The St. Louis Republic., 1902-02-13
Verdict in One Case of Selling
Alum Powder to Apply
to All.
ALUM CLEARLY IDENTIFIED.
Decision in the Cases Alleging
Food Law Violations to Be
Given Soon After
February Il.

Tie prosecution Of tho cases of the State
against a number Of retailers of this city
charged with the selling Of baking powders
which were a!Ultcratsd with alum came to
en- abrupt ending in the Court of Criminal
Correction Wednesday afternoon
At that time the counsel for the State
+. y. JudsOn, announced that an agree
nlent had been reached with the counsel
for the defense 10 rest all of the cases but
the one which had been tried That one
was the Great Western Tea and t'onee
Company. No. 40 Franklin avenue.
Ir. Julson stated to the court that 1t
WIS not the desire nor the purpose OF the
state 10 persecutc the retailers in these
cases; that what was wanted was a vrdi-
cation of the States pure-food law; that
he had, therefore. decided, by agreement.
I" drop the prosecution in all but four of
the eases. The real point at issue he said,
was not the harassing Of the retailers who
soId alum baking powder but to get at the
manufacturers of tho impure stuff 1t was
decided. therefore. that the testimony taker,
In the first case should be allowed to Apply
on the other three. These are the Great
estern Tsa and Coffee Company. ]. L.
auie, Il. WoltsrtnE and j. c. Faust They
are respectively. charged with having sold
alum baking powder under tht. brands
B!osson," Raiser" and "Bon-B Bon
on this statement Judge Clark permitted
the cases to come To an end and gave The
Gouhset until February p 10 file their briefs,
Judge Clark said that to his own knowJedra
the retailers were continuing TO sell tha
kihd Of goods which We're offered in evf
oehce ana that the manufacturers wer. con
stdEt!y making them and that he felt that
4 Nhldlcatlon OF the law required that IN.
present cases be settled at once and he
"ould; therefore,. give his decision as soon
aiter February y as possible
y la cacsfpr, Of.
the witnesses was Mr. Freeman, manager
OF the Great Western Tea ana Coffee COM
Pahy- lie said that when he bought the
baking powder on which his private label
was placed he asked for phosphate pow
derS and that he understood from his man
ulacturers that they would protect him in
case of prosecution.
Professor Mallet. head of the department
OF chemistry OF Virginia University, who is
cons!dered the leading chemist of the Uni-
ted States, was put on the stand in rebuttaI
OF testimony given by Professors Pennyman
and X kelSer Tor the defense
Taking the analysis of Professor Penny
man as correct, what. professor, would YOU
say was contained i'll this sample of CTS
tcream tartar sUbstitute). the component
parts of which they have given in their tes-
tlnI0ny! asked the counsel for the State
Alum answered Professor Mallet
The testimony given by Professor Penny
man late last night was that CTS. which is
the basis of these baking powders was In
effect commercial alum.
on this contention the State expects to
make its conviction. The case has been one
OF remarkable interest, owing TO the fact
that 1t is really the first time that deter
mined effor: has been made by the State TO
viudicate its pure-foGd law, which was
passed four years ago. and which a deter
mined effort to repeal was made by the So
called alum baking powder interests at the
last session of the Legislature and which
failed.
Another remarkable interest in the case
was the fact that the State has summoned
several of the most noted chemists in the
United States to testify as to the presence
OF alum in the baking powder which had
been purchased from the several retailers
in their stores by the States representa-
tivea
Among these chemists Were: Professor
Mallet of the Virginia University. Profess
or Munroe of Washington. D. C.. Gov
ernment chemist: Professor Vaughan of
Ann Arbor University and Professor c f.
Hinrichs of this city.
Professor HinrichS's testimony was con-
sidered by Mr.. Judson. as particularly val
uable. from the fact that he exhibited in
court and tasted the grains of alum which
he testified he had extracted from the
sample of baking powders submitted to his
analysis.
Professor Mallets testimony was also pos
itively TO the effect that he found one of the
substances in the baking powder TO be an
hydrOUs sodium alum.