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rHE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
REPORT OF PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT
The report of the Publicity Committee, made to
y Convention, is quite lengthy, and space limita
tions forbid its reproduction here in full. Important
paragraphs of it follow:
Tne publicity work has been conducted very much
along the lines of preceding years. The year will
show the same salients, even the same weapons, em
ployed, but the caliber of our guns has been much
larger, and there has been some modification of tactics
on this account. The volume of the work has in
creased about 500 per cent.
The force was increased as the work grew, until
today it comprises five ladies regularly, and two or
more young boys, and others as envelope addressers
are needed. As much work of as fine a quality is
turned out by them as by equal a number in any
office or industrial establishment in the State. We
are the largest first and third-class patron of the
Augusta postoffice.
Enlarged quarters followed; beginning the year two
large rooms and a smaller one for storage were se
cured; now more room is required, and we are moving
the bureau to one of the new office buildings of
Augusta.
The library has been enlarged and the reference
department increased by thousands of clippings. Bit
by bit there is building a catalogue on subjects of
much usefulness even now, but which in future years
will be of great value.
Advertising.
We have not advertised in as many counties this
year as previously. In this, as in the sending out of
literature, we have rather specialized. We have de
voted our advertisements to the K» of C. pamphlet,
the Bible and particular subjects. Our general ad,
having already twice covered the State, we have put
it in the city papers, finding that we secure a greater
ratio of inquiries per dollar expended in this way.
There has been no general advertising at all since
June. We found that our advertisements were being
construed as political propaganda, and to avoid the
slightest suspicion of political activity we withdrew
them altogether for a time.
For advertising we spent $722.27, as against
$409.16 for 1919. During the year we had only
one rejection of our advertisement, though a few
papers disregarded our offers of contract, paid no
attention to our letters and the advertisements did
not appear in their papers.
Inquiries.
As in previous years our hardest work, as well as
the most effective, has been in letter-writing, in re
sponse to questions asked us. During May, for in
stance, inquiries averaged eighteen (18) per working
day, though this high mark was reduced when we
withdrew our advertisements in June. At times we
received as many inquiries from outside the State as
from points in Georgia. Our correspondents now
number 2,100 as against 1,100 a year ago, showing
the number added this year to be almost equal the
previous three and one-half years. This does not
include several hundred who have been writing to
to ask about the Association, with a view to forming
similar Associations in other places. Since the in
dorsement of the Association by the N. C. W. C.,
we have had to use an additional filing cabinet for
this correspondence alone.
Georgia Newspapers.
The press of the State has showed improvement,
i he attitude of th'e press generally toward the Asso
ciation has been to treat us as a representative body.
Instead of noting individual Catholics they just men
tion the organization.
To sum up the newspaper phase of our work: The
year has seen very little anti-Catholicity in the Georgia
press. But there has been more critical expression
regarding Catholicity. This has meant greater work
in answering. Our work, therefore, has been more
important but, less in volume. In this, as in other
branches of our endeavors, we have entered a new
sector, having different terrain, different obstacles and
necessitating different campaigning.
The Bulletin.
One of the new works of the year that has been
apparently most successful is The Bulletin, the quar
terly publication of the Association, three numbers
of which have been issued. Like our other works,
we began it modestly and experimentally. The first
number in January was of sixteen pages, and 1,500
copies; the last number consisted of twenty-four pages
and the 2,500 printed were soon exhausted.
The Year’s Publications.
Some idea of the work accomplished in the last
eight months may be obtained by comparison. Last
year the total literature sent out was 153,000, and
the total for the three years was more than 300,000.
This year we have had printed and mailed 422,500
pieces. To this should be added pamphlets mailed
from stock and 8,000 copies of The Bulletin, so that
the grand total of mailings will reach close to half
a million. This included 30,000 copies of the Knights
of Columbus book received from national headquar
ters as a gift, through the courtesy of Messrs. Mc-
Ginley and Pelletier, and the efforts of Messrs. Rice,
Magill, Walsh and other State officers of the order'
We sent out 25,000 leaflets, reprinted from The
New York Evening Sun, deprecating the circulation
of the fake oath and giving the true. On this sub
ject we also had 2,000 reprints made of an editorial
m I he Macon Telegraph of recent date which we
sent to editors and others on a special list, alo’ng with
a reprinted editorial, “Religious Intolerance,” taken
from a North Carolina paper, and which has caused
several fine editorials along the same line here in our