Automatic Age

18
S h e e tw r ite r s M u s t B e K ic k e d
O u t o f th e A n n u a l C o n v e n tio n s
We publish herewith a typical letter, one of
many that has come to us since the last show.
This occurs every year after the show. This theft
is perpetrated by sheet-writers who are allowed
on the floor of the exposition. These fellows have
been excluded from every show worthy of the
name. We have protested against it before and
the show management has promised to exclude
sheet-writers. They are a nuisance to the visitors
and a discredit to the show and a reflection on
the entire industry in the eyes of the public.. The
letter:
“While attending the convention in
Chicago in January I gave a represen­
tative of yours $2.00 (Two Dollars) for
a three-year subscription to A utomatic
A ge . T o date I have received no copy of
the magazine. Unfortunately the gentle­
man did not give me a receipt. At the
time I was with Mr.__________ , Grand
Rapids. My address at that time was
__________ , Lansing. My present ad­
dress is__________
Will you kindly
check up on this matter and let me
know whether I am to receive the
magazine?”
Publications issued by thieves have been re­
sponsible for bringing this ilk into the show.
They approach visitors telling them they want to
send them a magazine free. The visitor natur­
ally gives his name and address. Then they say,
“Now give me a dollar for the postage. You cer­
tainly will at least pay the postage, won’t you?”
If they see the sucker is easy they get several
dollars from him. If he replies, “I want to sub­
scribe to the A utomatic A ge ,” they will say, “all
right, give me your dollar; we take subscriptions
for all of them.” Yet they are not authorized in
any sense to take subscriptions for the A utoma ­
tic A ge . They never turn them in and have, in
fact, perpetrated a misrepresentation and a fraud
openly and flagrantly on the floor of our annual
conventions.
Subscriptions taken by these sheet-writers are
not admissable to the second-class mails. Mr.
Blackford, publisher of a magazine on the Paci­
fic Coast told us personally that he came to Chi­
cago at the last Convention himself because he
had mistakenly put his magazine in the hands of
these sheet-writers and then found that the Los
Angeles Post Office wouldn’t accept them for
mailing at the second-class mail rates. He said
that in instances they took 7-year subscriptions!
It is the full intention of the A utomatic A ge
to bring this forcibly to the attention of the offi­
© International Arcade Museum
A pril, 1936
AUTOMATIC AGE
cers of the association and to eject such men from
the floor of the convention even if the police are
necessary. It is also our intention to warn every
publisher that the practice of using these sheet-
writers must stop. We shall insist that represen­
tatives of the United States Post Office Depart­
ment get first-hand evidence of this violation and
we shall further insist that the representatives of
the police department be there to get evidence
of this fraud and jail the perpetrators.
A utomatic A ge will post $100 as a reward to
any visitor to the next show who will point out
and cause the arrest and conviction of these
swindlers who work boldly on the floor.
A utomatic A ge has warned the trade before
that they will seriously regret permitting known
thieves to come into this business bringing such
methods with them. The trade is already suffer­
ing from it. The boys in Chicago are suffering
because the business harbored thieves and racke­
teers. We have got a black eye with the public
because of methods used by such an element and
it is bound to reflect on every branch of the in­
dustry. These thieves have been requested to stop
this practice at the conventions and yet they have
flaunted it in the face of the visitors as well as
the authorities.
W h y N o t A n o th e r
S h o w T h is Y e a r ?
Two years ago A utomatic A ge suggested that
August or September would be better months for
the industry’s annual exposition than January or
February. Before dates are definitely decided
upon for the next show, we would like to have
the Show Committee give this matter some con­
sideration. The custom of holding the annual
shows during the winter months is now general­
ly accepted by the trade, yet, each year many
operators and jobbers who live a considerable
distance from Chicago tell us that it would be
more convenient for them to attend the shows if
they were held during the vacation season. Roads
and weather would then permit driving to Chi­
cago and enable operators and their families to
make it a pleasure trip.
If the show were held the latter part of August
it would introduce the new machines at the be­
ginning of the best operating season of the year,
it would aHow manufacturers ample time for de­
velopment of new numbers during the duller
summer season, and it would find operators in a
better position to leave their routes since they
would not be so busy at that time.
We would like to have the opinion of every
reader on this question.
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