CHAPTER XXXIII
THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL—Continued
The Patent Medicine Evil and the Duty of the Mothers of the Race—"Blood-Money"—The People Must be the Reformers—Mothers' Resolutions.
THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL AND THE DUTY OF THE MOTHERS OF THE RACE
It may be emphatically asserted that the patent medicine evil and the fraudulent medical cure more directly concern the mothers of the race than any others. No matter who the ailing victim may be, some woman is deeply and sincerely interested in his, or her, recovery and welfare. If the proper influence is exerted at the right time, and if it is based upon adequate knowledge of the danger involved, it is certain that the sufferer will not become a victim of the fraudulent and dangerous advertised nostrum, or a fake medical course of treatment. If each mother, therefore, possessed an adequate knowledge of the patent medicine evil, and exerted the influence which would naturally result from the possession of such knowledge, we should soon see the end of the whole business.
Most people are honest and sincere. It is difficult, however, to arouse the majority to concerted and sustained action. If the honest and well-intentioned element in society could be influenced to a sustained effort to correct existing evils, in any department of human effort, the fraudulent and dishonest members of society could be effectually rendered harmless. If the suggestion which I have advanced in the article on Eugenics, to form Eugenic Clubs in every community, should be adopted, the members could, in a definite way, contribute to the propaganda, by insisting that the members of the legislature and Congress inform themselves upon these subjects, and act and vote in accordance with the sentiment of their constituents. It is only by some such systematized, concerted effort that any hope may be reasonably entertained that this question will be satisfactorily and finally solved. That it is capable of being solved satisfactorily there is no doubt whatever. It depends upon the women.
The passage of The Pure Food and Drugs Act, caused, for a brief period, a cessation of the strenuous activity which had previously characterized the patent medicine business. It was not, however, to be expected that any single legislative act would permanently strangle such a parasite,—for we must remember that it is an easy and a highly remunerative calling. Nor was it to be expected that men who are adepts in sophistry and experts in quibbling could not find a way to circumvent the intent of the law.
This was proved to be so because they are again beginning to advertise more freely and with more assurance. One of the best known has assumed a new advertising garb. Its new diction is specious and clever, but it is a satanic cleverness when its history is weighed in the balance. It is quite probable that its formula may have been slightly changed, but at the end of each advertisement the following suggestive paragraph appears: