The Scope of Publicity

Speaking before the Wellington Advertising Club on the 8th May, the General Manager (Mr. H. H. Sterling) dealt very effectively with the purposes and necessities of Publicity in relation to modern transport.

He said that he was not there as an expert in Publicity. It was not his business to be his own Chief Mechanical Engineer or Publicity Manager. As General Manager of Railways it was his duty to employ specialists to be in charge of these departments, and to engage them upon the work for which they had work for which they had the necessary qualifications and training.

“I don't like the word ‘Advertising,’” said Mr. Sterling. “I prefer ‘Publicity’ as being the term that conveys the wider implications of the duties that advertising or publicity is intended to fulfil.”

When the term “Advertising” was used, the first thing most people thought of was the “Wanted” advertisements in the newspapers or one of the various types of outdoor advertising.

The main reason why he approved of the word “publicity” was that he considered the work of the advertising controller came within the general classification of public relations. The public had to be related to business through extension of knowledge which would bring buyer and seller into harmony with each other.

The Function of Publicity.

“What,” continued Mr. Sterling, “is the function of a Director of Publicity? It is to let the potential buyer know the worth of what he has to sell.” The function of the publicity agent went far beyond that of mere cold-blooded salesmanship. He must be a public educator. “If he rises to this idealisation of his duties and opportunities he gets a position in public estimation that is really worth while. He ranks with the world's professional educators—its statesmen, architects, edusationists, doctors and engineers.

Mr. Sterling said that in administering the affairs of the Railways he aimed to place its publicity service on this plane. In order to bring its efficacy to the maximum it must be raised in dignity on a scale comparable with other professions.

The early economists used to describe the commercial traveller as the only man who was not a producer. In some aspects of advertising, that is, where it performed similar functions to those of the commercial traveller, it could be given a similar classification. “But,” he continued, “in their realisation of the purposes and opportunities of business the later economists had got beyond that stage, and put both in a higher rank. They now recognised both to be

New Zealand's Crack Train.
Daylight Limited leaving Frankton Junction, North Island.

page 21 part of the cost of production—a necessary antecedent to putting the goods into the hands of those who required them.”

The Ethics of Publicity.

Publicity was an education for the public in the development of wants. The aim and object of every human being was to develop towards improvement in some direction, and this could only occur as wants developed. It was admitted that publicity could sometimes produce a temporary success with a worthless article, but this took no account of moral obligations, and so was an outrage on the community. The moral difference between this and theft was negligible. The whole thing came back to the question of the conscience of the individual, and supplied a further reason why the status of publicity should be raised.

“Speaking to you as advertising experts, I say definitely that as the standard of your profession is raised by yourselves, so will you obtain a higher standard of appreciation and rank in the community.

“I feel that publicity, or advertising, goes further than merely informing people about what you have to sell. If you want to ‘get back’ on the economists you must do so by making the people interested in wants, for it must be recognised that the developement of wants tending to the benefit of the race is a useful economic function. True publicity is necessarily educational in character.

“The purpose of publicity,” continued Mr. Sterling, “was to create for the reader or hearer a realisation of something that he needed and would be better for—to bring to people the knowledge of something worth while.”

The Voice of Commerce.

It had been said that Transportation represented the arteries of commerce. If this were so, then publicity was its voice (applause), and according as publicity was able to make that voice sound in dulcet tones—pleasing to the people—so could be gauged the measure of its success. It had a technical duty to construct its message with the best sounding phrases, and at the same time a moral responsibility for doing the right thing by the public.

The development of publicity in recent years had been so great that its effect had been revolutionary in character, and, as with all revolutions, its moral effect was what would determine its true place in history.

Railways in their earlier stages represented a form of commercial life that partook of the nature of a monopoly, or quasi-monopoly, in regard to certain classes of transportation. In that condition the need for publicity was not either pressing or obvious. The general rule applied to them as to other monopolies. As the development of alternative means of transport took place, the monopoly aspect became less and less, and the importance of publicity in relation to them grew in inverse ratio.

Modern Publicity Methods.
A recent display by the Railways Publicity Branch in the window of Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd., Wellington.

Twenty years ago the New Zealand Railways constituted a quasi-monopoly. They had entered upon an altogether new phase now. In their publicity work they had to go forward without precedent, to conceive ideas and make experiment upon a large scale, and this all had to be done in a very brief period and in a time of very disturbed conditions.

“We have now,” said Mr. Sterling, “come to realise what advertising means to us. We have had to tell the public what we have to sell to get them interested in our operations, to tell them how the whole business of railroading is worked and to explain to the public the service which it is our function to provide.

New Zealand Railways Poster.
One of the latest examples of Railway publicity enterprise.

