universally popular. But the press suffers a heavy handicap when it attempts to improve other conditions that militate against the health of the public. Efforts to secure pure milk may run counter to milk dealers and to the Grange; proposals to improve the water supply come into collision with the tax
payers; epidemics must not be reported because they reflect on the board of health and diminish out-of-town trade;30 news of
the bubonic plague must be suppressed because its publication
will interfere with travel; disgraceful living conditions in con gested districts must be ignored because the tenement houses
are the property of wealthy residents; the results of accidents must be minimized because they reflect on the railroads, or on important local manufacturing industries, or on the large de
partment store ; danger from fire in buildings where many persons
are employed must not be dwelt upon because the owners are influential citizens; advertisements of patent cure-alls must not be rejected because they make widely known the home town where they are manufactured ; a “ clean -up -week ” must not be urged because it is opposed by the board of public works; exposure
of filthy conditions behind the scenes in restaurants will result in boycotting the restaurants by the public and in boycotting the exposing newspapers by the restaurants ; advocacy of free clinics may incur the displeasure of the medical profession ; the pre mature announcement of discoveries in medicine or surgery may bring only ridicule on a paper over -zealous to publish news.31 In all matters pertaining to the public health as reported by the press the inquiries of the historian must be specially directed
towards discovering how far conditions that interfere with the 30 The American Historical Association had planned to hold its annual meeting in Cleveland , Ohio , during Christmas week , 1918 . The meeting was at the last moment abandoned on the advice of the health officer, but residents of the city report that no Cleveland paper noted that themeeting had been given up, although the press had in advance given wide publicity to it.
31 In a dearth of important news, a reporter is said to have remarked to his fellow reporters, consulting as to what could be done, “ We have revolu tionized medicine a half a dozen times the past month and we can ' t do it again just now ." Like many another serious jest, the reputed remark was a volume in itself.
The wide- spread publicity given the Friedmann serum in 1913 and the resulting derision of the more conservative press is but one illustration of
this danger of excessive zeal in announcing medical “ discoveries."
