Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-18
from pure fats is wholesome. TIL

from pure fats is wholesome. There is
no reason why it should not be. The dar.
ger is, however, that it may not be manu-
featured from pure fats" and that
therefore it may not be wholesome. The
chief wrong done to the public in connec-
ton with this imitation of course is the
selling of it in the guise of real butter.
This is swindle, and those who perpetrate
it ought to be punished as swindlers. That
is the plain English of the situation, and
merchants and dealers will do well to pom.
der it. The subject of food adulteration
has of late years attracted much attention
from lawmakers in Europe and science
has been called in to the aid of the law in
detecting sophistications. Twenty years
ago the subject was forced upon the atten-
ton of the English public by the Lancet,
which showed that 65 per cent. of the drugs
and food articles used by the public were
adulterated. Legislation followed, but it
has required many years to ascertain how
best to meet the evil. At last this has
been effected to great extent. A decline
in adulteration from 60 to l6 per cent. has
in fact been secured, and this is practical
victory. 1t has been accomplished by the
simple method of compelling the maEufact-
urers of authorizations to sell them for
what they really are. No one is prohib-
tied from adulterating anything, but if
those who adulterate fail to specify what
they have done when they expose their
goods for sale, the severest punishment is
dealt out to them. 1t has consequently be-
come Improbable to adulterate, for though
there is plenty of money in selling the
public doctored goods, there is nothing to be
gained by offering the public such wares on
their actual merits. The number of peo-
pie who will buy adulterated things know
ing them to be adulterated, is too small to
Justify the maintenance of the business, IN
fact, and as the figures prove the majority
of the swindlers have taken their talents
elsewhere. The Canadians have adopted a
similar law, and have thereby reduced
their authorizations from 81 to 26 per cent.
OF course there are some authorizations
which because of their pernicious charac-
ter ought to be positively prohibited,
whether labeled or not. In the United
States the question of adulteration has
hitherto been perplexing one because of
the practical impossibility of dealing with
it save from a national standpoint,
and the doubts as to the jurisdiction of
Congress over it. So important is it that
if any real obstacle of this kind exists,
it ought to be removed by a constitutional
amendment, however. 1t is clear that
State laws cannot reach the evil, save ia
the most imperfect way. For instance,
the California Legislature might prohibit
the manufacture of authorizations in the
State, but it could not prevent their i'm
portation from other States without estab-
fishing an inquisition which would be en-
ormously expensive, exceedingly offensive,
and very inefficient. In order to deal
with question of this magnitude the
whole country ought to unite. Few per-
sons have any just conception of the
amount of disease and mortality caused by
authorizations annually, but the showing of
the Lancet, that 60 per cent. of all the
food and medicine used in modern COM
munities is adulterated, proves to what an
extent the vile business has been carried.
In our large cities adulteration is doubt
less practiced more extensively than in the
country towns, and it is probably en-
ployed more in wines and liquors than in
any other business. Groceries indeed are
liable to be sophisticated, and all kinds of
dry goods. England, as is well known,
has injured her Indian business in calicos
by her greediness in loading them with
clays. Our manufacturers have not yet
taken to that method in cotton goods, but
in other fabrics they are not behind their
European rivals. In short the mischief and
wrong done by adulteration is very great,
and, as the oleomargarine incident shows,
rapidly increasing, and it is time that
Congress was appealed to for some better
protection against these swindles than the
existing laws at present afford