New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-07
BY JAMES Z. TOWER.

1T is true, once more that the quiet in
dividual. when at last "het up" is quite
likely 10 leave the agitation OF his more
demonstTative neighbors looking like
passing zephyr.
One calls the roll OF aggressive and "ad-
vanced" states-Okshoma, Missouri, Kansas,
Oregon, Massachusetts,: they are experiment
ststions--poison squads if you like-forever
trying something new. and always getting
mad about something (as the little girl said
OF Cod But the tranquil old commonwealth
OF North Carolina. which one crosses in the
night while going TO Florida, and seldom sees
mentioned in The Associated Press dispatches
simply because good news IS no news at all
the quiet Old North State is thoroughly
aroused over the traffic in nostrums that has
been swindling and killing her population, and
the bottle smashing is on in tremendous
earnest
new North State TO be sure, set the Old
North State example. North Dakota,
through its militant food commissioner, Ladd,
has been for several years the unsparing
enemy OF patent medicines. But this had
nothing TO do with the campaign in the Tar
heel country North Carolina has had the
think-for-herself habit from her early days.
She thought for herself, emphatically, at the
outbreak OF the Civil War And she has done
it right along.
A LONESOME JOB FIGHTING THE
PATENT MEDICINES.
There is nothing particularly picturesque or
alluring about the war on patent nostrums
Swat. and the world swats with you" az
Kansas discovered when the rrepressbe
Crumbine set her at the task Of swattng flies
But i, requires courage and persistence and
faith to combat the nostrum habit and the un,
scrupulous manufacturers whose life work it
is to promote il, and il is lonesome Job
The activity of the North Carolina State
Board OF Health in this splendid work is but
a little more than year old. The present
writer had no conception Of its scope, and
especially OF its vehemence, until he saw the
health exhibit made recently in connection
with the annual meeting OF the American Pub
lie Health Association. at Jacksonville, Fla.
The exhibition as a whole was highly credit
able, but over on the east side of the large
hall was the big thing. the notable feature.
Inc CNTlO!t OF INC NOlu NatSiiha StoAS oOoiN
OF Health surpassed all other state exhibits
in extent and. il seemed TO me, interest II
betrayed throughout not only thoroughness,
but imagination. The lessons which the board
seeks to teach were pictured or demonstrated
in very clear, striking and original ways. The
State OF Louisiana, whose activity in this d.
rec,ion is older than North Cardinals, had
a travelling exhibit. shown in car, which was
q admirable.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE BABY-IN
FIVE ACTS
Patent medicines were but one OF the evils
,ttaeked in the North Carolina section. The
susc of the neglected baby was very con-
picuously chsmpioned. And right here was
prime example of the melodramatic way in
which the North Carolina State Board OF
Ieslth does things.
In a niche of its own was miniature
illage, made with cunning skill and art There
'ere one hundred dwellings, together with
hurch and schoolhouse. covering an area
{ perhaps some ten feet square. The tiny
illage nestled costly in its dim retreat, the