THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL--Continued
Patent Medicine Firms and Quacks Dispose of the Confidential
Letters Sent to Them--Patent Medicine Concerns and Letter
Brokers--The Patent Medicine Conspiracy Against the Freedom of
the Press--How The Patent Medicine Trust Crushes Honest Effort.
HOW QUACKS DISPOSE OF THE CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS SENT TO THEM
When you write for information--which is usually the first step--in
reply to an advertisement of this character, you receive in reply a
letter, which addresses you in an intimate way, as, "Dear or Esteemed
Friend." It informs you that "we are devoting our lives in the interest
of suffering humanity," and requests you to waste no time in writing a
full account of your symptoms and sickness; that such information will
be sacredly regarded as confidential and filed away from the prying eyes
of everyone except the "doctor" who reads it.
Every art is used to give the writer the impression that she is doing
business with responsible and reputable people; that what she writes
about her health, her affairs, and her person, are to be read by an
experienced medical adviser and by no other. The truth, as we have
shown, is that she writes her secrets to a man, who is not even a
physician, who in turn passes the letter over to be answered by an
office clerk.
When the fake doctor, or the patent medicine man, has exhausted his
"jollying" tactics, his lies, and his promises, and he can no longer
induce the victim to send more money, he sells the victim's letters to
another quack in the same business. These harpies, knowing what ails the
individual, begin sending her their specious and insinuating literature.
The woman reads, becomes interested, and, having bitten before,
concludes to try once again, and so the story goes--one after another
trying to drain the life-blood of an ailing, irresponsible foolish
woman.
The selling of letters has become a business, so much so that there are
regularly established medical letter brokers from whom you can buy these
letters by the thousands. In a single medical letter broker's office in
New York City there are upwards of seven million of these confidential
letters for sale to the highest bidders. This incidentally gives one a
slight idea of the tremendous business this is, and of the hundreds of
thousands of dupes and victims there have been.
The following extracts are taken from a well-known woman's journal,
which at various times has been interested in this subject, and are of
special interest in this connection:
One of the most disgusting and disgraceful features of the
patent medicine business is the marketing of letters sent by
patients to patent medicine firms. Correspondence is solicited
by these firms under the seal of sacred confidence. When the
concern is unable to do further business with a patient it
disposes of the patient's correspondence to a letter broker,
who, in turn, disposes of it to other patent medicine concerns
at the rate of half a cent for each letter.
One of these brokers assured the writer that he could give me
"choice lots" of "medical female letters." ... Let me now give
you, from the printed lists of these letter brokers, some idea
of the way in which these "sacred confidential" letters are
hawked about the country. Here are a few samples, all that are
really printable:
55,000 "Female Complaint Letters" is the sum total of one item,
and the list gives the names of the "medicine company" or the
"medical institute" to whom they were addressed. Here is a
barter then, in 55,000 letters of a private nature, each one of
which, the writer was told, and had a right to expect, would be
regarded as "sacredly confidential" by the doctor or concern to
whom she had been deluded into telling her private ailments.
Yet here they are for half a cent each!
Another batch of some 47,000 letters addressed to five
"doctors" and "institutes" is emphasized because they were
written by women! A third batch is:
44,000 "Bust Developer Letters,"--letters which one man in a
patent medicine concern told me were "the richest sort of
reading you could get hold of."
A still further lot offers: 40,000 "Women's Regulator
Letters,"--letters which in their context any woman can
naturally imagine would be of the most delicate nature. Still,
the fact remains, here they are for sale.
Is not this contemptible?
In the same article is exposed the inhuman greed of patent
medicine concerns that turn into cold cash the letters of
patients afflicted with the most vital diseases.
To quote again: "All these are made the subject of public
barter. Here are offered for sale, for example: 7,000 Paralysis
Letters; 9,000 Narcotic Letters; 52,000 Consumption Letters;
3,000 Cancer Letters, and even 65,000 Deaf Letters. Of diseases
of the most private nature one is offered here nearly 100,000
letters,--letters the very classification of which makes a
sensitive person shudder."
