The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1909-08-20

About two years ago the Doctors
Trust prevailed upon Golfers Weekly
! to publish what purported to be report
of 80 cases of poisoning by headach
remedies, which reports, on investiga
ton, proved to be made up entirely o
falsehoods and Misrepresentation. O
the entire 80 cases not one was truth
fully reported and 81 were absolutely
without foundation in fact. This wa
proven by the Editor and Publisher o.
The Medical and Surgical Journal, who
in an article entitled, Golfers Meth
DDS Exposed" exploded every charge
contained in the Collier articles and
showed Samuel Hopkins Adams, theil
author, to be wholly unreliable and
absolutely unprinclpled. AS soon a:
the American Medical Association (the
Doctors Trust) discovered that they
had among them journal edited by q
man with the courage of his couvic
tions, they were quick to realize that
this journal would be of great harm to
their cause and promptly decided that
the course of the journal must be turn
ed to their good, they at once set about
to accomplish the purchase of said
journal. This they succeeded in doing
and Immediately combined it with one
of the Association organs, since which
time the American Medical Association
has attempted to make mystery of
the discontinuance of the publication
of The Medical and Surgical Journal.
However, the article in The Medical
and Surgical Journal effectually
stopped Golfers further assaults on
these reliable headache remedies and,
as no reputable publication could be
found yellow" enough to issue further
assaults of this character, DR.. H, w.
Wiley, the great Pooh Bah Of the
Department of Agriculture was per-
susded to use his power as Govern.
ment Officer to issue false and mis-
leading Bulletin" along the same
lines at government expense. Feeling
safe from damage suits because of his
position, he issued his report along
general lines, claiming to have compil-
ed his data from series of letters re.
| ceived from 400 Doctors. He does not
say who these Doctors are and he does
not say that he Investigated their re-
ports or responsibility in a single
instance. He simply states that he sent
circular letter to 925 Physicians con-
tanning certain questions and that he
received 400 replies. With his wide ao-
quaintance among Doctors and his
powerful influence among the leaders
of the Doctors Trust, it is easy to con-
ceive that he could readily pick out 400
Doctors in the Trust whose prejudices
are well known and who would gladly
make any reply to the questions that
they thought would please Wiley.
A demand has been made on the
Department of Agriculture for per-
mission to examine the said 400 reports
in order to verify DR.. Wiley's conclus-
ions from them, but this demand was
peremptorily refused. The reasons for
this refusal would be selfevident, even
though Wiley's history in other cases
was not known. For instance, Dr.
Wiley was overruied by a superior
power in the corn syrup case, and in
the benzoate case, yet he travels about
the country at Government expense
making speeches attacking the products
which the Government has held to be
properly manufactured. In the same
way, i. g.. at Government expense, he
sent out 10000 copies of the late
Bulletin to the newspapers of the
United States, with letter containing
garbled abstracts from it, well knowing
that few Editors would wade through
SO pages of Bulletin when DR.. Wiley
himself had so very kindly furnished in
siccinct form the substance of the
report. Few Editors suspected him of
misusing his power to draw unjust con-
illusions from Bulletin issued by the
government, and probably no Editor,
who published Wiley's abstract,
suspected that he was being used as
catspaw to pull chesnuts out of the fire
for the Doctors Trust.
Furthermore, though a private indi-
vidual cannot obtain single copy of
Wiley's Bulletin" except on payment
of 10 cents, Wiley himself sent out 90
600 copies to special individuals who he
thought would help to advance his
personal cause and the cause of the
Doctors Trust"
In our opinion thereis absolutely no
law justifying DIR. Wiley in using his
official position to compile and issue re.
ports of this character. Government re-
ports should be unbiased, should con.
tain both sides of question, and should
be compiled by persons having no pre-.
conceived opinions and no prejudices
regarding the subject under investiga-
ton Only the truth should find its way
into puhlio documauts