Advertising and testimonials are respectively the aggressive and
defensive forces of the Great American Fraud. Without the columns of the
newspapers and magazines wherein to exploit themselves, a great majority
of the patent medicines would peacefully and blessedly fade out of
existence. Nearly all the world of publications is open to the swindler,
the exceptions being the high-class magazines and a very few independent
spirited newspapers. The strongholds of the fraud are dailies, great
and small, the cheap weeklies and the religious press. According to
the estimate of a prominent advertising firm, above 90 per cent, of
the earning capacity of the prominent nostrums is represented by their
advertising. And all this advertising is based on the well-proven
theory of the public's pitiable ignorance and gullibility in the vitally
important matter of health.
Study the medicine advertising in your morning paper, and you will find
yourself in a veritable goblin-realm of fakery, peopled with monstrous
myths. Here is an amulet in the form of an electric belt, warranted
to restore youth and vigor to the senile; yonder a magic ring or a
mysterious inhaler, or a bewitched foot-plaster which will draw the
pangs of rheumatism from the tortured body "or your money back"; and
again some beneficent wizard in St. Louis promises with a secret philtre
to charm away deadly cancer, while in the next column a firm of magi
in Denver proposes confidently to exorcise the demon of incurable
consumption without ever seeing the patient. Is it credible that a
supposedly civilized nation should accept such stuff as gospel? Yet
these exploitations cited above, while they are extreme, differ only
in degree from nearly all patent-medicine advertising. Ponce de Leon,
groping toward that dim fountain whence youth springs eternal, might
believe that he had found his goal in the Peruna factory, the Liquozone
"laboratory" or the Vitæ-Ore plant; his thousands of descendants in
this century of enlightenment painfully drag themselves along poisoned
trails, following a will-o'-the-wisp that dances above the open graves.
Newspaper Accomplices.
If there is no limit to the gullibility of the public on the one hand,
there is apparently none to the cupidity of the newspapers on the other.
As the Proprietary Association of America is constantly setting forth in
veiled warnings, the press takes an enormous profit from patent-medicine
advertising. Mr. Hearst's papers alone reap a harvest of more than half
a million dollars per annum from this source. The Chicago _Tribune_,
which treats nostrum advertising in a spirit of independence, and
sometimes with scant courtesy, still receives more than $80,000 a year
in medical patronage. Many of the lesser journals actually live on
patent medicines. What wonder that they are considerate of these
profitable customers! Pin a newspaper owner down to the issue of fraud
in the matter, and he will take refuge in the plea that his advertisers
and not himself are responsible for what appears in the advertising
columns. _Caveat emptor_ is the implied superscription above this
department. The more shame to those publications {058}which prostitute
their news and editorial departments to their greed. Here are two
samples, one from the Cleveland _Plain-Dealer_, the other from a
temperance weekly, Green Goods "Cable News."
The "Ascatco" advertisement, which the Plain-Dealer prints as a
cablegram, without any distinguishing mark to designate it as an
advertisement, of course, emanates from the office of the nostrum, and
is a fraud, as the _Plain-Dealer_ well knew when it accepted payment,
and became partner to the swindle by deceiving its readers. Tne Vitæ-Ore
"editorial" appears by virtue of a full-page advertisement of this
extraordinary fake in the same issue.
Whether, because church-going people are more trusting, and therefore
more easily befooled than others, or from some more obscure reason, many
of the religious papers fairly reek with patent-medicine fakes.
Take, for instance, the _Christian Endeavor World_, which is the
undenominational organ of a large, powerful and useful organization,
unselfishly working toward the betterment of society. A subscriber who
recently complained of certain advertisements received the following
reply from the business manager of the publication:
"Dear Sir:--Your letter of the 4th comes to me for reply. Appreciating
the good spirit in which you write, let me assure you that, to the best
of our knowledge and belief, we are not publishing any fraudulent
or unworthy medicine advertising. We decline every year thousands of
dollars' worth of patent-medicine advertising that we think is either
fraudulent or misleading. You would be surprised, very likely, if you
could know of the people of high intelligence and good character who are
benefited by these {059}medicines. We have taken a great deal of pains
to make particular inquiries of our subscribers with respect to this
question, and a very large percentage of them are devoted to one or
more well-known patent medicines, and regard them as household remedies.
