12S
advertisement in every newspaper in the United States.
advertisement in every newspaper in the United States.
Adams-Great-American-Fraud
Some of them are entirely reputable, but these do not make blanket promises of cure.
The famous "Keeley Cure," which formerly made the most extravagant claims, is now conducted on a much saunder basis, and actually produces results in a certain percentage of cases, though its for- mer claim of more than eighty per cent, cured and less than twenty per cent, lost would be much nearer the truth if reversed.
As the Keeley institutes do not now, so far as I can judge, promise to cure all forms of drunkenness nor attempt to take pay for cases which they know to be incurable, I do not include them in the swindling category.
Hundreds of letters come to Collier's, inquiring about various advertised cures in all fields of human suffering, and a large proportion of these relate to treatments for private diseases of men. This is a subject which I take up reluctantly, and only because of its widespread peril. As the drug cures are the most vicious form of quackery, so the private disease treatments are the foulest. All this class of practitioners are frauds and
? 122
swindlers. Many of them are ex-criminals of other fields. The "Old Doctors," the "Phj'sicians Institutes," the "Medical Councils," and the "Quick Cures," are all equally to be shunned. Blackmail is the underlying principle of this business. These treatments can not cure; ten to one they only aggravate the disease and render it dangerous or even deadly. But once they have a man in their clutches, they need not help him in order to get his money. If he demurs at their charges, a threat to expose the nature of his ailment to his family or employers is enough. Some firms of this sort send a $25 treatment C. 0. D. by express, as soon as an inquiry is received, without any order. If the addressee refuses to accept it, they write him saying: "Another gentleman in your town has also written us. We will turn over your shipment to him, explaining the cir- cumstances. " The unhappy dupe, realizing that the knowledge of such a remedy having been sent him may prove ruinous, pays the price to preserve his wretched secret. Every advertisement of "private diseases," or "men's specialist," ought to be a danger signal, pointing not only to wasted money, shame and misery, but often to invalidism and a dreadful form of death, where in 90 per cent of cases reputable treatment would have brought the patient through. In some localities it is against the law to publish advertisements of this class. Pennsylvania has such a law, but it is a dead letter. St. Louis is attempting to enforce its illegal advertis- ing ordinance, and the St. Louis newspapers ? ire fighting to save for them- selves the dollars tainted with unspeakable filth.
Reprinted from Collier's Weekly, Nov. 4, 1905.
THE PATENT MEDICINE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.
"Here shall the Press the People's rights maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain. "
--Joseph Story : Motto of the Salem Register.
Would an\) person helieve that there is any one subject upon loMch the neirsjxipers of the United 8-tates, acting in concert, ty prearrangement, in ctedience to wires all draic-n hy one man, icill deny full and free discus- sion? If such a thing is possible, it is a serious matter, for ice rely upon the newspapers as at once the most forbidding preventive and the swiftest and surest corrective of evil. For the haunting possibility of neicspaper exposure, men tcho knoio not at all the fear of God pause, hesitate, and turn bach from contemplated rascality. For fear "it might get into the pavers," more men are abstaining from crime and carouse to-night than for fear of arrest. But these are trite things--only, what if the news- papers fail lis? Relying so wholly on the press to undo evil, hoic shall ire deal with that evil loith which the press itself has been seduced into captivity f
In the Lower House of the Massachusetts Legislature one day last March there was a debate which lasted one whole afternoon and engaged some twenty speakers, en a bill providing that every bottle of patent medicine sold in the state should bear a label stating the contents of the bottle. More was told concerning patent medicines that afternoon than often comes to light in a single day. The debate at times was dramatic-- member from Salem told of a young woman of his acquaintance now in an institution for inebriates as the end of an incident which began with patent medicine dosing for a harmless ill. There was humor, too, in the debate--Representative Walker held aloft a bottle of Peruna bought by him in a drug store that very day and passed it around for his fellow- members to taste and decide for themselves whether Dr. Harrington, the Secretary of the State Board of Health, was right when he told the Legis- lative Committee that it was merely a "cheap cocktail. "
The Papers did not Print One Word.
In short, the debate was interesting and important--the two qualities which invariably ensure to any event big headlines in the daily newspapers. But that debate was not celebrated by big headlines, nor any headlines at all. Yet Boston is a city, and Massachusetts is a state, where the pro- ceedings of the legislature figure very large in public interest, and where the newspapers respond to that interest by reporting the sessions with greater fullness and minuteness than in any other state. Had that debate
a
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been oil prison reform, on Sabbath observance, the early closing saloon law, on any other subject, there would have been, in the next day's papers, overflowing accounts of verbatim report, more columns of editorial com- ment, and the picturesque features of it would have ensured the attention of the cartoonist.
Now why? Why was this one subject tabooed? Why were the daily accounts of legislative proceedings in the next day's papers abridged to a fraction of their usual ponderous length, and all references to the afternoon debate on patent medicines omitted? Why was it in vain for the speakers in that patent-medicine debate to search for their speeches in the next day's newspapers? Why did the legislative reporters fail to find their work in print? Why were the staff cartoonists forbidden to exercise their talents on that most fallow and tempting opportunity--the members of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts gravely tippling Peruna and passing the bottle around to their encircled neighbors, that practical
knowledge should be the basis of legislative action?
I take it if any man should assert that there is one subject on which
the newspapers of the United States, acting in concert and as a unit, will deny full and free discussion, he would be smiled at as an intemperate fa- natic. The thing is too incredible. He would be regarded as a man with a delusion. And yet I invite you to search the files of the daily newspapers of Massachusetts for March 16, 1905, for an account of the patent-medicine debate that occurred the afternoon of March ]5 in the Massachusetts Legislature. In strict accuracy it must be said that there was one exception. Any one familiar with the newspapers of 'the United States will already have named it^--the Springfield Repuhlican. That paper, on two separate occasions, gave several columns to the record -of the proceedings of the legislature on the patent-medicine bill. Why the otherwise universal silence?
