The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-08-14
ADULTERATIoNs.
The Later-Day Practice Sorely Trying the
Virtue of Dairynen and Farmers


Virtue of Dairymen and Farmers.
The farmer and dairyman who is in
clined to be honest has his virtue sore
ly tried by the apparent success of his
less scrupulous competitors who prac-
tioe open and fragrant adulteration of
their products. Scarcely an article
which admits of it, whether of food or
clothing, is pure Even the sweets of
life are made bitter by the uncomfort-
able reflection that the sugar is in part
common glucose, made from starch by
chemical process; some of the honey,
even in the comb, is made from the
same glucose or common sugar syrup,
while the candy which the farmer takes
home to his children on his return from
town is in large part white clay,
plaster of Paris and, more recently,
the pure white tale, which is preferred
because of its great weight and its unc-
tuous character. Even the maple sugar
and syrup is made of this prevalent
glucose, strengthened by brown raw
muscovado and favored by chemical
stuff or by the addition of portion of
the genuine sweet. Butter and cheese
are VIGOROUSLY aduiterated, and the
cream of which the popular ices are
made is too often q filthy mixture of
milk, eggs and oil, or is wholly free
from milk in any form. Whatever the
farmer sells is more or less chiefly
more adulterated, and whatever he
buys may be truthfully said to be uni
versally mixed with cheap and nasty
substances. Mt
Is this evil to continue? If it is the
honest farmer may retire from business
of any kind which admits of such ne
farious practices. Honest dairying
must wholly cease; it has ceased to a
large extent, and many farmers have
abandoned it from necessity, being I'M
allie to make pure butter or cheese and
sell it at profit in competition with
tallow or lard or cottonseed oil. Laws
do not seem to be operative New
York has stringent law against
adulteration of dairy goods; Illinois has
enacted one equally strong, and sc
has Pennsylvania. But, unfortunately,
these laws seem to conflict with the
legal rights of the adulterators, who
can not lawfully be prevented from
making and selling openly any sub
stance which is not injurious to the pub
lie health. And so appeals are taken
with confidence against convictions,
and the evil remains. [Since writing
the above it is reported that the New
York Oleomargarine law has been de-
clared unconstitutional. But is it an
evil, broadly speaking, to manufacture
substitutes for any existing article
which may be thereby driven out of the
market by the cheapness of the substi-
tute? We can not forget how the cult.
ure of indigo and madden has been
wholly destroyed by the introduction of
the aniline colors; how the value of
wool has been reduced by the shoddy
and mungo which have been used to
adulterate it and to make cheap cloths;
how handicrafts of many kinds have
been replaced by machine. processes;
how wood pulp has displaced several
other kinds of paper stock; how paper
has displaced leather in several manu-
features, and how in every department
OF industry the pursuit of cheapness has
led to the use of subst tutes, generally
interior, but sometimes better than the
original, but always with the effect of
iniuring or obliterating an established
and important interest.
But there are various methods of
cheating and adulterating which are
not of this character. classification is a
crime, and years ago was visited by
severe penalties and ;shments,
which m ght well be revived. To sell
inferior or injurious articles for better
or wholesome products should be visit
ed with adequate punishment, as rob-
berry is, and should be made an equally
unpopular offense. Five centuries ago
the intolerable frauds which were then
practiced led to the establishment of
associations known as guilds, which
were really protective societies, and
under the management of these guilds
various condign punishments were in
f1icted upon dishonest competitors and
adulterators. Thus, the Hatters Com
pany. OF London, prosecuted the makers
of false hats, caused the doubtful
goods to be seized and burned and the
offending hatters to be put into the pill
Tory. In the same way the potters pro-
tected their trade os making pure brass
pots against those who sod fal pots
which were not brass. A mean farmer
who sold unwholesome pork was put in
the pillory and had the sinking gam
mons burned under his nose. A VEN
der of bad wines, or one who sold
skinned milk, was likewise condemned
to stand in the pillory and have all his
poor stuff which he could not be made
to drink poured over his head. Thus
upon his own head were literally visited
the sins of the ..falsiier' in such way
as to make him ignominious and to de-
ter others from following his example.
Those wore the good old times. y =
Henry stsscart, IN n r TINES.