The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-02

Food, speaking as follows
The subject which l would briefly call to
your attention is the one which is the first
in history, but the last one to be considered
in the time of progress. Conventions are
held where the best methods of production
are ably discussed and pubic policy inhu-
enced. Our great government has eSsab
lished a department for which $500 900 was
appropriated last year for Investigations into
the production of food. Colleges estab
lished throughout the country where every
facility is provided for education in the
production of food. State fairs are held
with generous appropriations Institutes are
conducted for further consideration of this
question, and yet of what value is all of this
expenditure and effort if the healthful
tritious product of the soil is mixed with I'M
healthful, even poisonous substances, or If
the food which may be produced with the
greatest skill and manufactured with the
highest standard of purity is mixed through
the ignorance of the cook. Do you realize
thai you rise early, work late deny your
self pleasures that your family may be we'll
fed, and then actually pay your grocer for
supplying you with food which poisons your
fam lies and undermines their heath. Did
you know that there is really no protection
against this most subtle and most universal
form of manslaughter. and that unprincipled
men without fear become rich at the
cost of the health, even OF the life Of the
community?
But, unfortunately, very few human be-
ings exercise the same intelligence in feeding
themselves or their families which the farmer
uses in feeding his cattle, the farmers
wife observes in feeding the stove. You
would not supply the cattle with sawdust
nor feed the stove with stones but great care
and forethought is given in the kind of fod-
der which will produce the desired results,
or the fuel needed, and yet the disastrous
results of this ignorance are universal and
of the most far-reaching Importance.
| therefore recommend 70 your cons d2ra-
ton and action any effort which may tend
toward defending your wcrk from this per-
version of its most essential object, and that
you agitate and legislate in such manner
that the public may be protected. This is
not essentially woman's question. TINS is
not especially womans work. 1t underies
all interests of humanity more completely
than does any other one subject, but msn
are the voters; the legislators, and
men the principal eaters, at least they
are the monit0.s and the critics to the
food which is cooked, and upon them is the
responsibility of providing the facilities for
the education OF tho3e who prepare the food.
The National Pure Food association has been
organized of gentlemen whose reputation and
position commands for their work the con-
confidence of the public. Their object is pub
tic agitation and action for pure food.
The Domestic Science association has been
organized for the purpose of developing
knowledge of domestic science and for es-
tablishing departments where best methods
and appliances for the preparation of food
can be presented as thoroughly and on
complete and broad a scale as are the de-
partnents for presenting methods and appli-
ances for the production of food. These are
logical and inevitable Accomplishments of
the work of agriculture. and demand atten-
ton. The failure to heed these demands
has caused poverty, ill-health and untold
misery. The intelligent action within power
of the National Farmers congress would
difficult public problems with which human
ity has to deal.