Evening star., 1928-12-30
BY JAMES NEvIN MILLER.

of business the thousands of
~ quackS who food the mails
from coast to coast with fam
boyant literature promising to cure any
and every ailment known to man. Ex-
cess fat, pyorrhea, tuberculosis, malaria
these are only few of the diseases
which have perplexed the most eminent
authorities in the land, but which the
mail order doctors" claim they can
cure by virtue of the magic properties
of their Sundry soaps and lotions, bath
salts and ointments, pink pills, me-
chanical devices and whatnot.
Post once inspectors have estimated
that the medical mail order schemes
lately put out of the running by the
teamwork of the Bureau of Chemistry
and Post Office authorities were able
to abstract over $15,0O0,000 from the
sick, the near-sick, the imaginative
and the infirm. But that great sum is
only a drop in the bucket wnen COM
pared with the probable total amount
so fllched during the same period OF
time from credulous Americans. AT a
conservative estimate of DR.. Lyman F.
Kebler, who has spent rs years investi-
eating the situation for the Govern
ment, the public is robbed every year
to the tune of a cool hundred million
''As a rule" says Dr. Kebler, man
were not so, then business would be
shaky structure indeed, ready to be
demoralized at the slightest f1uctua-
ton to the bad But of course the Situ- |
alton is entirely different when 1t comes
to the treatment of our ailments; most |
of us are mere babes in arms in the !
matter of credulity. We feel we must |
implicitly trust the doctor to bring |
us through an illness. whereas there
are countless other implications which |
we, in our weakened condition of mind |
and body, do not bear in mind as we |
should. So it happens that the Gre |
dulity of the sick. the near-sick, the |
pseudo-sick and the infirm Is almost |
beyond belief. They will bite on al |
most any medical fairy tale. just as
a drowning man grasps franticaly at
a straw, so do people with an incur |
able or puZzling disease clutch at the |
fiimsy straws of the health cures in |
the form of eXtravagantly advertised |
products.
Apparently the public has no idea |
Of the fact that these SharperS behind |
the wonder working medicines are able |
to become almost fabulously rich within
a few short months by means OF |
schemes that are so obviously fraud |
ulent that it is wonder how every |
one does not catch on to them. But |
Barnum seems to have been right At |
a hearing not long ago Chicago |
villain, running a gland rejuvenation |
scheme, told us that he distracted
$500, 900 from the public in single /
year. Then there was the case of the |
Kansas City sharper, an alleged dis
coverer of the Fountain OF Youth
Surely nobody would bite on that sort |
of hokum these modern days, you say? |
Yet within IL months time our am
bilious 'rejuvenator' was able to pad
greenbacks.
&c A LMOST every sizable city in the |
"A land has its share or more of
uuacks. One such In New York claimed
to be able to cure Bright's disease and
other chronic ailments by the simple
expedient of urging the patient to take
a few healthy swallows of kind OF
black-strap molasses; No doubt the
molasses was good, for it netted Mr..
Sharper close to $500,o00 in a years
time.
"a Kansas City group OF three, OPP
Grating under number of aliases,
cheated the ailing ones out of million
by an assortment of cures among
them deafness, asthma, pyorrhea, kid
ney ailments and so on almost COM
pletely down the list of human all
nlentS in a year. The group recently
pleaded guilty and the punishment
meted out by justice was that each
must fork out the sum of $4,000.
every now and again the ex-soldiers
like to do their bit toward helping out
the ailing One doughboy claimed, not
long ago, that while serving abroad he
had obtained a treatment from French
physician that positively would cure
rheumatism. The alleged prescription
constituted a part of the ex-soldier'S
advertising material for his benevolent
scheme He endeavored to impress the
suffering rheumatics with his philan-
thropy by suggesting that they ask the
local druggist to attempt to fill the
prescription. but that if they could not
do so, he, the ex-f1ghting man, would
be glad to supply the medicine at
nominal fee The prescription was one
OF the many tricky kinds that preSum-
ably demand such a rare ingredient that
they are not even imported into this
country. Quite so, nor into the medi-
cine either BY and by the philan-
thropist soldier was prevailed upon to
inform post Office inspectors that he had
taken in approximately 100000 within
a year, of which $30,00 was expended
III dufCL b4o1kkS. 441o AAoA 0fNAO6$ "0o
around 700 letters day"
Various quacks. DR.. Kebler says, have
found particularly lucrative field in
fitting spectacles on mail order scale.
One such group, operating in Chicago /
under half dozen aliases, stated at a
hearing (Which they actually adver-
tisedD that they were doing $1,000,000 |
business annually. Hundreds OF COM
plants were received which resulted in
an investigation and later on a hearing |
TO show cause why fraud order S-.cu'1 !
not be issued against the business.
Post Office officials tell of another |
organization that widely advertised ID
different brands of medicines" No. / |
was for blindness, No. 2 was for insan- |
ity, No. 3 was for paralysis, No. for |
spinal meningitis, while No. was for |
adenoids, and so on. Each boa5ted Of |
an entirely different but exceedingly |
alluring color. Picture the surprise of |
the Government chemists when chem |
ical analysis revealed that not only were |
all the cures" entirely worthless, but |
that, aside from color, each had pre-
cisely the same content.
y X X
DOST OFFICE authorities are doing
everything in their power to force
the quacks out of business. But in
IneIr euorIS 10 40 SO Lney are laoornS |
under a tremendous handicap. They |
may be convinced that a certain busi-
ness represents the ultimate of fraud, |
yet they cannot open a single letter to |
get the evidence. The securing of that
requires special methods and especially
trained men. OF these. moreover, to
adequately protect the public, there are
far too few, DR.. Kebler believes. Many
times the cases require uninterrupted
investigation for more than a year.
The information is collected by corre-
spondence, interviews, chemical analysis
and consultation and study by medical
and drug experts. A common procedure
Is for the various inspectors (once they
hear of a case OF SUPPOSED fraud from