JANUARY, 1924
THE UNITED AMERICAN
residential sections of the well-to-do, should come out
on their well-kept lawns one fine morning and discover
that during the dark hours of the night some “pro
gressive” advertising concern, anxious to tell of the
good quality of the latest marvels in facial creams, in
soaps, in better oils, in better rubber goods, or in
better homes, had placed huge signs with grotesquely
painted figures, probably very attractive, on the front
of the vacant lot next door or across the street, there
would be a great hue and cry of protest. They would
unhesitatingly brand such advertisers and their sign
builders as miscreants, void of respect for their fel
lowman and would rely on public opinion to sustain
them in their contentions that the advertisements
should be removed on the ground that the signs would
destroy the natural and unmarred beauty of their
homesections, that they would create anything but a
favorable impression on the visitor and traveler in
passing and, last but not least, that the presence of
these signs would tend to reduce the value of their
properties.
Yet these very business directors and heads of in
dustries, seeking to attract attention to their pro
ducts, are guilty of having disfigured the Oregon
landscape, marring its natural beauty and creating
anything but a favorable impression upon the trav
eler, by their objectionable signs along every rail line,
highway and automobile road, where you have to gaze
upon their painted signs at every vantage point along
almost every strip of pavement in the state. In
shrieking colors (offensive and often repulsive) signs
are now detracting the tourists’ attention along every
Oregon road. Trunks and limbs of trees in many of
the real beauty spots of Oregon are even adorned with
some sort of advertising or other. Rocks, boulders
and even cliffs have been conscripted to carry “the
news” of some enterprising manufacturers’ or deal
ers’ wares.
Oregon’s scenic beauty along our roads and high
ways is gradually being destroyed by the advertisers
who profess to believe that “Road sign advertising is
the best form of publicity.” While these advertisers
would not for a minute tolerate loud display signs
on the lot next to their residential property, they
try to build their business by placing similar signs
along the Oregon highways and roads wherever they
can bargain with the owners of the land for permis
sion to erect these signs in lieu of a paltry cash
tender.
There is perhaps only one way to deal with this
road sign evil—to legislate against it. Other states
have suffered likewise and after having failed to
obtain results by appeal to civic pride, have had to
make such advertising methods unlawful in the in
terest of the state, and penalize the offenders.
Contending that the travelers, sightseeing tourists
and possible settlers, passing through the state by
train or in automobiles, should not be regarded as an
asset to individual business houses, but to the state,
and feeling that the travelers should not be compelled
to have the beautiful view's and vistas profaned by
painted signs, several states of the Union have al
ready caused the enactment of prohibitive laws.
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Speaking on this subject the governor of Illinois
recently said:
Illinois has seen the logic of preserving the right of wry in
this respect with the result that we have hundreds of miles of
drives fringed with grass, trimmed to a lawn-like nicety, and
unmarred by unsightly billboards, which are so often seen in
neighboring commonwealths.
The civic pride of that commonwealth is amply ex
pressed by the executive of that state and carries a
poignant rebuke to the people of the states where no
action has been taken against the billboard or road
sign nuisance.
Connecticut recently adopted laws for “signless,
clean and unobstructed highways” and is backing up
its laws prohibiting such form of publicity. The state
of Minnesota has also sought relief against the road
sign advertiser, by making it unlawful as per an en
actment that went into affect December 1, 1923,
whereby provision is made for the elimination of ad
vertising signs already standing as well as prohibiting
the construction of new ones.
Let us take steps to eliminate this form of cheap
advertising in Oregon before the time comes that
these advertisers will be so numerical that they will
be able to block any move to legislate against them.
The commercial organizations of the cities may not
be expected to take the lead in a campaign against the
billboard and road sign nuisance. The reasons are
obvious. The Grange and the women organizations
are in a position to set in motion a machinery that
eventually will bring about the adoption of legal
remedies against‘all road sign advertising and dis
agreeable billboards throughout the Oregon country.
Someone has aptly said that “desire discounts cost
and discovers some way to overcome it.” The truth of the
saying is amply proven where people rave over their inability
to buy this or that necessity, yet always seem to have the cash
for non-essentials and even prohibited commodities. If you
have your doubts talk to the bootlegger who is peddling hootch
from ten to twenty dollars a gallon to dwellers in shanties and
newbeginners’ homes in the suburbs (later to be used as
garages); observe the office boys vlio are playing pool at a
dollar an hour; notice the people living in rented houses who
“can’t afford anything,” yet spend an amount in a funeral that
would buy a small home; watch the hostler who wears a shabby
overcoat but makes his payment on a diamond horseshoe. And
there are the working girls who pass up lunches but must have
elegant furs and fur coats. And so the story may continue in
definitely in support of the contention that we are perfectly
willing to pay and sacrifice to obtain that which we desire and
curse all the time the items and their size that we are called
upon to pay as our share in sustaining interests in common
with others.
We suggest that it is time to “organize” the Ameri
can “leaners” into a compact “clubbing” association, taking
over the innumerable publicity agencies now at work creating
a receptive mood on the part of the public and engage all
trained public charity publicists now working up sentiment for
unlimited publicly sustained betterment agencies with high sal
aried college trained specialists to ferret out new and hitherto
undiscovered wrinkles of justifiable human dependance. The
dependant citizens should in no time be able to outvote the
independent citizens if they functioned properly as an organi
zation and controlled an agressive publicity bureau. The
potential political possibilities for such an organization are so
unlimited that the “fraternal” lights in our political fraterni
ties are becoming green with envy.