Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/308

 294 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

remedies ? What young girl selecting silk for her adornment knows that oil-boiled taffeta is more durable than common silk at twice its price ; or why it is so ? And we all buy our wheels on the reputation of the manufacturer, without any knowledge of the qualities of the rubber, steel, brass, wood, and leather used in making them.

For certain great modern industries men have devised tests of the product ; and warships, locomotives, railway bridges, and electrical installations can all be tried and tested before the bills are paid ; but for the bulk of the product of present industry nothing effective has been devised corresponding to these tests. Especially is this true of all those branches of manufacture which were once carried on by women in the home, and have now gone out of it into shops and factories. Concerning these products purchasers must rely upon their individual skill as buyers. The old rule, caveat emptor, is here carried to its utmost application ; and in this connection producers suffer so keenly from the lack of intelligence on the part of consumers that they are actually fitting up museums for the purpose of educating them ; of which museums the new Commercial Museum in Philadelphia may be regarded as a promising type.

While, however, the most enlightened and progressive manu- facturers are thus approaching their problem along the road of education, the great mass of producers have long had recourse to the more simple device of advertising. This can lay no claim to any educational quality. It is distinctly not meant to educate or instruct, but to stimulate, persuade, incite, entice, and induce the indifferent to purchase. Much of the current advertisement, of which the patent-medicine advertisement may be taken as the type, is directly aimed at the ignorance of the purchaser. Nearly all of it is aimed at the cupidity of the public ; and it, therefore, offers cheapness as the one great characteristic. Now, the Consumers' League does not object to that cheapness which is achieved by the introduction of two-, four-, and ten-needle machines, driven by the dynamo, and used for sewing garments cut (144 at once) by the help of the electrical cutter. It does object to that cheapness which is attained by making children