Prices

The price of construction lumber, as reported in the wholesale price indexes of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, has continued in downward trend. This index in March was 116.7 compared with 118.8 in December and 117.2 in February.

In April bids on defense requirements there has been considerable price decline for the principal lumber items.

It appears that the decline especially in the South has been followed by a partial cessation of production among marginal producers, and by a diminution of the extent and activity of current bidding on defense lumber requirements.

Exports

Lumber exports in the first quarter of 1941 totaled 149 million feet, 17 percent less than in the same quarter of 1940 and 13 percent less than in the last quarter. In the first quarter of 1941 lumber imports increased 55 percent over last year.

Log exports increased 1 percent; log imports declined 10 percent, as compared with similar period of last year. Total exports of lumber and logs in the first quarter of 1941 were 15 percent below last year; total imports of lumber and logs increased 38 percent.

Residential Building

Residential building in the first quarter of 1941 was 35 percent above 1940 in floor space and 37 percent in value, according to reports of the F. W. Dodge Corporation for 37 eastern states.

In comparison with the last quarter of 1940, the decline in floor space was 29 percent; in value, 18 percent. All construction valuation in 37 states was 58 percent above the first quarter of last year and 13 percent below the last quarter.

The March valuation figure was highest since June, 1930, but like the high total of December, 1940, was unduly weighted by an accumulation of large defense items on which details were not previously available.

New Appointment

Dr. Wilbur A. Nelson, professor Economic Geology and head of the Geology Department at the University of Virginia, has been appointed as a staff expert to the Ferrous Alloys and Minerals Branch of the Priorities Division.

Born in Nashville, Tenn., February 14,

1889, Dr. Nelson was graduated from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, in 1910. He took his M. A. degree in Geology from Stanford University, Calif., in 1914.

Dr. Nelson has served with the Tennessee Geological Survey and has been State Geologist for both Tennessee and Virginia.

A new version of the old "better mousetrap" theory is shown in the survey made recently by the Advertising Research Foundation, sponsored jointly by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers.

The play's the thing, this survey finds, the play on words and illustrations, the sales talk, in other words--the job of advertising done, and not the size of the advertisement, the right or lefthandedness of the page, or whether the ad is on the upper or lower half of the page.

As "Sales Management" Magazine puts it, commenting on the survey: "Some critics claim that advertising promotes monopoly by permitting large companies, with large expenditures, to 'dominate' media. Such advertisers, they say, can afford to buy much larger units or more preferred positions of space or time... What chance has a 100-line ad beside a 1,000line ad?"

Size Is Not Paramount

These findings, which upset some ideas long cherished by orthodox theorists and also by some very practical and skilled men in the field of advertising, should act as a blood transfusion for tired and jaded copywriters and layout men, who must have wondered, at times, whether their efforts were appreciated, and whether it was not better to shout loudly, through a megaphone of full-page space, rather than skillfully, in a moderate space.

Mr. and Mrs. Reader of Newspaper Advertisements have said, in this survey, that they are looking at the picture rather than at the frame, that a sound idea, well-presented, is what gets their attention, and presumably their money, and that they are no longer interested in inferior goods wrapped up in a gaudy and expensive package.

The survey contains enough that is good, startling and stimulating without any forced

One feature that practically all of these attention-winning advertisements have in common is illustration. Usually the illustration is of people, and action is definitely shown in most cases, in others it is indicated. While some of the illustrations--and the best onesare photographic, some of the advertisements have been very effectively illustrated with pen and ink drawings.

The attention-getting power of the editorial style advertisement appears on the wane. Hand-drawn types, irregular and broken margins, and careful harmonizing of various type faces, have been used to attract the eye, but pictures have been included, apparently as vital to present-day advertisements. There are some very effective and appealing pictures of children and of animals, especially in the national advertising, and the advertising man's predilection for this type of attention-getter has been thoroughly justified.

The layout man comes into his own in a big way, because these advertisements show some recession from the bizarre and almost grotesque distortions of space and line which were popular for a time, and show instead a skillful blending of the elements of space, type, line and illustration which are aesthetically pleasing.