Trusting that you will be able to understand that we are acting
according to our best and sincerest judgment, I remain, yours very
truly,
"The Golden Rule Company,
"George W. Coleman, Business Manager"
Running through half a dozen recent issues of the _Christian Endeavor
World_, I find nineteen medical advertisements of, at best, dubious
nature. Assuming that the business management of the _Christian Endeavor
World_ represents normal intelligence, I would like to ask whether it
accepts the statement that a pair of "magic foot drafts" applied to the
bottom of the feet will cure any and every kind of rheumatism in any
part of the body? Further, if the advertising department is genuinely
interested in declining "fraudulent or misleading" copy, I would call
their attention to the ridiculous claims of Dr. Shoop's medicines,
which "cure" almost every disease; to two hair removers, one an "Indian
Secret," the other an "accidental discovery," both either fakes or
dangerous; to the lying claims of Hall's Catarrh Cure, that it is "a
positive cure for catarrh" in all its stages to "Syrup of Figs," which
is not a fig syrup, but a preparation of senna; to Dr. Kilmer's Swamp
Root, of which the principal medicinal constituent is alcohol; and,
finally, to Dr. Bye's Oil Cure for cancer, a particularly cruel swindle
on unfortunates suffering from an incurable malady. All of these, with
other matter, which for the sake of decency I do not care to detail
in these columns, appear in recent issues of the _Christian Endeavor
World_, and are respectfully submitted to its management and its
readers.
Quackery and Religion.
The Baptist Watchman of Oct. 12, 1905, prints an editorial defending the
principle of patent medicines. It would be interesting to know whether
the back page of the number has any connection with the editorial. This
page is given up to an illustrated advertisement of Vito-Ore, one of
the boldest fakes in the whole Frauds' Gallery. Vitæ-Ore claims to be
a mineral mined from "an extinct mineral spring," and to contain free
iron, free sulphur and free magnesium. It contains no free iron, no free
sulphur, and no free magnesium. It announces itself as "a certain and
never-failing cure" for rheumatism and Bright's disease, dropsy,
blood poisoning, nervous prostration and general debility, among other
maladies. Whether it is, as asserted, mined from an extinct spring
or bucketed from a sewer has no bearing on its utterly fraudulent
character. There is no "certain and never-failing cure" for the diseases
in its list, and when the _Baptist Watchman_ sells itself to such an
exploitation it becomes partner to a swindle not only on the pockets
of its readers, but on their health as well. In the same issue I find
"Piso's Cure for Consumption,"
"Bye's Cancer Cure,"
"Mrs. M. Summer's Female Remedy,"
"Winslow's Soothing Syrup," and "Juven Pills," somewhat disguised here,
but in other mediums openly a sexual weakness "remedy."
A correspondent sends me clippings from _The Christian Century_, leading
off with an interesting editorial entitled "Our Advertisers," from which
I quote in part:
"We take pleasure in calling the attention of our readers to the high
grade of advertising which _The Christian Century_ commands. We shall
continue to advertise only such companies as we know to be thoroughly
reliable. During the past year we have refused thousands of dollars'
{060}worth of advertising which other religious journals are running,
but which is rated 'objectionable' by the better class of periodicals.
Compare our advertising columns with the columns of any other purely
religious journal, and let us know what you think of the character of
our advertising patrons."
Whether the opinion of a non-subscriber will interest _The Christian
Century_ I have no means of knowing, but I will venture it. My opinion
is that a considerable proportion of its advertisements are such as any
right-minded and intelligent publisher should be ashamed to print, and
that if its readers accept its endorsement of the advertising columns
they will have a very heavy indictment to bring against it. Three
"cancer cures," a dangerous "heart cure," a charlatan eye doctor, Piso's
Consumption Cure, Dr. Shoop's Rheumatism Cure and Liquozone make up
a pretty fair "Frauds' Gallery" for the delectation of _The Christian
Century's_ readers.
[IMAGE ==>] {060}
As a convincing argument, many nostrums guarantee, not a cure, as they
would have the public believe, but a reimbursement if the medicine is
unsatisfactory.
Liquozone does this, and faithfully carries out its agreement.
