The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1914-12-19
DEFENDS POPULAR REMEDIES
Speakers Says Newspaper Should In
vestIgate Merits of Medicines Be-
fore Barring Advertisements.

mat an organized attempt has been
made to blacken the reputation of the
| popular family remedies of this coun
try, and to mislead the newspaper
publishers into rejecting the adver-
Using of such medicines, was the
charge made by Carl ]. Balliett, OF
| Buffalo, N. Y, at the convention Of the
Advertising Affiliation at Detroit.
Mr.. Balliett is director of the Pro
prietary Association Of America, which
includes in It's membership two hun
dred firms which make the popular
prepared medicines of America.
MI Balliett pointed out that 1t is
the duty of the newspaper publisher
to refuse the advertising of any fake
or fraudulent medicine, Just as it is
his duty to refuse any fake or fraudu-
lent advertising, but it is not right to
shut down on all medical advertising
because there have been some takers,
any more than it would be right to
refuse to publish all department store
advertising because certain stores
have made a practice of lying about
bargain sales.
Disease and death are mysteries.
People who are perfectly well are
skeptical. They laugh at the time
worn patent medicine joke, just as
they laugh again and again over the
many variations Of the operation joke
THE operation was a success but
hn I'M,
NOR has perhaps hurt the medicine
business with well ~" PIC, 5ui hen
tie hitherto healthy man feels a Sc
we're pain or illness, he Immediately
wants medicine, and will bless the
cure whether it be at the hands of
regular doctor, homeopath, an osteo-
path. a Christian Scientist or patent
medicine. There Is nothing more
deadly than disease; nothing more
honorable than to cure it.
Mr.. Balliett refuted the idea sought
to be spread about that patent medi-
cines are unpopular by showing that
from 1900 to 1912 the amount of pre-
pared medicines consumed in America
increased from $10O,OOO,O0O to $780,
100000 annually. He showed that, al
though the American Medical Associ- |
alton is trying as an organization to
exterminate so-called patent medi- |
cines, the family doctor, individually, |
Is not fighting them but prescribing |
them. He estimated that 400 of the |
written by doctors today |
include proprietary medicines.
The writings of DR.. Harvey W. Wi |
ley, he said, have also aimed to de- |
stroy confidence in proprietary medi-
cines; but that DR.. Wiley's ideas are
not infallible is shown by cases where
his analyses were entirely wrong. Mr.
Balliett mentioned case where, with
all the power of the Government, he
fought preparation as being danger.
ous to health, and was ingloriously
walloped.
There has been spread the idea that
. clever faker can mix few useless
ingredients and, by smart advertising,
sell tons of it and win sudden wealth;
as matter of fact, the medi-
cine business is VIGOROUSLY difficult,
md, where there has been one success
1T it, there have been a hundred fail
Tres. Any medicine which has no
merit cannot live, because persons
Who are duped into buying it once will
lot buy it again, and the profit from
a medicine can only come
rom repeat sales to the same, salts
led people. Therefore, any medicine
which has been on the market for a
lumber Of years, and is still adver-
ised, must have merit behind it to ac-
cunt for its success.
In conclusion Mr.. Balliett declared
hat no newspaper is doing justice to
Is readers in the matter of medical
r other advertising, unless it investi-
ates. not only the wording of the ad-
ertisement offered for publication,
ut the merits of the article adver-
sed. He pointed out that the few
ewspapers who have been deluded
ito the policy Of barring out medical
dvertising have adopted this general
olicy, rather than to form an inves-
cation bureau of this kind which
Duld, in constructive and useful ef- Z
,rt, Investigate and decide what is
good product and what is a fraud, 5
| not only the medicine business, but
every other business which adver-
ses its wares to the public.
The audience seemed to agree with
r. Balliett's ideas on the subject and
10 chairman decided the question at
sue In his favor.
You may whitewash . mans char. u
ter without washing It white.