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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 1911)
TITE OMAHA SUNDAY HKK: JANUARY S, mil. r rv Enquired if we were "hiring" a certain "weekly" paper to abuse us Of course every time a spot light is turned on from nny source it of fers a Splendid chance to talk ahout the merits of (lie product, but 'pu honor now, we are not hiring that "Weekly." The general reader seldom cares much for the details of ''scraps." A few may have read lately some articles attacking us and may be interested in the following: Home time ago a disagreement arose with a "Weekly." They en dorsed our foods by letter, but wanted to change the form of advertising, to which we objected. The "Weekly" discontinued inserting our advertisements while they were negotiating for some changes they wanted in the wording and shape of the advertisements, and during this correspondence our manager gave instructions to our Advertising Departmrnt to quit advertising alto gether in that "Weekly." Quite a time after the advertising had been left out. an editorial at tack came. We replied in newspapers and the scrap was on. Then came libel suits from both sides, and some harsh words. Generally tiresome to the public. That "Weekly" lm attacked many prominent men and reputable manufacturers. ' Our Company seems prominent enough for a sensational writer to gi after, hunt for some little spot to criticise, then distort, twist and present it to the public under scare heads. Ro an attorney from New York spent more or less time for months in Battle Creek hoping to find impurities in our foods, or dirt in the factories. After tireless spying about he summoned twenty-five of our workmen and took their testimony. Every single one testified that the foods are made of exactly the grain and ingredients printed on the packages; the wheat, barley and corn being the choicest obtainable all thoroughly cleaned the water of the purest, and every part of the factories and machinery kept scrupulously clean. That all" proved disappointing to the " Weekly." There are very few factories, hospitals, private or hotel and restaurant kitchens that could stand the close spying at unexpected times and by an enemy paid to find dirt or impurities of some kind. 'In any ordinary kitchen or factory he would find something to mag nify and make a noise about. . But he failed utterly with the Postum Works and products. Twenty to thirty thousand people go through the factories annually and we never enquire whether they are there' to spj- or not. It makes ho difference to us. He next turned to discover something about our advertising that could be criticised. An analysis of the methods and distorted statements of the "Week .ly" may interest some readers, so we take up the items one by one and open them out for inspection. We will "chain up" the harsh words and make no reference in this article to the birth, growth and methods of the "Weekly" but try to confine the discussion to the questions now at issue. Some Facts Battle Creek, Michigan, December 30, 1010. We, the undersigned, certify that never to our knowledge has a testi monial letter been printed by the Postum Cereal Co., Ltd., which did not have behind it a genuine letter signed, and believed to be an honest state ment. To the best of our knowledge and belief the Company has received upward of fifty thousand (50,000) genuine testimonial letters. This Company has never knowingly made nor permitted an untruth ful statement regarding its products or its methods. ' M. K. HOWE, Treasurer, (With Company about 14 years.) L. .7. LAMSON, Inspector of Advts., (With Company about OV? years.) F. C. GRANDIN, Advertising Manager, (With Company about 13 years.) R. M. STERRETT, M. D., Physician in charge of Scientific Dept., (With Company about 4V6 years.) CHESTON SYER, Advt. Writer, (With Company about 3 years.) CHARLES W. GREEN, Advt. Writer, (With Company about 5 years.) HARRY E. BURT, General Sup't, (With Company about 13 years.) H. C. HAWK, Assistant to Chairman, (With Company about 7 years.) C. W. POST, Chairman, (Writh Company 16 years, from the beginning.) Distortion NO. 1 stated that we have been accustomed to advertise Grape-Nuts and Postum as "cure-alls for everything." It has never been the policy of this Company to advertise Grape-Nuts or Postum to cure anything. We say that in cases where coffe dis agrees and Is causing; sickness its dis missal will remove the cause of the trouble, and we suggest the use of Postum for the reason that It furnishes a hot palatable morning beverage, and contains natural elements from the grain which can be used by nature to assist in rebuilding nerve centers that coffee may have broken "down. Likewise Grape-Nuts food does not cure anything, bin It does assist na lure tremendously in rebuilding, pro vided the undlgestlble food that has been used Is discontinued and Grape Nuts taken In Its place. Charge