The use of great expanses of white space seems to have gone by the board. One advertisement, of an alcoholic beverage, uses white space freely because of the nature of the illustration, but this is probably not a

typical white space ad.

out.

Neither is the crowded advertisement losing In the grocery and drug classification, in the local retail advertising, there are some advertisements which are crowded to the gunwales with small illustrations, brief catalogtype messages, prices, and boxes.

Whether these advertisements are genuine attention-winners or get action because newspaper readers have become accustomed to looking in such copy for day-to-day values, it is impossible to say from this survey. Habit undoubtedly is a factor in advertisement reading which has not been adequately appreciated.

What Draws Men, Women

One of the most interesting features of the survey is the difference in reaction of men and women. The national advertisement which received the most attention, one of a nationally advertised motor oil, won more attention from women than from men, probably because it showed a child and a donkey, and there may be a moral in that for the copywriter who wants to get women interested in a product ordinarily purchased by the man the house.

Incidentally, that advertisement was the only one in the automotive national advertisements which won more attention from women than from men,

In such fields as automotive and tobacco products, women have almost as high a degree of interest as men, judged from the tabulations, and also, strangely enough, in the field of alcoholic beverages, the attention of women is as keen as that of men.

One unexplainable quirk is that one cigarette advertisement and one whiskey advertisement won more attention from men, in one case, and more attention from women, in another presentation, although both advertisements were identical in copy and layout. An advertisement for linoleum floor covering won more attention from men than from women. The reason is not apparent.

Men seem to have little interest in grocers and butchers advertisements, also little in toilet requisites and women's shoes, but

of righthand pages might not have been due to the fact that the best advertisements were placed on righthand pages, rather than that poor or mediocre advertisements were given extra value because of their position on a righthand page.

The same thing applies to "above the fold" and "below the fold". More attention was won by ads placed on the lower half of the page than by those above.

Finally, much more attention was given to

advertisements placed after page 7 than those placed ahead of that page, probably because of the influence of comic strips and sports pages.

It should be borne in mind that this survey of newspaper advertising is not to be taken as a criterion for magazine advertising. Make-up, contents, and other factors indicate that magazine advertising requires a similar survey before the results of this newspaper study could be accepted as typical of public reactions to advertising.

The Proclamation of the President issued May 27 declaring an unlimited emergency implies that the President may now propose to employ some of the extensive powers granted in Acts passed in World War days, although it appears that prior "limited emergency" proclamations actually called these Acts into force. Before employing new powers, however, it is probable that the President will issue a separate proclamation or executive order invcking each as required.

CONGRESS

The bill (H. R. 4466) to acquire title to or use of domestic or foreign merchant vessels was sent to the White House for approval, as three important bills approached final passage: H. R. 4700, provide for priorities in transportation; H. R. 4534, to extend powers of the President to establish priorities and allocate materials, and H. R. 4646, to extend the time for exercising powers over the stabilization fund and alteration of the weight of the dollar.

New bills related to national preparedness are: H. R. 4868, to punish interference with foreign relations, neutrality and foreign commerce of the United States (House Rept. No. 637); H. R. 4784, relating to preventing

publication of inventions in the national interest (House Rept. No. 613); and S. 1544, to help build the Inter-American Highway.

Agriculture is the subject of H. R. 4846 and H. R. 4883; the first seeks to provide adequate markets and fair prices for agricultural commodities produced in the United States, eliminate the necessity for mandatory reductions in crop production, provide a method for the exchange of surplus agricultural commodities for products of foreign countries on a basis mutually advantageous to agricultural and manufacturing interests, and promote trade in the interest of friendly and peaceful relations among nations.

The Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 would be amended by H. R. 4850; the Sugar Act of 1937 by H. R. 3582 (Hcuse Rept. No. 614); and the Agricultural Adjustment Act by H. R. 4886 (in respect of tobacco quotas).

THE COURT

The decisions of the Supreme Court were of wide interest but outside the scope of commercial news. Despite a vacancy in its membership, the Court has cleaned up a heavy docket. With one more decision day ahead before recess, the docket held only nine cases for adjudication.