Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-19
By REV. CHARLES F. AKED, D. D., LID


responsibility than the one he oo-
cupied when Washington tried to
silence him and the White House
was supins. Month by month
this clear sighted man looks into
the ragged and tattered souls Of
takers, quacks, charlatans and the
whole tribe of humbugs who prey
upon the millions of our popula-
ton that are gullible still. 1t Is
consoling to think that a sensible
reduction IN the ranks of the tribe
called gullible must take place
every time Good Housekeeping"
appears!
Fraud Is Exposed.
In the February issue DR.. Wiley
exposed a fraud which recalls the
incidentlof my schoolboy days. 1
have notsthe heart to traverse the
entire ground covered by DR.. WI
ley. 1 feel myself growing angry
again when I read a story-here
in America in February nineteen
hundred and fourteen-which
runs line for line like that one of
more than 40 years ago. The lies
have the same ring in them. The
promises are couched in language
all but identical. Even the prices
are singuIarly like those eaxcted
by the British swindlers. And the
hope deferred makes the heart
still sickl
Twenty-six dollars DR.. Wiley
paid for the fake instrument.
twenty-five as matter of fact.
for the electric affair that was to
work miracles of healing, and an
extra dollar for medicine. Repre-
senting himself to be anaemic and
suffering from malaria and very
thin, he entered into correspond
ence with a humbug and then
gazed into the fake with the see
ing eye of genius. He classifles
what he calls degrees in fakery."
And he says:
There is the simple panacea
made of sugar or starch. There
is the active and yet mostly harm
less drug whose properties are of
the mildest character. Then there
is the active and often dangerous
drug which should be used only
under the most careful personal
supervision of the physician. over
and above thes,. there is the uni
versal effort to frighten the vic
tins into the belief that they are
ILL., followed by assurance of GER
tain cure"
This electric swindle, however.
falls into none of these classes.
ut is superlatively above and be-
yond the domain of common ia
kerry
And he adds:
THE curious thing about such
dreadful and deceptive articles is
that apparently there is no law to
punish the defrauders The des-
perate mother who takes a loaf
of bread to keep alive a starving
child is sent to the penitentiary:
but the man who robs you Of $40
with the promise of a cure for all
your ills not only goes scot free,
but Is permitted to use the United
States mails to make as nearly
universal as possible the ravages
of his greed. 1t is time to destroy
utterly and forever the prestige
of such a fraud"
Not For ScoundreIs.
1t is all very well to say that
persons who are so silly as to be-
lieve that for 500 they can buy an
electric belt or electric garter or
electric anything else that will
cure every disease under the sun
from a wooden leg to chronic i'm
pecuniosity deserve to be swim
died. That is a brutal way Of
looking at life. No good comes TO
a community which becomes Gym
ical any more than good comes to
an individual from his cynicism.
The United States mails the
blessings Of cheap printing and
the organization of modern So
ciety are not to be placed at the
service Of scoundrels for the plum
der of decent men and women.
even If these men and women DO
not possess the reasoning power
of Plato and the financial genius
of John D. Rockefeller.
Now 1t is hair wash-selling
for a dollar. costing 3 cents, rUir-
ing tie hair of the woman who
uses it: now 1t is an alleged
food medicine" Eow it is drug
Month hv rno14h Or Wiley gets