ICCFA member imortuary.com wants to know how you're observing Memorial Day, and has come up with another clever graphic that provides information and allows people to make a virtural remembrance in honor of veterans. You can help by spreading the word on your website and Facebook page. You can see the graphic, download Facebook badges and find copy-and-paste coding if you'd like to embed the graphic on your site:

http://www.imortuary.com/articles/remembered-a-vet-today/

Not surprising for an "i" company, imortuary, of Seattle, Washington, has a successful track record of creating Web graphics about the funeral and memorialization business that have gone viral, such as last fall's "Grave Curiosities" graphic, which presented death-related trivia about flowers, mourning, caskets, services, etc. on a tombstone background.

 As the year comes to a close, I traditionally sort through some random notes and attempt to tie together some loose ends. For me personally, the year was both challenging and rewarding and it ends on very satisfying note as we look to build on our early success and continue to grow the Memorial Business Journal in 2010. I guess after spending a number of years in one place, I do feel a little like Jay Leno moving to the 10 p.m. slot. And as you can tell by the page count of this issue, we had a lot going on in the final weeks of 2009. We are looking forward to helping you take on whatever challenges 2010 will throw at us. But before then, those random thoughts...

ICFA files brief in Florida Supreme Court on cemetery marker restrictions 

by Robert M. Fells, Esq., general counsel 

The ICFA concluded by urging the court to rule in favor of the city cemetery. "If individual lot owners become entitled to ignore cemetery regulations to do whatever they wish in the name of religious beliefs, they would effectively disenfranchise the rights of all the other lot owners and undercut the cemetery's ability to properly manage its grounds, resulting in a chaotic cemetery environment." Members will be kept informed of important developments in this litigation. 

VA now can furnish second marker in private cemeteries 

For many years, both the families of veterans and private cemeteries have been frustrated by the VA's refusal to furnish a government marker if the veteran's grave site already had a marker. This new benefit is a five-year pilot program that will be reviewed by February 1, 2006, to determine how well the program has been received. 

It is a privilege, which I esteem highly, to appear before you and address this Convention of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents. During the past ten years in the course of official duties, I have been brought into contact with cemetery authorities at over fifteen hundred points in Canada and some hundreds in the United States where British soldiers of the Great War are buried. The most interesting of these contacts have naturally been in the larger cities and towns, where cemetery organization and development have been raised to a high point of excellence; and I have had full opportunity to appreciate the admirable standards and ideals which modern cemetery superintendents hold before them. To members of your Association from the United States, as to your colleagues in Canada, I owe a debt of gratitude for helpful cooperation in, and sympathetic understanding of the great task of commemorating in a fitting manner the gallant Dead of the Great War; and it is a pleasure to have this opportunity of publicly acknowledging it.

Most of you gentlemen are welcome visitors to Canada from the United States, and it is not to be expected that you will have much knowledge of the subject of my address, which is naturally more familiar to citizens of the British Empire. You have, however, your own great problem of commemoration arising from the World War, and we in Canada know something of the American Battle Monument Commission, the ranking member of which is General John J. Pershing. Under its direction beautiful military cemeteries have been created at Brookwood, England, and at seven points in Belgium and France, containing the graves of over 30,000 of your soldiers who are buried in Europe, more than 46,000 bodies having been returned to their native soil. Chateau-Thierry, Cantigny, St. Michiel, Meuse-Argonne—these are great names in American history, names which will remind future generations of mighty occasions on which valorous American troops upheld the highest national traditions. At these points splendid memorials are being raised by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

But you have asked me today to speak about the scheme of commemoration of the British Empire, which, by reason of its scale, is unique in history. It is a terrible commentary on the Great War to point out that losses aggregating more than 122,000 human lives, such as were suffered by the United States Forces were comparatively small. The American troops were not engaged in battle until July 1918 and their losses were sustained in fighting between then and the Armistice in the following November. The other nations had been engaged since 1914 and during those four years their losses had grown to almost unbelievable figures.
 
