No More Learning

The patent-medicine man continued to elaborate on the plans proposed by Dr. Pierce: "It would not be a safe proposition at all. What this association should have . . . is a regularly established bureau. . . ? We should have all possible information on tap, and we should have a list of the members of the legislature of every state. We should have a list of the most influential men that control them, or that can influence them. . . . For instance, if in the state of Ohio a bill comes up that is adverse to us, turn to the books, find out Avho are the members of the legislature there, who are the publishers of the papers in the state, where they are located, which are the Eepublican and which the Democratic papers.
. . . It will take mone}^. Ijut if the money is rightly spent, it will be the best investment ever made. "
The Trust's Club for Legislators.
That is about as compreliensive, as frankly impudent a scheme of controlling legislation as it is possible to imagine. The plan was put in the form of a resolution, and the resolution was passed. And so the Proprietary Association of America maintains a lawyer in Chicago, and a permanent secretary, office and staff. In every state it maintains an agent whose- business it is to watch during the session of the Legislature each day's batch of new bills, and whenever a bill affecting patent medi- cines shows its head, to telegraph the bill, verbatim, to headquarters. There some scores of printed copies of the bill are made, and a copy is sent to every member of the association--to the Peruna people, to Dr. Pierce at Buffalo, to Kilmer at Birmingham, to Cheney at Toledo, to the
Pinkham people at Lynn, and to all the others. Thereon each manufac- turer looks up the list of papers in the threatened state with which he has the contracts described above. And to each newspaper he sends a per- emptory telegram calling the publisher's attention to the obligations of his contract, and commanding him to go to work to defeat the anti-patent- medicine bill. In practice, this organization works with smooth perfection and well-oiled accuracy to defeat the public health legislation which is introduced by boards of health in over a score of states every year. To illustrate, let me describe as typical the history of the public health bills which were introduced and defeated in Massachusetts last year. I have already mentioned them as showing how the newspapers, obeying that part of their contract which requires them to print nothing harmful to patent medicines, refused to print any account of the exposures which were made by several members of the Legislature during the debate of the bill. I wish here to describe their obedience to that other clause of the
contract, in living up to which they printed scores of bitterly partisan editorials against the public health bill, and against it's authors per- sonally; threatened with political death those members of the Legislature who were disposed to vote in favor of it, and even, in the persons of the ed- itors and owners, went up to the State House and lobbied personally against the bill. And since I have already told of Mr. Cheney's author- ship of the scheme, I will here reproduce, as typical of all the others
(all the other large patent-medicine concerns sent similar letters and telegrams), the letter which Mr. Cheney himself, on the 14th day of Feb- ruary, sent to all the newspapers in Massachusetts with which he has lob- bying contracts--practically every newspaper in the state
>>
? ? "Publishers "
Mass.
,
139
"Toledo. Ohio. Feb. 14. 1905.
"Gentlemen :
"Should House bills Nos. 829, 30, 607, 724. or Senate bill IS^o.
185 become laws, it will force us to discontinue advertisins: in your state. Your prompt attention regarding this bill we believe would be of mutual benefit,
"We would respectfully refer you to the contract which we havewithyou. Respectfully,
"Cheney Medicine Company. "
Xow here is the fruit which that letter bore: a strong editorial against the anti-patent-medicine bill, denouncing it and its author in the most vituperative language, a marked copy of which was sent to every member of the Massachusetts Legislature. But this was not all that this one zealous publisher did; he sent telegrams to a number of members, and a personal letter to the representative of his district calling on that member not only to vote, but to use his influence against the bill, on the pain of forfeiting the paper's favor.
Now this seems to me a shameful thing--that a INIassachusetts news- paper, of apparent dignity and outward hign standing, should jump to the cracking of the whip of a nostrum-maker in Ohio; that honest and well- meaning members of the Massachusetts Legislature, whom all the money of Rockefeller could not buy, who obey only the one thing which they look on as the expression of public opinion of their constituents, the united voice of the press of their district--that these men should unknowingly cast their votes at the dictate of a nostrum-maker in Ohio, who, if he should deliver his command personally and directly, instead of through a newspaper supine enough to let him control it for a hundred dollars a year, would be scorned ana flouted.
