New-York tribune., 1901-06-13
THE BOGUS DIPLOMA BUSINESS.


Attention is again called to the evil of bogus
professional diplomas. which Is seriously mill
tating against the business of honest men and
is bringing shame and contempt upon the name
of American education Inscriptions and dis
reputable quacks, armed with SNOWY and pre-
tentious diplomas from colleges" and ''univer-
stiles which never existed. or with forged
diplomas hearing the names of actual and
worthy institutions have made predatory inva-
siOns of other countries in considerable num-
bers. The fictitious forged nature OF their
credentials is not known in those countries but
the men are there supposed to be real gradu-
ates OF representative American institutions.
The natural result is that possession of an
American diploma is becoming prima facie evil
dence or at least suggestion, that q man is
charlatan. Against such q presumptive handi-
cap do worthy American physicians dentists
and others have to contend
There are. of course. laws in the United
States against the issuing of fake diplomas
and against forgery. and some proprietors of
diploma mills have In recent years been
brought sharply to book There is probably
little of their dishonesty carried on in this
country at the present time. Detection is too
easy and the penalty too great. But profitable
field is still found abroad Some quacks who
take bogus diplomas with them to promote their
professional prosperity in lands where their
quackery is unexposed And the native quacks
and fakirs of other lands. whose name is legion.
find il convenient TO send to America for the
bogus diplomas which the bargain counters of
their home market do not afford. The diploma
mills which dare not any longer advertise
their wares in American papers continue to do
so in European and colonial papers, and keep
up considerable and profitable export trade.
The niquity of all this is obvious. But there
is another cognate evil equally bad This is
the free and easy use of the terms college"
and university and professor and doctor
by concerns and men not in the least entitled to
them Some timber tongued mountebank opens
an establishment for teaching the cure Of corns
through pious meditation or the extraction Of
solar energy from senescent cucumbers, and
forthwith calls his office college of Hoodoo
Science" or the National Asinopathic Univer
sity" and dubs himself professor" or dean
or chancellor and bestows upon the 'gradu-
ates" diplomas far surprising those of Harvard
or Yale in showiness and sends them out into
the world as doctors" Then, when one of
the graduates appears in Germany displaying
a signed and sealed diploma from the National
Asinopathic University of North America" in
vesting him with the title of Doctor OF Asinop-
athy." what are the Germans TO think Of us:
That our universities are frauds and our doc
tors fakirsi
II is getting TO be an open question whether
every self-respecting State ought not TO take
this matter vigorously In hand and put stop
to such practices by prohibiting the use OF the
titles OF college," university and doctor
save under authoritative State supervision.
Such institutions and titles are fraud upon
the people and the State should he competent
to suppress such frauds as we'll as any other
kind. Certainly the good name of American
professional education and the practical vel
fare Of honest and worthy practitioners should
be protected from the reproach and injury
which are brought upon them by organized
quackery and titled fakirs.