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Valuable Newspaper Aid.
{085} Dr. Pierce's son, Dr. V. Mott Pierce, was chairman of the
Committee on Legislation. He was the author of the "matters and
suggestions" which must be considered in the dark. "Never before," said
he, "in the history of the Proprietary Association were there so many
bills in different state legislatures that were vital to our interests.
This was due, we think, to an effort on the part of different state
boards of health, who have of late years held national meetings, to make
an organized effort to establish what are known as 'pure food laws.'"
Then the younger Pierce stated explicitly the agency responsible for the
defeat of this public health legislation: "We must not forget to
place the honor where due for our uniform success in defeating class
legislation directed against our legitimate pursuits. The American
Newspaper Publishers' Association has rendered us valued aid through
their secretary's office in New York and we can hardly overestimate the
power brought to bear at Washington by individual newspapers."... (On
another occasion, Dr. Pierce, speaking of two bills in the Illinois
Legislature, said: "Two things operated to bring these bills to the
danger line. In the first place, the Chicago papers were almost wholly
without influence in the Legislature.... Had it not been for the active
co-operation of the state outside of Chicago there is absolute certainty
that the bill would have passed.... I think that a great many members
do not appreciate the power that we can bring to bear on legislation
through the press.") But this power, in young Dr. Pierce's opinion, must
be organized and systematized. "If it is not presumptuous on the part of
your chairman," he said modestly, "to outline a policy which experience
seems to dictate for the future, it would be briefly as follows"--here
the younger Pierce explains the "matters and suggestions" which must
not be "published broadcast over the country." The first was "the
organization of a Legislative Bureau, with its offices in New York or
Chicago. Second, a secretary, to be appointed by the chairman of the
Committee on Legislation, who will receive a stated salary, sufficiently
large to be in keeping with such person's ability, and to compensate him
for the giving of all his time to this work."
"The benefits of such a working bureau to the Proprietary Association,"
said Dr. Pierce, "can be foreseen: First, a systematic plan to acquire
early knowledge of pending or threatened legislation could be taken up.
In the past we have relied too much on newspaper managers to acquaint us
of such bills coming up.... Another plan would be to have the regulation
formula bill, for instance, introduced by some friendly legislator, and
have it referred to his own committee, where he could hold it until
all danger of such another bill being introduced were over, and the
Legislature had adjourned."
Little wonder Dr. Pierce wanted a secret session to cover up the frank
{087}naïveté of his son, which he did not "wish to have published
broadcast over the country, for very good reasons."
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