Arizona republican., 1902-09-20
rree Food No Attraetio-


 of Washington single patron for a | free boarding house which is to be con- ducted for a month by officials of the government. It is not a far cry to the days of the democratic Cleveland, and the country still remembers that era of free soup houses in the cities-soup houses maintained by benevolent men and municipalities for the purpose of saving multitudes of idle wOrkingmen from starvation. And it will be re- membered that the patronage far ex- ceeded the resources of these institu tions. Now, however, republican pros perity has so transformed the situation that a free boarding house goes without bCarders This is the situation which confronts Chemist Wiley of the depart ment Of agriculture.
 It is his purpose to test the sub stances which are commonly used to adulterate food articles, and to deter mine what articles are deIeterious. It is proposed to use only those foods which are found in every market and upon nearly all boarding house tables. Thus it is seen that MT. Wiley is offer ing nothing new or strange to his pros pective boardcrs, but prosperity keeps them away.
 MT. Wiley has announced that the first free table will be spread on Octo- Der 15, but so far he has been unable to induce anybody to submit to the tests. He detailed twelve clerks in the chem ical laboratory to perform this service. but they all preferred to resign. This is the more surprising since it is highly probable that every boarding house in Washington regularly serves some Of the adulterated food articles which it is MT. Wiley's purpose to examine. Some years ago the matchless Coxey had no trouble in collecting a considerable army of tramps for q devastating march across several states to the na- tional capital, although there was no positive assurance of regular rations; yet today not even the promise of three square meals day will not bring mere dozen of hungry hoboes to Mir. Wileys grooming board. When a king fears poison he employs a cat or a convict or a devoted friend to act as taster. If the taster survive the king may eat. i The National Society of Homoeopath- ists found many physicians who were willing to experiment on themselves with the various remedies for no other reward than the consciousness of serv- l ing mankind. Hence it is strange that no twelve persons will offer themselves in the cause of pure food.
 It may be that public spirited people who would volunteer for this enterprise consider that their sacrifice is not nee essary. They may say with justice that the proper persons to run the risks are the manufacturers of foods who use adulterations. Should Chemist Wi ley publicly call on every such manu- facturer to submit his own midst for experiment with his own product not one would dare refuse, since refusal would be considered by the public as conclusive evidence of the dangerous character of the article Congress would have every warrant for prohib- | iting the sale of any food article tn. producer of which should decline to eat under. such conditions as the gov ernment chemist should prescribe.
 It is also proposed to test the effects i of popular proprietary medicines. There should be no difficulty in getting any number of subjects for this. There is an army of persons whose consumption of patent medicines is limited only by their ability to buy. Every druggist will affirm that by far the largest part 1 of his revenues is from the sale of such medicines. The only question is whether the lining membrane of the stomach or a habitual user of patent medicines $ | still sensitive enough to make the tests worth anything. It is possible, how ever, for Chemist Wiley to obtain as many testers as he may need aside from the chronic medical rounders. by making the office of tester official. There is something alluring about q government official place which a ma jority of Americans are unable to re- sist. For every office within the gift ! of the administration there are hun dreds of applicants, including men who are able to earn more than the official salary with less effort in private life
 Should Chemist Wiley announce that ! twelve official testers (to serve without salarY would be appointed, applicants having the strongest indorsements to have the preference, the grass would be trampled to death by the multitude of eager competitors, armed with letters of indorsement from people of infu- ence.
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 | Chief Justice Fullcr of the TToited