The patent-medicine business in the United States is one of huge finan- cial proportions. The census of 1900 placed the value of the annual product at $59,611,355. Allowing for the increase of half a decade of rapid growth, it must be to-day not less than seventy-five millions. That is the wholesale price. The retail price of all the patent medicines sold in the United States in one year may be very conservatively placed at one hundred million dollars. And of this one hundred millions which the people of the United States pay for patent medicines yearly, fully forty millions go to the newspapers. Have patience ! I have more to say than merely to point out the large revenue which newspapers receive from patent medicines, and let inference do the rest. Inference has no place in this story. There are facts a-plenty. But it is essential to point out the intimate financial relation between the newspapers and the patent medicines. I was told by the man who for many years handled the advertising of the Lydia E. Pinkham Company that their expenditure was$100,000amonth,$1,200,000ayear. Dr. PierceandthePerunaCom- pany both advertise more extensively than the Pinkham Company. Cer- tainly there are at least five patent-medicine concerns in the United States who each pay out to the newspapers more than one million dollars a year. When the Dr. Greene Nervura Company of Boston went into bank-
ruptcy, its debts to newspapers for advertising amounted to $535,000. To the Bostcn Herald alone it owed $5,000, and to so small a paper, com- paratively, as the Atlanta Constitution, it owed $1,500. One obscure quack
--
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doctor in New York, who did merely an office business, was raided by the authorities, and among the papers seized there were contracts showing that within a year he had paid to one paper for advertising $5,856,80; to another $20,000. Dr. Humphreys, one of ^he best known patent-med- icine makers, has said to his fellow-members of the Patent Medicine Asso- ciation: "The twenty thousand newspapers of the United States make more money from advertising the proprietary medicines than do the pro- prietors of the medicines themselves. . . . Of their receipts, one-third
This Contract is Void if Patent Sheets with Advertisements are Used.
Threegears' Advertising Contract
Vv
We herehy aire<yyitn CHjENEY MEDICINE 'COMPANY, for the sinn of 1^
^ _ _ . Z. . . . L^. . '. - ^0\X. M\'S>^"to ins&rt the aclvertisemerit of i "HALL'SCATARRhj/CURE,"eoihiainingniaUeraspercopyfwrnishcd(setin \ our regular reading matter type) to he piihlislied each issue of Paper andj ^ to appear in, regular reading ruatfer not to he preceded hy a. ny paid notice, f andonlocaloreditorialjjage. Saidadvertisementtoberunforthreeyears ujithtliepriv^ege of twelve changes a^nnually, ^/O
Faymjd^stoheyyddesem-i^annually. Advertis^J^nist^pipuhlishedin Daily
Puhlished^aii
We also agree to mail a copy of each issjre coniaining " Ad. " :o Cheney Medicine Co. , Toledo, Oh
Circulation, Daily. -^ C? r. -? ! lz? -. Circulation, W^eekhj- f^. y. J. . . . LL
It Is mutually agreed that this Contract is void, if any law is enacted by your State restricting or prohibiting the manufacture or sale of proprietary medicines.
Remarhs , -
Mdme of Paper. Per
CHENEY MEDICINEjC Per
Manager.
^^N^--yt^:^^:^Sru^y^. . . Couniy of- i. . . ,^^.
M. :^
THE "CONTRACT OF SILENCE. "
The two lines in heavy type are the "red clause. "
to one-half goes for advertising. " More than six years ago, Cheney, the president of the National Association of Patent Medicine Men, estimated the yearly amount paid to the newspapers by the larger patent medicine concerns at twenty million dollars--rmore than one thousand dollars to each daily, weekly and monthly periodical in the United States.
Silence is the Fixed Quantity.
Does this throw any light on the silence of the Massachusetts papers? Naturally such large sums paid by the patent-medicine men to the news-
papers sugges't the tliou<T^ht of favor. But silence is too important a part cf the patent-medicine man's business to be left to the capricious chance of favor. Silence is the most important thing in his business. The ingredients of his medicine--that is nothing. Does the price of golden- seal go up? Substitute whisky. Does the price of whisky go up? Buy the refuse wines of the California vineyards. Does the price of opium go too high, or the public fear of it make it an inexpedient thing to use? Take it out of the formula and substitute any worthless barnyard w^eed. But silence is the fixed quantity--silence as to the frauds he practices; silence as to the abominable stewings and brewings that enter into his nostrum; silence as to the deaths and sickness he causes ; silence as to the drug fiends he makes, the inebriate asylums he fills. Silence he must have. So he makes silence a part of the contract.
Read the significant silence of the Massachusetts newspapers in the light of the following contracts for advertising. They are the regular printed form used by Hood, Ayer and Munyon in making their advertising contracts with thousands of newspapers throughout the United States.
On page 74 is shown the contract made by the J. C. Ayer Company, makers of Ayer's Sarsaparilla. At the top is the name of the firm, "The J. C. Ayer Company, Lowell, Mass. ," and the date. Then follows a blank for the number of dollars, and then the formal contract: "We hereby agree, for the sum of Dollars per year, to insert in
published at , the advertisement of the J. C. Ayer Company. " Then follow the conditions as to space to be used each issue, the page the advertisement is to be on, and the position it is to occupy. Then these two remarkable conditions of the contract: "First-- It is agreed in case any law or laws are enacted, either state or national, harmful to the interests of the J. C. Ayer Company, that this contract may be canceled by them from date of such enactment, and the insertions
made paid for pro-rata with the contract price. "
This clause is remarkable enough. But of it more later. For the present
examine the second clause: "Second--It is agreed that the J. C. Ayer Co. may cancel this contract, pro-rata, in case advertisements are published in this paper in . which their products are offered, with a view to substitu- tion or other harmful motive; also in case any matter otherwise detri- mental to the J. C. Ayer Company's interest is permitted to appear in the reading columns or elsewhere in the paper. "
This agreement is signed in duplicate, one by the J. C. Ayer Company and the other one by the newspaper.
