constipation, pains in the back, cold chills, bad legs, maladies of indiscretion, kidney and urinary disorders--and several other things.

These pills were a.n.a.lyzed by the British Medical a.s.sociation's chemists, who reported that they consisted of ginger, soap, and aloes. Where the "medicinal herbs" were it was hard to say.

In large and lurid letters we are informed in the advertis.e.m.e.nts that these pills are "worth a guinea ($5.00) a box." The retail price is 27 cents a box. The British Medical a.s.sociation's chemist states that the cost of these pills is one-quarter of a cent per box. Quite a fair margin of profit considering the high cost of living these days!

CHAPTER x.x.xII

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 advertis.e.m.e.nt 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 pa.s.ses 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 a.s.sured 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 inst.i.tute" 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 "inst.i.tutes" 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 cla.s.sification 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 advertis.e.m.e.nts of patent medicines and fake medical concerns.

There is an a.s.sociation 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt. The agent or lobbyist of the a.s.sociation in Washington immediately telegraphs the intent of the bill with the name of its author to the home office of the a.s.sociation. 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 pa.s.ses, 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 advertis.e.m.e.nts and as these advertis.e.m.e.nts 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 inst.i.tution, 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 cla.s.s who buy patent medicines and support the fake medical concerns. It was thought that if an advertising propaganda was inst.i.tuted, 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.sistance.

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 pa.s.s 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 coa.r.s.er 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 emanc.i.p.ators whose heart strings are of finer and truer fiber than those in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of men. We hope to find them in the mothers of the race.