No. 2 states that the pas sage of the National Food A Drugs Act compelled us to drop from the packages some assertions regarding the nutritive value of Grape-Nuts. Wm have never been "compelled" to make any change. Since the beginning It has been a uni versal rule to print clearly on every package exactly what the contents are made of Before the passage of the Pure Food Law the packages stated that Grape Nuts food waa made of wheat and bar ley. '. ' that certain chemists would have the public believe so. As an illustration: Attempt to feed a man sixty days on butter alone, with Its 8.60 calories. The man would die before the experiment had run sixty days. ' Then, take Grape-Nuts with 3.96 and milk with. 0.70, the two combined equal, 4.66 about one-half the num ber tf calories contained in butter. The man fed for sixty days on this food would be well nourished, and could live not only alxty days, but six months on that food, alone, and we do not hesitate to say from our long knowledge of the sustaining power of the food that a man at the end of sixty days would be of practically the same weight as when he started, If he be a man of normal weight. We will suppose that from his work he lost a pound a day. and made up a pound each day from food. If that premise proved to be true the mad in sixty days' time would make sixty pounds of tissue to replace what had been last, and this would be done on Grape-Nuts and milk with half the number of calories of butter, upon which no one can sustain life. Therefore, we have reason to bellrvo that our contention Is right that con centrated food like Grape-Nuts, which is partly digested and ready for easj assimilation by the body, presents more nourishment that the system will absorb than many other forms of food. got thoBe testimonials by advertising for them. In New York he used for that purpose the New York Magazine of , whose editor is now in the Federal Penitentiary for fraudulent use of the malls. For example, Post announced in that magazine in 1907. etc," (then follows our prize compe tition). We used nearly all of the papers and magazines In New York and the rest of America, but the sensational writer gives the impression to Its readers that the only magazine we used was one "whose editor is now In the Fed eral Penitentiary, ".etc., something that we know nothing of the truth of now, I tum cereal Company." We do not onrt naVAF A A fina a tar a a Hsu r K f I n n .n.i m w The "Weekly" hunted up this phy slclan and because he seemed to be poor, and as It says, "brokendown," had him brought to court to be ex posed before a Jury as the "only phy sician that had ever endorsed Grape- Nuts," but much to the chagrin of the "Weekly," when our attorney asked him if the article he wrote about cof fee was true, he replied, "yes." Statement No. 5 reads: "The health officers of Mich., Maine, Penn., New Hamp., and other states in their official bulletins have for years been denouncing as preposterous and fraud ulent the claims made by the Pos- We did not esteem the small amount of salt and yeast as of value enough to speak of, but after the new Law came In we became as technical as the offi cials at Washington and added the words "yeast" and "salt," although we have no recollection of being asked to. We believed that our statement that Grape-Nuts will supply elements to nourish the brain and nerve centers is true and bring authorities to support the fact. Some state chemists believed this a gross exaggeration and inasmuch a the Food Dept. at Washington could easily harass grocers, pending a trial on the disputed question, we concluded that much the better way would be to eliminate from our packagea such claims, however certain we may be that the claims are true. Another statement objected to read as follows: "The system will absorb a greater amount of uourUlinit nt from one pound of Grape-Nuts than from ten pounds of meat, wheat or Dreaa. Borne Department chemists decelvi .themselves as well as the public. "Calorie" is the word which defines a unit of heat determined by the! amount necessary to raise one kllo graln of water one degree centigrade. On this basis a table of calories is prepared, showing the percentage of different kinds of food. Butter shows 8.60, Grape-Nuts 3.86. milk 0.70. Remember the statement on the package spoke of the nourishment the system would absorb, but did nut Bueak of the calories of heat contained In it. for the heat is not nourishment, and the nourishment cannot be Judged by the number of heat units, notwithstanding the fact and we will further say that in cases of ' digestive troubles where meat. bread and oata cannot be digested, that Grape-Nuts and milk contain more nourishment that the system will absorb than many pound of these other foods. Distortion NO. 3 charges that our testimonials were practically all paid for and rewritten in Battle Creek. These testimonials were demanded by the