May I at this point recall to your minds the magnitude of the Great War.? Telegraph, telephone and wireless had in 1914 made possible the effective use of troops over a very wide front and the coordination of effort on several widely separated fronts. In as recent an instance as the Russo-Japanese War in 1914, the Japanese had 270,000 men, first line troops and 200,000 older troops in reserve. 270,000 is a formidable figure but compare it for a moment with the Great War. I have never seen an official compilation of troops actually engaged at any given time, but Nelson's Encyclopedia in 1919 had a carefully prepared table giving in detail the number of troops mobilized for and during the Great War by all belligerents. And what do you gentlemen think the figure was?—59,176,864!  The number of fatal casualties, or to put it bluntly, men killed in the Great War was 7,781,000. When it comes to casualties in the broader sense of the word, that is men reported killed, wounded or missing, the total runs in excess of 33,000,000. Now I shall not stop to point a moral but it should be apparent to those who talk lightly of war in the future that, with the knowledge obtained in the Great War and the advances of science since, it is possible to envisage the wholesale, organized destruction not only of soldiers, but of men, women and children, and indeed the whole populations. It will not be like the last, plague in the Book of Exodus, when a great cry went up in Egypt and it was decreed that the firstborn of every family should die. It will be complete obliteration of whole families and whole communities. In such circumstances one can easily conceive such a breakdown of human government that civilized society as we know it would come to an end.

A traveler in France, who should be in the old city of Rouen, would naturally go into the cathedral, and there he would enter the Joan of Arc Chapel. Having done so, he would observe, close to the statue of the Maid, a beautiful tablet, colored and gilded and bearing the arms of Great Britain surrounded by the arms of all the self-governing dominions of the British Empire and the words:

"To the Glory of God and to the Memory of One Million Dead of the British Empire Who Fell in the Great War 1914-1918."

The presence of such a tablet in that particular chapel is not only a testimony to the healing hand of time, but also to the generosity of the French, when one remembers that five hundred years ago St. Joan herself was burned to death by the British—in that same town. Similar tablets have been erected in other cathedrals in Belgium and France, and they will serve as perpetual and significant reminders, to all who read, of the part taken by our Empire in the greatest war in history. The British contribution in men was six million from the British Isles, 1,500,000 from India, 600,000 from Canada, about the same from Australia and proportionate quotas from other parts of the Empire. The number of fatal casualties, among the British forces was 1,089,919. The number of recorded and registered graves is about 600,000; so you will see that there remain over 400,000 who are in the tragic company of the "Missing", that is to say, those known to be dead, but the site of whose grave is unknown. The 600,000 graves are in 15,593 cemeteries in all parts of the world.

The task of commemorating this vast body of splendid men was entrusted to the Imperial War Graves Commission. This is an Imperial body on which all the countries of the British Empire are represented. The money required is provided by the different countries in proportion to their respective graves, Great Britain contributing 80 percent and the remaining 20 percent being divided among the Dominions, Colonies and Dependencies.

Under the Commission's control there have been created in Belgium and France alone one thousand new British war cemeteries, containing 300 to 10,000 graves each and about 1500 plots in parish or communal cemeteries. This is only the beginning. These cemeteries are to be found all the way from Antwerp to Jerusalem and from the Baltic to the Bosphorus. They stretch across Switzerland and Italy, across the Greek Islands, down the Gallipoli Peninsula, through Syria and Palestine, then southward to Egypt and East Africa. At Iraq, the ancient Chaldea, between the lower waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris there are seven. In all these parts of the world it is as if a giant had strode about from the English Channel to the Sea of Galilee, leaving great white footmarks as he passed. The line extends across the north of India to China to Australia and New Zealand, across Canada, where there are 7000 war graves in 1500 places and so back to the British Isles, where there are 89,000 graves in 9,500 churchyards and cemeteries. In addition, these war graves and war plots are to be found in fifty other countries not mentioned and in the track I have indicated.

May I attempt to describe these cemeteries to you? As far as the countries of our allies are concerned, the land has been given in perpetuity. In other places it has been acquired. The cemeteries are artistically and permanently enclosed in stone or stone and brick walls. The headstones are of uniform pattern; indeed uniformity is the keynote of the whole scheme of commemoration. The field officer and the private soldier lie side by side, their graves marked in exactly the same way. The headstones are meant to typify the union of all "in motive, inaction and in death." By their very uniformity they speak in one voice of one death, one sacrifice for a cause that was common to all. A feature of all the cemeteries is the Cross of Sacrifice. This memorial, a beautiful cross, to the face of which is fixed a great bronze sword, stands sentinel over the graves of British soldiers. Those who have seen them will have unfading pictures of these crosses; on the ramparts of Ypres, in sheltered nooks beneath the high ground along the western front, in the plains of Italy, amid the sands of Palestine or Mesopotamia, in the clear air of East Africa or crowning the “brown-streaked cliffs of Gallipoli." Wherever found, they carry the same suggestion, namely, one sacrifice for a common cause. In the larger cemeteries there is another monument, the Stone of Rembrance, "a great fair stone of fine proportions", bearing the words, "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE." And in the largest one, such as Etaples, where there are 11,000 graves, eminent architects have designed other structures, which add dignity and grandeur to the cemeteries, in the form of wide terraces and vaulted buildings, which serve as record-houses or rest-houses where visitors go apart to meditate or pray. At Tyne Cot, Passchendaele, three German concrete blockhouses have been introduced into the scheme very effectively, and at the far side is a great screen wall, 500 feet long, on which are inscribed the names of 35,000 missing men. A feature which is common to all the cemeteries is the beautiful horticultural treatment. One walks on turf like that of old England while the eye is charmed by a profusion of color. Flowers are everywhere, in beds and borders and climbing over the headstones.

Curiously enough one does not have a feeling of sadness on entering these cemeteries. The headstones are spread out in perfect order, as it were in platoons and regiments and I have sometimes a feeling that if the bugle sounded, all these soldiers would rise and march again. One is affected by the thought of the high courage and chivalry of the men who lie there amid so much beauty and in a silence broken only by the song of the birds. The feeling is not so much one of sadness as a curious exaltation a sort of lifting up of the spirit.

To this particular audience it may not be uninteresting to hear a word or two concerning the manner in which it has been sought to make these British War Cemeteries permanent in character. One is familiar with the old-fashioned graveyard where headstones are to be seen, some displaced by time and others almost falling down. In the War Cemeteries of which I am speaking a trench is dug at the back of each row of graves and a continuous concrete beam is constructed in it. On the upper side of this beam there are sockets into which the headstones are fitted and fixed with cement. The headstones themselves are all of the same shape, 3 feet 3 inches high, 2 feet 6 inches above ground and 9 inches below ground. They are 1 foot 3 inches broad and 3 inches thick, the top forming a segment of a circle 2 ft. 6 inches in radius. It may be pointed out that although the land for these cemeteries has been given in perpetuity in each former allied country by the people of that country at their own cost, following the generous example first set by France, the method of construction which I have above described removes any fear that the land might ever be used for another purpose. The labor and expense which would be involved in the removal of these headstones and their foundations would be economically prohibitive.

I would like to tell you now what is being done about maintaining these cemeteries. On May 4th, 1930, Mr. Winston Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons said,

"The cemeteries which are going to he erected to the British dead on all the battlefields in all the theatres of war will be entirely different from the ordinary cemeteries which mark the resting places of those who pass out in the common flow of human fate from year to year. They will be supported and sustained by the wealth of this great nation and Empire, as long as we remain a great nation and Empire; and there is no reason at all why in periods as remote from our own as we ourselves are from the Tudors, the graveyards in France of this great War shall not remain an abiding and supreme memorial to the efforts and the glory of the British Army and the Sacrifices made in that great cause."

In fulfillment of that pledge, the governments of the empire, have for some years been getting together by annual contributions a fund which is to reach the total of five million pounds. These contributions are vested in Trustees and the income from that fund will be used to maintain the cemeteries and memorials in order and beauty forever.

Gentlemen, we sometimes speak of ancient remains; those of Assyria and Babylon and Greece and Rome, and undoubtedly from them we learn much of the character of the people who lived in those days. When many centuries have passed these war cemeteries—these silent cities—will be found; and they will speak for us, to tell future generations the story of the men who lived in our day. And what an epic it will be! As far as Canada is concerned, when the story is all pieced together, it will speak of 600,000 of the flower of our manhood who at the call of king and country rallied to the colors and cast their all upon the hazard; and over 60,000 of whom gave up their lives.

I told you a few moments ago that there were over 400,000 men who came in the category of the missing. It was and is the purpose and intention of the governments concerned that every one of these men shall be commemorated by name; and in order to carry out that idea the erection of great structures was necessary. On the high ground, forming a sea-mark for an passing in and out of the Dardanelles, there is a monument 100 feet high which carries the names of 18,000 men of the British Isles. On the Anzac Ridge of Gallipoli the missing of the Australians are commemorated.  In Macedonia there is a similar monument to the Salonika force. At the southern end of the Suez Canal, at Port Tewfik, there is an interesting memorial to the Indian troops a square obelisk, with flanking walls for the inscriptions. The sculpture takes the form of crouching tigers, one guarding the monument from the Canal and the other from the sea. There are a number of other such memorials, including four in Great Britain three to men of the Royal Navy and one to the Mercantile Marine. It is of course in France and Belgium that this sort of commemoration is on the largest scale. The Ypres Salient is possibly the most blood-stained piece of ground in the world. At the Menin Gate, Ypres, at the town end of the causeway leading across the moat to the Menin Road, a magnificent arch has been erected. As one approaches from the outside on sees, below the carved figure of a lion in repose, these words:

"To the Armies of the British Empire Who Stood Here From 1914 to 1918 and to Those of Their Dead Who Have No Known Grave."