“To do this we have adopted various means, and have constituted a Specialist Department in that connection. We have busied ourselves in this work to the full extent of our means. It has been an uphill fight, as it nearly always is when any new thing associated with any public service is required.

The “Railways Magazine.”

“In our publicity work,” said Mr. Sterling, “the thing nearest and dearest to my heart has been the ‘Railways Magazine.’ A house magazine is an essential of modern business. No business of any size is now without one. I regard it as more important than almost anything.”

Mr. Sterling remarked that he was very proud of their publications, and went on to say how, even in such a back-block place as Okarito on the West Coast, the magazine was to be found, reaching people, definitely relating the Department's work to the public, and bringing home to them its usefulness.

Educating the Public.

Returning to the question of publicity generally, Mr. Sterling said that the Railways had to let the public know they had something to sell and all about it. “In regard to public transport, the Director of Publicity has to give the public a clear idea of how the business is functioning.” This latter aspect was all-important. A revolution had taken place in the circumstances surrounding the operations of transport and this important factor must be kept in mind.

A great deal of the Railway's difficulties was due to misunderstanding, confusion of ideas, and what he might describe as mental storms in the page 23 community. “This, I may remark,” said Mr. Sterling, “is not peculiar to our railways, but is liable to occur in connection with any business. We are endeavouring to convey to the people such knowledge as will enable them to understand perfectly the place of the railways in the social and industrial life of the people and how we function. Until that is done the difficulties will not be surmounted.”

Mr. Sterling said that railways were not the last word in transportation. Other factors had come in. Each had to be classified correctly and given that place in commercial life which it could best occupy in the community.

“We have definite knowledge,” said Mr. Sterling, “that many of our competitors are not working on an economic basis. There are many road hauliers that are doomed to economic extinction. As service on an uneconomic basis is contrary to the public welfare—it is really disservice—the publicity agent has to concentrate closely on the facts, make them known, and help things to settle down on a better basis.

Railways Publicity Branch.

“It is not too much to say,” said Mr. Sterling, “that the Publicity Branch has as great a responsibility as any of my branches. Its difficulties are great—while the other branches, Mechanical Engineering, Transportation, etc., have the accumulated knowledge gained in years of development behind them, Publicity is a birth of yesterday. It has had to grow without the aid of precedents and under adverse conditions.”

“I believe,” he continued, “that it is doing its job, and that we have been fortunate in the staff chosen for the work. The public viewpoint is rapidly becoming focussed in the right place. According as it does, so is the Publicity Branch performing a duty that takes its operations far outside that class, which, in the dictum of the economists, is ‘non-productive’.

“Publicity has thus a definite place in Economics. It gives flesh and life to the skeleton of Commerce, and insofar as it does so, is related to humanity in that it helps us to realise those things that are best for humanity and sets them up as ideals towards which we may aspire.

“If I had to choose a text for Publicity it would be based on the responsibility that rests on you all—not only a commercial, but a moral, responsibility to make towards the betterment of the human race—to increase the sum total of human happiness. The dry bones of £ s. d. may rattle on,” exclaimed Mr. Sterling, “but give me, everytime, the living being of useful service which transcends all else and makes us men in the truest sense. By whatever we do that helps to increase human happiness we are discharging our duty and at the same time doing the best for our own true welfare.” (Applause.)

“I like to feel that the Publicity Branch of the Railways is bringing to our people something worth while, and I believe my staff are being guided by the same ideals. We should be lost without it. With it, I feel sure we can do a useful service for the community.” (Cheers.)

The Mechanical arm of the Service.
Back Row (from left).—Messrs. S. H. Jenkinson, Office Engineer; C. V. Mills, Draughtsman; A. Taylor, Works Foreman; N. P. G. Ewart, Chief Clerk; J. Binsted, Asst.-Loco. Engineer; J. W. Lowry, Second Clerk; R. J. Gard, Chief Draughtsman; G. M. Slight, Works Foreman; H. Wylie. Works Manager; H. W. Dallison, Works Foreman. Front Row.—K. H. Gardner, Chemist; G. Wilson, Loco. Engineer; A. E. P. Walworth, Works Manager; L. W. Robertson, Loco. Engineer; G.S. Lynde. Chief Mech. Engineer; E. T. Spidy, Supt. of Workshops; A. D. F. Sampson, Works Manager; C. A. Jenkins, Works Manager; C. J. Graham, Works Manager.

“The negligence of nature, wide and wild;
Where undisguised by mimic art, she spreads
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye…”—James Thomson.
The Manga-tawhero Spur over the Wharau Range to Waikari-whenua, North Island, New Zealand.