opposing lawyers. Naturally this demand was refused, for they are. held in vaults and kept safe to prove the truth, and are not to be delivered up on demand of enemies. Testimony at the trial brought out the fact that we never printed a single testimonial that we did not have the genuine letter back of. Many of these letters came up spontaneous. A record was kept of twelve hundred and four (1204) letters received in one month from people who wrote that they had either entirely recovered their health or been benefited by following our suggestions on food and beverages. On three or four occasions in the past ten or twelve years we printed broadcast in papers offers of prizes to users of Postum and Grape-Nut, two hundred $1.00 prizes, one hun dred $2.00, twenty of $5.00 and ftvj of $10.00 each, stating that each . i must oe an nonest letter with name aud address. We agreed not to pub lieu bailies, but to furnish them to en quirers by letter. These letter writ ers very generally answered those who wrote to them, and verified the truth of the atatementa. Under this agreement not to publish names literally scores of letters came from doctors. We kept our word aud neither primed their names or surren dered the letters. Right here notice an "imitation spasm." The "Weekly" says: "Post and never did. Space was bought in the magazine spoken of on a business basis for the reason that It went to a good class of readers. The Incident seems to have furnished an opportun ity for a designing writer to deceive his readers. We look upon honest human testi mony from men and women as to the means by which they receovered health as of tremendous value to those In search of it. Our business has been conducted from the very first day upon lines of strict integrity and we never yet have published a false testimonial of human experience. Many of these letters covered numerous sheets; some, if printed, would spread over half a page of newspaper. If we would at tempt to print one such letter in every one of the thoubauus of papers ant! magazines we use, the cost for print ing that one letter would run into many thousands of dollars. We borl. down these letters exactly as a newspaper writer do lis bis news, sticking sacredly to the Impor tant facts and eliminating details about the family and other unimpor tant matters. This work of boiling down, or editing, is done honestly, and with a full knowledge of our responsi bility, but notice the art of the "twis ter" in the way he presents to his readers this matter of testimonials Distortion NO. 4 This is a bad one. It reads as follows: "The only famous physician whose name was signed to a testimonial was produced in Court by Colliers and turned out to be a poor old broken-down homeopath, who is now working in a printing es tablishment, lie received ten dollars ($10.00) for wrKliis his testimonial." We will wager ten thtusand dollars ($10,000.00) with any Investigator that we have, subject to Inspection of any fair committee, upwards of three hundred (300) communications from physicians, many of them expressing the highest commendation of our prod ucts, but these will not now or ever be turned over to the publisher for his use. Notice the statement in this charge: "The' only famous physician whose name was signed to Postum testi monial, etc." The truth is, this Dr. Underwood was on of a great many physicians who have not only written commendatory words about the value of our foods, but every now aud then some physi cian writes an article on coffee or on food, and sends It to us with a sug gestion of compensation for his time and medical knowledge. Previous to the time when we employed physicians in our own business, we occasionally employed a doctor to write an article on coffee, always Insisting that the ar ticle be an honest expression of his opinion and research. recall any criticism except from Mich., Penn., Maine and 8. Dakota. ' The average reader might think that the opinions expressed by the State Officials are always correct, but that conclusion is not borne out by facts. As an Illustration: About thirteen years ago the Dairy and Food Com mission of Michigan for some personal reason printed a severe criticism on us for making Postum of Barley (ac cording to his official chemist) at market price and selling too high. He was shown there was never a grain of barley used in Postum. His report was false and misleading. The gover nor dismissed him We believe that most of the state officials are honest, and on the other hand we are firmly convinced that some of their conclusions cannot be substantiated by facta In scientific research. They never criticize the purity of our foods, for so much we are thank ful. If our conclusions in regard to Its being a brain food differ from theirs, and we are both honest, they have rather the advantage, because under the law they can order us to eliminate from the package any statement if it disagrees