Electro-gen, a new "germicide," which has stolen Liquozone's advertising
scheme almost word for word, also promises this. Dr. Shoop's agreement
{061}is so worded that the unsatisfied customer is likely to have
considerable trouble in getting his money back. Other concerns send
their "remedies" free on trial, among these being the ludicrous "magic
foot drafts" referred to above. At first thought it would seem that
only a cure would bring profit to the makers. But the fact is that most
diseases tend to cure themselves by natural means, and the delighted and
deluded patient, ascribing the relief to the "remedy," which really has
nothing to do with it, sends on his grateful dollar. Where the money
is already paid, most people are too inert to undertake the effort of
getting it back. It is the easy American way of accepting a swindle as a
sort of joke, which makes for the nostrum readers ready profits.
Safe Rewards.
Then there is the "reward for proof" that the proprietary will not
perform the wonders advertised. The Liquozone Company offer $1,000, I
believe, for any germ that Liquozone will not kill. This is a pretty
safe offer, because there are no restrictions as to the manner in which
the unfortunate germ might be maltreated. If the matter came to an
issue, the defendants might put their bacillus in the Liquozone bottle
and freeze him solid. If that didn't end him, they could boil the ice
and save their money, as thus far no germ has been discovered which
can survive the process of being made into soup. Nearly all of the
Hall Catarrh Cure advertisements offer a reward of $100 for any case
of catarrh which the nostrum fails to cure. It isn't enough, though one
hundred times that amount might be worth while; for who doubts that Mr.
F. J. Cheney, inventor of the "red clause," would fight for his cure
through every court, exhausting the prospective $100 reward of his
opponent in the first round? How hollow the "guarantee" pretence is, is
shown by a clever scheme devised by Radam, the quack, years ago, when
Shreveport was stricken with yellow fever. Knowing that his offer could
not be accepted, he proposed to the United States Government that he
should eradicate the epidemic by destroying all the germs with Radam's
Microbe Killer, offering to deposit $10,000 as a guarantee. Of course,
the Government declined on the ground that it had no power to accept
such an offer. Meantime, Radam got a lot of free advertising, and his
fortune was made.
No little stress is laid on "personal advice" by the patent-medicine
companies. This may be, according to the statements of the firm, from
their physician or from some special expert. As a matter of fact, it is
almost invariably furnished by a $10-a-week typewriter, following
out one of a number of "form" letters prepared in bulk for the
"personal-inquiry" dupes. Such is the Lydia E. Pinkham method. The
Pinkham Company writes me that it is entirely innocent of any intent to
deceive people into believing that Lydia E. Pinkham is still alive, and
that it has published in several cases statements regarding her demise.
It is true that a number of years ago a newspaper forced the Pinkham
concern into a defensive admission of Lydia E. Pinkham's death, but
since then the main purpose of the Pinkham advertising has been to
befool the feminine public into believing that their letters go to a
woman--who died nearly twenty years ago of one of the diseases, it is
said, which her remedy claims to cure.
The Immortal Mrs. Pinkham.
True, the newspaper appeal is always "Write to Mrs. Pinkham," and this
is technically a saving clause, as there is a Mrs. Pinkham, widow of the
son of Lydia E. Pinkham. What sense of shame she might be supposed to
suffer in the perpetration of an obvious and public fraud is presumably
{062}salved by the large profits of the business. The great majority
of the gulls who "write to Mrs. Pinkham" suppose themselves to be
addressing Lydia E. Pinkham, and their letters are not even answered by
the present proprietor of the name, but by a corps of hurried clerks and
typewriters.
You get the same result when you write to Dr. Hartman, of Peruna, for
personal guidance. Dr. Hartman himself told me that he took no active
part now in the conduct of the Peruna Company. If he sees the letters
addressed to him at all, it is by chance. "Dr. Kilmer," of Swamp-Root
fame, wants you to write to him about your kidneys. There is no Dr.
Kilmer in the Swamp-Root concern, and has not been for many years. Dr.
T. A. Slocum, who writes you so earnestly and piously about taking care
of your consumption in time, is a myth. The whole "personal medical
advice" business is managed by rote, and the letter that you get
"special to your case" has been printed and signed before your inquiry
ever reached the shark who gets your money.
