The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-11-23
MEDICAL FRAUD ARRESTED.
NATIONWIDE RAID is MADE Ry
THE POSTOFFTCE DEPART.
MENT
Misuse OF the Mails is the Charge
fians for Many Arrests Extending
over % States Were Carefully
Made and Carried Out with Clock
like Precision.

/
and United States marshals upon doc
tors and drug concerns, charged with
misuse Of the mails to solicit GRIM
inal medical practice or to dispose of
medicines and instruments connected
with such practice.
| The raid-the most active and f.
reaching ever made by any de.
ment of the Government-was VI.
the personal direction of Postmaster
General Hitchcock and Chief Inspec-
tor Robert S. Sharpe Of the postoffice
department. SO carefully had it's de-
tails been guarded that until the first
of the arrests were made at Indian
| apolis early in the day, practically
nothing was known of the govern
ments contemplated action. Working
with clock-like precision. the inspec
tlon force spread over % States car
rled out the prearranged plans, and
at an early hour tonight the postof-
| flee department ha, received word
that nearly all OF the designated per-
sons had been arrested
The results Of the crusade are still
being received tonight by the inspec-
tors divisions of the postoffice in the
form of dozens of kilograms from va
rious divisional headquarters. In
isolated instances it was found for
/ a
to effect the arrests but the suspected
persons against whom warrant have
been issued are under surveillance
and probably will be unable to escape.
| Chief Inspector Sharpe and a large
part Of the force of $50 inspectors
had been engaged for seven months.
under the orders of the postmaster
general, in working up the scores Of
individual cases in which arrests were
made today. Many of those taken
into custody We're members Of promi-
nent wholesale and retail drug con-
Germs or physicians well known in
their own communities
|
cases vigorously, according to a state
ment by Postmaster General Hitch
cock tonight
The work of the postofice inspec-
tors today is the elimination of the
crusade instituted more than two
years ago against the fraudulent and
unlawful use Of the mails" said Mr.
Hitchcock. I'm that comparatively
brief time we have wiped out of exist
ence concerns which have mulcted the
people OF this country out of more
than $lOO,O00,000 by frauds perpetrat-
ed through the use of the mails. and
the courts have sent many of the pro-
moters Of the first fraudulent schem-
es to the penitentiary where they
are serving time. The wide publicity
given to the arrests made today will
do more to put an end to this sort OF
criminality than any other process"
Approximately 80 Of the persons ar
rested already have been indicted by
United States grand juries in various
parts of the country; and the cases
OF the others will be presented to
grand juries now sitting as rapidly as
may be feasible
Strict enforcement of municipal and
State laws in the East was said by the
postal authorities to account for the
comparatively few arrests in the large
cities In that part of the country
While it was declared that violations
OF the law are frequent in such cities
as Boston. New York, Philadelphia
and Baltimore, the accused persons
1T was asserted. have been pursued
closely by the state and federal Off
cials.
Postofiice inspectors said the hot
bed of this class of criminality is in
the Pacific coast States In san Fran
cisco, it was claimed. fictitious
name was used by several we'll known
physicians who employed a woman to
do the necessary advertising ana
clerical work Cases were solicited bv
correspondence and by printed cir-
culars sent through the mails. Scores
of complaints have been received by
the department from respectable VIC
men, complaining Of the receipt of
this class of matter.
Approximately 90 per cent Of those
arrested today are socallcd pill doc
tors'-mcn who advertised their
practice by correspondence or other
wis"-and sent to their patients com
pounds in the form of pills or pow
dcrs. Careful analysis of these COM