Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1914-11-12
DEFENDS POPULAR REMEDIES
Speaker Says Newspapers should In.
vestigste Merits of Medicines Be-
fore Barring Advertisements.

ibtO YIN
That 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 J. Balliett, OF
Buffalo, N. Y, at the convention of the
Advertising Affiliation at Detroit.
Mr.. Balliett is a director Of the Pro
prietary Association of America. which
includes In its membership two hun
dred firms which make the popular
prepared medicines Of America.
Mr.. Balliett pointed out that II is
the duty of the newspaper publisher
to refuse the advertising of any fake
or fraudulent medicine, just as 1t is
his duty to refuse any fake or fraudu-
lent advertising, but II is not right to
shut down on all medical advertising
because there have been some takers.
any more than 1t would be right to
refuse to publish all department store
advertising because certain stores
now AhnNV a BlaNblNt Va yiht
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
the patient died" This so-ca!led hu.
NOR has perhaps hurt the medicine
business with well people, but when
the hitherto healthy man feels a Sc
we're pain or illness, he Immediately
wants medicine, and will bless the
cure whether 1t be at the hands Of a
regular doctor homeopath, an osteo-
path, 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 $100,000,000 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
prescriptions 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 DIR. Wileys ideas are
not infallible is shown by cases where
his analyses were entirely wrong. Mr.
Balliett mentioned a case where, will
all the power of the Government, h,
, fought a preparation as being danger
t Gus to health, and was ingloriousl,
walloped.
There has been spread the idea tina
n clever faker can mix a few useles
ingredients and, by smart advertising
sell tons of 1t and win sudden wealth
, whereas, as a matter of fact, the med
cine business is VIGOROUSLY difficult
: and, where there has been one success
at 1t, there have been a hundred fai
ures. Any medicine which has n
merit cannot live, because person
who are duped into buying it once wi
not buy it again, and the profit fror
advertising a medicine can only com
from repeat sales to the same, sati
fed people. Therefore, any medicin
which has been on the market for
number Of years, and is still adve
tised, must have merit behind 1t to a
count for its success.
In conclusion Mr.. Balliett declare
that no newspaper is doing justice
i its readers in the matter of medici
l. or other advertising. unless it invest
gates, not only the wording of the a
vertisement offered for publication
g but the merits of the article adve
g tised. He pointed out that the fe
l. newspapers who have been deludC
Il into the policy of barring out medic
4 advertising have adopted this gener
= policy, rather than to form an inve
l. tigation bureau Of this kind whit
could, in a constructive and useful {
r fort, investigate and decide what
z a good product and what Is a frau
r. in not only the medicine business, b
q. in every other business which advt
n. tises its wares to the public.
"a The audience seemed to agree wi
h Mr.. Balliett's ideas on the subject a
the chairman decided the question
issue in his favor.