An increasingly common pitfall is the letter in the newspapers from some
sufferer who has been saved from disease and wants you to write and get
the prescription free. A conspicuous instance of this is "A Notre
Dame Lady's Appeal" to sufferers from rheumatism and also from female
trouble. "Mrs. Summers," of Notre Dame, Ill., whose picture in the
papers represents a fat Sister of Charity, with the wan, uneasy
expression of one who feels that her dinner isn't digesting properly,
may be a real lady, but I suspect she wears a full beard and talks in
a bass voice, because my letter of inquiry to her was answered by the
patent medicine firm of Vanderhoof & Co., who inclosed some sample
tablets and wanted to sell me more. There are many others of this class.
It is safe to assume that every advertising altruist who pretends to
give out free prescriptions is really a quack medicine firm in disguise.
One more instance of bad faith to which the nostrum patron renders
himself liable: It is asserted that these letters of inquiry in the
patent medicine field are regarded as private. "All correspondence
held strictly private and sacredly confidential," advertises Dr. R. V.
Pierce, of the Golden Medical Discovery, etc. A Chicago firm of letter
brokers offers to send me 50,000 Dr. Pierce order blanks at $2 a
thousand for thirty days; or I can get terms on Ozomulsion, Theodore
Noel (Vitæ-Ore), Dr. Stevens' Nervous Debility Cure, Cactus Cure,
women's regulators, etc.
With advertisements in the medical journals the public is concerned only
indirectly, it is true, but none the less vitally. Only doctors read
these exploitations, but if they accept certain of them and treat their
patients on the strength of the mendacious statements it is at the peril
of the patients. Take, for instance, the Antikamnia advertising which
appears in most of the high-class medical journals, and which includes
the following statements:
"Do not depress the heart.
Do not produce habit.
Are accurate--safe--sure."
These three lines, reproduced as they occur in the medical journals,
contain five distinct and separate lies--a triumph of condensed
mendacity unequaled, so far as I know, in the "cure all" class. For an
instructive parallel here are two claims made by Duffy's Malt Whiskey,
one taken from a medical journal, and hence "ethical," the other
transcribed from a daily paper and therefore to be condemned by all
medical men.
Puzzle: Which is the ethical and which the unethical advertisement?
[IMAGE ==>] {063}
"It is the only cure and preventative [sic] of consumption, pneumonia,
grip, bronchitis, coughs, colds, malaria, low fevers and all wasting,
weakening, diseased conditions." {064}
"Cures general debility, overwork, la grippe, colds, bronchitis,
consumption, malaria, dyspepsia, depression, exhaustion and weakness
from whatever cause."
All the high-class medical publications accept the advertising
of "McArthur's Syrup of Hypophosphites," which uses the following
statement: "It is the enthusiastic conviction of many (physicians) that
its effect is truly specific." That looks to me suspiciously like a
"consumption cure" shrewdly expressed in pseudo-ethical terms.
The Germicide Family.
Zymoticine, if one may believe various medical publications, "will
prevent microbe proliferation in the blood streams, and acts as an
efficient eliminator of those germs and their toxins which are already
present." Translating this from its technical language, I am forced to
the conviction that Zymoticine is half-brother to Liquozone, and if the
latter is illegitimate at least both are children of Beelzebub, father
of all frauds. Of the same family are the "ethicals" Acetozone and
Keimol, as shown by their germicidal claims.
Again, I find exploited to the medical profession, through its own
organa, a "sure cure for dropsy."
"Hygeia presents her latest discovery," declares the advertisement, and
fortifies the statement with a picture worthy of Swamp-Root or Lydia
Pinkham. Every intelligent physician knows that there is no sure cure
for dropsy. The alternative implication is that the advertiser hopes to
get his profit by deluding the unintelligent of the profession, and
that the publications which print his advertisement are willing to hire
themselves out to the swindle.
In one respect some of the medical journals are far below the average of
the newspapers, and on a par with the worst of the "religious" journals.
They offer their reading space for sale. Here is an extract from a
letter from the _Medical Mirror_ to a well-known "ethical firm":
"Should you place a contract for this issue we shall publish a 300-word
report in your interest in our reading columns."
Many other magazines of this class print advertisements as original
reading matter calculated to deceive their subscribers.
