64 



latioiisliip of cause anrl effect should 1>e traced. Do newspapers supplj'' 

 wants? 



Is it reasonable to believe that the average newspaper publisher de- 

 liberateij- prefers to publish horrible murder accounts, nauseating and 

 lying advertisements of all l^inds, which he does not want his children to 

 read? The editor himself has very little voice in the matter; he writes 

 the high-toned editorials. It is the jnanaging editor v\'ho must look for 

 financial returns for the owner or rather for the publishing company; he 

 gives the people what they want. 



The matter of clean newspapers, clean cities and clean farms goes 

 back to the coinmiuiity — there is room for the school teacher. 



Every large city has a number of newspapers ; some appeal to a cer- 

 tain class of readers only and go to certain sections of the city, some to 

 the fine homes, some to th(> slums ; others appeal to all sorts of readers. 



Small communities may have only a single paper. By comparing the 

 newspapers of small cities one can get a comparative idea of city condi- 

 tions. Quacks and charlatans and patent mecVicine men do not thrive in 

 clean communities. 



The patent medicine men in their newspaper advertisements are 

 still loud in their praise of our "valuable native medicinal plants." They 

 •evidently try to keep up the old-time belief that there is a plant for the 

 cure of everj^ disease. 



In strolling about the couTitry with a botany can. one frequently meets 

 people who ask, What are the plants good for? Many have an exaggerated 

 idea of the importance of plants, especially of common weeds, in medi- 

 cine. Usually one does not attempt to explain. It may be said that as a 

 rule plants plaj" a very slight role in medicine today, only a few are used 

 and then mainly to modify symptoms, less and less in the light of "curing 

 diseases." Perhaps one can make distinctions between plants and theii- 

 use, in this wise : Plants of least value, used to modify symptoms, are 

 those that can be gathered readily, or which grow naturally as weeds, or 

 which can be cultivated in gardens. Secondly, plants that must be looked 

 for away from the haunts of man. One may say of these that if the indi- 

 vidual in ill health will go and seek them out, using them under simple 

 life conditions, likely he will regain health, as shown for instance in a 

 little story by O. Henry, where the mere search for the rare jilnnt in tlic 

 mountains brought back health. 



