Since we cannot hope for legislative assistance until the people are aroused to demand it, every mother who has an opportunity to learn the truth about the matter, must become a member of the propaganda of education and must spread the knowledge to others. We must educate the army of innocents who fall because they do not know the truth, and we must reach that vaster army, whose gullibility permits these frauds to flourish. We must show them the false foundation and the hollow pretense upon which such schemes are founded. We must show them that each detail of the business is inspired by a wrong motive; that the so-called personal letters even are printed by the hundreds of thousands, and filled in to appear as personal communications by office clerks who possess absolutely no medical knowledge; that the "diagnosis" blanks are worthless and frequently dangerous, and simply sent to the prospective victim to impress him and draw him on; that the medicine furnished, is, as a rule, made of the cheapest of drugs, bought in large quantities from parties, whose reputation in the drug trade is not of the best; that the medicine has no special potency nor value, that it is in all likelihood a worthless mixture, which in the advertisements is given false and lying properties; that when they have got all the money out of the victim possible they will sell his letters to other nostrum venders. It is a sorry reflection on our civilization that the sick, often the incurably ill, cannot be protected against their own credulity and the devices of those who would fatten on their misfortune and profit by their sufferings.
If every mother who reads this article would quietly think the matter over and reach a definite conclusion as to just how she may contribute her share to the educational crusade to crush the patent medicine monster, I am certain it would not be long before we would begin to feel that there were the "mutterings of a storm brewing." If each mother would subscribe to the following resolution, and obey it, she would really be an agency for much good in her community:
I resolve never to advise an ailing friend or acquaintance to purchase or use an advertised remedy or "cure" of any kind whatsoever; nor will I permit any other person to advise the use of such remedies or "cures" without, in a friendly way, protesting, and thereby converting this person, who undoubtedly is ignorant of the facts.