All Muzzle-Clauses Alike.
That is the contract of silence. (Notice the next one, in identically the same language, bearing the name of the C. I. Hood Company, the other great manufacturer of sarsaparilla; and then the third--again in identically the same words--for Dr. Munyon. ) That is the clause which with forty million dollars, muzzles the press of the country. I wonder if the Standard Oil Company could, for forty million dollars, bind the news- papers of the United States in a contract that "no matter detrimental to the Standard Oil Company's interests be permitted to appear in the read- ing columns or elsewhere in this paper. "
Is it a mere coincidence that in each of these contracts the silence clause is framed in the same words ? Is the inference fair that there is
the
,
-
? 12G
? 127
an agreement among the patent-medicine men and quack doctors, each to impose this contract on all the newspapers with which it deals, one reaching the newspapers which the other does not, and all combined reach- ing all the papers in the United States, and effecting a universal agreement among newspapers to print nothing detrimental to patent medicines? Youneednottakeitasaninference. Ishallshowitlaterasafact.
"In the reading columns or elsewhere in this paper. " The paper must not print itself, nor must it allow any outside party, who might wish to do so, to pay the regular advertising rates and print the truth about
SIMPLE METHOD OF ENFORCING THE "CONTRACT OP SILENCE. "
A letter such as this was sent last February to every paper in Massa- chusetts which had a contract with any patent-medicine concern. There were very few newspapers uncontaminated by the red clause, and they all gave "prompt attention to the bill. " The name of the paper to which this letter was addressed is erased in order to shield the publishers from consequences that might follow.
patent medicines in the advertising columns. More than a year ago, just after Mr. Bok had printed his first article exposing patent medicines, a business man in St. Louis, a man of great w^ealth, conceived that it would help his business greatly if he could have Mr. Bok's article printed as an
:--
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12S
advertisement in every newspaper in the United States. He gave the order to a firm of advertising agents and the firm began in Texas, intending to cover the country to Maine. But that advertisement never got beyond a few obscure country papers in Texas. The contract of silence was effect- ive; and a few v/eeks later, at their annual meeting, the patent-medicine association "Resolved"--I quote the minutes--"That this Association com- mend the action of the great majority of the publishers of the United States who have consistently refused said false and malicious attacks in the shape of advertisements^ which in whole or in part libel proprietary medicines. "
I have said that the identity of the language of the silence clause in several patent-medicine advertising contracts suaafests mutual understand- ing among the nostrum makers, a preconceived plan; and I have several times mentioned the patent-medicine association. It seems incongruous, almost humorous, to speak of a national organization of quack doctors and patent-medicine makers; but there is one, brought together for mutual support, for co-operation, for--but just what this organization is for, I hopetoshow. Nootherorganizationeverdemonstratedsoclearlythetruth that "in union there is strength. " Its official name is an innocent-seeming one--"The Proprietary Association of America. " There are annual meet- ings, annual reports, a constitution and by-laws. And I would call special attention tq Article II of those by-laws.
"The objects of this association," says this article, "are: to protect the rights of its members to the respective trade-marks that they may own or control ; to establish such mutual co-operation as may be required in the various branches of the trade; to reduce all burdens that may be oppress- ive; to facilitate and foster equitable principles in the purchase and sale c* merchandise; to acquire and preserve for the use of its members such business information as may be of value ib them ; to adjust controver- sies and promote harmony among its members. "
That is as innocuous a statement as ever was penned of the objects of any organization. It might serve for an organization of honest cobblers. Change afew words without altering the spirit in the least, and a body of ministers might adopt it. In this laboriously complete statement of objects, there is no such word as "lobby" or "lobbying. " Indeed, so harmless g, word as "legislation" is absent--strenuously absent.
Where the Money Goes.
But I prefer to discover the true object of the organization of the "Pro- prietary Association of America". in another document than Article II of the by-laws. Consider the annual report of the treasurer, say for 1904. The total of money paid out during the year was $8,516. 26. Of this, one thousand dollars was for the secretary's salary, leaving $7,516. 26 to be accounted for. Then there is an item of postage, one of stationery, one of printing--the little routine expenses of every organization; and finally there is this remarkable item
Legislative Committee, total expenses, ? 6,606. 95.
Truly, the Proprietary Association of America seems to have several objects, as stated in its by-laws, which cost it very little, and one object not stated in its by-laws at all--which costs it all its annual revenue aside fr^m the routine expenses of stationery, postage and secretary. If just a
? r I
^
~~~" ^"^^ -TM-=. TM-- . ^
120
few more words of comment may be permitted on this point, does it not seem odd that so hirge an item as $(),60G. 95, out of a total budget of only $8,010. 20, should be put in as a lump sum, '"Legislative Committee, total expenses? "' And wculd not the annual report of the treasurer of the Proprietary Association of America be a more entertaining document if tliese "total expenses" of the Legislative Committee were carefully item- i;:ed ?
Xot that I mean to charge the direct corruption of legislatures. The Pioprietary Association of America used to do that. They used to spend, ;? (cording to the statement of the present president of the organization, ]Mr. F. J. Cheney, as much as seventy-five thousand dollars a year. But t]i;it was befcre Mr. Cheney himself discovered a better way. The fighting of public health legislation is the primary object and chief activity, the
POSTAL TELEGRAPH-CABLE COfMHY"^ ">>"';^h-'THE COiVllviERCIAL CABLE COJ^I FAN Y.
i
TELEGRAI^
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Rccvivr,! . tt
-iouss liill elc^t himdred ar. d twenty nisa di. <<arii6iR<<,ti. ng against proprietary medicines passed lower }iou<<e>> l^ In senate Monday.
Qraiek 'Srork neceeeary. Use your influence.