Any self-respecting newspaper must be humiliated by the attitude of the patent-medicine association. They don't ASK the newspapers to do it--they ORDER it done. Read again Mr. Cheney's account of his plan, note the half-contemptuous attitude toward the newspapers. x\nd read again Mr. Cheney's curt letter to the Massachusetts papers; observe the threat, just sufficiently veiled to make it more of a threat; and the for- mal order from a superior to a clerk: "We would respectfully refer you to the contract we have with you. "
And the threat is not an empty one. The newspaper which refuses to aid the patent-medicine people is marked. Some time ago Dr. V. Mott Pierce of Buffalo was chairman of what is called the "Committee on Leg- islation" of the Proprietary Association of America. He was giving his annual report to the association. "We are happy to say," said he, "that though over a dozen bills were before the different State Legislatures last winter and spring, yet we have succeeded in defeating all the bills which were prejudicial to proprietary interests without the use of money, and through the vigorous co-operation and aid of the publishers. January 2-^ your committee sent out letters to the principal publications in New York asking their aid against this measure. It is hardly necessary to state that the publishers of New York responded generously against these
harmful measures. The only small exception was the Evening Star of
"
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Poughkeepsie, N, Y. , the publisher of which, in a very discourteous letter, refused to assist us in any way. "
Is it to be doubted that Dr. Pierce reported this exception to his fellow patent-medicine men, that they might make 'note of the offending paper, and bear it in mind when they made their contracts the following year? There are other cases which show what happens to the newspaper which offends the patent-medicine men. I am fortunate enough to be able to describe the following incident in the language of the man' who wielded the, club, as he told the story with much pride to his fellow patent-medicine men at their annual meeting:
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Proprietary Association," said Mr. Cooper, "I desire to present to you a situation which I think it is incumbent on manufacturers generally to pay some attention to--namely, the publication of sensational drug news which appears from time to time in the leading papers of the country. . . . There are, no doubt, many of you in the room, at least a dozen, who are familiar with the sensational articles that appeared in the Cleveland Press. Gentlemen, this is a question that appeals to you as a matter of business. . . . The Cleveland Press indulged in a tirade against the so-called 'drug trust. '
, . (the "drug trust" is the same organization of patent-medicine men--including Pierce, Pinkham, Peruna, Kilmer and all the well-known ones--which I have referred to as the patent-medicine association. Its official name is the Proprietary Association of America. ) "I sent out the followinglettertofifteenmanufacturers"(ofpatentmedicines) :
" ' Gentlemen--Inclosed we hand you a copy of matter which is appearing in the Cleveland papers. It is detrimental to the drug business to have this matter agitated in a sensational way. In behalf of the trade we would ask you to use your influence with the papers in Cleveland to discontinue this unnecessary publicity, and if you feel you can do so, we would like to have you wire the business managers of the Cleveland papers to discontinue their sensational drug articles, as it is proving very injurious to your business. Respectfully, E. R. Cooper. '
"Because of that letter which we sent outj the Cleveland Press received inside of forty-eight hours telegrams from six manufacturers canceling thousands of dollars' worth of advertising and causing a consequent dearth of sensational matter along drug lines. It resulted in a loss to one paper alone of over eighteen thousand dollars in advertising. Gentlemen, when you touch a man's pocket, you touch him where he lives; that principle is true of the newspaper editor or the retail druggist, and goes through all business. "
The Trust's Club for Newspapers.
That is the account of how the patent-medicine man used his club on the newspaper head, told in the patent-medicine man's own words, as he described it to his fellows. Is it pleasant reading for self-respecting newspaper men--the exultant air of those last sentences, and the worldly wisdom: "When you touch a man's pocket you touch him where he lives; that principle is true of the newspaper editor. . . . " ?
But the worst of this incident has not yet been told. There remains the account of how the offending newspaper, in the language of the bully, "ate dirt. " The Cleveland Press is one of a syndicate of newspapers, all
141
under Mr, McRae's ownership--but I will use ]\Ir. Cooper's OAvn words: '"We not only reached the Cleveland Press by the movement taken up in that way, but went further, for the Cleveland Press is one of a syndicate fif newspapers known as the Scripps-McRae League, from whom this ex-
planation is self-explanatory:
" 'Office Scripps-McRae Press Associatiox. "'Mr. E. R. Cooper, Cleveland, Ohio:
" 'Mr. McRae arrived in Xew York the latter part of last week after a three months' trip to Egypt. I took up the matter of the recent cut-rate articles which appeared in the Cleveland Press with him, and to-day received the following telegram from him from Cincinnati: "Scripps-McRae papers will contain no more such as Cleveland Press published concerning the medicine trust 1^1. A. McRae. " I am sure that in the future nothing will appear in the Cleveland Press detrimental to your interests.
