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Show SPEECH MADE BY USPAMGR.IN WASHINGTON D. C. Roy Schonian Explains How The Press Helps Solve Traffic Problems "It is indeed a great honor to be asked to speak before this conference confer-ence as the representative of the newspaper associations of our country. I am sure my home state of Utah, one of the smaller Western Wes-tern states so far as population goes, feels that honor as I feel it. I accept this honor with a true sense of humility humility in the knowledge of my own personal limitations, and humility, in the knowledge of the seriousness of the task before us. "It is not necessary for me to talk about the needs for greater highway safety. All of you are ,fully aware of those needs. , You are fully aware of the problem. My purpose is to tell you something of what the newspapers of the country have done, are doing, and are prepared to do in helping to solve the problem through a program pro-gram designed to educate the public pub-lic to an awareness of traffic hazards. haz-ards. "If I may again refer to Utah, let me go back to the highway safety conference called in Salt Lake City on Sept. 4, 1946, by our governor, Honorable Herbert B. Maw, and to the weeks immediately immediate-ly preceding that conference. As manager of the Utah State Press Association, I was asked to serve with representatives of various other publicity media on the Committee Com-mittee of Public Information. In the course of our discussions and at the conference on Sept. 4th, I and our Association president pledged the members of Utah State Press Association to present in our newspaper columns during the coming year, a forceful, educational educa-tional campaign on the need for greater safety on our highways. "Let me diverge here for just a moment to tell you of a small, but in my opinion, one of the most worthwhile organizations in the United States today. ' It is the Newspaper Association Managers, Inc., an organization of the managers mana-gers of newspaper associations from one corner of the country to the other, with " a membership of approximately 35. These men meet annually for three days and during those three days, just about everything that is important to the newspaper industry comes up for discussion. I know of no group in which is reflected so completely the action and the thinking of these United States. "At the meeting of the Newspaper Newspa-per Association Managers in Chicago Chi-cago in November, 1946, I found the method by which Utah newspapers news-papers could fulfill the pledge made some two months earlier to our Governor's Highway Safety Conference. There we learned that the newspapers of Pennsylvania had been faced with a similar problem. prob-lem. Early in August, 1946, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers' Publish-ers' Association decided to make its contribution to the nation's effort ef-fort to reduce the appalling toll of death, injury and propery destruction. destruc-tion. Their primary purpose, like (Continued on Page Eight) tnessman has seen fit to invest his money in advertising space gives the reader double assurance of tne seriousness of the issue and the sponsor's sincerity in presenting a solution, and, third, and perhaps most important of all, the lessons of traffic safety can be far more dramatically and forceably presented pre-sented through this means. No newspaper editor, in reporting on an accident just happened, likes to hold up the sorrow and misfortune misfor-tune of some readers as an example exam-ple to others, nor does he, while the accident is still news, very often of-ten have sufficient information to correctly point out the individual or act to blame for the accident. The hypothetical situation used in in the advertisement, on the other hand, while based purely on factual fac-tual information, does not have these obstacles and the lesson can be pointed out dramatically and forcefully. Each advertisement contains actual 1946 statistics about the type of accident it con cerns and has an arresting n tration. s "lus- "Ladies and gentlemen, this terial is now in the hands of ma" paper publishers throughout T" country Editors and Pm are on their mark, ready to 1 their story to the millions of n1" paper readers immediately afT" the close of this conference believe it will have great weifh) helping to attain the accident duction goal the President ha. but I would like to make on peal to each of you. When return home, keep this camPa;!! in mind. Get in touch and k per publisher and your state ne? in touch with your local news paper association officials j?" courage them in the promotion "i this campaign. Perhaps you help, even, in the placing of sponsored advertisements n,-.' your help and your encoUra' ment, I am sure that thrOUKho,, this great country, the Press Jn carry on." ' ' Speech Made By ! U. S. P. A. Manager (Continued from Page One) public service; a secondary purpose pur-pose was to build good will for the press. "Wm. N. Hardy manager of the Pennsylvania Association, wrote to a number of