Willis Ehari^i. K. iE -? ' Ady,, Agt,
,.
*. ^
*
9b g d 520p,24
,
Eir. ghcimton KY Mar 10, 05 Spy,
_.
. _ ^ _ ;J|
THE TELEGRAM THAT SNAPS THE WHIP AT AMERICAN EDITORS.
This message means: "Publish an article in your newspaper and use every influence in opposing the passage of this bill. " And the newspapers do it on command.
very raison d'etre, of the Proprietary Association. The motive back of Ininging the quack doctors and patent-medicine manufacturers of the United States into a mutual organization was this: Here are some scores of men, each paying a large sum annually to the newspapers. The aggre- gate of these sums is forty million dollars. By organization, the full effect of this monev can be got and used as a r. nit in preventing the pass- ao-e of laws whicli would compel them to tell the contents of their nos- trums, and in suppressing the newspaper publicity vshich would drive them into oblivion. So it was no mean intellect wliich devised the scheme whereby every newspaper in America is made an active lobbyist for the palent-medii iue a-sociation. Tlse m. \\\ wlio did it is tlie present president of the orgmization. its executive head in the work of suppressing pul)lic
? 130
knowledge, stifling public opinion and warding off public health legislation, the Mr. Cheney already mentioned. He makes a catarrh cure which, according to the Massachusetts State Board of Health, contains fourteen and three-fourths per cent, of alcohol. As to his scheme for making the newspapers of America not only maintain silence, but actually lobby in behalf of patent medicines, I am glad that I am not under the neces- sity of describing it in my own words. It would be easy to err in the indirection that makes for incredulity. Fortunately, I need take no resp^^a* sibility. I have Mr. Cheney's own words, in which he explained his scheme to his fellow-members of the Proprietary Association of America. The quotation marks alone (and the comment within the parentheses) are mine. The remainder is the language of Mr. Cheney himself:
itfr. Cheney's Plan.
"We have had a good deal of difficulty in the last few years with the different legislatures of the different states. . . . I believe I have, a plan whereby we will have no difficulty whatever with these people. I have used it in my business for two years and know it is a practical thing. . . . I, inside of the last two years, have made contracts with between fifteen and sixteen thousand newspapers, and never had but one man refuse to sign the contract, and by saying to him that I could not sign a contract without this clause in it he readily signed it. My point is merely to shift the responsibility. We to-day have the responsibility on our shoulders". As you all know, there is hardly a year but we have had a lobbyist in the different state legislatures--one year in New York, one year in New Jersey, and so on. " (Read that frank confession twice--note the bland matter-of-factness of it. ) "There has been a constant fear that something would come up, so I had this clause in my contract added. This is what I have in every contract I make: 'It is hereby agreed that, should your state, or the United States Government, pass any law that would interfere with or restrict the sale of proprietary medicines, this contract shall become void. ' . . . In the state of Illinois a few years ago they wanted to assess me three hundred dollars. I thought I had a better plan than this, so I wrote to about forty papers and merely said: 'Please look at your contract with me and take note, that if this law passes you and I must stop doing business, and my contracts cease. ' The next week every one of them had an article, and Mr. Man had to go. . . . I read this to Dr. Pierce some days ago, and he Avas very much taken up with it. I have carried this through and know it is a success. I
know the papers will accept it. Here is a thing that costs us nothing. We are guaranteed against the $75,000 loss for nothing. It throws the responsibility on the newspapers. . . . I have my contracts printed and I have this printed in red type, right square across the contract, so there can be absolutely no mistake, and the newspaper man can not say to me, *I did not see it. ' He did see it and knows what he is doing. It seems to me it is a point worth every man's attention. . . . I think this is pretty near a sure thing. "
I should like to ask the newspaper owners and editors of America what^ they think of that scheme. I believe that the newspapers, when they signed each individual contract, were not aware that they were being dragooned into an elaborately thought-out scheme to make every news- paper in the United States, from the greatest metropolitan daily to the
7
7. . . ^l IQCK^' . Dollars per year.
. :
? 131
J. C. Ayer Company Manufacturing Chemists
Lowell, Mass.
Wt }\xreby agrtt, for the sum of
payahle in quarUrluA^istalments as earned, upon receipt of hill, to laser! ia i\\t . /A^M. OJiq. ^
poblisbed at
advertisement to average inches.
week in the weekly issue,-- . ^^^^-^^JimerT'each insertion to be at top of
y adjoining pure reading down one side and under- ttam of _ pagf; apart from other advertising.
_ ^ate of. ,
in tlu county of
the advertisements of i. C. Ayer Company, of Lowell, Mass. , during the
from date of first insertion
matter, arrangement, and date of publication, according to plates and copy furnished by them, the space and insertions to be as specified below, viz.
//^ ^ inc)ies. . . . . ,^^^2'i\L/. -. each
. . . times, each insertion to be at top of ^page, wholly adjoining pure reading down one side and under- . c^r:r:? rr. '*r<:>Trrr. page, apart from, other advertising (as paper
~ALSO / / adve. -tisement to average /. /. . . . :.
--<rfci-X</:a^.
neath, or at bottom, of.
week in the weekly 'ssue, . \-JL. . <^.
is made up on
We also agree to notify J. C. Ayer Coopaoy of first insertion of these advertisements, to mail
one copy of every issue of the paper a,3 published to J. C. Ayer Company, Lowell, Mass. , during term of this contract, and to proThptly supply missing papers upon request.
Change in make-up bf paper or consolidation with another paper entitles J. C. Ay<< Company to select new position or cancel contract, as preferred by them.
First. -- It isa^ecdln case any lawor laws are enacted, either State or national, harmful to the intcrents of the J. C. Ayer Co. , that this contract may be cancelled by them from date of such enactment, and the Insertions mnde paid for pro rata with the contract price.
