Auto-Advertising

Progressive cities and towns, like efficient firms, are good advertisers, the main difference being that the former do not spend much money on this modern cult.

One of the greatest auto-advertisers is the Middle Western City of Chicago. One thing dear to the heart of the gumchewing section of Chicago is a joke at the expense of New Yorkers.

So when Harry J. Luce, President of Maillard, Inc., (euphemism for a restaurant at which the privileged few can toy with a few dainties at an an exclusive price) "discovered Chicago" and forthwith leased 20,000 square feet of floor space in the Straus Building, the Chicago Tribune, which as everyone knows is the "world's greatest newspaper," splurged for a whole column.

The simple story was that Mr. Luce desired the floor space for a new restaurant which is to cater to Chicago's fastidious few. The Tribune must have more "kick," so it vapored about "a few daring New Yorkers" venturing into the "far West," discovering Chicago and telling their friends about it. Mr. Luce had been told by "some such explorer" that Chicago existed, but he had been cold to his informer; for he remembered that "a fourth cousin of his on a western hunting trip" had sent him a postcard of the place.

All this is contained in the auto-advertising slogan of: "Don't Knock, Boost"; but to boost successfully something apparently has to be knocked, which, while amusing the gum-chewers also serves to maintain the world's greatest newspaper.