Back of all patent medicine advertising stands the testimonial. Produce
proofs that any nostrum can not in its nature perform the wonders that
it boasts, and its retort is to wave aloft its careful horde or letters
and cry:
"We rest on the evidence of those we have cured."
The crux of the matter lies in the last word. Are the writers of those,
letters really cured? What is the value of these testimonials? Are
they genuine? Are they honest? Are they, in their nature and from their
source, entitled to such weight as would convince a reasonable mind?
Three distinct types suggest themselves: The word of grateful
acknowledgement from a private citizen, couched in such terms as to
be readily available for advertising purposes; the encomium from some
person in public life, and the misspelled, illiterate epistle which is
from its nature so unconvincing that it never gets into print, and which
outnumbers the other two classes a hundred to one. First of all,
most nostrums make a point of the mass of evidence. Thousands of
testimonials, they declare, {065}just as valuable for their purposes as
those they print, are in their files. This is not true. I have taken
for analysis, as a fair sample, the "World's Dispensary Medical Book,"
published by the proprietors of Pierce's Favorite Prescription, the
Golden Medical Discovery, Pleasant Pellets, the Pierce Hospital, etc. As
the dispensers of several nostrums, and because of their long career in
the business, this firm should be able to show as large a collection of
favorable letters as any proprietary concern.
Overworked Testimonials.
In their book, judiciously scattered, I find twenty-six letters twice
printed, four letters thrice printed and two letters produced four
times. Yet the compilers of the book "have to regret" (editorially) that
they can "find room only for this comparatively small number in this
volume." Why repeat those they have if this is true? If enthusiastic
indorsements poured in on the patent medicine people, the Duffy's Malt
Whiskey advertising management would hardly be driven to purchasing
its letters from the very aged and from disreputable ministers of the
gospel. If all the communications were as convincing as those published,
the Peruna Company would not have to employ an agent to secure
publishable letters, nor the Liquozone Company indorse across the face
of a letter from a Mrs. Benjamin Charters: "Can change as we see fit."
Many, in fact I believe I may say almost all, of the newspaper-exploited
testimonials are obtained at an expense to the firm. Agents are
employed to secure them. This costs money. Druggists get a discount
for forwarding letters from their customers. This costs money. Persons
willing to have their picture printed get a dozen photographs for
themselves. This costs money. Letters of inquiry answered by givers
of testimonials bring a price--25 cents per letter, usually. Here is a
document sent out periodically by the Peruna Company to keep in line its
"unsolicited" beneficiaries:
"As you are aware, we have your testimonial to our remedy. It has been
some time since we have heard from you, and so we thought best to
make inquiry as to your present state of health and whether you still
occasionally make use of Peruna. We also want to make sure that we have
your present street address correctly, and that you are making favorable
answers to such letters of inquiry which your testimonial may occasion.
Remember that we allow 25 cents for each letter of inquiry. You have
only to send the letter you receive, together with a copy of your reply
to the same, and we will forward you 25 cents for each pair of letters.
"We hope you are still a friend of Peruna and that our continued use
of your testimonial will be agreeable to you. We are inclosing stamped
envelope for reply. Very sincerely yours,
"The Peruna Drug Manufacturing Company,
"Per Carr."
And here is an account of another typical method of collecting this sort
of material, the writer being a young New Orleans man, who answered an
advertisement in a local paper, offering profitable special work to a
news paper man with spare time:
"I found the advertiser to be a woman, the coarseness of whose features
was only equaled by the vulgarity of her manners and speech, and whose
self-assertiveness was in proportion to her bulk. She proposed that I
set about securing testimonials to the excellent qualities of Peruna,
which she pronounced 'Pay-Runa,' for which I was to receive a fee of $5
to $10, according to the prominence of 'the guy' from whom I obtained
it. This I declined {066}flatly. She then inquired whether or not I was
a member of any social organizations or clubs in the city, and receiving
a positive answer she offered me $3 for a testimonial, including the
statement that Pay-Runa had been used by the members of the Southern
Athletic Club with good effects, and raised it to $5 before I left.
"Upon my asking her what her business was before she undertook the
Pay-Runa work, she became very angry. Now, when a female is both very
large and very angry, the best thing for a small, thin young man to do
is to leave her to her thoughts and the expression thereof. I did it."