Second. -- It is agreed tliat the J. C. Ayer Co. may cancel this contract, pro rata, in case advertisementij arepublished in this paper in which their products are offered, with a view lo substitution, or other harmful tnotii-e ; also, in case any matter otherwise detrimental to the J. C. Ayer Co. 's interests is permitted to appear to the reading columns, or elsewhere, in this paper.
GuaranteedCirculation X.
Hundreds of letters come to Collier's, inquiring about various advertised cures in all fields of human suffering, and a large proportion of these relate to treatments for private diseases of men. This is a subject which I take up reluctantly, and only because of its widespread peril. As the drug cures are the most vicious form of quackery, so the private disease treatments are the foulest. All this class of practitioners are frauds and
? 122
swindlers. Many of them are ex-criminals of other fields. The "Old Doctors," the "Phj'sicians Institutes," the "Medical Councils," and the "Quick Cures," are all equally to be shunned. Blackmail is the underlying principle of this business. These treatments can not cure; ten to one they only aggravate the disease and render it dangerous or even deadly. But once they have a man in their clutches, they need not help him in order to get his money. If he demurs at their charges, a threat to expose the nature of his ailment to his family or employers is enough. Some firms of this sort send a $25 treatment C. 0. D. by express, as soon as an inquiry is received, without any order. If the addressee refuses to accept it, they write him saying: "Another gentleman in your town has also written us. We will turn over your shipment to him, explaining the cir- cumstances. " The unhappy dupe, realizing that the knowledge of such a remedy having been sent him may prove ruinous, pays the price to preserve his wretched secret. Every advertisement of "private diseases," or "men's specialist," ought to be a danger signal, pointing not only to wasted money, shame and misery, but often to invalidism and a dreadful form of death, where in 90 per cent of cases reputable treatment would have brought the patient through. In some localities it is against the law to publish advertisements of this class. Pennsylvania has such a law, but it is a dead letter. St. Louis is attempting to enforce its illegal advertis- ing ordinance, and the St. Louis newspapers ? ire fighting to save for them- selves the dollars tainted with unspeakable filth.
Reprinted from Collier's Weekly, Nov. 4, 1905.
THE PATENT MEDICINE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.
"Here shall the Press the People's rights maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain. "
--Joseph Story : Motto of the Salem Register.
Would an\) person helieve that there is any one subject upon loMch the neirsjxipers of the United 8-tates, acting in concert, ty prearrangement, in ctedience to wires all draic-n hy one man, icill deny full and free discus- sion? If such a thing is possible, it is a serious matter, for ice rely upon the newspapers as at once the most forbidding preventive and the swiftest and surest corrective of evil. For the haunting possibility of neicspaper exposure, men tcho knoio not at all the fear of God pause, hesitate, and turn bach from contemplated rascality. For fear "it might get into the pavers," more men are abstaining from crime and carouse to-night than for fear of arrest. But these are trite things--only, what if the news- papers fail lis? Relying so wholly on the press to undo evil, hoic shall ire deal with that evil loith which the press itself has been seduced into captivity f
In the Lower House of the Massachusetts Legislature one day last March there was a debate which lasted one whole afternoon and engaged some twenty speakers, en a bill providing that every bottle of patent medicine sold in the state should bear a label stating the contents of the bottle. More was told concerning patent medicines that afternoon than often comes to light in a single day. The debate at times was dramatic-- member from Salem told of a young woman of his acquaintance now in an institution for inebriates as the end of an incident which began with patent medicine dosing for a harmless ill. There was humor, too, in the debate--Representative Walker held aloft a bottle of Peruna bought by him in a drug store that very day and passed it around for his fellow- members to taste and decide for themselves whether Dr. Harrington, the Secretary of the State Board of Health, was right when he told the Legis- lative Committee that it was merely a "cheap cocktail. "
The Papers did not Print One Word.
In short, the debate was interesting and important--the two qualities which invariably ensure to any event big headlines in the daily newspapers. But that debate was not celebrated by big headlines, nor any headlines at all. Yet Boston is a city, and Massachusetts is a state, where the pro- ceedings of the legislature figure very large in public interest, and where the newspapers respond to that interest by reporting the sessions with greater fullness and minuteness than in any other state. Had that debate
a
? ? 12i
been oil prison reform, on Sabbath observance, the early closing saloon law, on any other subject, there would have been, in the next day's papers, overflowing accounts of verbatim report, more columns of editorial com- ment, and the picturesque features of it would have ensured the attention of the cartoonist.
Now why? Why was this one subject tabooed? Why were the daily accounts of legislative proceedings in the next day's papers abridged to a fraction of their usual ponderous length, and all references to the afternoon debate on patent medicines omitted? Why was it in vain for the speakers in that patent-medicine debate to search for their speeches in the next day's newspapers? Why did the legislative reporters fail to find their work in print? Why were the staff cartoonists forbidden to exercise their talents on that most fallow and tempting opportunity--the members of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts gravely tippling Peruna and passing the bottle around to their encircled neighbors, that practical
knowledge should be the basis of legislative action?
I take it if any man should assert that there is one subject on which
the newspapers of the United States, acting in concert and as a unit, will deny full and free discussion, he would be smiled at as an intemperate fa- natic. The thing is too incredible. He would be regarded as a man with a delusion. And yet I invite you to search the files of the daily newspapers of Massachusetts for March 16, 1905, for an account of the patent-medicine debate that occurred the afternoon of March ]5 in the Massachusetts Legislature. In strict accuracy it must be said that there was one exception. Any one familiar with the newspapers of 'the United States will already have named it^--the Springfield Repuhlican. That paper, on two separate occasions, gave several columns to the record -of the proceedings of the legislature on the patent-medicine bill. Why the otherwise universal silence?
