ADVERTISING AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Apropos of Mr. Angell's discussion on advertising, will you permit an old-time American reader, for the moment a visitor in London, to call your attention to the fact that in the States there are many more motor-cars owned than telephones? I have just received from the Bureau of the American Census significant figures. During the year 1926 there were registered 22,001,393 individually and commercially owned motor vehicles of every description.
The most recent statistics available for the calendar, year 1922, show that at that time there were 14,347,395 telephones in use. Of course there may have been an increase in the number of telephones in use between 1922 and 1926. But the department is sure that this possible increase could not approach the total of motor vehicles registered.
Perhaps the explanation of the fact that Americans have so many more motor vehicles, a luxury, than telephones, which many would regard as a necessity, is due to the extensive advertising of motor-cars as contrasted with the entire absence of advertising of telephones.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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