LVI

“EFFECTIVE HOUSE ORGANS”

To the hurrying commuter as he waits for his two cents change at the news stand it looks as if all the periodicals in the United States were on display there, none of which he ever has quite time enough to buy.  It seems incredible that there should be presses enough in the country to print all the matter that he sees hanging from wires, piled on the counter and dangling from clips over the edge, to say nothing of his conceiving of there being other periodicals in circulation which he never even hears about.  But any one knowing the commuter well enough to call him “dearie” might tell him in slightly worn vernacular that he doesn’t know the half of it.

One cannot get a true idea of the amount of sideline printing that is done in this country without reading “Effective House Organs,” written by Robert E. Ramsay.  The mass effect of this book is appalling.  Page after page of clear-cut illustrations show reproductions of hundreds and hundreds of house-organ covers and give the reader a hopeless sensation of going down for the third time.  Such names as “Gas Logic,” “Crane-ing,” “Hidden’s Hints,” “The Y. and E. Idea,” “Vim,” “Tick Talk” and “The Smileage” show that Yankee ingenuity has invaded the publishing field, which means that the literature of business is on its way to becoming the literature of the land.

For those who are so illiterate as not to be familiar with the literature of business, I quote a definition of the word “house organ”: 

“A house magazine or bulletin to dealers, customers or employees, designed to promote goodwill, increase sales, induce better salesmanship or develop better profits.”

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In spite of Mr. Ramsay’s exceedingly thorough treatment of his subject, there is one type of house organ to which he devotes much too little space.  This is the so-called “employee or internal house organ” and is designed to keep the help happy and contented with their lot and to spur them on to extra effort in making it a banner year for the stockholders.  The possibilities of this sort of house organ in the solution of the problem of industrial unrest are limitless.

Publications for light reading among employees are usually called by such titles as “Diblee Doings,” “Tinkham Topics,” “The Mooney and Carmiechal Machine Lather” or “Better Belting News.”

First of all, they carry news notes of happenings among the employees, so that a real spirit of cooperation and team-play may be fostered.  These news notes include such as the following: 

“Eddie Lingard of the Screen Room force, was observed last Saturday evening between the mystic hours of six-thirty with a certain party from the Shipping Room, said party in a tan knit sweater, on their way to Ollie’s.  Come, ’fess up, Eddie!”

“Everyone is wondering who the person is who put chocolate peppermints in some of the girls’ pockets while they were hanging in the Girls’ Rest Room Thursday afternoon, it being so hot that they melted and practically ruined some of their clothing.  Some folks have a funny sense of humor.”