," he'll spend car fare, time and energy in showing his "purchase" to his relatives for miles around, and he'll boost the mail order game for "fare ye well."

If on the other hand he orders a library lamp and receives a "lemon," woe, and plenty of it, is due and overdue the fellow who "handed" it to him. Better for him that he should leave home and friends and flee to some country where dishonest dealing goes unpunished and the postoffice inspector is not. For before many suns shall set his sleep will become troubled, his mind muddled and his reputation will be punctured beyond all hope of repair.

A few months ago I planned a three days' trip to some of the country fairs in Indiana. I went to them to meet "face to face" a pretty fair personal representation of some of those mail order buyers. I wanted to study them at short range and see how they stacked up in their own counties. I wanted to see the fellow with the "Uncle Sam" whiskers that I was led to believe could spit and say "by gosh" at the same time. I wanted to see the woman with the pretty black curls and the green bonnet. I wanted to see the girl with the pink hat and the red dress and the young man with the new red top boots and the home-made hair cut.

But they were not there; at least I could not find them.

But the man with the freshly pressed, good-enough-for-any-time suit was there. He was clean shaven and carried a pretty decent looking cigar where I had ex