Slossonizing: Business and Industrv' HOWARD A. MARPLE Monsanto Ch,emical Company, S t . Louis, Missouri
D.
R. EDWIN Slosson was one of those rare indi-
vlduals who could interpret and humanize his profession. He did i t so accurately and well that as a result many nonscientists became intelligently cognizant of chemistry. He was one of those who have helped pull back the veil revealing chemistry as an adjunct to living and a promoter of human progress. Dr. Slosson was a good public relations man who deserves the emulation of present day industrial editors. May I suggest that chemists, too, might profit? However, he lived during the beginning of the end of house organs. Company-published magazines and newspapers up until a few years ago were pipsqueak back scratchers of management, spawned during the gay ninety period of smutty-story-telling salesmen. There are still some salesmen who peddle goods. Similarly, there remain among industrial editors some house organ grinders. The improved caliber of salesmen,whether they make personal appearances to the customers or are editor salesmen who present their wares by the printed page, is due a great deal to mauagement's increased vision and customer demand. Salesmen are highly educated and are not back slappers. Successful editors are professionals, no longer dilettantes. Today in the United States there are over 3000 industrial editors who are writing for 40,000,000 readers. As you well know, American business men, spending over 50,000,000 dollars each year for this selling medium, must have tangible evidence of the value of their expenditures. Let's quickly analyze the composite picture of this medium of the free enterprise system. Who was the first industrial editor, and what company sponsored the publication? It is not on the record, and undoubtedly this historical note is nonessential. However, i t is safe to assume that some early business man felt that he could add to the sales promotion of his goods or organization by writing to his customers in Presented before the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society, 106th meeting, Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania, September 7. 1943.
a friendly way and at regular intervals. He might have sent only a post card, but, if he did the job well, every word set down was potent friendly selling. His sales and prestige were extended and increased. Throughout the intervening years there have been added more and more forms and styles of this first industrial publication. There have been many outstanding editors. One among them you all know, the famed writer of the "Message to Garcia," Elbert Hubbard. This message he first published in his house publication called the Philistine, and it lived to rival the Bible in number of reprints. But all publications have not been of this nature, and national economic reverses have seen the most worthy discontinue publication. One to claim the longest continuous years of service is the Travelers' Protection, published by Travelers Insurance Company, started in 1865. Monsanto Magazine is even pleased with its record of 22 years of publication. But, company publications are not retained on the payrolls unless they have a definite aim and accomplish their reason for continuance. The record is clear that there are three general classifications, disregarding appearance and style. First, there is the employee or internal type of newspaper, bulletin, or magazine; second, the customer or external type; and third, the sales or dealer pnblication. Editing methods in each group may be diierent, or, as quite frequently happens, there is an overlapping of editorial approach. All, to be snccessful, must have one quality in common. They must be inviting, for, being free to the subscriber, there is no natural urge to read them. The employee type of pnblication has no standardized form, but there seems to be a distinct trend toward a newspaper style, because personal columns, news of the company activities, editorials, and spot news pictures seem naturally to call for the familiar newspaper format. Thouxh the employee publication may look like, and have
