Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-21
THE NEMESIS OF COMMERCIAL DIS
HONESTY.

dealing has established line of trade, it
begins to attract competition. For time
the conscientious merchant and manufac-
turer hold their own, but as the trade IN
which they are engaged becomes more
profitable and extensive, the rivalry grows
keener, and gradually all kinds of tricks
are resorted to for the purpose OF securing
share of it, or in order to break down
more scrupulous competitors. Thus the
English manufacturers long held the Ash
attic markets with their cotton goods, and
until they had earned solid reputation
for integrity. But when the trade grew to
immense proportions, and American compe-
tition began to affect it, recourse was had
to chemical frauds which made it possible
to palm off inferior wares, and during the
last few years the British sheetings and
calicoes have been SO doctored and loaded
as to have lost their former reputation.
The same thing has occurred with silks
and other fabrics. Competition has in.
duced INSCRIPTIONS men to manufacture
goods untitled for wear, and at length
this process of adulteration was carried so
far that the world showed disposition to
discard the doctored materials.
In most of the countries of Europe the
disastrous effects of adulteration upon com
merce have been SO clearly recognized that
rigid laws have been adopted to prevent
such frauds, and in this way the practice
has been reduced to minimum. In the
United States, however, legislation has not
yet been reached in this connection, and as
result of the recklessness which has
lately prevailed in American manufactures,
the commerce of the country is at present
suffering under severe blows. Competition
has had its inevitable consequences for our
manufacturers. Finding that their mar
kets were expanding continually, they have
been induced to adopt dishonest methods,
and this has been done so audaciously in
several instances as practically to destroy
the trade it was designed to extend. The
recent Congressional report upon the pro-
gress of adulteration In our manufactures
| conclusively proves that the business OF
commercial fraud has been carried to
greater lengths than probably ever before,
and simply because no legislation has been
had to restrict it. As very large pro-
portion of our foreign trade consists of
food products, moreover, it has been easy
to infict serious injuries upon it by calling
attention to the trade deceits pracsiced.
For, though people may be induced to
continue purchasing loaded silks and cot
tons, they cannot be induced to continue
elting preparations which are denounced
as unwholesome and even as poisonous.
The business of canning provisions of
various kinds has attained enormous pro-
portions in this country, and as usual in
such cases it has been invaded by unscru-
pulous traders. These have employed con.
demned or otherwise unfit articles, and the
result has been to discredit the entire line
of preserved provisions. American canned
goods have been given bad name, and
our former customers will not pause to dis
criminate, but simply reject the whole of
these preparations. The same thing has
occurred with our butter. American dairy
products had for several years been gain
ing in favor abroad, and with good reason.
But at this juncture some oversmart YAM
kee invented oleomargarine, and from that
time the doom of our butter was sealed
The new product could be made to resem-
BILE butter so closely that experts alone
could tell the difference. But it was not
butter, and it could be made out of a num-
Der of nasty and unwholesome materials
Greed of gain of course very soon induced
manufacturers to use the cheapest materi-
ais, and the result was that a stuff called
butter, but which was really as unfit for
human food as axle-grease, was put on the
market. Europe has now taken the alarm
at this, and American butter, good, bad
and Indifferent alike, is tabooed.
The present trouble about our hog pro-
ducts, though primarily arising out of
what appears to have been fragrant ex-
aggeration of the facts, was no doubt made
more serious by the circumstance that suf-
fcient care had not latterly been exercised
in the preparation of these things. There
had been frauds, and they had been dis
covered, and so much adulteration had
been traced to our manufacturers during
the past ten or fifteen years that the world
was quite ready to believe the worst that
could he said about their tricks. The
effect of all these denunciations and ex-
posures upon trade must be very serious.
The losses upon butter, pork and canned
goods will undoubtedly be enormous.
There is, however, but one possible remedy
for this state of affairs, and it is to take
measures for the prevention of adultera.
ton. The manufacturer who adulterates
is knave, of course, and he Injuries all
his fellows as well as the country at large.
Every honest man must favor the enact
ment of stringent laws against trade frauds
of every description, and the more so since it
is scarcely to be expected that we can re.
cover our lost foreign commerce until we
show the world that we are prepared to
give guarantees for honest dealing. 1t is
scarcely necessary to add that the Amer
lean people have far greater interest in
the passage of such laws than any one else,
since they are the most extensive CONSUME
ers of all the products into the manufac-
ture of which adnlteration enters. 1t is
the American people, in fact, who have the
strongest grounds for complaint and indig.
nation in this regard, and they ought to
insist upon the prompt adjustment of the
matter by Congress, since it is clear that it
cannot be reached by State legislation.
THE EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS.
We do not see how it can be possible to
dispense with an extra session Of Congress.
The funding question has to be met and
dealt with, and if it is not dealt with there
can be no doubt that the country will hold