EVENING LEDGER PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1915;
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Some Lesser Philadelphia Industries
7at Ought to Grow
"Make Philadelphia goods famous," say the
live ones.
"It can't be done," say all the rest. "It's all very
well to point to other cities and show how by
aggressive selling and advertising they have grown
great. But we don't make the kind of goods that
can be advertised and sold aggressively."
Don't we?
It is not claimed that all of the 8379 manufac
turers in Philadelphia should become national
figures. If only 100 of them did so, Philadelphia
goods would be famous.
There are 1208 bakers here. Almost all of
these are limited to the local market although one
among them, if he had vision and energy, might
build the Uneeda or the Sunshine or the Educator
of the next generation.
No one will argue that Baldwin locomotives
should be advertised to the general consumer.
But pass over the great industries of Philadel
phia for the moment. Remember that the great
advertised articles of today the Victrolas and
the Quaker Oats and the Ladies' Home Journals
grew from the humblest beginnings.
How about our lesser industries, in each of
which there should be the germ of one vast enter
prise. Soap
The total consumption of soap in this country
is more than $114,000,000.
Philadelphia, by the census, had 32 manufac
turers of soap, doing an average business of only
$228,000. In five years the number of workingmen
employed decreased.
If in any industry advertising has proved its
power, it is in soap. Ivory, Fairy, and a dozen others
are vivid illustrations.
Why not more Philadelphia advertising of soap?
Stoves and Furnaces
By the last census there were in Philadelphia
20 manufacturers of stoves and furnaces (including
gas and oil stoves). Their average gross business
was only $104,000. Five years before there were
17 manufacturers with an average of $115,000.
The number of workingmen employed decreased.
Why should there be a decrease in the employ
ment and average output of Philadelphia's stove
and furnace factories ?
Among these 20 should there not be one, or two,
or three who can see the opportunity that was seen
by manufacturers in Detroit and other cities whose
stove and furnace manufactures have made their
products great?
Wall Paper
In ten years the wall-paper output of this coun
try increased nearly $4,000,000. But Philadelphia's
wall-paper factories shrunk from 1 1 to 4, and their
output fell off $300,000 with a decrease of more
than 200 in workingmen employed.
Has any Philadelphia wall-paper manufacturer
thought of national advertising as a solution ?
Canning and Preserving
It is not entirely a story of decrease. Sometimes
it is merely a story of comparative lack of increase.
Canning and preserving, for example, was carried
on in Philadelphia in 1909 by 23 establishments,
producing $2,500,000 worth of goods, and showing a
good percentage of increase.
But right across the river, in Camden, we see
the stacks of a plant which eighteen 'years ago was
as small as most of these 23 Philadelphia plants.
Since then it has grown to occupy 100 times not
100 per cent., but 100 times greater floor space, and
Campbell's soups are known throughout the nation.
Advertising did it.
And yet we have no great canning factory in
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia's chief industries are (l) textiles,
(2) publishing and printing, (3) sugar refining, (4).
foundry and machine shop products.
But that is no reason why Philadelphia's fame,
Philadelphia's business and Philadelphia's opportu
nity for laboring men should not be increased by the
advertising of stoves, of soap, of canned goods, of
wall-paper, of other products now ranked among
her lesser industries.
We should he glad to offer suggestions to am
bitious manufacturers in any of these industries.
The Ladies' Home Journal The Saturday Evening Post The Country Qentleman
IJhe Curtis Publishing Company, Independence Square, Philadelphia
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