Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 299, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1919 — Home Town Helps [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Home Town Helps

HURT REAL ESTATE VALUES ■ f Urgent Reason Given by Practical Men for the Elimination of UnsighV ly Billboards. A step, and one of copsiderable importance, toward the exit, at least in many places, of the much-discussed American billboard was taken in Atlantic City when the National Association of Real Estate boards agreed liV condemnation of this form of outdoor advertising, without a dissenting voice among the 2,000 delegates. This sweeping agreement followed an address by the president of the Chicago Municipal Art league, in which he declared that the advertising billboard Is now generally recognized as one of the leading nuisances in the home life of American cities. The case against “thosg purveyors of information to an unwilling public that Iftie so many of 6ur public streets” has ceased-to be one of esthetics and become a matter of practical business iconcern to a large group of very practical men because they lower real estate values. And, with the campaign against them reinforced by real estate dealers all over the country, the billboard may well tremble* on its often unstable foundations for its future existence. —Christian Science Monitor.