The Patent Medicine Curse
By Editor
The Patent Medicine Curse is mainly due to newspaper notoriety, and is the result, both in manufacture and in publication, of that "root of all evil," the love of money. It is encouraging to note that some editors are coming to realize their responsibility in the matter. So Collier's Weekly says: Newspapers have done so much to create the success of fakes in medicine that their duty is clearly to help remove them. While a few are harmless, the only safe course is to exclude them all, and we have made a rule against any patent medicine whatever appearing in our columns hereafter. Refusing to countenance the evil however is not sufficient. We shall also do what we can to make the public a less easy mark. The Ladies' Home Journal and Everybody's Magazine also decline patent medicine advertisements. With all the praise that is ascribed to the press, it is responsible for the dissemination of much that is evil, directly and indirectly for money. The advertising of all kinds of intoxicants and tobacco, and the advocacy of the interests of those engaged in the traffic, is doing untold evil in the way of corrupting the world.