The main hall of this most imposing memorial has a span of 70 feet; it is 50 feet high and 130 feet long. In that hall and in the adjacent stairways and galleries are inscribed in stone the names of 56,000 men of the British Empire who were missing and lost their lives in those parts but have no known grave. Among these are 7,500 Canadians. Our total Canadian missing were in excess of 19,000. The remaining 11,500 are to be commemorated on our own monument at Vimy Ridge, about which I shall speak in a moment.

Quite recently in northern France I was present at the unveiling by the British Ambassador to France of a memorial at Le Touret which bears 13,500 names. I also saw in course of construction at Thiepval another great memorial, counterpart of the Menin Arch, which bears the names of more than 73,000 soldiers, practically all from the British Isles, who were missing in the terrible battle of the Somme. During the past two months several other memorials to the missing have been unveiled bringing the present total in Belgium and France up to, I think, ten. Thus is being faithfully redeemed the pledge that those to whom was denied the known resting places given to their comrades in death should be fittingly commemorated individually by name.

The work that I have so far described has been carried out by the Imperial War Graves Commission. I should like to add for the information of good neighbors like yourselves who take an interest in Canada, share with you in the occupation of this North American continent, that apart from its participation in the general work of Empire commemoration, the Dominion of Canada has been permitted to erect memorials at its own separate cost upon eight battlefield sites where her troops took an important or decisive part. Three of these are in Belgium and five in France. I shall not pause to describe them except to say that one of the memorials in Belgium is at St. Julien where in 1915 the Canadian troops commanded the attention of the World by withstanding the first German gas attacks. To use the words of Marshal Foch on the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial "They wrote here their first page of that Book of Glory which is the history of their participation in the War". The main Canadian memorial in France is at Vimy Ridge and this is now in course of construction.

You will understand; I am sure, that the recital of a story of the commemoration of men who died for their country arouses patriotic sentiments of a high order. In this case it makes us Canadians rejoice in our British heritage. The memorials of which I have been speaking are the visible signs of one of the greatest phenomena in history: a solidarity of sentiment during the Great War, a common loyalty possessed by the Mother Country by the great Dominions, by the Colonies and Dependencies of this realm, men of many complexions and creeds, drawn from regions and climes so vast that they cover one quarter of the earth, owning allegiance to one King, moved and governed by one impulse of loyalty and devotion. When was anything like it in the world before?
 
Is it possible to leave this subject without expressing some aspiration for the future? A short time ago we seemed to be rising out of the murk of doubt, fear and distrust which followed the conclusion of the War and the negotiation of the Peace Treaties. The League of Nations was functioning, as it happily still is, the Kellogg Pact had been signed, the London Conference on Naval Limitations was in view. We seemed to have heard, like a bell in a fog, a warning that we were drifting backward and to have set our course definitely ahead once more. Already we described the misty outlines of a fairer world in which differences would be submitted to reason and justice rather than to the forces of destruction and of death. And now again the outlines of that world have become faint and its bold headlines seem like to disappear. The world is full of rumors of possibilities of conflict between principal powers and of a possible train of events which would involve all the Countries of Europe except perhaps Great Britain. The status quo resulting from the Peace Treaty is acceptable to those who profited by it but it is otherwise with those whose populations were severed and whose territories were mutilated. The possibility of war is only too apparent.

But, Gentlemen, as for the United and the British Empire, our hearts and minds are set on peace. In a keenly competitive world we may have our differences but on two things we are agreed. We do not propose ever to fight each other; and to maintain .the general peace of the world is the first object of our national policies. May we not hope then that, in any conjuncture of events, we shall .be found side by side in a supreme effort to ensure that the tragedy of 1914-1918 shall not be repeated? And as between this British Country and our great neighbor may friendly visits which we pay one to the other be in every case embassies of good will, dedicated to the promotion of mutual forbearance and good understanding and to that sort of sturdy friendship which is not made for fair weather only, but which proves its worth in times of storm and stress.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 44th Annual Convention
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
September 8, 9, 10 and 11, 1930

The question of markers for soldiers' graves is perhaps receiving more attention at the present time than at any other time since the world began, or at least that we have record of. Now the great world war is over, we feel that it is necessary to mark the graves of our fallen heroes with a suitable marker that shall be permanent and lasting, as the memory of those heroes who fought and bled that the principles of justice freedom and humanity should prevail. We feel very proud of the records of our men on the battlefields of France and Flanders, and wish to do everything in our power to show our respect, loyalty and sympathy, not only to the men who have passed on, but also to the friends and relatives they have left behind to mourn their loss.

