the Executive Committee of that Association held in Harrisburg about two weeks ago, this question of closer relationship with the American Association was informally discussed and it was the view of the officers and members of the Pennsylvania Association that a much closer relationship is very desirable. There are many problems to be worked out at the present time in connection with public regulation, the pending legislation creating commissions, and the whipping into shape of legislation which has recently been passed, and it is the idea of the Pennsylvania Association that by bringing the sectional associations which are dealing with legislative bodies into closer touch that it would be very helpful. There are movements now pending to organize a State Association in Ohio and one in West Virginia, and I feel sure that there is a broad field waiting to be plowed. VICE-PRESIDENT HARRIES:- The chair will state that that Committee is almost sure to be continued and might easily see its way to do some of the things Mr. Tingley suggests. SECRETARY DONECKER:— I might also say that Mr. Patrick Dubee who is President of the Canadian Association, was called away by the death of a member of his family, but sent to this Association a suggestion practically to the same effect as that which Mr. Tingley has made. Personally I feel that there is a big field and a growing opportunity for the various sectional associations to get together through this Committee. which Mr. Henry represents. VICE-PRESIDENT HARRIES:- The next report is that of the Committee on Public Relations of which Mr. Arthur W. Brady of Anderson, Indiana, is Chairman. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC RELATIONS To the American Electric Railway Association: GENTLEMEN.- Your Committee on Public Relations begs to report as the most important feature connected with the subject matter of its work and directly affecting our organization, the beginning during the year past of an effort on a broad scale by the Association to foster better relations between the public and the electric railway industry. Your Committee understands the position of the Association to be that, whatever may be true of exceptional cases and for exceptional reasons, by far the larger part of the criticisms directed at public service companies, of the distrust with which they are regarded and of the unreasonable regulations and restrictions which from time to time are imposed upon them, is due to misconception on the part of the public as to certain fundamental facts relating to public service businesses and certain fundamental principles which should govern the public in its control and regulation of those businesses. The correction of public opinion and sentiment in these respects has long been regarded as an important phase of the work of the Association, but the subject is so delicate, the field is so wide, the serious results which a blunder might create are so great, that the utmost caution and deliberation have necessarily governed the course of the Association. The past year is, however, marked by two steps of great importance with reference to the work of the Association in this field. The first of these is the remarkable trip which the President and other officers and members of this Association and its allied Manufacturers' Association made last spring, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, covering 11,000 miles of steam railroad travel, reaching, thirty-two important cities of the United States and Canada. The chief and almost the sole purpose of this trip, involving so great a sacrifice of time on the part of so many busy men, was to present, from the standpoint of our industry and the allied manufacturing industries, to the communities visited, some of the larger problems which confront the electric railway owners and operators, to demonstrate that the correct solution of these problems is a matter of grave moment to public as well as company, and to indicate the principles which must be observed by both company and public if correct relations are to be reached. The effort was therefore made, with a large degree of success, to meet men in public life, whose acts might be expected to reflect their information and belief, and men active in moulding public opinion. With these men no evasion, subterfuge or misrepresentation was employed. On the contrary straightforward arguments and convincing facts were submitted. The party was accompanied throughout by a representative of your Committee whose duty it was to see that the various public discussions were properly presented to a large audience through the press and otherwise. In this way the benefit of the conferences was extended far beyond those who personally participated in them. The results of this trip, as evidenced by reports from a number of the communities visited, were most satisfactory, and it should be a source of pride and gratification to the members of this organization that the American Electric Railway Association has been the first of all the national associations to undertake this face to face method of taking up, not merely na tionally but internationally, great problems affecting all public service businesses. The other of the two important steps by the Association with respect to better public relations referred to earlier in this report is found in the establishment by the Association of an official bulletin under the name AERA the first issue of which appeared in August of the present year. The public relations feature is of course only one of several important phases of this publication but the advantages thus offered in the prosecution of public relations work are obvious. It is possible for the Association by utilizing AERA to present matters which it desires to offer far more economically and at the same time more frequently than hitherto, By a proper distribution of such a periodical publication among public officers, public and other libraries and other recognized agencies for the information of the public, more is possible in the way of spreading knowledge of the doctrines for which we stand than in any way heretofore followed. The character of public relations work which can be done