Evening star., 1902-03-24
FOOD ADUtTERAT|ONS
II
DR.. Wiley Finishes Before the
House Committee.
rAvons HEPBURN BILL
SAYS coR11ss MEASURE WOULD
PARALYZE BUSINESS.
Only Three and Half Per Cent Of
Coffee Consumed Here Comes
From Java and Asia.
fAvoRs HEPBURN BILL

The food products remaining unexplained
in DR.. H. w. Wiley's exhibit before the
House committee on commerce were in evil
dence Saturday. when he continued his ar
gument In favor of the Hepburn bill for
preventing the adulteration, misbranding
and imitation Of foods. beverages, candles.
drugs and condiments in the District Of Co.
lumbia and the territories, and also to regu-
late interstate traffic therein.
Dr. Wiley announced that he would spend
short time In completing his trea tment
Of the subject of adulteration, and then
take up the various bills and analyze their
provisions. Spices, he said, 1t was claimed,
were aduterated because people would con-
slider their natural flavor too strong. He
said that he had no fault to find with a
| manufacturer endeayoring to suit the taste
Of his customers; but" the doctor con-
cluded, II maintain that the people never
have chance to see what the real articles
taste like"
Dr. Wiley somewhat surprised the men,
bers Of the committee by stating that 1t
was a mistake to presume that food
which contained indigestible matter was un-
wholesome.
IF we eat nothing but what we could d.
gest, we would soon die he remarked, be
cause there would be, nothing to excite the
Adulterants to Spices.
The adulterants generally added to spices,
or ''f1llers'' as they are technically called,
are made from nut shells ground into pow
der and colored to resemble the color Of
the spice to be adulterated. There was
nothing really detrimental to health in this
adulteration, but DR.. Wiley said the unde-
sirable feature was the deception. There
iotr
event. but their direct hygenic function
was their stimulating qualities to the d.
gestive fluids, and, II reduced in strength,
would, Of course, not be efficient in this
function.
How to tell the difference between cane
and beet sugar was illustrated to the COM
mfttee by two tin cans. one filled with raw
beet and the other with raw cane sugar.
The two kinds were easily distinguished by
their odor, the beet sugar smelling strong
and the cane sweet.
Discusses Corliss Bill.
Taking up the CoEliss bill Ito prevent the
transportation of delete erious food and
drinks. and for the establishment of food
bureau in the Department Of Agriculture" j"
DR.. Wiley said: There is not a single
article of food which has not killed it's
thousands. Under the Corliss bill you
could not send a single bottle Of wine from
one state to another; you could not ship a
Darrell Of whiskey over a state line; in
fact, it would simply paralyze our whole
interstate commerce, h&cause you could
bring any number of witnesses to swear
that almost any food drink was dele
terious. 1t also places in the hands of one
man. a food comrIfssiofer absolute au-
thority to make regulations as to what
should come under the head of deleteriOus
foods"
Representative Mann Volunteered the in
formation that the Mann bill. so-called,
infr hN 4,frr at tha pf
what he understood was a national associa-
tion Of retail grocers and also a national
association of wholesale grOcers. The Cor
liss bill was an amended form of that bill,
the amendments having been made by a
committee from these two organizations.
Continuing, Mr.. Mann said that, as he un-
derstOOd 1t, the greatest objection on the
part OF these grocers to the Hepburn bill
was continuation of the evils Of the state
laws. where prosecutions were instigated
simply as a means of backmail. Dealers not
wishing to seem to fight pure food laws had
to submit and pay fines unjustly imposed.
An Hepburn Bill Advocate.
Dr. Wiley became very earnest in his
advocacy of the Hepburn bill. He said the
Corliss bill was simply subterfuge on the
part of great manufa cturers' trust to de-
feat any pure food legislation. The Hep
burn bin. on the other hand, had been ap-
proved for the past fifteen years by every
kind Of organization having the interest Of
the consumer at heart.
The Hepburn bill did not seek to prohibit
the sale Of a single article of food. either
pure or compounded and unwholesome 1t
simply provided that every article should
be branded exactly what 1t was and with
the different substances It contained.
Dr. Wiley maintained that the organiza-
tion Of grocers advocating the Corliss bill
had only 5000 members, while there were
over 100000 grocers In the country. He en-
phasized the fact that under the provisions
90 fho orI{
go to the national food commission and get
a certificate. for instance. that a certain
sirup contained one-ffth maple sugar and
four-ffths glucose. and that It was not
deleterious to health. He might then label
and sell that sirup as pure maple sirup"
and there would be no regulation to pre-
vent him, as the article would not be dele
terious to health. and when that fact had
been determined the authorities could go
no farther under that bill. and say what 1t
should be labeled. Under the Hepburn bill
this article would have to be labeled a COM
pound s1rup containing glucose and maple
what it was and no one would be deceived.
The Subject Of Penalty.
On the subject Of the penalty provided by
the Corliss bill. which Is conf1scation Of the
goods. DR.. Wiley said that, in his opinion,
1t would be impossible to confiscate any
goods under that provision. Before goods
were confiscated 1t would have to be shown
that they were deleterious to health. In
order to show this examinations would
have to be made To make 1t the goods
to be examined would have to be bought,
and II the article bought was found to be
deleterious to health. 1t was not proof that
all other articles in the same consignment
were so. and at any rate 1t would be i'm
possible to ascertain this fact without an
examination. and this gould not be had
until the goods were bought. In this way
1t would be absolutely impossible to con-
denim any goods that had not first been
bought and paid for. by the government In
spector. and this wotfld'be no penalty on
the dealer.
AS Dr. Wiley was closing Representative
Coombs called his attention to some sam
pies OF coffee he had n6t made reference
to. These samples showed pure Mocha and
Java coffee. and also. Brazilian coffee sold
for Mocha and java. aHThere were also
samples Of green affd@ roasted coffee beans
made from sawdust yyands smolasses and 9TH
ers from wheat andohnolasses.
Coffee Aduitaration.
DR.. Wiley declared {hRe but sk per cent
Of the coffee CONSUMED in this country
came from Java aud Asia. the only coun-
tries where Java aaod Mocha coffee grew.
ana that but sm&af pBr cent OF this was
Java and Mocha. -oC-a.
And yet, continued DR.. Wiley, ''you
can buy Java and Mocha coffee in any
grocery store this counfrv and VQu nav