The custom of erecting wood crosses over the graves of men who have fallen on the battlefields is one that has been very generally followed in the past. These crosses have been the means of satisfying the sympathy and sentiment of the people while the incidents of the war were fresh in their minds, but after a period of years, the wooden crosses have often been allowed to fall into decay, and in a good many cases the graves have been obliterated and lost track of. This is not as it should be.

We as members of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, having charge of the principal burying grounds on this continent, have more than a passing interest in the style of marker to be used to mark the graves of our heroes. It is our duty and our privilege to point out to those in authority the unfitness of markers used in the past both in design and material. It is also our privilege to so mould public opinion that the markers used in the past will not receive their approval at this time.

In Prospect Cemetery, Toronto, we have adopted the flat marker which when set lies level with the sod. I have here a plan of our Veterans' Section, also a blueprint and specification of what we call a Veterans' Grave Marker. Before adopting this design I took the matter up with the local Veterans' Associations and had them approve of both the design and specification. In my opinion this marker serves the purpose very well, but I must admit that it does not satisfy a certain section of the public who are continually agitating for a more showy and pretentious marker. I wish to quote a few lines from an article which appeared in one of our national weeklies just recently:

"By some line of reasoning, which it is incomprehensible to fathom the graves in the military sections of these cemeteries are forbidden to be marked by upright stones. The memorial stones must be placed flat on the ground. The result is that before many months have gone the inscriptions thereon are defaced by the scratches of boots, the letters become choked with dirt and in some cases the regimental badges and other devices have been deliberately stolen. In other countries the soldiers’ grave is honored. The marble slab points up to heaven and bears the legend which every passerby may read, that there lies a man who made the sacrifice for his country. Every soldiers’ organization must take this matter up and have this ridiculous ukase cancelled, even if some grass-cutter in a cemetery has to do a little more work in trimming the sod around an upright stone."

This is the kind of propaganda we have to meet and contend with in advocating the use of a flat marker level with the sod for the marking of veterans' graves; as I said before, we as an Association are vitally interested in this marker, and one is tempted to ask, are we doing all we should in educating public opinion along the right lines in the marking of veterans' graves?

In dealing with this question, we must realize that tolerance must be shown to those who do not agree with us, because it is very difficult to remove deep-rooted customs and sentiments. I would like to make one suggestion in connection with this matter. That this Association take into serious consideration the appointment of a committee to thoroughly discuss this question and prepare an article for publication in the trade papers, covering the whole question in a broad manner, an article that could be reprinted in booklet or leaflet form and used by any cemetery for propaganda purposes if necessary. I think if this were done it would be a great help to a good many cemeteries in counteracting the many ideas advanced, which are not in keeping with modern cemetery practice.

Specification of Markers for Veterans' Plots

Size: The face of marker shall be twelve (12) by twenty (20) inches the thickness of marker shall not be less than four (4) inches and not more than six (6) inches in depth.

Material: Marker shall be of Pink Laurention Granite, of even color and free from blemish.

Finish: Face to be ten cuts to the inch, sides pean hammered and bottom rough pointed.

Lettering: Six rows of lettering will be allowed as shown on attached blue print, the information on each line as follows: Top line, Number and designation of Corp, Battery, Battalion or Unit deceased was a member of; 2nd from top, In Memoriam; 3rd from top, Rank and Name 4th from top, Private Information; 5th from top, Date of Death; Bottom line, Age of Deceased. The height of each row of letters shall be as follows: First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth rows, three-quarters of an inch and the Third row one and one-quarter inches. The letters to be plain block letter, thickness of finished letter to be one-fifth of the height as shown on drawing. All lettering to be known to the trade as lead lettering; letters must be V grooved half the width of bar at each angle a hole shall be driven, dove-tailed, as deep as the width of bar of letter.

Spacing: The tops of each row of letters shall be the following distance from the top of the marker: 1st row, 1¼ inches; 2nd row, 3½ inches; 3rd row, 5 inches; 4th row, 7 inches; 5th row, 8½ inches; Bottom row, 10 inches.

Emblems: All emblematic devices must be of bronze. The emblematic device at the top can either be the Maple Leaf as shown on drawing or the Regimental, Battalion or "Arm of Service" emblem; the choice of emblem to be optional with the friends of the deceased. The two emblems at the bottom corners can either be the Maple Leaf or Fraternal Emblems, whatever design decided upon to be the same in both corners. All emblems must be provided with the dowel pins and set in white cement, flush with the face of the marker. Any or all emblems may be eliminated if desired.