The deeper one delves below the surface of this business the nastier it
gets. It is impossible to conceive of vipers and sharks being endowed
with more contemptible and brutish qualities than those which
characterize the vultures of the patent medicine and quack medical
concerns.
THE PATENT MEDICINE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
It is estimated that the newspapers of the United States get about
$100,000,000 per year from the advertisements of patent medicines and
fake medical concerns.
There is an association composed of the manufacturers of patent
medicines and the owners of advertising medical concerns. It was
primarily formed for the single purpose of strictly looking after the
"interests" of those concerned.
If we concede, as we must concede if we study the facts, the whole
medical advertising business to be disreputable, dishonorable and
unjust, in that it is detrimental to the health and welfare of the race,
the only protection it could possibly need would be protection against
any movement which had for its object the interest of the people who are
its victims. This is exactly the key to the workings of the P. A. of
America. When one begins to know something about the patent medicine
evil, his sense of justice immediately asks why "something" has not
been done to crush it. When the reader understands more about this
octopus, he will learn that its tentacles are far-reaching and that it
has a mysterious and efficient way of crushing in its incipiency any
embryo movement directed against it. It would be a long story to give
the facts in detail--they are all a matter of record--the easiest way to
explain the procedure is to give an illustration of how the machinery is
worked.
Let us suppose a Congressman conceives the idea of introducing a bill in
Congress to compel newspapers to refuse advertising matter that is
obviously false and that misrepresents facts, and cites, as an example,
a patent medicine advertisement. The agent or lobbyist of the
association in Washington immediately telegraphs the intent of the bill
with the name of its author to the home office of the association. The
gentleman in charge of the executive department of the home office looks
up the facts regarding the political connections of the Congressman,
wires to the papers published in his district suggesting to them the
advisability of using their influence to change the Congressman's
opinion. The newspapers do as they are bid (though there are a few who
have refused to do this kind of work, but only a few); they may intimate
to him that he is committing political suicide, or they may adopt other
tactics. The result, however, is that the representative usually sees
the point and permits his bill to die in committee. The quacks are not
satisfied with this single effort to ensure the death of the bill. The
matter is taken up with other Congressmen through their home papers; the
whole machinery of the system is set in motion. Their attention is
called to the bill. They are told that the public does not demand such
legislation, and that, if this bill passes, it will deprive of many
thousands of dollars for advertising the papers which are friendly
toward the political future of the particular Congressman in question.
The facts are thus brought to the attention of many Congressmen. They
see the point also. It suggests to them that they will do well not to
trample on this monster or they may suffer themselves. Thus are the
people deprived of what might have been a great step forward in the
fight for pure food and drugs and, incidentally, in the preservation of
the public health.
One may pertinently ask why the newspapers lend themselves to such
infamous and dishonorable dealings. The answer is that, inasmuch as they
derive a very large part of their total income from patent medicine
advertisements and as these advertisements are contracted for under
certain conditions, it can readily be seen that they are made a party to
crushing legislation which would interfere with the patent medicine
business.
It is agreed in case any law or laws are enacted, either State
or national, harmful to the interest of the ---- Company, that
this contract may be cancelled by them from date of such
enactment, and the insertions made paid for pro rata with the
contract price.
There is another feature of the contract that is of the utmost
significance and importance to the mothers of the race. It is the only
instance we know of which effectually muzzles the public press. This
part of the contract reads as follows:
It is agreed that the ---- Company may cancel this contract,...
in case any matter otherwise detrimental to the ---- Company's
interest is permitted to appear in the reading columns or
elsewhere in the paper.
This means that the newspapers bind themselves, under contract, not to
print any matter in their reading columns which would be detrimental to
the interests of the patent medicine manufacturers. Under the same
stipulation they cannot even accept matter to be paid for, if it in any
way reflects upon the patent medicine business. In other words, the
sovereign people, whose servant the public press should be, is, under
this contract, deprived of its rights of representation in the columns
of the daily newspapers.