prominent organizations, organi-zations, specializing in accident prevention and asked for any suggestions sug-gestions they might offer to help make the program successful. "One of these organizations, the National Conservation Bureau, accident ac-cident prevention division of the Association of Casualty and Surety Executives of New York City, offered of-fered the full assistance of its widely-known safety specialists. Following several conferences, it was agreed that the National Convention Con-vention Bureau, in developing a , campaign for the Pennsylvania newspapers, would prepare all news, editorials, pictorial and advertising ad-vertising material for members of the P. N. P. A. without cost, as its contribution to the success of this vital public service. A campaign was prepared and launched Sep. 16, just preceding National Newspaper News-paper Week in October, to run to the end of the year. "Similarly, the New Jersey Press Association, through its manager, Frank B. Hutchinson, following Pennsylvania's lead and in much the same pattern, and procedure, began an identical campaign, two weeks later, the National Conservation Conser-vation Bureau again paying all th costs of producing and distributing distribut-ing the material. ?told the assembled newspaper managers man-agers how his organization had assisted in developing the campaign. cam-paign. He displayed proofs of the material used, and assured the managers that the Bureau would be glad to help in preparing similar simi-lar campaigns for any of the other associations. "His presentation must indeed have been effective. I know that I saw in it the immediate answer I to my quest for proper material to fulfill the pledge I had made in Utah, and at the annual meeting of my Association, held in January Janu-ary of this year, I arranged to have Mr. Philips come to Salt Lake City to present the campaign to my Association. Following his presentation pres-entation there, it was adopted unanimously by the approximately 75 of Utah publishera present at the meeting. From this point on, it is rather hard to trace the rapid spread of this campaign across the country. Three other states, Florida, Louisiana and Missouri, Mis-souri, apparently took action at about the same time, with Illinois, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arkan-sas, New York Press and New York State Publishers Association, Tennessee, Colorado and Georgia, all requesting the campaign in rapid order. In addition, the program pro-gram proved so successful in Pennsylvania and. New Jersey that those states requested a second campaign, containing new material. mater-ial. Statistics had already shown that while the country had enjoyed en-joyed a 15 drop in accidents in November, New Jersey's rate had dropped 40. Jand continue for thirteen weeks,' I one each of these items to be used : each week until Sept. 15. The length of the program meets the preference of a majority of the state press associations and also covers the most dangerous seasonal season-al driving months from vacation time through the return of chil-i chil-i dren to school. It also is a some-j some-j what slow period in advertising j lineage for the average newspaper, an important consideration to the ; newspapers in these days of newsprint news-print shortage. All copy from editorials to advertising will be a lesson in the cost of accidents in life, limb and dollars, citing the thirteen principal causes of accidents acci-dents and showing how easily they may be prevented. The campaign will be the property of each press or publisher association adopting it, will be used under the name of the association and controlled by the association. "I know that my time is getting short, but I would like to call your attention to at least some of the advertising copy in this campaign. My talk to you this afternoon is listed on the program under the title, 'The Press Will Carry On.' As a matter of fact, the Press has been carrying on in the interest of highway safety for a good many years, principally through the publishing pub-lishing of pictures of highway accidents, ac-cidents, news stories concerning these accidents, reports of the terrific ter-rific toll sacrificed to highway traffic each year, editorials and so forth. In launching this campaign, cam-paign, an attempt was made to bring in something new and dramatic dra-matic and after consideration by the best publicity men available, the use of large, sponsored advertisements adver-tisements as a mainstay of the campaign was decided upon. Three things, I believe, justify this choice. First, since the newspapers are making a large contribution through space for editorials, feature fea-ture articles, pictures, safety tips, and so forth, the sponsored advertisements adver-tisements provide a means by which industry and business can join the newspapers in- this great public service. Second, the mere fact that the local banker or busi- . I $press associations which promptly j recognized that the program would carry far greater weight with I this Conference actively supporting