Workmanship: All workmanship must be of the best kind now in use and where there is any uncertainty of the work required by the plan and specifications the Superintendent shall require the best class of work that any interpretation will admit.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Convention held at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
September 7, 8, 9 and 10, 1920

Probably each of the four men who are to discuss this subject have many ideas in common concerning the value of publicity. However, we all know that there are many ways of getting publicity and we may not agree as to the best type of publicity or how to secure it. Nevertheless, the fundamental fact remains that publicity of the right kind pays dividends. It is the proud boast of the Company which I represent that if you were to stop 100 people on the main streets of Seattle and ask them the name of the principal cemetery in our town, 80 of them would say “Washelli” and the other 20 would be divided between the other proper¬ties of Seattle and those who did not know. This gratifying result has not been obtained by hit or miss methods, nor has it been a mushroom growth of just a few years. Systematic publicity is the answer. Washelli is over 50 years old, it having been established the same year that Wash¬ington became a state. Every time there is a celebration by the State of some anniversary connected with the date of statehood we tie Washelli right into the proposition. For instance, last year was the 50th anniver¬sary and the Washington State Progress Commission had 50th anniversary programs all over the State. So we had one also and all through the year we kept informing the people that 30 years of Washington and Washelli were being celebrated simultaneously. We had a well-known poet write a poem on 50 golden years of marriage and we have presented hundreds of copies to couples who were celebrating their 50th anniversary anywhere in the West.

We have three properties in the same vicinity, each one operating under its own name although the properties are owned by one company and operated as a unit. This makes it more difficult to secure publicity which pays. It is necessary to impress on the public mind the name and location of your property. We had three at the same location so we picked the name which was most distinctive and have majored it in our advertis¬ing of all kinds. The word "Washelli" is distinctive. Therefore, on our radio programs we feature the Washelli Quartet. Washelli lawn seed is sold by one of the principal seed merchants of Seattle. Easter Sunrise services are sponsored "at Washelli" by the Seattle Council of Churches. In Washelli is held the principal service of Veterans on Memorial Day.

All of these things produce much publicity for Washelli to the neglect of Evergreen and the Pacific Lutheran Cemeteries. But we do not mind this in the slightest. If we can get people out to see Washelli we can take them to Evergreen and the Lutheran Cemeteries. However, we do not ignore the other two properties but endeavor to keep them before the public. In the Lutheran Cemetery we have a special Memorial Day service for all Lutherans who are buried there. No.1-We have a moving picture film showing practically all the Lutheran churches in Seattle and in the film many pictures of the Lutheran Cemetery. This film is in demand with the Lutheran people and it has been presented in the main church auditoriums taking the place of the regular Sunday eve¬ning service. Also it has been shown at many ladies' aid societies, etc. We have another version of the film which shows the Veteran’s section of Washelli and activities in it on Memorial Day. This film is shown to veteran organizations. We are also preparing a film of Evergreen which will be used in connection with other Protestant churches.

Previously I mentioned briefly the Easter Sunrise service held in Washelli. If the theme of immortality means anything at all, the proper place to hold the Easter Sunrise service is in the cemetery. This year we had our 11th Easter Sunrise service, bringing thousands of worshippers to the Cemetery at dawn. While a large percentage of those in attendance have friends or relatives in one of our cemeteries a considerable number are attracted there for the first time each year. A deep sense of religion characterizes all of these meetings. We have never permitted in that service anything which distracts from the religious significance of it. If you do not have an Easter Sunrise service in your town, start one next year. You will be surprised at the way the newspapers give it front page publicity which you could not possibly buy with your dollars. On the morning following Easter, our daily papers usually carry on the front pages pictures of the two Easter Sunrise services held in our city which are sponsored by the Council of Churches. They also carry a description of the services and a synopsis of the sermons. As a result of this Easter Sunrise service and of the Memorial Day service we have, the name of "Washelli" has appeared on the front page of our daily newspapers hundreds of times. You must agree with me that publicity of this kind pays.

There is another form of publicity which is of equal importance to that of newspaper or radio. I refer to the publicizing of the people who are prominent in your organization. No.2-In my judgment social publicity is not of any value. But there are other forms of publicity for the heads of your business which are productive of good results from a best stand¬point. I refer to an active participation in the civic affairs of your com¬munity. I am not so much interested in partisan politics as I am in activities such as Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls, P.T.A., your symphony orchestra and your art museum and the many other organizations which have as their object either character building or the betterment of your community. Most high grade funeral directors take an active interest in all these community matters and look upon it as one of their best means of publicity for business connections.

