New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-21
GOVERNMENT CATCHES
l73 IN GREAT RAID
postOffiCe Inspectors SwoOp
Down on Lawbreakers in II
Cities in Single Day.
MISUSE OF MAILS CHARGED
Doctors, Druggists and Others
Accused of Seeking Illegal
Practice and Sending
Unlawful Medicines. :.


,d involving the arrest practically
continuously Of 17S persons in seventy
900 nrincipal cities, was made to-day by
os,o4Hce inspectors and United States
,,orshals on doctors and drug concerns,
1norged with misuse Of the mails 20 solicit
animal medical practice OF to dispose Of
Medicines and instruments connected with
such practice.
This most extensive and farreachins
rsid ever made by any department of the
government was under the personal direc-
ion Of Postmaster General Hitchcock and
chief Inspector Robert s. Sharpe. So care
fpuy had its details been guarded that
mill the first Of the arrests was made in
Indianapolis early in the day, practically
,otbing was known Of the governments
,on,erplated action. Working with clock
like precision, the inspection force spread
over twenty-five states and carried out
Inc prearranged plans, and at an early
hour tonight the department had received
word that practically all OF the designated
persons had been arrested.
Results OF the crusade are still being
received tonight in kilograms from vari-
Gus divisional headquarters. In isolated
instances il was found, for various rea-
sons, to be impracticable to effect the ar
rests. but the suspected persons against
whom warrants have been issued are
under surveillance, and probably will be
unable 10 escape.
Results Of Seven Months Work.
Chief Inspector Sharpe and large part
Of his force Of 800 inspectors had been
engaged for seven months in working up
the scores of individual cases in which
arrests were made to-day. Many Of the
prisoners are members Of prominent
wholesale and retail drug concerns or ply
sicians well known in their own COM
munites.
The government will prosecute the cases
vigorously, according TO a statement by
Postmaster General Hitchcock, who said /:
to-day is the elimination of the crusade
instituted more than two years ago
against the fraudulent and unlawful use
Of the mails. In that comparatively
brief time We have wiped out of exist
ence concerns which have mulcted the
people Of this country out of more than
800. zoo 60 by frauds perDetrated through
the use Of the mails, and the courts nave
sent many OF the promoters OF the frau-
duent schemes TO the penitenuary, where
thew now are serving time.
The wide publicity given 10 the arrests
made to-day will do more 10 put an en-"
10 this particular sort Of criminality than
any number OF practically unknown prose
BUTTONS OF widely separated cases.
Strict enforcement Of municipal and
state laws in the East is said by the
postal authorities to account for the
comparatively few arrests i'm the large
cities in that part or the country. While
it is declared that violations or the law
are frequent i'm such cities as Boston,
New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore,
the accused persons. it is asserted, have
been pursued closely by the state and
federal officials.
Many on Pacific Coast.
Ills said by the postoffice inspectors that
hotbed Of this sort OF criminality is in
the Pacific Coast States. In San Fran
cisco, II Is claimed a fictitious name was
used by several we'll known physicians,
who employed a woman to do the ne
cessary advertising and clerical work.
Cases were solicited BY correspondence
and by printed circulars sent through the
mails. Scores OF complaints have been
received by the department from women,
complaining Of the receipt Of this class
OF matter
approximately 20 per cent of those ar
rested to-day are so-called pill DOCTORS