The grave significance of this condition of affairs will be adequately
appreciated when it is remembered that every popular movement to right
public wrongs must have the fullest publicity or the effort is doomed to
failure. The patent medicine business has been shown to be a
monstrously evil institution, yet every effort to enlist the public
press in an effort to arouse the necessary degree of indignation which
precedes every public demand for the righting of a wrong has failed,
because, "it is agreed that the ---- Company may cancel this contract in
case any matter otherwise detrimental to the ---- Company's interest is
permitted to appear in the reading columns or elsewhere in the paper."
There is another feature of this ugly business which is of the deepest
interest to women. The patent medicine territory is the whole country.
It is a large, profitable field. A movement was once started by certain
reputable New York physicians, who were deeply interested in this
question, to discover a means to aid the class who buy patent medicines
and support the fake medical concerns. It was thought that if an
advertising propaganda was instituted, offering to give legitimate and
adequate medical advice, at the lowest possible cost, there would be
many who would avail themselves of the opportunity. The following
advertisement was prepared and given out for publication, with the
result that it could not be advantageously placed:
RELIABLE MEDICAL ADVICE.
Government investigation of the PATENT MEDICINE BUSINESS and of
the advertised MEDICAL CURE CONCERNS, has demonstrated that
they are worthless and dangerous; that they are money making
schemes only, and that they acquire business by
misrepresentation, by falsehood, and by fraudulent
testimonials. Most of these concerns are owned by men with no
medical education or experience.
These are facts attested to by the highest authorities in the
United States, and apply to every advertised remedy and to
every system of advertised treatment in the newspapers to-day
with no exception that has come to our knowledge.
A BUREAU OF PHYSICIANS, each in good standing and in active
private practice, has been established in NEW YORK CITY, to
extend advice to those requiring medical assistance.
The object of the bureau is to prevent patients from placing
themselves in the hands of incompetent, expensive and
fraudulent schemers. The character of the advice furnished
will be exactly the same as if you visited the office of any
up-to-date reputable city consultant. We will simply direct
what should be done in each instance to effect relief of the
diseased conditions.
The charges will be the ordinary fees charged by reputable
physicians anywhere for similar services, and will in no
instance be unreasonable or excessive.
We invite the correspondence of those in need of honest advice.
Ask for information which will be sent free of charge.
Here was a tremendously lucrative field in which there was every
possibility of doing a large amount of genuine good, which, however,
could not be reached by men whose only object was to benefit the people,
because the public press did not dare publish anything detrimental to
"the combine." If this isn't monopoly, what is it?
This is not the only instance of this kind that has taken place. One
independently wealthy gentleman, for certain business reasons of his
own, conceived the idea of inserting a trustworthy article exposing the
patent medicine combine in the newspapers of the country, for which he
was, of course, willing to pay the usual advertising rates. He gave the
contract to a large advertising concern which began the crusade in
Texas, the _intention_ being to cover the country working the States one
after the other. What was the result? As soon as the system's attention
was directed to the plan the mandate of "silence" was flashed to the
newspapers and the propaganda died an unnatural death in Texas, whose
borders it never crossed. The columns of the public press were tightly
closed to it.
Is it any wonder that it has been so difficult to pass a Public Health
bill? I am hopeful, however, that the women will solve this problem. It
would seem to be a subject in which they could become strenuously and
eagerly interested. Women as voting factors, or as legislators, will
never succeed in the subtle fights of ward politics, or in the coarser
slugging battles of graft and patronage, but in the moral finesse,
necessary to achieve success in public health and purity legislation
they should prove to be enthusiasts. If the regeneration of the race is
entangled in legislative procedure or political subtilties, its only
salvation is to find emancipators whose heart strings are of finer and
truer fiber than those in the breasts of men. We hope to find them in
the mothers of the race.