The Topeka state journal., 1901-04-09
ALUM BAKING POWDERS
Are Notwithstanding Leg
isIative Report by the Missouri
Legislature Against Their
Sale Or Use.
Testimony That Alum Powders
Are Extremely Harmful is
Overwhelming.
The Anti-Alum Law IL C0nstitu-
tional and Must Be Observed.

The contest in the Missouri Legislature
over the alum baking powders has been
watched with great interest, by both the
consumers OF baking powders and the
manufacturers of the alum brands, An
every section Of the country
A statute in that state had been adopt
ed prohibiting the manufacture or sale
of alum powders The makers Of such
powders contested the law in the courts,
but It was sustained They then sought
to have it repealed, but the good sense
and integrity OF the members of the As
sembly came to the rescue of the adVO-
Gates Of pure food and defeated the ef-
forts of the most powerful lobby known
In Missouri for years The prohibltive
law remains
The statement IS made by the legisla-
tive committee to which the bill was re-
ferred that the manufacturers of alum
powders have combined in a trust, and
annually pay. into a legislative fund a
large amount Of money to procure action
IN their interests, and to prevent the
passage of pure food laws. The follow
ing extracts from the report of this COM
mittee against the repeal of the alum
law are quoted from the st. Louis Inter
State Grocer
THE purpose Of this bill Is to repeal SO
much OF the present statute as makes
IT unlawful to use alum in food and food
compounds In the opinion Of this COM
mittee that should not be done. If we
are to place any faith whatever in the
unanimous testimony Of all the leading
chemists of the Union, including those
in the public services Of the government,
as we'll as those employed in all the
principal colleges and universities of the
country, there can be
No Doubt That Alum is q Poison,
and that its use ia food is hurtful to
health and dangerous to life, especially
in the case Of children and young girls
and delicate women The vOluminons
and overwhelming testimony which has
been given by scientific experts upon
this subject, is cOrrObOrated by the tes-
timony of hundreds OF eminent physi-
clans in active practice, including the
medical heads of both the army and
navy OF the United States, and including.
also, some five hundred physicians of
this state, all testifying, with remark
able unanimity, to the same effect, that
alum is poison, and that It's use as
food ingredient should be prohibited In
addition to that it IS a fact that the use
of alum in food and compounds that are
long prohibited by law in England,
France, Germany and other European
countries. and the laws are rigidly en-
forced.
Against this great mass Of concurrent
testimony, in which science, experience
and law all combine in cODdemning
alum as a food ingredient, there is
scarcely a protest from any source
worthy to be treated as an authority. 1t
Is true that certain chemists. employed
by the American lAlum) Baking Pow
Chemical company and the Pennsyl-
vania Salt Company two corporations
organized in New Jersey, and the great
est manufacturers of alum in the coun-
try, have expressed the opinion that
alum. when used in making bread, loses
its poisonous quality by some means in
the process of cooking: but this interest
ed testimony is contradicted, ana. in the
opinion Of this committee overw helming-
Iy refuted, by large numbers of
The Most Famous Scientists
of the country, who have shown by re-
peated and conclusive experiments with
Ill
residuum is left in bread after baking,
which is extremely harmful to health
and dangerous to life. Many serious
and fatal Ills in given cases have been
traced directly to this cause.
THE people Of the state are entitled to
be protected against frauds which i'm
peril their health and lives. and this
committee is unwilling to repeal a law
having that end in view, merely to
ohlige those who would make pecuniary
profit by imposing upon a conhding pub
..The clap-trap about this bill being
opposed by a so-called trust engaged in
manufacturing baking powders without
the use of alum, scarcely deserves to be
noticed It should not matter. if it were
true. Even if some trust should per
chance declare that poison is bad
thing in human food, should we there
fore begin at once to feed poison to the
peOple2 That would be carrying trust
opposition to the point OF criminal stu
pidity-
a. Large Alum Powder Corruption
Fund.
THAT there is a rich and powerful as
sociation or trust interested in the man
ufacture and sale of alum baking pow
ders, does not admit OF doubt and that
that trust has been back of this move
ment to repeal this law is almost equal
" certain This alum trust OF associa-
ton is made up Of sixty-seven alum bak-
ing powder manufacturing companies
and two great chemical companies (ths.
two New Jersey corporations above mem
toned as engaged IN making alum1 The
members OF this association contribute
annually to a legislative fund. to be
expended in preventing pure food legis-
latiOn which has for it's object The pro-
hibiting of the use Of alum as a food
adulterant, and 1t is believed that not
less than $100. 900 are annually expended
ia that direction