" 'Yours truly, F. J. Carlisle. ' "
This incident was told, in the exact words above quoted, at the nine- teenth annual meeting of the Proprietary Association of America.
I could, if space permitted, quote many other telegrams and letters from the Kilmer's SAvamp Root makers, from the Piso's Cure people, from all the large patent-medicine manufacturers. The same thing that hapoened in Massachusetts happened last year in New Hampshire, in Wisconsin, in Utah, in more than fifteen states. In Wisconsin the response by the news- papers to the command of the patent-medicine people was even more humiliating than in Massachusetts. Not only did individual newspapers work against the formula bill ; there is a "Wisconsin Press Association," which includes the owners and editors of most of the newspapers of the state. That association held a meeting and passed resolutions, "that we are opposed to said bill . . . providing that hereafter all patent medi- cine sold in this state shall have the formulse thereof printed on their labels," and "Resolved, That the association appoint a committee of five publishers to oppose the passage of the measure. " And in this same state the larger dailies in the cities took it on themselves to drum uu the smaller country papers and get them to write editorials opposed to the formula bill. Nor was even this the measure of their activity in response to the command of the patent medicine association, I am able to give the letter
which is here reproduced [see page 83], It was sent by the publisher of one of the largest daily papers in Wisconsin to the state senator who introduced the bill. In one western state, a board of health officer made a number of analyses of patent medicines, and tried to have the analyses made public, that the people of his state might be warned. "Only one newspaper in the state," he says in a personal letter, "was willing to print results of these analyses, and this paper refused them after two publica- tion in which a list of about ten was published. This paper was the
, the editorial manager of which is in sympathy with the effort to restrict the sale of harmful nostrums. The business management in- terfered for the reason that $5,000 in patent-medicine advertising was with- drawn in a week. "
In New Hampshire--but space forbids. Happily, there is a little silver inthesituation. ThelegislatureofNorthDakotalastyearpassed,andthe governor signed a bill requiring that patent-medicine bottles shall have
--
? ? 142
printed on their labels the percentage of alcohol or of morphin or various other poisons which the medicine contains. That was the first success in a fight which the public health authorities have waged in twenty states eaclTyear for twenty years. In North Dakota the patent-medicine people conducted the fight with their usual weapons, the ones described above. But the newspapers, be it said to their everlasting credit, refused to fall in line to the threats of the patent-medicine association. And I account for that fact in this way: North Dakota is wholly a "country" community. It has no city of over 20,000, and but one over 5,000. The press of the state, therefore, consists of very small papers, weeklies, in which the ownership and active management all lie with one man. The editorial conscience and the business manager's enterprise lie under one hat. With them the patent-medicine scheme was not so successful as with the more elaborately organized newspapers of older and more populous states.
Just now is the North Dakota editor's time of trial. The^ law went into effect July 1. The patent-medicine association, at their annual meeting in May, voted to withdraw all their advertising from all the papers in that state. This loss of revenue, they argued self-righteously, would be a warning to the newspapers of other states. Likewise it would be a lesson to the newspapers of North Dakota. At the next session of the legislature they will seek to have the label bill repealed, and they count on the newspapers, chastened by a lean year, to help them. For the independence they have shown in the past, and for the courage they will be called on to show in the future, therefore, let the newspapers of North Dakota know that they have the respect and admiration of all decent people.
"What is to be done about it? " is the question that follows exposure of organized rascality. In few cases is the remedy so plain as here. For the past, the newspapers, in spite of these plain contracts of silence, must be acquitted of any grave complicity. The very existence of the machine that uses and directs them has been a carefully guarded secret. For the futvire, be it understood that any newspaper which carries a patent-med- icine advertisement knows what it is doing. The obligations of the con- tract are now public property. And one thing more, Avhen next a member of a state legislature arises and states, as I have so often heard: "Gentle- men, this label bill seems right to me, but I can not support it; the united press of my district is opposed to it"--when that happens, let every one understand the wires that have moved "the united press of my district,"
? [The folloiviny aiticlt is reproduced, hy permission, from Collier's Weekly, Nov. 17, 1906. 1
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. "
What Becomes of Letters Written "In Confidence" to "Patent Medicine" Firms and Quacks.