through AERA is illustrated by some of the articles which have appeared in the three issues already published. These issues have been widely distributed and your Committee believes that an excellent beginning has been made of work which with added experience can be prosecuted to the great advantage of our industry as well as others of a similar class. Consideration has also been given to the doing of publicity work through other channels than those directly furnished by the Association itself. There can be no doubt that much valuable labor could be exercised in these lines, but practical difficulties of a serious character have thus far barred the way. One of the papers which will be presented at this Convention will deal with this subject. Your Committee believes that here is to be found a field practically boundless in opportunity for beneficial results as well as in opportunity for labor and expenditure, and desires to express the hope that a way may be found to enter that field conservatively but efficiently. During the past year no novelty in legislation or regulation, active or proposed, has arisen sufficiently important to justify prolonging this report to deal with it. The course of public affairs during the past few years has marked the lines of the struggle. which confronts us so clearly that they are not likely to change or be mistaken in the immediate future. The work of the Association is not now so much to ascertain what our industry faces in the way of menace for ill advised public action, as it is to determine how to prevent and actually to prevent the taking of action of that character. The best means at hand is the waging of an energetic and intelligent campaign of publicity. Your Committee believes that the beginnings which it is able to report as a part of the work of the Association for the past year will, if properly followed up, lead to results of high value to every public service company of the country. ARTHUR W. BRADY, Chairman. J. W. MCCLENDON, PATRICK CALHOUN, J. H. MCGRAW, GEO. H. DAVIS, P. S. ARKWRIGHT, H. E. CHUBBUCK, W. G. MCADOO, O. T. CROSBY, G. E. TRIPP, W. G. Ross, JAMES ANDERSON, W. S. WHITNEY, W. E. ROBERTSON, C. D. CASS, E. C. FABER, B. F. EYER, Committee on Public Relations. VICE-PRESIDENT HARRIES:-Gentlemen, you have heard the Report; does any gentleman desire to discuss it, or to ask any question in connection with it? If not, in the absence of objection, the report will be accepted and filed. The next business is an Address entitled "A Policy of Publicity," by Mr. Arthur Warren, of New York, who was on President McCarter's tour as a representative of the Committtee on Public Relations. A POLICY OF PUBLICITY BY ARTHUR WARREN. New York, N. Y. I have been invited by President McCarter to address this meeting on the subject of "A Policy of Publicity." During the past year or two addresses on "Publicity" have been delivered before you by various speakers. One of the best utterances on this subject was by Mr. Arthur W. Brady, during his presidency of the Association. Another was by Mr. James H. McGraw. Other gentlemen have, I believe, at various times, spoken to you of the desirability of publicity. I have no desire to go over the old ground, nor to repeat anything that the other speakers have said. My opinion is in harmony with theirs; my method of approaching the subject and of obtaining results may differ somewhat from theirs, and from the opinions of anybody else. That is, no doubt, because I speak to you not as an electric railway man, but as a publicity man who has for many years been associated with widely-known industrial organizations which are closely associated with electric railway work, dealing in one way or another with electric railway problems, and because it has been my good fortune during the past two years or so to have been called in by the Association itself to advise in matters of publicity, and to undertake to obtain for this body certain results which had not been sought before. My remarks will be brief, for two reasons. First, because the desirability, indeed, the necessity, of publicity has, as I have said, already been recognized by the Association. It is therefore unnecessary to preach to the converted; second, because it is undesirable that you should be wearied by a long and technical, or detailed, discourse on a subject which, as to technicalities and details, is probably not familiar to many of the members here, and is not likely to become so. The necessity for a policy of publicity having been recognized on former occasions by the Association, it is now, perhaps, an appropriate time to ask why such a policy has not been carried out systematically, and on a permanent basis. Here, again, I find two reasons on which an answer may rest. First, an uncertainty on the part of the Association, or its Executive Committee, concerning the matter of cost. Second, an uncertainty as to the most effective forms in which appropriate publicity can be secured at any cost. To each of these matters I may now, for a few moments call your attention. I find that while a good deal has been said, and well said, about publicity, there is one point that has not been made as clear as we may hope it will be made to-day, and that is: any form of publicity to be undertaken should be undertaken by the Association in behalf of its Member Companies, as it undertakes all its other work in behalf of its Member Companies. It is not expected that the Member Companies should, as units, undertake this work themselves, as representing the Electric Railway Industry as a whole, no matter to what extent they may increase their own efforts in this direction for their own purposes. Some of the companies (I don't know how many, but possibly a great many) already have their own publicity departments, which are managed efficiently. It is not proposed that the Association in taking up the work of publicity should interfere or compete with any of these departments, but rather that it should co-operate with them, and that where such departments do not exist, it may give assistance. What is most desirable, as I understand it, is publicity for the American Electric Railway Association and its component and al |