Newspapers / The Courier (Asheboro, N.C.) / Sept. 29, 1907, edition 1 / Page 8
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1 llllDll NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING THE KEY TO SUCCESS Told Iff a Han 'Who Uteg&n Life at a Shoemakers Stench, fec9me Governor of his State and l$ Now Head of a Buines3 Empire. TO JCopyrlfht 1907 by Henry O. T'lianl.) A face enough like Bismarck's to tnake the resemblance startling, a lender, wiry, boyish figure topped by white head, a manner selC-assureJ, fet never coarsely aggressive. There, In a nutshell. Is the personality of one f the most picturesque. Interesting figures In all New England that of W. 3U Douglas, ex-Governor of Massachu setts. But It Is not chiefly as ex-Governor, cr Indeed as statesman at all, that the world at large knows Mr. Douglas. A quarter-mile of factories, a yearly out put of something over time million pairs of shoes, and a face that looks out from the advertis ng culumr.s o: elght thousand newspapers these a:j the outward attributes that have :n i.le the name of W. L. Douglas so familiar from Maine to California. The story of the man who eoulJ aia!;n himself so well known; his secret of achievement, his life history and his bints on business success will not only be of Interest, but of profit to every class of reader. For the description of a hard climb. Cf a winning fight against or.nai Stances and the climber's" rules fir victory are always worth hearing. The world loves a fighter and takes an in terest In his battles. And VT. L. Douglas is a t'ni.t t. as even the most isu.il student human nature coulu pi an f r :n one glance at the strong, promhiet.t jiw. the level brows, the firm set of the l:p. That cast of feature.- set Hismarck to toppling K'ir peun throne. ,',;e saute physiognomy (with a s.-ntie; mould of eye and mouth) has c ius.-,l Douglas to revolutionize in..-:n -s. to wring weilth from poverty ui. 1 poi.t cal power fr,.:n a State peopled !.y ;i niaj n-ity that d.:' fers from him in polities. Bismarck tore d wn. Douglas has built up. That is where the milder eye end mouth come in. Tin-re Is a keyword to Douglas's suc cess, of course. Several of them, in fact. The foremost Is "Advertising.'' His Life Motto. "Newspaper advertising" is his life motto in business. "First, be :uro yru have something worthy to advertise. Something just as good as you .y it Is. Struggle to keep it as good, and then advertise it constantly. 7hi newspaper is the field in w.ih.i my ad vertising has brought me t.. only per fectly satisfactory r-t urns. And I Ln tried many lins !":' ,:e s.-uh:.g u r.vn exclusively to tu.it ti eory." The same "cradie" s-rw 1 It Net. England and for the man wV, was day to be Governor ef U o. ie-t State. For It was in cneient plym utb. of the Pilgrim' landinu. I hit ltu-!..3 was born, In 1i4."i. His was as patuetic and hopeless a childhood e ever Dick ens pictured for David Coppcrlield or other of his luckless boy heroes. That Douglas rose from 't to any later posi tion whatever speaks volumes for tiie stuff he was made of. rlymouth In 1850 news came to woman that her husband, the bread winner of their large family, had been drowned at sea. All the children were young. The mother was almost with out means. So two years later she verbally "bound out" one of the brood a precocious boy of seven to his uncle, a shoemaker. The child's life from then on became one long era of drudgery and hardship. His uncle set him at once to pegging shoes by hand. This was a task for grown worker;, but the baby fingers were kept at t he Incessant toil of it from dawn to dark. ?o holiday, no let-up of any sort, and, worst of all, no wages. Tiie seven-year-old boy was carrying unduly heavy weapons in his life-bat-tie. He has been carrying th"m ever Since. His ahlity to do so explains why lie became' Governor William L. Douglas, instead of merely Journeyman Hi.! DotiIas. His uncle was a stern task-master. '" ' ' " ' -'"."xtnriri", th- ch'.:i ... . . . H'1 of : .. ..i.y severe - ... v.as the twiee-n th.y Joura.-y into in-; woods, in bitterest New F.r.'ihmd winter weather, to cut ..nd drag in wood for the shop's fires. Only at rare Intervals was he allowed to leave his workbench for tiie sUiool room. But at such pcrlo is he proved so !,pt a scholar as to make nn (cr V.-.s long lapses, lie was greedy for eduea tiosi and seemed to absorb 1.1s soan'y portion of it without effort. It was only by this strange prnfleiency that he fleamd any learn ng at all. For four yoirs the slavery went on. Then Douglas returned to his mother. Hut so valuable had he heeonic In the Shop that his uncle indu-ed him to co.ne buck to him at the munificent wage of t"i a month. Vtitil lie was fif teen he continued to work thus, all the titpe busy with new ideas along his o-vn line. These Ideas were one day to bear fruit. Once, seeking to berr himself, he went to work in a Plymouth cotton mill at 33 cents a day. This meant fully IS a month, and the $1 raise Seemed not unlike a dream of wealt'i. But fata I Vrtl U HON. WM. L. DOUGLAS, 5f hzS& X f. h-i r 1 K I I ; in?n1 hint f: 1 ci'linf?. ' f "Huji- r when lie eeideiit in! .nd to his ; ' lljrswas a lit-r.i! .