The Osceola times., 1888-04-21
FOOD ADUlTERATlON.
The state should Provide Rem..,,
Cheap Justice.

In order TO put an end :.
adulteration. to the wholesale
poisoning and swindling which
pass under the fine name .,
Legitimate competition. the Stat
must give to each person who is tbus
injured by having an adulterated arti.
Gle of food or drink or medicine foistsd
upon him in the name of an articla
which is not adulterated a right 10
remedy without asking such individual
to pay for the remedy which the STATE.
failure has rendered necessary. 1t ia
far more important if the people would
only think so, to have cheap justice
than cheap any thing else. Indeed,
while the former remains expensive, no
article of commerce can be cheap. We.
therefore, strongly advocate that an ef.
fective remedy, an easy means Of in.
voking punishment upon those who
adulterate-unler the spur of "compe.
tition" or any other fine name forthe evil
articles of food, should be placed in the
hands Of every citizen who is wronged
by being cozened out of his money or
his health by the arts of adulteration.
We should let every purchaser have re-
course, free OF charge, to the public an
alyst, and in case he should discover
that any article submitted to him for
examination was not what it pretended
to be. we would allow such person to
proceed, still at the cost of the State,
before a competent tribunal, and pro-
cure an adequate punishment for the
offender against the laws of a civilized
society. The benefit Of such an
act is far greater to the community
than to the individual who has been
wronged. II one tradesman cheats
him and he knows it. he can, without
calling him to account for the past, 20
to another tradesman for the fu-
ture; in which case, the man
who had the experience OF the
fraud profit, by it, but the State
is none the wiser. That is the reason
why we ought to facilitate the getting
Of Justice in such cases. The man who
does so does valuable public act,
public service; but it is wise that we
should not tax these public acts and
services. There is another aspect in
which this proposed change seems TO
be most expedient We want TO have
the whole community on the side OF
fair dealing; we want TO enlist the
whole of our citizens in this home cru
SADIE against adulteration. Unless we
can do so all our legislation will fail in
the future as it has in the past. The
statute book is all very well as the
letter Of the law; the informing spirit
of the law is public opinion, the sob
iective will" We think. then. that
this plan would be successful, because
we have confidence that the people will,
when they know the magnitude
of the evil which ia at their
doors, on theirtables and in their cups.
cooperate willingly and earnestly in
the work Of putting an end to it.
and so cleansing and p-rifying the
shambles of commerce. We think that
this will not only be a valuable lesson
to many in the public spirit which is
in the backbone of State, but in the
local self government of which the hon
esty of commerce is one Of the most I'M
| portant forms. We could ourselves sug-
gcst objections to this or any other sys-
TEN of cure. But the evil is so grave a
one. the need is so great Of \ remedy.
that drastic cure is called for. and to
our mind this is the only one which, in
the rerilous circumstances is likely 10
prove effective. - Westminster RerieU.