The patent-medicine business in the United States is one of huge finan- cial proportions. The census of 1900 placed the value of the annual product at $59,611,355. Allowing for the increase of half a decade of rapid growth, it must be to-day not less than seventy-five millions. That is the wholesale price. The retail price of all the patent medicines sold in the United States in one year may be very conservatively placed at one hundred million dollars. And of this one hundred millions which the people of the United States pay for patent medicines yearly, fully forty millions go to the newspapers. Have patience ! I have more to say than merely to point out the large revenue which newspapers receive from patent medicines, and let inference do the rest. Inference has no place in this story. There are facts a-plenty. But it is essential to point out the intimate financial relation between the newspapers and the patent medicines. I was told by the man who for many years handled the advertising of the Lydia E. Pinkham Company that their expenditure was$100,000amonth,$1,200,000ayear. Dr. PierceandthePerunaCom- pany both advertise more extensively than the Pinkham Company. Cer- tainly there are at least five patent-medicine concerns in the United States who each pay out to the newspapers more than one million dollars a year. When the Dr. Greene Nervura Company of Boston went into bank-
ruptcy, its debts to newspapers for advertising amounted to $535,000. To the Bostcn Herald alone it owed $5,000, and to so small a paper, com- paratively, as the Atlanta Constitution, it owed $1,500. One obscure quack
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doctor in New York, who did merely an office business, was raided by the authorities, and among the papers seized there were contracts showing that within a year he had paid to one paper for advertising $5,856,80; to another $20,000. Dr. Humphreys, one of ^he best known patent-med- icine makers, has said to his fellow-members of the Patent Medicine Asso- ciation: "The twenty thousand newspapers of the United States make more money from advertising the proprietary medicines than do the pro- prietors of the medicines themselves. . . . Of their receipts, one-third
This Contract is Void if Patent Sheets with Advertisements are Used.
Threegears' Advertising Contract
Vv
We herehy aire<yyitn CHjENEY MEDICINE 'COMPANY, for the sinn of 1^
^ _ _ . Z. . . . L^. . '. - ^0\X. M\'S>^"to ins&rt the aclvertisemerit of i "HALL'SCATARRhj/CURE,"eoihiainingniaUeraspercopyfwrnishcd(setin \ our regular reading matter type) to he piihlislied each issue of Paper andj ^ to appear in, regular reading ruatfer not to he preceded hy a. ny paid notice, f andonlocaloreditorialjjage. Saidadvertisementtoberunforthreeyears ujithtliepriv^ege of twelve changes a^nnually, ^/O
Faymjd^stoheyyddesem-i^annually. Advertis^J^nist^pipuhlishedin Daily
Puhlished^aii
We also agree to mail a copy of each issjre coniaining " Ad. " :o Cheney Medicine Co. , Toledo, Oh
Circulation, Daily. -^ C? r. -? ! lz? -. Circulation, W^eekhj- f^. y. J. . . . LL
It Is mutually agreed that this Contract is void, if any law is enacted by your State restricting or prohibiting the manufacture or sale of proprietary medicines.
Remarhs , -
Mdme of Paper. Per
CHENEY MEDICINEjC Per
Manager.
^^N^--yt^:^^:^Sru^y^. . . Couniy of- i. . . ,^^.
M. :^
THE "CONTRACT OF SILENCE. "
The two lines in heavy type are the "red clause. "
to one-half goes for advertising. " More than six years ago, Cheney, the president of the National Association of Patent Medicine Men, estimated the yearly amount paid to the newspapers by the larger patent medicine concerns at twenty million dollars--rmore than one thousand dollars to each daily, weekly and monthly periodical in the United States.
Silence is the Fixed Quantity.
Does this throw any light on the silence of the Massachusetts papers? Naturally such large sums paid by the patent-medicine men to the news-
papers sugges't the tliou<T^ht of favor. But silence is too important a part cf the patent-medicine man's business to be left to the capricious chance of favor. Silence is the most important thing in his business. The ingredients of his medicine--that is nothing. Does the price of golden- seal go up? Substitute whisky. Does the price of whisky go up? Buy the refuse wines of the California vineyards. Does the price of opium go too high, or the public fear of it make it an inexpedient thing to use? Take it out of the formula and substitute any worthless barnyard w^eed. But silence is the fixed quantity--silence as to the frauds he practices; silence as to the abominable stewings and brewings that enter into his nostrum; silence as to the deaths and sickness he causes ; silence as to the drug fiends he makes, the inebriate asylums he fills. Silence he must have. So he makes silence a part of the contract.
Read the significant silence of the Massachusetts newspapers in the light of the following contracts for advertising. They are the regular printed form used by Hood, Ayer and Munyon in making their advertising contracts with thousands of newspapers throughout the United States.
On page 74 is shown the contract made by the J. C. Ayer Company, makers of Ayer's Sarsaparilla. At the top is the name of the firm, "The J. C. Ayer Company, Lowell, Mass. ," and the date. Then follows a blank for the number of dollars, and then the formal contract: "We hereby agree, for the sum of Dollars per year, to insert in
published at , the advertisement of the J. C. Ayer Company. " Then follow the conditions as to space to be used each issue, the page the advertisement is to be on, and the position it is to occupy. Then these two remarkable conditions of the contract: "First-- It is agreed in case any law or laws are enacted, either state or national, harmful to the interests of the J. C. Ayer Company, that this contract may be canceled by them from date of such enactment, and the insertions
made paid for pro-rata with the contract price. "
This clause is remarkable enough. But of it more later. For the present
examine the second clause: "Second--It is agreed that the J. C. Ayer Co. may cancel this contract, pro-rata, in case advertisements are published in this paper in . which their products are offered, with a view to substitu- tion or other harmful motive; also in case any matter otherwise detri- mental to the J. C. Ayer Company's interest is permitted to appear in the reading columns or elsewhere in the paper. "
This agreement is signed in duplicate, one by the J. C. Ayer Company and the other one by the newspaper.
All Muzzle-Clauses Alike.
