The Poison Trust.

The 1900 census reported that eighty million Americans spent a total of $59 million each year on patent medicines. More of that money went to pay the cost of advertising in newspapers and magazines and on billboards than into either production costs or profit. These tonics, elixirs, and syrups contained up to 80 percent alcohol and often had morphine, cocaine, or the heart stimulant Digitalis as a basic ingredient. Naturally they sold well. Paine's Celery Compound, Burdock's Blood Bitters, Doctor Pierce's Favorite Prescription, and Colden's Liquid Beef Tonic promised to cure maladies ranging from a baby's fussiness to cancer. Many people trusted these nostrums as an inexpensive alternative to visiting doctors, and even church publications printed their advertisements.

Protests Grow.

In 1892 Edward Bok, editor of the influential Ladies' Home Journal, had decreed that his magazine would no longer accept ads for patent medicines. By...