WHENyou write to a patent-medicine house or a quack doctor,
whose advertisements solicit letters of inquiry about health, the reply in nine cases out of ten will address you in an intimate personal way, as "Dear Friend," or "Esteemed friend. " And the reply will be marked, in conspicuous let- ters, "Strictly confidential," even, in some cases, "Sacredly
confidential. " Every art is used to make the dupe believe his letters are kept safely locked in hidden archives, where the things he has said about his health, his affairs, and his person are carefully guarded from any eyes but the so-called "doctor's. "
CHICAGO BROKERAGE COMPANY
riAlLORDERLETTERS 4Wvv)^^\ BOUGHT,
4i7 DEARBORN ST. , CHICAGO, ILL.
SOLD. RENTED. V^^^^^^fe^ C. A davis, naneger.
We want to buy all kinds of lettersj-eceived in answer to newspaper'" advertisements^ If
Now the truth about what really happens to these letters is eloquently told by the documents reproduced herewith. When the patent-medicine man, or the quack, has, in the language of their shops, "jollied" the dupe along with false hopes and lying promises until even he becomes suspicious, and he can no longer be induced to send another dollar for another bottle of medicine, then his letter is sold to some other quack who pretends to cure the same disease. That quack coaxes as much money as he can from the victim, and then turns him over to a third; and so the dupe is passed along, in many cases, for several years.
To facilitate this exchange of letters among the quacks there are five or six so-called letter-brokers. They are really clearing-houses where patent- medicine frauds and quack doctors exchange, sell, and rent letters. On
Vandewater street. New York, is a big warehouse owned by one of these let- ter-brokers,FrankB. S^vett. Inthatwarehouseareoversevenmillionlet-
your
i
MEDICAL
MEDICAL. 5,<<O0. Dr. Stevens & Co. , Co-^ lumbus, Ohio. Nervous debiliTy,
MEDICAL. 2,000. L. West, Avon. N. ~f: Mervous debility, first replies. 1
ters. It is quite possible that if you, any time Avithin the past five years, have written a letter to a quack doctor, your letter is somewhere in that warehouse, and men familiar with the business could find it. Probably your letter has been sold over and over again, and rented and re-rented to every quack who plays on the victims of 3'our particular ailment.
One of the largest of these letter-brokers is the Guild Company of 132 Nassau street. New York.
They issue a large circular describing the letters they have for sale. A portion of the list is printed on the next page. The part here produced is only a Aery small portion, and that the less unprint- able part of the circular.
If you liave ever been foolish enough to icrite to any of the quacks and frauds m that list, you may Jcnoio that your letter is noio for sale. You
may knoio that all the things you have
said about your health and your
LETTERS FOR REm
a>>,0(>>Jas. Wm. Kida medical file cards, repre- senting ail kinds of diseases (will sort) 1904-
180,0(X) men's matrimonial, 35. 000 women's '04, 1st. 200,000 agents and canvassers,
50,000 Dr. Pierce OJder blanks, '02, '03. 20,0(X) OzomuLson order blanks, ? (^
. 30,280 Theo. Noel, '02. '03, medical file cards. 59,(X)0 Agents' directory. '03, '04, '05.
250,000 Home work, '03, '04, '05.
27,500 Rosebud trust, firsts. '03, '04. 19. 500BondJewelrypayups,trust,'04,envelopes. 52,(XK)10csongorders. StarMusicCo. ,'04 '05. 17,500 Dr. May & Friar. ladies' regulator. '03, '04.
&,<m Nervous debility, '03, '04, Appliance Co.
Over 1,000. 00) letters on hand, all kinds. Caller writemeforsamplesandads. fettersbought. e. A. Davis, 1634 W, Ohio Street. Chicago.
JaikDJCAL. Dr. Fierce Order liianks. 50,000. 19O2-"0;}.