That is the contract of silence. (Notice the next one, in identically the same language, bearing the name of the C. I. Hood Company, the other great manufacturer of sarsaparilla; and then the third--again in identically the same words--for Dr. Munyon. ) That is the clause which with forty million dollars, muzzles the press of the country. I wonder if the Standard Oil Company could, for forty million dollars, bind the news- papers of the United States in a contract that "no matter detrimental to the Standard Oil Company's interests be permitted to appear in the read- ing columns or elsewhere in this paper. "
Is it a mere coincidence that in each of these contracts the silence clause is framed in the same words ? Is the inference fair that there is
the
,
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an agreement among the patent-medicine men and quack doctors, each to impose this contract on all the newspapers with which it deals, one reaching the newspapers which the other does not, and all combined reach- ing all the papers in the United States, and effecting a universal agreement among newspapers to print nothing detrimental to patent medicines? Youneednottakeitasaninference. Ishallshowitlaterasafact.
"In the reading columns or elsewhere in this paper. " The paper must not print itself, nor must it allow any outside party, who might wish to do so, to pay the regular advertising rates and print the truth about
SIMPLE METHOD OF ENFORCING THE "CONTRACT OP SILENCE. "
A letter such as this was sent last February to every paper in Massa- chusetts which had a contract with any patent-medicine concern. There were very few newspapers uncontaminated by the red clause, and they all gave "prompt attention to the bill. " The name of the paper to which this letter was addressed is erased in order to shield the publishers from consequences that might follow.
patent medicines in the advertising columns. More than a year ago, just after Mr. Bok had printed his first article exposing patent medicines, a business man in St. Louis, a man of great w^ealth, conceived that it would help his business greatly if he could have Mr. Bok's article printed as an
:--
?
12S
advertisement in every newspaper in the United States. He gave the order to a firm of advertising agents and the firm began in Texas, intending to cover the country to Maine. But that advertisement never got beyond a few obscure country papers in Texas. The contract of silence was effect- ive; and a few v/eeks later, at their annual meeting, the patent-medicine association "Resolved"--I quote the minutes--"That this Association com- mend the action of the great majority of the publishers of the United States who have consistently refused said false and malicious attacks in the shape of advertisements^ which in whole or in part libel proprietary medicines. "
I have said that the identity of the language of the silence clause in several patent-medicine advertising contracts suaafests mutual understand- ing among the nostrum makers, a preconceived plan; and I have several times mentioned the patent-medicine association. It seems incongruous, almost humorous, to speak of a national organization of quack doctors and patent-medicine makers; but there is one, brought together for mutual support, for co-operation, for--but just what this organization is for, I hopetoshow. Nootherorganizationeverdemonstratedsoclearlythetruth that "in union there is strength. " Its official name is an innocent-seeming one--"The Proprietary Association of America. " There are annual meet- ings, annual reports, a constitution and by-laws. And I would call special attention tq Article II of those by-laws.
"The objects of this association," says this article, "are: to protect the rights of its members to the respective trade-marks that they may own or control ; to establish such mutual co-operation as may be required in the various branches of the trade; to reduce all burdens that may be oppress- ive; to facilitate and foster equitable principles in the purchase and sale c* merchandise; to acquire and preserve for the use of its members such business information as may be of value ib them ; to adjust controver- sies and promote harmony among its members. "
That is as innocuous a statement as ever was penned of the objects of any organization. It might serve for an organization of honest cobblers. Change afew words without altering the spirit in the least, and a body of ministers might adopt it. In this laboriously complete statement of objects, there is no such word as "lobby" or "lobbying. " Indeed, so harmless g, word as "legislation" is absent--strenuously absent.
Where the Money Goes.
But I prefer to discover the true object of the organization of the "Pro- prietary Association of America". in another document than Article II of the by-laws. Consider the annual report of the treasurer, say for 1904. The total of money paid out during the year was $8,516. 26. Of this, one thousand dollars was for the secretary's salary, leaving $7,516. 26 to be accounted for. Then there is an item of postage, one of stationery, one of printing--the little routine expenses of every organization; and finally there is this remarkable item
Legislative Committee, total expenses, ? 6,606. 95.
Truly, the Proprietary Association of America seems to have several objects, as stated in its by-laws, which cost it very little, and one object not stated in its by-laws at all--which costs it all its annual revenue aside fr^m the routine expenses of stationery, postage and secretary. If just a
? r I
^
~~~" ^"^^ -TM-=. TM-- . ^
120
few more words of comment may be permitted on this point, does it not seem odd that so hirge an item as $(),60G. 95, out of a total budget of only $8,010. 20, should be put in as a lump sum, '"Legislative Committee, total expenses? "' And wculd not the annual report of the treasurer of the Proprietary Association of America be a more entertaining document if tliese "total expenses" of the Legislative Committee were carefully item- i;:ed ?
Xot that I mean to charge the direct corruption of legislatures. The Pioprietary Association of America used to do that. They used to spend, ;? (cording to the statement of the present president of the organization, ]Mr. F. J. Cheney, as much as seventy-five thousand dollars a year. But t]i;it was befcre Mr. Cheney himself discovered a better way. The fighting of public health legislation is the primary object and chief activity, the
POSTAL TELEGRAPH-CABLE COfMHY"^ ">>"';^h-'THE COiVllviERCIAL CABLE COJ^I FAN Y.
i
TELEGRAI^
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Rccvivr,! . tt
-iouss liill elc^t himdred ar. d twenty nisa di. <<arii6iR<<,ti. ng against proprietary medicines passed lower }iou<<e>> l^ In senate Monday.
Qraiek 'Srork neceeeary. Use your influence.
Willis Ehari^i. K. iE -? ' Ady,, Agt,
,.
*. ^
*
9b g d 520p,24
,
Eir. ghcimton KY Mar 10, 05 Spy,
_.
. _ ^ _ ;J|
THE TELEGRAM THAT SNAPS THE WHIP AT AMERICAN EDITORS.