with their opinion. Other wise they would harass grocers. Spasm No. 6 Says: '"" most dangerous thing in the world for one threatened with appendicitis is to eat any food whatever. Notwithstanding he knew that danger. C. W. Post ad vertised Grape-Nuts at fifteen cents a package for those so threatened." This is intended to muddle the reader into believing that we putout Grape-Nuts as a cure for appendlci tls. Mr. Post, himself, baa bad probably as wide experience as any other man" id America in the study and observation of food as related to the digestive or gans, and we proved in Court by the physicians and surgeons on tne wu ness stand that the predominating cause of appendicitis is undigested food, and that it la necessary to quit eating food, and when the body re quires food again, use a pre-dlgested food, or at least one easy of digestion. Dr. Ochsner In his work on appen dicitis refers directly to the use of the well-known pre-dlgested foods that can be obtained on the market. He also brought out the interesting fact that in "after-treatment" It is advantageous to take on a pre-dlgested food. The price of the package (referred to by the weekly) is not known by us to have any relation to the question. Our advice to stop using indigestible food in bowel troubles and to use Grape-Nuts food has been a great blessing to tens of thousands of peo ple, and we hope will continue to bless a good many more In the suc ceeding years. No. 7 1 a live wire. It refers to C. W. Post and bis studies and ex perience in "Suggestive Therapeutics," or "Mental Healing" which further lead to a most careful and systematic study of the effect of the mind 6n the digestive and other organs of the body. He attended clinics in Europe and fitted himself for a future career in which he has become known as one of the food experts of the world, fitted to judge both from the material as well as the mental side of the question. For about eight years previous to 1891 he was an invalid. In that year, after being under the care of several well-known physicians he was quickly healed, by what to him was a curious and not well-understood method. Suf ficient to say, he became a well man, weighing about 185 pounds. This experience challenged his In vestigation into causes of disease and their amelioration. Those studies and experiences developed a very profound reverence for a Supreme Power which package announced In plain type that the outer covering of wheat (bran) made part of the beverage. They ignorantly fell into a trap here. not knowing enough of food value to know that "Taka-Dlastase" the arti cle used by physicians ne world over for "starch-indigestion" Is made from "wheat bran." So we use that part of the wheat berry because it contains the element needed to develop the valuable dias tase in manufacture. Good Postum is impossible without this part. These self-appointed critics do make some laughable blunders through ig norance, but be patient. Item 1 ! n Illustration of the squirming and twisting of the aensa tlonal writer delivering distorted mat ter to his readers. Distortion No. 12 reports Post as a "dodging witness," Mr. directly operates upon the human be ing, and this reverence for the Infinite became to him a form of religion which inoluded honesty of purpose towards his fellowman. A statement which will be indorsed by everyone who knows him closely. He will make a public announce ment In detail of these facts, and the Postum Company will cause that state ment to be published in newspapers and magazines in due time. We sug gest the reader look for it. Prevarication No. 8. "Post spends nearly a million a year In advertis ing and relies on that to keep out of the newspapers the dangerous nature of the fraud he Is perpetrating on the public." The Postum Company does pay out upwards of a million a year for trade announcements. Newspaper men be lieve our statements truthful or they would not print them. Large numbers of newspaper men use our products. They are capable of telling the pub lic whether or not we "bribe" them. It may have escaped notice that we did not "bribe" that particular weekly. No. 9 states that the amount of the verdict will "be devoted by the 'week ly' to exposing fraud." This Is also real humor. We have two suits pending against the "weekly," total, $500,000.00. - We haven't "devoted" the sum to any particular purpose yet. Item 10 is a "discovery" wheat bran is a part of Postum. that But the criticism neglected to men tion that for years every Postum While on the witness stand Mr. Post testified to his studies In Anat omy, Physiology, Dietetlca and Psy chology, all relating to the prepara tion and digestion of food. Asked to name authorities. studied be mentioned six or eight from memory, and com mented on some clinical experiences covering several years in annual Jour neys to Europe. Now notice the distortion. (Copy from the printed criticism.) "He (Post) pointed