Our radio program, now in, its 7th year has developed to the point where those taking part in it are in demand for entertainment at churches, lodges and many other places where they bring the message of Washelli and Evergreen along with their entertainment. This kind of publicity cannot be spasmodic but must be continuous and of a character which will reflect favorably on your institution. This program is an example of a specific job accomplished by constant repetition, to wit, overcoming feeling that our prices were higher because of superior beauty.

No. 3-The best kind of publicity is "one friend tells another" so publicity can be materially aided by making friends through better service to all. No. 4-Recognize the principle of repetition in publicity. "It's the constant drip of water that wears away the hardest stone. It's the constant gnaw of Towser that wears away the toughest bone."

This is how repetition helps in publicity. In obit stories in daily, weekly and all other publications, not the paid obituary but the news stories in the editorial column. Supply the information about each deceased, accurate and well written, always including place of burial. Papers are glad to have it and in appreciation for sending it, invariably include place of interment.

Send to all papers wherever any kind of tie-in is possible. For in¬stance, if a man lives in one district but works in another, send to district paper where he works, as well as where he lives. Send also to district papers where relatives live; to the papers of the lodges with which he is affiliated; to papers in district where he formerly lived. Be sure that the particular tie-in is apparent near the very beginning of the news story, or else it might hit editorial waste basket. Sometimes a little note to the editor explaining it will help.

No. 5-All these tie-ins can be uncovered through the use of "His¬torical Record" which also are a valuable aid for prospects for "before need" sales (other branches of family, pall bearers, etc.). One of the problems in publicity for profit is keeping bad publicity out. This can be done by maintaining friendly relations with editors. They'll give you a fair break.

Finally, your publicity should be directed towards the class of people who are more or less the backbone of our nation, the solid, substantial middleclass. I am not interested in advertising Evergreen and Washelli to the very rich or the extremely poor. No. 6-I want the best of that great mass of so-called middle-class of people. They are the ones who create the memorial of love and affection, they are the supporters of the churches and they are the ones who help us create beautiful cemeteries because of their abiding faith in immortality.

No. 1: Incidentally, at that service we read the names of all Lutherans ho have been buried in that cemetery during the past year. That list runs anywhere from 125 to 175 Lutherans in the year and it doesn't take too long and it pays to read the list, at your Memorial Day service:

No. 2: Now neither of the other speakers have mentioned this phase of it, yet I think it is a very important thing.

No. 3: Speaking of that particular job, because we feel our radio program has done that unusually well, many people thought because we had developed our properties far beyond that of any other cemeteries in our locality that our prices must necessarily be much higher. We overcame that by constant repetition on the radio by saying prices were as reasonable as in any other cemetery.

No. 4: If we can get the people whom we serve to go to their friends and say, "My, but we had a nice service at Evergreen or Washelli. Wasn’t everything beautiful and handled in the best manner, possible!” That is the best kind of publicity you can get.

No. 5: For instance, if a man in one district works m another district, I would send it both to the local papers in the two districts. I would send it to the district papers where relatives live, to the papers of the lodges with which he might be affiliated, to papers where he formerly lived. In other words, get the publicity concerning the death and burial of that man in just as many mediums as possible.

No. 6: Now just briefly about one problem of publicity. That is the problem of keeping bad publicity out. There is only one way to do that. That is to keep on friendly terms with your newspaper editors and pub¬lishers. Meet them and know them, get acquainted with them. Then if some bad publicity comes up, they are going to consult with you before it is printed and if untrue or unfair it will not be run.

For a dozen years I have entertained newspaper reporters and editors with a week-end party up at the place I own on Whitby Island, in the State of Washington. We go up there and have a grand and glorious time. They will give you a fair break, if you keep on friendly relations with your newspaper men.

Now finally your publicity must be directed toward the class of people who are the backbone of our nation that great middle class of people, just like you and me, who are predominant in numbers in using our cemetery properties and who are the real people to whom we must look for our business. I don't care much about selling the wealthiest of our people. I don't care much about selling the poorest of our people. In neither case are the relations apt to be the most satisfactory. But I want to sell that great mass of the so-called middle class of people.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: I might ask Mr. Harley if the funeral directors most of whom furnish this publicity service along an obituary nature if they resent your stepping into that field.

