Stock Character

Tycoon Robert Ralph Young, who takes as much pleasure in writing his own advertisements as in gobbling up more trackage, got a blow last week where it hurt. A Manhattan adman named Lawrence Fertig, who writes once a week for the New York World-Telegram financial page, criticized Bob Young's latest ad ("Let's Wake Up Rip Van Winkle").

Wrote Fertig: ". . . This advertisement was illustrated by a Gargantuan, vicious-looking creature, dressed in formal coat, silk hat, wing collar and white vest adorned by a huge gold chain . . . supposed to represent 'old line management.' It is a replica of the stock character employed by Communists to represent Capital. ... It tells the American public that everyone who manages our railroads (and, by association of ideas, all owners of capital) is cruel, lazy and indecent ... pariahs feeding off the poor laboring man. Such a concept, as it gains ground in the mass mind, allows for no exceptions. Ironically enough, it finally comes to the point where even Mr. Young, who is a prominent capitalist, becomes associated in the public mind with the rapacious figure he created."

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