I
MEDICAL. Ozomiilsion. 20,000. 1903. ,MKD1C-AL. 8ti,2S0. Then. Noel file card&J':
ltXi2--03.
iMKDl<\iL. 24. r)00. Pfiysieian-g Inst. ancT
i
I
I
i
Ldsmi France. Womt. n's, ItWo. T,fW30 first"rcpiiPS fate'i9M". "
13,000 late 02-"03-'04 letters in an- swer to above ad.
Portion of a circular sent out by one of the concerns to which "patent medicine" men and quaclj doctors sell the letters they receive from their victims. There are five or six concerns similar to this, acting as clearing-houses, through which pass many millions of letters.
An advertisement originally printed in the Hail Order Journal offering to rent letters. These letters are the ones which aupes all over the country write to "patent medicine" and quack concerns. When the original quack has squeezed the dupe ary he sells the letters to other quacks.
>>/
person--i--ntimate details tohich you carefully conceal from your friends and neighbors are the property of any person loho cares to pay four or five dollars for the letters of yourself and others like you.
One very interesting fraud carried on under the name of the Astropathic Institute by means of this traffic in letters, was unearthed by the Post-office Department recently. The following is quoted from the records of the Law Division of the Department, which drove this fraud out of business
"The company begins its operation by purchasing large numbers of let- tersfromletter-brokers. Theletterspurchasedbythecompanyrefertothe desire of the writer for a treatment for nervous diseases, and have been addressed to some other company dealing in such matters. "
The remainder of the explanation of this fraud, as set forth in the Post- Office Department records, is rather technical and legal. But the way it worked was this: You had written a letter, let us say, to Dr. Blosser, or to the Ozomulsion Company, or to Theo. Noel, or to any other of the scores
I
,'
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:
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19. 988 79,009 8. 234 7. 110 6,724 52,997
1,826 4,286 946 7. 609 6,104
R. T. Booth Co.
C. E. Gauss.
Dr. J. W. Kidd Co. E. J. Worst.
W. A. Noyes. Dr. Blosser Co.
Asthma Letters. Cinarsium Co.
D. . T. Lane.
National Research Co. W. A. Noves.
Dr. J. W. 'Kidd Co.
Dyspepsia Letters.
7,315 Absolute Remedy Co. 4,923 Absolute Remedy Co 1,336 Dr. J. W. Kidd Co.
Stomach Trouble Letters.
6,420 John Morrow.
2. 833 Orange Manna Co. 3,592 Dr. A. H. Swinburne. 3,874 Dr. J. W. Kidd Co.
Deaf Letters. 8,533 Dr. C. M. Jordan.
5,184 Morley Co.
907 Dr. C. S. Ferris.
1,030 Henry Ullrich. 1,434 John Garmore.
:
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of quacks whose letters are for sale by letter-brokers. In your letter you had set forth at great length the symptoms you thought you experienced, the diseases you thought you had. This letter of yours was bought by the AstropathicInstitute. ThentheAstropathicInstitutesentyouacircular. This circular said the company was in the business of reading your past, present, and future--they sold "astrological readings'' of your life. Just to show their good faith, they would send you a "sample reading" free of charge. Glad to get something for nothing, you write for the "sample reading. " To your great astonishment, you would get a reply saying that you Avere troubled with frequent pains in the left arm, poor appetite, and all the details told by yourself, but long forgotten, in your letter to Blosser, or Noel, or Ozomulsion. This proof of capacity on the part of the Astropathic Institute would usually impress you so strongly that you would willingly give up the ten dollars demanded for a "larger and fuller readinof. "
Quantity Letters of Catarrh Letters.
8,470 Anglo Amer. Chem. Co. 29. 713 Quaker Oil Co.
Quantity Letters of Rheumatism Letters.
1,194 Associated Drug Stores. 51,920 Turnock Medical Co.
7. 918 . Jebb Remedy Co. 22,038 Dr. C. S. Ferris. 11,948 Dr. J. W. Kidd Co.
Obesity Letters.
11. 330 Dr. O. W. F. Snyder. 6,055 Howard Co.
Kidney Letters.
51. 632 Pape Medicine Co. 23,479 Pape Medicine Co. 51,920 Turnock Medical Co.
9,077 Pape Kidney Clinic.
3,094 American Buchu Co. 39,639 Dr. J. W. Kidd Co.
6. 321 W. F. Smith.
854 Dr. J. W. Kidd Co.
Narcotic Letters.
138 Dr. R. H. Brown.