[IMAGE: ==>] {066}
No Questions Desired.
{067} Testimonials obtained in this way are, in a sense, genuine; that
is, the nostrum firm has documentary evidence that they were given;
but it is hardly necessary to state that they are not honest. Often
the handling of the material is very careless, as in the case of Doan's
Kidney Pills, which ran an advertisement in a Southern city embodying
a letter from a resident of that city who had been dead nearly a year.
Cause of death, kidney disease.
In a former article I have touched on the matter of testimonials
from public men. These are obtained through special agents, through
hangers-on of the newspaper business who wheedle them out of congressmen
or senators, and sometimes through agencies which make a specialty of
that business. A certain Washington firm made a "blanket offer" to a
nostrum company of a $100 joblot of testimonials, consisting of one
De Wolf Hopper, one Sarah Bernhardt and six "statesmen," one of them a
United States senator. Whether they had Mr. Hopper and Mme. Bernhardt
under agreement or were simply dealing in futures I am unable to say,
but the offer was made in business-like fashion. And the "divine Sarah"
at least seems to be an easy subject for patent medicines, as her
letters to them are by no means rare. Congressmen are notoriously easy
to get, and senators are by no means beyond range. There are several
men now in the United States Senate who have, at one time or another,
prostituted their names to the uses of fraud medicines, which they do
not use and of which they know nothing. Naval officers seem to be easy
marks. Within a few weeks a retired admiral of our navy has besmirched
himself and his service by acting as pictorial sales agent for Peruna.
If one carefully considers the "testimonials" of this class it will
appear that few of the writers state that they have ever tried the
nostrum. We may put down the "public man's" indorsement, then, as
genuine (documentarily), but not honest. Certainly it can bear no weight
with an intelligent reader.
Almost as eagerly sought for as this class of letter is the medical
indorsement. Medical testimony exploiting any medicine advertised in the
lay press withers under investigation. In the Liquozone article of this
series I showed how medical evidence is itself "doctored." This was
an extreme instance, for Liquozone, under its original administration,
exhibited less conscience in its methods than any of its competitors
that I have encountered. Where the testimony itself is not distorted, it
is obtained under false pretences or it comes from men of no standing in
the profession. Some time ago Duffy's Malt Whiskey sent out an agent to
get testimonials from hospitals. He got them. How he got them is told
in a letter from the physician in charge of a prominent Pennsylvania
institution:
"A very nice appearing man called here one day and sent in his card,
bearing the name of Dr. Blank (I can't recall the name, but wish I
could), a graduate of Vermont University. He was as smooth an article as
I have ever been up against, and I have met a good many. He at once
got down to business and began to talk of the hospitals he had visited,
mentioning physicians whom I knew either personally or by reputation. He
then brought out a lot of documents for me to peruse, all of which were
bona fide affairs, from the various institutions, signed by the various
physicians or resident physicians, setting forth the merits or use of
'Duffy's Malt Whiskey.' He asked if I had ever used it. I said yes, but
very little, and was at the time using some, a fact, as I was sampling
what he handed me. He then placed about a dozen small bottles, holding
possibly two ounces, on the table, and said I should keep it, and he
would send me two quarts free for use here as soon as he got back."
Getting a Testimonial from a Physician.
{068} "He next asked me if I would give him a testimonial regarding
Duffy's Whiskey. I said I did not do such things, as it was against
my principles to do so. 'But this is not for publication,' he said. I
replied that I had used but little of it, and found it only the same as
any other whisky. He then asked if I was satisfied with the results as
far as I had used it. I replied that I was. He then asked me to state
that much, and I very foolishly said I would, on condition that it was
not to be used as an advertisement, and he assured me it would not be
used. I then, in a few words, said that 'I (or we) have used and are
using Duffy's Malt Whiskey, and are satisfied with the results,' signing
my name to the same. He left here, and what was my surprise to receive
later on a booklet in which was my testimonial and many others, with
cuts of hospitals ranging along with people who had reached 100 years by
use of the whisky, while seemingly all ailments save ringbone and spavin
were being cured by this wonderful beverage. I was provoked, but was
paid as I deserved, for allowing a smooth tongue to deceive me. Duffy's
Malt Whiskey has never been inside this place since that day and never
will be while I have any voice to prevent it. The total amount used at
the time and before was less than half a gallon."