support-ing it. "Accordingly, the proposal was submitted to officers of the Presi-j Presi-j dent's Highway Safety Conference ; late in March and received tenta- tive approval. At the request of j these officers it was first submit-j submit-j ted to the National Committee for i Traffic Safety, comprising all of the national organizations interested inter-ested in accident prevention, and received unanimous and enthusiastic enthusias-tic approval. It was then approved by General Fleming and finally was unanimously ratified by the Co-ordinating Committee of the President's Highway Safety Committee. Com-mittee. "Thus, the program started modestly mod-estly by the P. N. P. A. became a major national program under the sanction of the President's Highway High-way Safety Conference. General Fleming wrote a personal letter to the manager-secretary and president pres-ident of all the listed state press and publisher associations of the country, inviting their participation. participa-tion. He followed this with a special spe-cial conference here in Washington Washing-ton on May 1, inviting a representative represen-tative number of the state managers mana-gers along with members of his staff and representatives of the National Editorial Association, the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the American Press Association. "At the meeting on May 1, it was revealed that there were still thirteen states which had no yet officially adopted the campaign, but through the concerted efforts of those present on May 1, this number had been reduced to six by June 1st, and I am happy to report that with full backing of the National Na-tional Editorial Association, the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the New England Daily Newspaper Association, every ev-ery state in the nation is represented. repre-sented. Approximately 7500 newspapers news-papers are represented through these groups. "The National program under the President's Highway' Safety Conference will follow the pattern of the programs which have already al-ready been used with outstanding success, but entirely new material has been produced, bringing in the names of the most prominent street and highway safety specialists in the country. "It is entirely devoid of publicity public-ity it is strictly educational. It has one, and only one, objective: namely, to further substantially reduce the accident toll on America's Ameri-ca's streets and highways, which in 1946 cost the nation 33,500 dead, 1,150,000 injured, and $2 billion property destruction. It uses all of the printed media at the disposal dispos-al of a newspaper, namely, news articles, editorials, photographs, short "safety-tip" .boxes, locally-sponsored locally-sponsored advertising, statements by public officials, and suggestions to editors for the development of local articles. "The program will begin June 23 "These two campaigns were under un-der way at the time of our Newspaper News-paper Association Managers' meeting meet-ing in November and were receiving receiv-ing so much favorable comment that the two associations, with Mr. Hutchinson as spokesman, presented present-ed their campaign to the assembled assem-bled members of N. A. M. Harold K. Philips, direcor of the Information Informa-tion and Publications Division of the National Conservation Bureau, "In Utah, we are holding a big Centennial celebration this year, with many entertainments, covering cover-ing the wide range from rodeos through pageants and drama to concerts and art exhibits, scheduled sched-uled throughout the summer months in all sections of our state. The climax of these will be the celebration cel-ebration of Pioneer Day on July 24 in Salt Lake City, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the day when Brigham Young, after his long trek across the plains, stood on the mountain with his band of pioneers, and looking out across Salt Lake Valley, said, "This is the place." Realizing that all this activity would bring highway traffic traf-fic of record proportions to Utah, and that it would bring it early, it was our desire to get the campaign underway as early as possible, so we scheduled it to open the second week in April. It will be completed complet-ed early in July. For similarly local lo-cal reasons, Florida, Louisiana and Missouri desired early starting dates and their campaigns are now completed or nearing completion. All of the other associations had agreed to begin their highway safety programs simultaneously, the first week in June. While preparation pre-paration of these programs was in progress, Major General Philip B. Fleming, your conference chairman, chair-man, announced that President Truman had decided to hold this -second conference, setting the dates. "Realizing that a substantial number of other state press and publishers associations would adopt the campaign eventually, the National Na-tional Conservation , Bureau felt that the program should have the sponsorship of the second President's Presi-dent's Highway Conference. It submitted this thought to several |