-..mh.aii. maker, stick to thy l.t.-tl" 1 disobeyed the injunction an . t!i cotton mill put a quick ; plans of becoming a weaver. Douglas i was pulled out of the debris with a broken leg. That ended his cottoh-mill experiences. I He went back to his mother. Thlle i . . , . . , . . . school and once more planned for a full education. But the lash of poverty that has whipped so many men on to greatness was busy about the young student's shoulders and drove l.im back to the earning of a living, just as he I was leginn ng Vo rejoice in his school I ; progress. I No longer content to work aimlessly 'at one job and a.iotocr, Douglas now I set about learning the boot and shoe i business from bottom to lop. In all its ! brandies. From town to town he ' j worked his way. studying the mcthous of each shop until l.e hud mastered ! every rudiment of his chosen profession. I Lure of the Golden West. Tty the spr ng of ISiIJ he felt ready to t start in for himself. Like miioy an- j other ambitious boy, ut that time lie j j fancied the future was brighter in the; new West than nearer home. So to j Denver he went, carrying along his I hardly-acquired Ftoek of cobbl ; iedgo-and little else. i Arriv.ug iacr ne found capital was ! as n 'elf u! iu r dorado as Lm Masra- . unset, i. To a quire this capital he iu'.k tiie first work thai offered. Tiie work in quest ion ihun ed to be the not very congen al position uf day la borer in a lime-kiln. Not exactly a brilliant fuHUment of toe golden promise of tiie '.'cit. nor a Direct advan 'einent toward siicecfs !n tiie shoe trade. Hut Douglas went on the principle that M)"'-ess consists less In holding a eooil hand tii'in in playing a poor hand well. Working hard arid spending little, he at last saved enough to travel to the town of Hlai k Hawk, where, he had heard, lived one Zepheniah Myers, one of the most skilled bootmakers in America. From Myers the young man learned t ho finishing touches that spelled perfection in his tiadu, and he soon acquired so wide a reptttation In the same business us ti outstrip his tutor. Douglas and anothpr man formed a partnership and s'arted a flourishing boot and shoe store at Golden City. But Now Knglmd always calls to her sons. J-ouiui; heard the call and BY ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE came hick to Massachusetts. TVorklng as journeyman and later as foreman, he passed tiie next few years, and in July, ISTti, made the plunge that began his r.ra.1 career. He borrowed SS75 and started a factory of his own. This "factory" was small enough to be swal lowed up in the moot Insignificant work shop of his present building. It was just 30 by 60 fest (1,800 square feet) In area. Yet It was the nucleus of the plant that now has an area of 203,950 square feet. Prosperity came, but did not arrive fast enough to suit the ar.ioitio'is young financier. He looked means of increasing it ninr The method he chose was ml for . i-.illy. 1 and unceasing newspaper From the first tiie j ia:i v a It has grown more ai.d mcr tive each year. "Have 1 tried any ndc iliums other tiian tiie new.; said recently, cchoin.: a i;u :.l g. vriler. ireuia ft: "Mu. .ons. L-lvcr- n: r- e ?r d. lit ti.- mnit wi pag'-s of a found his s trong aii nt .er. ercas iind time to p the advcrtisi-m "Tlicn, too, reads a newsj not read tnag.ii instance, where ija s (icrbaps advertisement are going to s ' laboriously .i all tus of a tnagaziiie. practically every man uper. Kvcry man does ii.es. Take a viliaj-o. for 'ie one local newspaper v readers. If 1 put nn n that paper. L'lm people ona magazine. nor. lor tht matter, all the magazines combined, will c.reulatc 200 copies in that same town. The reasoning is very simple. "There s no hamlet or tiny settlement on the continent that is not rea bed by ne.vspapers. There Is no place where newspapers are not read with eager in terest. So by placing my advertlsment In the newspapers it is a self-evident proposition Uiat I will ruaua mure peo ple than any other medium could se cure for me. Key to Financial Success. "That Is why I advertise exclusively In newspapers. I advertise not only in the papers of all the principal cities, but also In S,0u0 country newspapers." If the cynical claim that "money Is the final argument" carries any truth, then Mr. Douglas's sincerity in declar ing the newspaper the foremost adver tising medium cannot be doubted. "In l!Ki alone," he went on, "I spent $201,000 In newspaper advertisements. I should not have done so were I not sure tiie outlay was going to bring me ade ouate returns. That was a fair sample of a year's advertising expenditure. Figuring on that basis I have spent - ""s. $j, uou.iijo in newspaper advertising during .era-j t'le past tcn yearg. fortune? Tes. i Uut. ns 1 say, the results warranted it. : me- hive given every form of adver ''s"" ho jtui l3 tna fairest sort nf trial. I bejan f the i win, newspapers in 1SS3. The results .zincs, I were so good that later I also adver 1 many tUed in nagazines. THE UETUHX3 'l ooted DID NOT WAKHANT M13 IN CON-ad-TINUING. I withdrew my advertlse . 