NATIONAL BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU, INC., organized in 1912 as the National Vigilance Committee of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, "to promote honesty, truthfulness and reliability in the sale of merchandise, securities and services, discourage fraudulent and deceptive methods in business and thereby to increase public confidence in advertising, salesmanship and business generally." The better business bureau movement is participated in by 10,000 industrial, financial and mercantile institutions. Its finan cial support comes from all fields. Besides the 42 better business bureaux the National bureau is aided by securities commissioners, chambers of commerce, prosecuting officials, newspapers, banks, brokers and investment houses and, for special mining and oil problems, State mining officials, oil inspectors and geologists.
The work of the bureau is divided into three operating groups: financial, merchandise and publicity. The financial section's work is educational, corrective and punitive. It is educational in that it
aims to conserve the savings of investors through the distribution of facts relative to financial offerings; it is corrective in that it investigates practices which are contrary to sound business pro cedure and adjusts them by moral suasion or if necessary, pub licity, while in the punitive field it concentrates upon the develop ment of facts regarding unsound projects, co-operating closely with State and Federal officials in the enforcement of existing laws. The bureau's merchandise work centres upon co-operation with 26 specific industries to correct misleading advertising and trade practices by formulating standards of fair play for buyer and seller. Investigation and exposure of merchandise frauds supplement this programme, the chief value of which lies in the help it offers to legitimate interests in business to organize, thus isolating the dishonest practitioner.