MR. HARLEY: Apparently not. In fact, I talk to them very frankly and tell them I think when they are sending a story to the newspapers they should include the place of Interment, saying that is just of as much interest to the public, who read the stories, as the place where the funeral, is going to be held, and it is. We have had many, many telephone calls from people concerning the burial of some particularly well-known man or woman, where the interment place was not mentioned in the news article and they have called us up to find out where the burial was going to take place.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Do you have many services in your chapel?

MR. HARLEY: None at all.

MR. SANGER: I would like to ask Clint, how far you have been able to kill that idea of "too expensive" – “with all this beauty the price is over our head". How do you kill that in addition to using the radio?

MR. HARLEY: In our advertising - radio, newspapers, booklets, word of mouth - we emphasize the fact that prices in modern cemeteries are no higher than the ill-kept property which does not have modern conveniences, modern aspects. It is a question of constant repetition all the time.

MR. J. T. SHEA (Houston, Texas): Mr. Chairman, does the under¬taker prefer to have the funeral conducted in his parlor and don't they resent families going to the chapels? Don't they miss bringing the families into their place of business?

MR. HARLEY: We do not have any services in our chapel. The serv¬ices are all held either in a funeral home or at the grave.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: We will take that question up in the general discussion, John. Anything else?

MR: L. O. MINEAR (Washington): I would like to ask Mr. Harley if in his advertising, where he is trying to build up the thought that his property isn’t too high, he uses the price of the property. Do you quote prices?

MR. HARLEY: No, we do not.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Anyone else?

MR. WORK (Clinton, Iowa): I use the name of my employees in the "display advertising frequently. They have many friends and it is very helpful to use their names. We say, "Ask for Mr. So-and-so when you come to the park."

MR. HARLEY: I think it would be helpful.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Anyone else?

MR. GEORGE YOUNG (Dallas): You have a Veterans' Plot don't you?

MR. HARLEY: Yes, sir.

MR. YOUNG: How large is that plot and what do you call it?

MR. HARLEY: We call it "Veterans Memorial Cemetery" and it is large enough to take about 4,000 burials.

MR. YOUNG: In it do you permit the other members of their families or just the veterans?

MR. HARLEY: Just the veterans alone.

MR. YOUNG: Do you have an adjoining section?

MR. HARLEY: We have an adjoining section in which we put the veterans’ families on a considerably larger plan.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: How do you like the plan?

MR. HARLEY: It works.

MR. CHESTER SPARKS (Philadelphia): Did you have to give the veterans a lot free?

MR. HARLEY: We didn't give them any free sites except a place big enough for them to put a chapel, a circle 24 feet across.

MR. SPARKS: We will call you a miracle man.

MR. HARLEY: We didn't give to a man and they pay for every burial and I have 700 burials in this plat started three years ago.

MR. YELLAND (Norwalk, Conn.): Is the plot more expensive than in the outlying section? May I say one more thing in explaining the question, which might seem to be impertinent? In our case the outlying sections are mostly country cemeteries that are beautiful but are also very much cheaper. We would have a difficult time in saying as you say.

MR. HARLEY: I am referring to comparable property inside the city. I am not referring to the country cemeteries. In fact, we have very few of them. We are just youngsters. We are not 400 or 500 years old, like you fellows. I don't know where you live. The first baby that ever lived in Seattle just died a mature man the other day, this year, so you can see how young a town we are.

MR. J. T. FREES (Atlantic City): Clint, concerning your Memorial Circle - we have an All-Wars Circle in our park and when we first started out in 1928, I wrote a letter to all the American Legion camps in our section and told them that we were rendering a service to any soldier that had served his country in time of war if he died without a place, had no relatives, no friends, no money, we would bury him in this circle with¬out any cost whatever. We have about 15 burials we have made or prob¬ably 18 in that circle that have cost us $30.00 every time we made a burial because we brick-line the grave and stone-cover it. We have found that has made the people in Atlantic City think we are rendering a service that nobody ever thought of, and it has brought us back a hundredfold.

MR. HARLEY: That is good publicity. When I said we never gave the Veterans anything - I am a veteran myself, and I think one of the damnable things of the American nation at the present time is the fact that the Veterans are always demanding something extra for themselves over and above the rest of the people. I am a veteran and I can get up and say that. I think it, is rotten. I think a veteran should not be entitled to more than any other man or woman who has raised a family in this country. We charge the veterans just the same. I say to them, just as I say to every minister and every organization, "if you have somebody in your circle of friends that has died and has no place to go, you can come to Evergreen or Washelli and we won't charge you a cent." I don't care whether he is a veteran or not. We do that right along.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940