This hospital is still used as a reference by the Duffy people.
Many of the ordinary testimonials which come unsolicited to the
extensively advertised nostrums in great numbers are both genuine and
honest. What of their value as evidence?
Some years ago, so goes a story familiar in the drug trade, the general
agent for a large jobbing house declared that he could put out an
article possessing not the slightest remedial or stimulant properties,
and by advertising it skillfully so persuade people of its virtues that
it would receive unlimited testimonials to the cure of any disease for
which he might choose to exploit it. Challenged to a bet, he became a
proprietary owner. Within a year he had won his wager with a collection
of certified "cures" ranging from anemia to pneumonia. Moreover, he
found his venture so profitable that he pushed it to the extent of
thousands of dollars of profits. His "remedy" was nothing but sugar. I
have heard "Kaskine" mentioned as the "cure" in the case. It answers the
requirements, or did answer them at that time, according to an analysis
by the Massachusetts State Board of Health, which shows that its
purchasers had been paying $1 an ounce for pure granulated sugar.
Whether "Kaskine" was indeed the subject of this picturesque bet, or
whether it was some other harmless fraud, is immaterial to the point,
which is that where the disease cures itself, as nearly all diseases
do, the medicine gets the benefit of this _viæ medicatriæ naturæ_--the
natural corrective force which makes for normal health in every human
organism. Obviously, the sugar testimonials can not be regarded as very
weighty evidence.
Testimonials for a Magic Ring.
There is being advertised now a finger ring which by the mere wearing
cures any form of rheumatism. The maker of that ring has genuine letters
from people who believe that they have been cured by it. Would any one
other than a believer in witchcraft accept those statements? Yet they
are just as "genuine" as the bulk of patent medicine letters and written
in as good faith. A very small proportion of the gratuitous indorsements
get into the newspapers, because, as I have said, they do not lend
themselves {069}well to advertising purposes. I have looked over the
originals of hundreds of such letters, and more than 90 per cent, of
them--that is a very conservative estimate--are from illiterate and
obviously ignorant people. Even those few that can be used are rendered
suitable for publication only by careful editing. The geographical
distribution is suggestive. Out of 100 specimens selected at random
from the Pierce testimonial book, eighty-seven are from small,
remote hamlets, whose very names are unfamiliar to the average man of
intelligence. Only five are from cities of more than 50,000 inhabitants.
Now, Garden City, Kas.; North Yamhill, Ore.; Theresa, Jefferson County,
N. Y.; Parkland, Ky., and Forest Hill, W. Va., may produce an excellent
brand of Americanism, but one does not look for a very high average of
intelligence in such communities. Is it only a coincidence that the
mountain districts of Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee, recognized
as being the least civilized parts of the country, should furnish a
number of testimonials, not only to Pierce, but to Peruna, Paine's
Celery Compound and other brands, out of all proportion to their
population? On page 65 {065} is a group of Pierce enthusiasts and a
group of Peruna witnesses. Should you, on the face of this exhibit,
accept their advice on a matter wholly affecting your physical welfare?
This is what the advertiser is asking you to do.
Secure as is the present control of the Proprietary Association over the
newspapers, there is one point in which I believe almost any journal may
be made to feel the force of public opinion, and that is the matter of
common decency. Newspapers pride themselves on preserving a respectable
moral standard in their news columns, and it would require no great
pressure on the part of the reading public (which is surely immediately
interested) to extend this standard to the advertising columns. I am
referring now not only to the unclean sexual, venereal and abortion
advertisements which deface the columns of a majority of papers, but
also to the exploitation of several prominent proprietaries.
Recently a prominent Chicago physician was dining _en famille_ with a
friend who is the publisher of a rather important paper in a Western
city. The publisher was boasting that he had so established the
editorial and news policy of his paper that every line of it could be
read without shame in the presence of any adult gathering.
"Never anything gets in," he declared, "that I couldn't read at this
table before my wife, son and daughter."