This message means: "Publish an article in your newspaper and use every influence in opposing the passage of this bill. " And the newspapers do it on command.
very raison d'etre, of the Proprietary Association. The motive back of Ininging the quack doctors and patent-medicine manufacturers of the United States into a mutual organization was this: Here are some scores of men, each paying a large sum annually to the newspapers. The aggre- gate of these sums is forty million dollars. By organization, the full effect of this monev can be got and used as a r. nit in preventing the pass- ao-e of laws whicli would compel them to tell the contents of their nos- trums, and in suppressing the newspaper publicity vshich would drive them into oblivion. So it was no mean intellect wliich devised the scheme whereby every newspaper in America is made an active lobbyist for the palent-medii iue a-sociation. Tlse m. \\\ wlio did it is tlie present president of the orgmization. its executive head in the work of suppressing pul)lic
? 130
knowledge, stifling public opinion and warding off public health legislation, the Mr. Cheney already mentioned. He makes a catarrh cure which, according to the Massachusetts State Board of Health, contains fourteen and three-fourths per cent, of alcohol. As to his scheme for making the newspapers of America not only maintain silence, but actually lobby in behalf of patent medicines, I am glad that I am not under the neces- sity of describing it in my own words. It would be easy to err in the indirection that makes for incredulity. Fortunately, I need take no resp^^a* sibility. I have Mr. Cheney's own words, in which he explained his scheme to his fellow-members of the Proprietary Association of America. The quotation marks alone (and the comment within the parentheses) are mine. The remainder is the language of Mr. Cheney himself:
itfr. Cheney's Plan.
"We have had a good deal of difficulty in the last few years with the different legislatures of the different states. . . . I believe I have, a plan whereby we will have no difficulty whatever with these people. I have used it in my business for two years and know it is a practical thing. . . . I, inside of the last two years, have made contracts with between fifteen and sixteen thousand newspapers, and never had but one man refuse to sign the contract, and by saying to him that I could not sign a contract without this clause in it he readily signed it. My point is merely to shift the responsibility. We to-day have the responsibility on our shoulders". As you all know, there is hardly a year but we have had a lobbyist in the different state legislatures--one year in New York, one year in New Jersey, and so on. " (Read that frank confession twice--note the bland matter-of-factness of it. ) "There has been a constant fear that something would come up, so I had this clause in my contract added. This is what I have in every contract I make: 'It is hereby agreed that, should your state, or the United States Government, pass any law that would interfere with or restrict the sale of proprietary medicines, this contract shall become void. ' . . . In the state of Illinois a few years ago they wanted to assess me three hundred dollars. I thought I had a better plan than this, so I wrote to about forty papers and merely said: 'Please look at your contract with me and take note, that if this law passes you and I must stop doing business, and my contracts cease. ' The next week every one of them had an article, and Mr. Man had to go. . . . I read this to Dr. Pierce some days ago, and he Avas very much taken up with it. I have carried this through and know it is a success. I
know the papers will accept it. Here is a thing that costs us nothing. We are guaranteed against the $75,000 loss for nothing. It throws the responsibility on the newspapers. . . . I have my contracts printed and I have this printed in red type, right square across the contract, so there can be absolutely no mistake, and the newspaper man can not say to me, *I did not see it. ' He did see it and knows what he is doing. It seems to me it is a point worth every man's attention. . . . I think this is pretty near a sure thing. "
I should like to ask the newspaper owners and editors of America what^ they think of that scheme. I believe that the newspapers, when they signed each individual contract, were not aware that they were being dragooned into an elaborately thought-out scheme to make every news- paper in the United States, from the greatest metropolitan daily to the
7
7. . . ^l IQCK^' . Dollars per year.
. :
? 131
J. C. Ayer Company Manufacturing Chemists
Lowell, Mass.
Wt }\xreby agrtt, for the sum of
payahle in quarUrluA^istalments as earned, upon receipt of hill, to laser! ia i\\t . /A^M. OJiq. ^
poblisbed at
advertisement to average inches.
week in the weekly issue,-- . ^^^^-^^JimerT'each insertion to be at top of
y adjoining pure reading down one side and under- ttam of _ pagf; apart from other advertising.
_ ^ate of. ,
in tlu county of
the advertisements of i. C. Ayer Company, of Lowell, Mass. , during the
from date of first insertion
matter, arrangement, and date of publication, according to plates and copy furnished by them, the space and insertions to be as specified below, viz.
//^ ^ inc)ies. . . . . ,^^^2'i\L/. -. each
. . . times, each insertion to be at top of ^page, wholly adjoining pure reading down one side and under- . c^r:r:? rr. '*r<:>Trrr. page, apart from, other advertising (as paper
~ALSO / / adve. -tisement to average /. /. . . . :.
--<rfci-X</:a^.
neath, or at bottom, of.
week in the weekly 'ssue, . \-JL. . <^.
is made up on
We also agree to notify J. C. Ayer Coopaoy of first insertion of these advertisements, to mail
one copy of every issue of the paper a,3 published to J. C. Ayer Company, Lowell, Mass. , during term of this contract, and to proThptly supply missing papers upon request.
Change in make-up bf paper or consolidation with another paper entitles J. C. Ay<< Company to select new position or cancel contract, as preferred by them.
First. -- It isa^ecdln case any lawor laws are enacted, either State or national, harmful to the intcrents of the J. C. Ayer Co. , that this contract may be cancelled by them from date of such enactment, and the Insertions mnde paid for pro rata with the contract price.
Second. -- It is agreed tliat the J. C. Ayer Co. may cancel this contract, pro rata, in case advertisementij arepublished in this paper in which their products are offered, with a view lo substitution, or other harmful tnotii-e ; also, in case any matter otherwise detrimental to the J. C. Ayer Co. 's interests is permitted to appear to the reading columns, or elsewhere, in this paper.
GuaranteedCirculation X.
