The record-union., 1895-02-27
THE PURE FOOD BILL.

The Senate has passed Mr.. Withing-
toms pure food bill, and the Assembly
should hasten to do likewise with Mr..
Keene's bill. The measure is a simple.
possibly object to law securing US IN
adulterated food and still claim that he is
in favor of fair dealing and common
Justice?
If A buys tens pounds of sugar it is
agreed that in common honesty the seller
B should give him ten pounds in weight,
ex-senator Mahoney's weights and meas
ures bill provides. Why, then. if a is
TO have ten pounds should he not have
sugar all sugar, and not terra alba, or
any other article than precisely that for
which he pays. What earthly reason
can be given that can stand for moment
against such q simple, fair proposition as
that? If G aaks for quinine of drug
gIst and the latter offers to sell him
quinine, and the bargain is made and the
money is paid, and it turns out that in
delivery the druggist has given C not
quinine, but mixture that is only one
half Quinine, and that the druggist knew
of the cheat, and deliberately engaged in
it, what difference is there between that
druggist and the man who plucks ones
purse from his pocket? Or what dis
tinction is there between such a cheat
and that which through false pretenses,
under the statute as it now is, takes
ones money from him?
Here we have a chief of the chemical
division of the United States Department
of Agriculture, in this month of Frebru-
airy. officially reporting to the Govern
ulent that after examining the food and
drug goods sold throughout the United
States the truth compels him to say that
there is universal cheating; that our food
in almost every instance is adulterated,
and that pure drugs are SO scarce as to be
exceeding curiosities.
That is to say, the manufacturers and
dealers are steadily poisoning US, or de-
priving Us of nutrition that we pay tor,
and because we kick" they exclaim,
''sumptuary regulation" 'paternalism,"
infringement Of human rights" and that
the rule is and should be caUeat ennptor
and the devil take the hindmost. The
truth is that the despot in this case is the
manufacturer. and his Vicegerent is the
guilty dealer.
The rule, 'let the purchaser beware"
does not apply, because, however much
we may say beware" we cannot detect
the cheat. Men and women do not travel
about in their daily vocations with q
portable laboratory slung at their sides,
nor, if they did, are they all competent to
to make analyses of foods, much less OF
drugs. The State licenses, through it's
cities and counties, the conduct of BUSH
nGss. The privilege is given to deal in
groceries, not spurious groceries; in
drugs, not in adulterated drugs; in
liquors, not in connections that are not
LIQUORS in any sense of the word. The
State therefore has not only the right, but
1t is In duty bound, since it is the embodi-
ment OF the will of the people. to protect
them. 1t now guards US against cheats,
but not against the cheat who poisons our
pickles with acids, earths our sugar
colors our liquors with decoctions that
poison and kill, and even robs meal, buck
wheat, honey, molasses, starch, pastes,
5ellies, fruits cooked and preserved and
our medicines, of the virtue on which
hang the nourishment of our bodies and
the lives of our sick, of the integrity of
common honesty.