The bulletin (Augusta, Ga.) 1920-1957, October 01, 1920, Image 4

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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