Article October 6, 1934 Issue

When I was asked to speak this evening I looked up...

Address by Miss Lucia C. Coulson at a Meeting of Advertising Information Committees—in Boston, May 21, 1934

The Christian Science Monitor

When I was asked to speak this evening I looked up the word "advertise" and found that the most comprehensive definition given was "to inform." Instantly, those words of our Leader's in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 332) came to my thought: "Wisely governing, informing the universe, this Mind is Truth." So God is continually informing the universe! We could think for some time about this, about the way in which God informs His universe, and the varied infinite qualities which He manifests, each one ours to express, each one belonging to us, if it belongs to Him—by reflection.

The right idea of advertising, then, is to inform the world rightly, wisely, honestly, of things that are useful and beneficial, and in this as in other helpful journalistic matters The Christian Science Monitor must lead the way, must set up a standard for the people. No newspaper could be complete without advertising. The abuse of advertising is apparent on every side. There are plenty of obnoxious, misleading, and injurious advertisements to be seen. These cannot find their way into The Christian Science Monitor. Those of you who are in charge of the advertising are performing a great duty in presenting to the world the right idea of advertising, and we others have also a duty to perform in taking advantage of what you present in the pages of our newspaper.

I should like to tell you how I was able once to advertise the Monitor in the jungles of Africa. I was traveling through Rhodesia on a lecture tour, and it was an especially wild and uninhabited part of the country. Suddenly the train came to a standstill in a small clearing, and we heard a voice from without saying, "Has anyone got any papers to give to poor fellows who seldom hear a word from the outside world?" Looking out of the window, we saw a long line of men walking through the grass by the side of the train. Their leader and spokesman was evidently an Englishman; we decided that he was a retired military officer. The men following him, however, evidently belonged to many and various nations. One was certainly an Italian, others might have been German, Dutch, or Swedish.

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