The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-22
ESPECIAL MESSAGE ' ON FAKE MEDICINE I SENT 10 CONGRESS Taft Asks for Immediate Legislation Against False
 Labels ]FRAUDS MENACE
 PUBLIC HEALTH tSince Recent Supreme Court Decision on Pure Food and Drugs Act Public Has Been in
 Great Danger


 7prepared in New York and transmitted T through the White House today to ! n Congress President Taft scathingly ar- I t raigned the manufacturers of what he ldenounced as dangerous drug frauds EHand urged Congress to amend at this |. .s ssession the pure food and drug law to |& strengthen that act In vital points of weakness recently pointed out by de- clsions of the United States supreme Acourt +.Iz. |$A President Taft believes that unless I%sthe law Is amended forthwith the coun- |S4sry will again be flooded by injurious |Ga snostrums" and "cure alls" which were Ncommon before the pure food law was |s>lIenacted.
 The message was transmitted both to 4the Senate and House and it was said N7today that the latter body probably fHwould take up the matter at an early date.
 TN Representative Sherey of Kentucky | fa1ready has introduced bill bearing on the subject. The message is as fol- Flows:
 "To the Senate and House of Represen- tatives:
  tto the necessity of passing at this ses- Rsion an amendment to the food and 1drugs act of June 30, 1906, which will vsupplement existing laws and prevent 1.-the shipment in interstate and foreign commerce and the manufacture and sale nwithin the territories and the District sof Columbia of worthless nostrums flabelled with misstatements of facts Mas to their physiological action. |t .Misstatements false and misleading, X even in the knowledge of those who make them.
 .'On June 30, 1906, after agitation of 20 years the food and drugs act passed by the Fifty ninth Congress re- I ceived the approval of the President shnd became law. The purpose of the |*.Imeasure was two-fold--first, to prevent I2.. the adulteration of Moods and drugs Es' within the jurisdictitn of the federal | Fl government, and second to prevent any *} false labelling of foods and drugs that X will deceive the people into the be- lief that they are securing other than that for which they ask and which they have the right to get.
 Law Is Success
 "The law was received with general satisfaction and has been vigorously enforced. More than 2o0o cases have been prepared for criminal prosecu- tion against the shippers of adulterated | or misbranded foods and drugs and ' :. seizures Have ben made of more than n TOO shipments of such articles More ' than two-thirds of these cases have \ been begun since March 4, 1909. Of II the criminal eases more than 800 have 2 terminated favorably to the govern ' ment, and of the shipments seized more I'd 450 have been condemned and < either relabelled or destroyed. In every case in which the goods seized was deleterious to health, it was destroyed. | A large number of cases are now pend ing
 .The supreme court has held in a re- cent decision Omitted States vs. o. A. Johnson, opinion, May 29, 1911,D that the food and drugs act does not cover the Ia Knowingly false labelling of nostrums |f as to curative effect or physiological |n action and that inqury under this salu- Ia tary statute does not by its terms ex- tend in any case to the inefficiancy of medicine to work the cures claimed for them on the labels. It follows that without fear of punishment under the law, interruptions persons knowing the medicines to have no curative or remedial value for the diseases for which they indicate them, may ship interstate commerce medicine composed of substances possessing any slight physiological action and labelled as cures for diseases, which in the pres ert state of science, are recognized as incurable.
 "An evil which menaces the general health of the people strikes at the life of the nation. In my opinion the sale of dangerously aduterated drugs or the sale of drugs under knowingly false claims as to their effects in disease, con- stitutes such an evil and warrants me in f, tp he a Congress.
 Menace To Public Health
 "Fraudiilent representations of the curative value of nostrums not only op- crate to delude purchasers but are a distinct menace to the public health. There are none credulous as suffer- CTS from disease The need Is urgent for legislation which will prevent the raising of false hopes of speedy cures of serious ailments by misstatements of fact as to worthless mixtures on which the sick will rely while their diseases progress unchecked
 |8 At the time the food and drugs act |M was passed there were current in com I1 merce literally thousands of dangerous I'o frauds labeled as cures for every case Ip of epilepsy, sure cures for consumption N. and all lung disease, cures of all liver, E kidney and malarial troubles, cures for
 
 |& cures for all forms of heart disease, in |% fact cures for all the ills known at the |N present day.
 M The labels of many of these so-called n cures indicated their use for diseases of M children They were not only utterly t& useless in the treatment of disease, but Fl in many cases were positively injur- E 1ous If any of these statements had been true no with access to the remedies which bore them need have died from any cause other than accident or old age.
 unfortunately the statements were not true. The shameful fact is that those who deal in such preparations know they are deceiving credulous ana ignorant unfortunates who suffer from some of the gravest ills to which the flesh of this day is subject No physi- clan of standing in his profession, no matter of what school of medicine he