Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-06-18
THE
AID. MANS
CORNER
Advertising Reformers.
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the medical men of that city may be
cited. For several years The North
American has been between two fires
on account of its policy on medical
advertising, which policy is to carry
such medical advertising as seems to
the publisher of use and benefit to the
public, and excluding certain other
kinds. The result of this policy has
been that the doctors condemned the
paper for not throwing out all pro.
prietary remedies while those reme-
dies which were not carried in the
columns condemned the publishr for
carrying few and not all.
The attitude of the physicians seems
the more strange, since every one of
them knows that no other newspaper
has a policy so strict and a standard
so high. That paper singled out for
criticism is the one whose position ap.
proaches most nearly to that of the
physicians themselves.
Our position was persistently at.
tackled by the patent medicine men.
They said it was not only unique, but
impossible. They challenged it first
upon the ground that we had no right
to exclude their business, save upon
the one ground of bad credit A news.
paper, they contended, was in adver.
tising a common carrier" with no
authority over the statements of those
who bought its space. They cited the
principle "caveat emptor let the
buyer protect himself. But with the
new standards of business ethics and
public service then gaining their first
impetus, it was not very difficult for
us to enforce our position.
1t is also said that the advertising
of a remedy which has trifling medi-
cinal value, or none at all, is a decep-
tion upon the sufferer. We have no
desire to enter a controversy here, but
we know, and doctors are perfectly
aware, that they all use on occasion
the deliberate subterfuge of prescrib-
ing "blank" powders, "dough" pills
and tinted water with an innocent
medicinal flavor. Every physician
knows the value Of suggestion in treat
ing ills due largely to imagination and
nervous fear; and even a patented rem,
. edy which has the soothing effort of
; the doctors kindly deception has an
equal merit.
But it is argued further that the
hit-or.miss taking of remedies, with.
I out a medical examination, is palpably
! wrong and may be dangerous. We do
not quarrel with the warning, and we
would almost invariably take the pre-
caution of consulting a physician our
! selves. But let it be remembered that
medicine is by no means an exact
7 science, either in theory or practice.
Why is it that remedy or prep.
! aration which the most ethical and
conservative of them prescribe, so long
I as it is advertised only in medical
journals, is Immediately secuted aud
condemned by them when it appears
among newspaper advertisements
There is a tonic and nerve food
whose name is becoming a household
. word through advertising. 1t seems
but yesterday that it was recommend.
ed by specialists and indorsed by the
professional journalists. But now that
it is urged directly upon the public
through magazines and newspapers,
q the doctors tell us that it is only
form of cottage cheese" utterly
without merit.
The highest function which a news.
;, paper can perform through its adver,
tising is to place within the easiest
and cheapest reach of the consumer
the produce which he needs or desires.
, A consumer who wants cathartic,
poultice, lotion or a disinfectant
} receives the best service from a news
!. paper which tells him where and how
y a sound preparation Of the kind need
: ed can be obtained. To make our
meaning clearer we shall illustrate
from a personal experience.
Having consulted our physician for
slight stomach disorder, we received
a prescription and had it filled at
cost Of so cents. The prescription, as
it happened, was returned with the
bottle Of liquid. During a discussion
the paper was shown to an inferno
in a Philadelphia hospital. He said
the formula was very well known was
used by physicians everywhere And
the same thing, he added, was on the
market in convenient tablet form, sold
under a registered name.
We bought package, at a cost OF
5 cents. The same remedy from pre-
scriptioh, with the physicians S fee, cost
$3.50.
Both the patent medicine interests
and the medical profession, by the way
are agitated over the proposal to es-
tablish national department OF