out a pile of books in possession of his attorneys aa the very ones he bad read." (Notice, "the rery ones he had read," leading the reader to believe that they were the only ones.) "Did you consult the books from these editions?," was asked. "From those and various editions," answered Post. The attorney "picked up book after book from the pile and showed the title pages to the Jury, all except two had been published since 1905." This Is an example of distortion and false coloring to produce an unfav orable impression. The facts are, Mr. Post purposely In troduced the latest editions that could be obtained of prominent authorities to prove by them the truth of his statements regarding appendicitis and the analysis of brain, also tho latent conclusions in regard to the action of the digestive organs. These works are: Human Physiology, by Raymond. Physiological Chemistry, by Simon. Digestive Glands, by Pawlow. Hand Book of Appendicitis, by Ochs ner. Physiological Chemistry, by Ham-! marsten. Biochemic System of Medicine, by Carey. The "Weekly" carefully eliminates from its printed account, testimony i regarding the years of research and study by Mr. Post In fitting himself 1 for his work, and would lead the reader of the distorted article to be lieve that bis education began since 1905. His eye is not of tne shifty kind ob lerved in the head of one of his chief critics. On the witness stand Mr. Post looks quietly but very steadily straight into the eyes of the haggling, twisting lawyer, trying by all his art to ask double-barreled questions and bull doze and confuse a witness. The "dodging" it seems consisted of replying, I don't know." Opposing counsel holds a book In his hand while he queries, "I want to know if there is a single , thing In your whole book here that suggest any particular kind of food." Then followed some discussion be tween attorneys. When Mr. Post was allowed to re ply, he said. "I don't know until I read the book over to see." This book, it turns out, was written by Mr. Post seventeen years ago and probably has not been read carefully by him In the last fifteen years. It would require a remarkable memory to instantly say "yes" or "no" as to ft-hat a book of 147 pages did or did not contain, without reading it over, but such conservative and well bal anced answers are construed by sen sation seekers to be "dodging." The attorney sought by every art to impress the Jury with the fact that Mr. Post's belief In the power of Mind in relation to the body branded him as unreliable and worse. The following is quoted from one of the questions: (The lawyer reading from the book.) "The writer of these pages desires to say nothing of himself other than as a simple instrument through which the Divine Principle chooses to manifest It Bel f by precept and example. "Skill In mental practice Is gained in the same way as skill in any de partment of science by observation, study, experience and the ability to evolve correct conclusions. "Read carefully, thoughtfully no more than twenty pages dally. After ward seek an easy position where you will not be disturbed. Relax every muscle. Close your eyes, and go Into the silence where mind is plastic to he breathings of spirit and where God talks to the Son. The thoughts from Divine Universal Mind come as winged angels and endow you with a healing power. If you go into the silence hum ble and trusting, you will come out enriched and greatly strengthened In body by contact even for a short time with the Father of all life and all power. You will feel refreshed In every way and food taken will dlgext readily as the stomach works smoothly when under the Influence of a Higher Power." "I ask you if you did not write that, and if you did not believe it wben you wrote It." For a moment the Court Room was in absolute silence. Mr. Post slowly leaned forward over the rail, pointed his finger at the Atty's. face to emphasize his reply and with eyes that caused those of the Attorney to drop, he Bald. "Yes, 1 am I proud to say I did." It may be remembered that we were f .rat attacked and have since defended ourselves by placing facts before that great Jury The Public. A good "scrap" Is more or less comforting now and then, if you know you are right. In the case lately tried, an appetl has been taken to the higher caurts. We have un bounded faith in the ultimate dechlun of our American Tribunals. Our suits against th ,'we5kly,, hiv not yet been trlel The are for llbsl, and $510.- 000,00 Is asked as damagts, and may the right man win. After all the smoke of legal battle b'ows away, the facts will slant out clearly and never be forgotten that Postum. Grape-Nuts, anl Post Tontles are perfect y pure, hsvs done good honest service to humanity for yean, the testimonials are real ani tru hful and the busi ness conducted n the hlflh jst plane of commercial Integrity. 44 There's a Reason,' PoBtvm Cereal Co., Ltd.. Battle Creek Mich.