1 roofs ! merits from the magazines, but later on trijd tiie experiment again. Once more I took out my advertisements, and since thn I have used only newspapers to bring my goods before the public eye. "During the past decade, while I was spending t2,lKKi,rjo for newspaper adver tisements. I sold ibasing'tiip estimate on r.iy J.rf return.;) 1.3.4.:'40 cases of shoes, There are twenty-four pairs of slums to ja ca.-.e. that makes a total of 3.i:j.lTG ! pairs lor l'Wii, or Sl.TKI.7ii0 pairs for the ; ten years. At the wholesule price of !J..VJ a pa r, that would b, for the dec- a ja.lo, J',!i.r,4"0. Or, at the r tail rate of vil.'ti a pair, it would equal $111.236.1tffl. "In my iu! erti.-eaients, as a ride, I call attention to my shoes, leaving the local dealer.! In their own newspaper advertisements to mention the fact that they carry I lie Douglas shoe. ' By the way. another excellent rea sen for tin superiority of newspaper over mag.az ne advertising rests In the fact that in those same local papers the reader sees the 'ad' every day of his life, while he sees it, ut best, only once a month in n magazine. In other words, he sees it thirty times as often In a newspaper, and it has, therefore, thirty times as many chances of im pressing him. Every man reads his paper first. Then, if he has time and incline Hon, he reads magazines. Some times' he has neither, and tbVmagazine goes unread. "I am not a be..:ver in spasmodic advertisement. My principle is: Keep pounding away at the reader all the time. Formerly it used to be a custom, to advertise shoes at only certain sea sons of the year. I never adhered to that Idea. I advertise and I keep on advertising. "When a season Is dull I Increase my advertisements. That may seem odd. Many don't do it But I do. "That is one of the secrets, I think, of success. Instead of hanging back, waiting for a slack season to pass, I believe in advertising all the more. This past spring, for example, was backward and cold. It was bad for trade. I did extra advertising. "Nor, at ,such times, do I raise the price of shoes. It would not be fair to make the public pay for the slowness of a season. I do not lower wages In that event, either, as the 1906 scale will prove. The scale for that year shows the average shoemaker's pay In the United States was 1461. In Massachu setts it was $a30. In Brockton, tti-S; while at my Montello factory it was STtX). That docs not Include superinten dents and high salaried men. Just the workers, on the union scale. "Another advertising theory of mine Is that a good 'ad.' should be changed very seldom. Of course in the case of dry goods stores or other places where special sales are held and new attrac tions offered from time to time it is necessary to change the form and in ducements of an advertisement. But w here a man deal in a single staple article, I think he should write one strong, convincing advertisement and let that stand for a long time. "Let him make sure first that it is the strongest, best-worded advertise ment he can concoct. Then let It stand. "There are good reasons for this. Sup pose a man has glanced at my adver tisement for several days in succession without reading It. Then one morning he does read it. That may be the day when (if I constantly change my 'ads.') I might have a weaker, less attractive, less convincing one than usual. Per haps I lose his possible custom. "A good advertisement is an argu ment. Itemember that. An argument. Not a boast. It does not shout an un reasonable command to buy something. It explains to you WHI you should buy the article. It appeals to your sense or reason. It should never exa gerate in any way, but tell the mere truth. Base Claims on Merit. "An advertisement should never claim for toods mors advantages tban they actually possess. An article must tiaT merit real merit and its proprietor must fight, every minute, to keep ths quality high. Success must not lurs him into letting up, one atom, on high quality. If he does. In the course of time he will lose. Some people get to making money fast. Then they think they can lower the quality (and, inci dentally, the cost of production), and make more. I have made more be cause my goods are worth more. "It is a strange fact that fully two fifths of the shoes sold throughout the entire week are sold on Saturday. Whether because that Is pay day or merely because It is a favorite shop ping day J don't know, but the fact remains, and we regulate our adver tising accordingly; making It heaviest toward the latter part of the week. Of course, with a magarlne (published only onr a month) this would be im-pri.