in advertising are survivals of an unintelligent and unscientific
age; governmental appeals to an undefined patriotism and loyalty are out of harmony with the inquiring spirit that seeks to know how it may best serve its country . But all of the mis
directed zeal in advertising is but a tithe of the total effort that has been put into advertising to make it honest, effective, and representative of the highest ideals. For better and for worse the advertisement unconsciously records our imperfections as well
as our highest attainments; our sordid motives and our spiritual aspirations; our criminal tendencies and our conscientious lives. As is the world to -day , so is the advertisement.
Dr. Johnson wrote in the Idler, in 1759, “ The trade of ad vertising is now so near to perfection , that it is not easy to propose
is still true, and must always be true, that “ it is not easy to pro pose any improvement” in the advertisement as a record of our complex daily life . The advertisement therefore serves the historian in every part of his effort to reconstruct the past. If the advertisement is true,
the facts it states are of value. If the advertisement is not true, that in and of itself is a record of the low moral standards that are tolerated butnot acknowledged by the press and by the public. The tests that the historian applies to the advertisement to de termine its accuracy are simple , and moreover it is usually un to the reliability of the advertisements it publishes. Even more than that, the advertisement, true or false, is an invaluable record
in the reconstruction of the normal life of the past, - invaluable, because in large part unconsciously made and recording not only material conditions but even more clearly the intellectual and moral conditions from which they have sprung.
