Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 277, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1914 — DEFENDS POPULAR REMEDIES [ARTICLE]

DEFENDS POPULAR REMEDIES

Speyer* Say* Newspaper Should Invewuggte Merits of Medicine* Before Barring Advertisement*. That an organized attempt has been Shade to blacken the reputation of the popular family remedies of this country, and to mislead the newspaper publishers, into rejecting the advertising of such medicines, was the charge made by Carl J. Balliett. of Buffalo, N. Y., at the convention of the Advertising Affiliation at Detroit Mr. Balliett is a director ,of the Proprietary Association of America, which includes in its membership two hundred firms which make the popular prepared medicines of America. Mr. Balliett pointed out that it Is the duty of the newspaper publisher to. refuse the advertising of any fake or fraudulent medicine, just as it is his duty to refuse any fake or fraudulent advertising, but it is not right to shut down on all medical advertising because there have been some fakers, any more than it would be right to refuse to publish all department store advertising because certain stores have made a practice of lying about bargain sales. Disease and death are mysteries. People who are perfectly well are skeptical. They laugh at the timeworn patent medicine joke, just as they laugh again and again over the many variations of the operation joke —“The operation was a success but the patient died.” This so-called humor has perhaps hurt the medicine business with well people, but when the hitherto healthy man feels a severe paimjar illness, he immediately wants medicine, and will bless the cure' whettier it be at the hands of a regular doctor, a homeopath, an osteopath, a Christian Scientist or patent medicine. There is nothing more deadly than disease; | nothing more honorable than to cure it. Mr. Balliett refuted the idea sought to be spread about that patent medicines are unpopular by showing that from 1900 to 1912 the amount of prepared medicines consumed in America increased from $100,000,000 to $160.000,000 annually. He showed that, although the American Medical Association is trying as an organization to exterminate so-called patent medicines, the family doctor, individually, is not fighting them but prescribing them. He estimated that 40% of the prescriptions written by doctors today include proprietary medicines. , The writings of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, he said, have also aimed to destroy confidence in proprietary medicines; but that Dr. Wiley’s ideas are not infallible is shown by'cases where his analyses were entirely wrong. Mr. Balliett mentioned a case where, with all the power of the Government, he fought a preparation as being dangerous to health, and was ingloriously walloped. There has been spread the idea that a clever faker can mix a few useless ingredients and, by smart advertising, sell tons of it and win sudden wealth; whereas, as a matter of fact, the medicine business is notoriously difficult, and, where there has been one success at it, there have been a hundred failures. Any medicine which has no merit cannot live, because persons who are duped into buying it once will not buy it again, and the profit from advertising a medicine can only come from repeat sales to the same, satisfied people. Therefore, any medicine which has been on the market for a number of years, and is still advertised, must have merit behind it to account for its success. In conclusion Mr. Balliett declared that no newspaper is doing justice to its readers .in the. matter of medical or other advertising, unless it investigates, no. only the wording of the advertisement offered for publication, but the merits qf the article advertised. He pointed out that the few newspapers who have been deluded into the policy of barring out medical advertising have adopted this general policy, rather than to form an investigation bureau of this kind which could, in a constructive and useful effort, Investigate and decide what Is a good product andt jvhat is a fraud, in not only the medicine business, but in every other business which advertises its wares to the public. The audience seemed to agree with Mr. Balliett’s ideas ors the subject and the chairman decided the question at issue in his favor.