-tl able. The Douglas shoe Is sold all over the t'nited States and also has a large sals in Canada and Mexico, besides having created more or less of a European de mand. I employ 4.000 persons in making and selling my shoes, and I own and operate seventy retail shoe stores in the lare c ities. The vast area covered by my dealers renders it all the more nec essary for me to use local newspapers from one end of the land to the other to advertise my shoes, and made it the more needful for me to study out care fully Just what would be the best me dium through which I might reach the people at large." Concerning those 4.000 employees whom Mr. Douglas fi casually men tioned, nn entire article of more than common Interest might be written. They form a sort of Utopian community whereof he Is the head. At his expense all of them are provided with medical care in Illness, and they are In other ways m ide to feel his personal Interest in them. The labor question assumes none of its harsher features In the Douglas plant. Py special agreement between tiie proprietor and his workmen, all differences, so far as possible, are mu tually adjusted. Those which ennnot be thus disposal of will by common consent be submitted to the State Board of Arbitration and Conciliation, that body's iK 'is, on to be blnd'ng on both disputants. In this way strikes and lockouts are unknown among the Douglas-workmen, and the rdeasantest feeling has always existed between employer and em ployed. Since the beginning of his first cam paign of newspaper advertising, in 1SS3, Mr. Douglas has gradually but steadily become known to nearly every one in America. The face that looks out from the diamond-shaped frame in his ad vertisements is familiar to all. Tet the face that accompanies this article gives a lar more accurate idea of the Wil liam L. Douglas of to-day. The char acter reader may peruse there the rea sons why a lowly start In life had no 1 power to check this man's rise. uy Judicious newspaper advertising Douglas quickly "outgrew" factorv after factory until. In ISM, he erected the huge works now in use at Montello, Just out of Boston. Hit Payroll Grew. " v Here his payroll grew until It num bered its present 4,000 names. Hera, too, grew the facilities for turning out shoes in unparalleled number a Knot 17,800 pairs a day being the capacity now. In the Jobblna house alnn. ,r million pairs of shoes are carried at all times in stock. The factory or factories, for thera are two of them practically Joined un der one series of roofs cover as much . space as the walls of an ancient city, " and are arranged in rectilinear lines. witn wide-reaching wings, like anfllad. ing earthworks. The man who employed newspaner ad. vertlslng as the magic wand to raise this mighty structure from the earth still works as hard. In his own way, as did the seven-year-old carrier of wood ana pegger of shoes. Outside offics hours he is of simple, domestic tastes, his one "rich man's amusement" taking the form of frequent cruises on his big steam yacht, the Machigonne. He has found time, too, as all New England knows, to make a decided Im pression in the field of politics. A stanch Democrat, he has served la both houses of the State Legislature, framed the arbitration and weekly payl ment laws, was Mayor of Brockton in 1890. and has four times been chosen as delegate to the national conventions. His victorious campaign for the Gov ernorship of Massachusetts was such as to awaken national interest Through out his term f Governor he conducted his great personal business Interests as well as those of the State In such a way that neither suffered from Inatten tion. His wide use of . newspaper ad vertising during the Gubernatorial con test was one of the most striking feat ures of the campaign and contributed In no light measure to his triumph. Why a man like Douglas, having made such giant strides In the world of business, should have sought the Gov ernorship was a puzzle to many. And not a few wondered that he was not satisfied with the success he had al ready won. But the man who is satisfied with suc cess would be satisfied with failure. uo not minic William U Douslas would be satisfied with either B - J..
The Courier (Asheboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 29, 1907, edition 1
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