The visitor, a militant member of his profession, snuffed battle from
afar. "Have the morning's issue brought," he said. Turning to the second
page he began on Swift's Sure Specific, which was headed in large black
type with the engaging caption, "Vile, Contagious Blood Poison." Before
he had gone far the 19-year-old daughter of the family, obedient to
a glance from the mother, had gone to answer an opportune ring at the
telephone, and the publisher had grown very red in the face.
"I didn't mean the advertisements," he said.
"I did," said the visitor, curtly, and passed on to one of the extremely
intimate, confidential and highly corporeal letters to the ghost of
Lydia E. Pinkham, which are a constant ornament of the press. The
publisher's son interrupted:
"I don't believe that was written for me to hear," he observed. "I'm
too young--only 25, you know. Call me when you're through. I'll be out
looking at the moon."
Relentlessly the physician turned the sheet and began on one of the
Chattanooga Medical Company's physiological editorials, entitled "What
{070}Men Like in a Girl." For loathsome and gratuitous indecency, for
leering appeal to their basest passions, this advertisement and the
others of the Wine of Cardui series sound the depths. The hostess lasted
through the second paragraph, when she fled, gasping.
"Now," said the physician to his host, "what do you think of yourself?"
The publisher found no answer, but thereafter his paper was put under
a censorship of advertising. Many dailies refuse such "copy" as this of
Wine of Cardui. And here, I believe, is an opportunity for the entering
wedge. If every subscriber to a newspaper who is interested in keeping
his home free from contamination would protest and keep on protesting
against advertising foulness of this nature, the medical advertiser
would soon be restricted to the same limits of decency which other
classes of merchandise accept as a matter of course, for the average
newspaper publisher is quite sensitive to criticism from his readers. A
recent instance came under my own notice in the case of the _Auburn_ (N.
Y.) _Citizen_, which bought out an old-established daily, taking over
the contracts, among which was a large amount of low-class patent
medicine advertising. The new proprietor, a man of high personal
standards, assured his friends that no objectionable matter would be
permitted in his columns. Shortly after the establishment of the new
paper there appeared an advertisement of Juven Pills, referred to above.
Protests from a number of subscribers followed. Investigation showed
that a so-called "reputable" patent medicine firm had inserted this
disgraceful paragraph under their contract. Further insertions of the
offending matter were refused and the Hood Company meekly accepted the
situation. Another central New York daily, the _Utica Press_, rejects
such "copy" as seems to the manager indecent, and I have yet to hear of
the paper's being sued for breach of contract. No perpetrator of unclean
advertising can afford to go to court on this ground, because he knows
that his matter is indefensible.
Our national quality of commercial shrewdness fails us when we go into
the open market to purchase relief from suffering. The average American,
when he sets out to buy a horse, or a house, or a box of cigars, is a
model of caution. Show him testimonials from any number of prominent
citizens and he would simply scoff. He will, perhaps, take the word of
his life-long friend, or of the pastor of his church, but only after
mature thought, fortified by personal investigation. Now observe the
same citizen seeking to buy the most precious of all possessions, sound
health. Anybody's word is good enough for him here. An admiral whose
puerile vanity has betrayed him into a testimonial; an obliging and
conscienceless senator; a grateful idiot from some remote hamlet; a
renegade doctor or a silly woman who gets a bonus of a dozen photographs
for her letter--any of these are sufficient to lure the hopeful patient
to the purchase. He wouldn't buy a second-hand bicycle on the affidavit
of any of them, but he will give up his dollar and take his chance of
poison on a mere newspaper statement which he doesn't even investigate.
Every intelligent newspaper publisher knows that the testimonials which
he publishes are as deceptive as the advertising claims are false. Yet
he salves his conscience with the fallacy that the moral responsibility
is on the advertiser and the testimonial-giver. So it is, but the
newspaper shares it. When an aroused public sentiment shall make our
public men ashamed to lend themselves to this charlatanry, and shall
enforce on the profession of journalism those standards of decency in
the field of medical advertising which apply to other advertisers, the
Proprietary {071}Association of America will face a crisis more
perilous than any threatened legislation. For printers' ink is the very
life-blood of the noxious trade. Take from the nostrum vendors the means
by which they influence the millions, and there will pass to the limbo
of pricked bubbles a fraud whose flagrancy and impudence are of minor
import compared to the cold-hearted greed with which it grinds out its
profits from the sufferings of duped and eternally hopeful ignorance.