The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-25
OUR CHAOTIC FooD-LAws.

hldue puuIe, IL See.uSs uhIlL SNeVSci' But yesterday, in an address at St. Paul. he made it pretty plain that they have only confirmed the position of the German government-namely, that the, use of food preservatives is harmful to health. Some preservatives, at any rate, Professor Wiley admits to be "del- eterious,' and he urges legislation, both national and state, to prevent food adulteration and the use of pernicious preservatives. ..
 The safeguards provided by the new law against impure of falsely labelled foods and wines imported from abroad are indeed imported from abroad are indeed, in striking contrast with the irl- adequate and confusing statutes which are supposed to protect us from adulte- rated and injurious food products at home. By the act which went into ef- feet on July l the secretary of agricul
 ture is clothed with authority to confis- cate any shipments of objectionable ASACt5il LoOAo dl tie Cuotoiii HOuSCy dt- though, in the attorney generals opin- ion, his Jurisdiction does not apply to. such as are imported in the pure state, and adulterated or falsely branded af- forwards. It is a law which, wisely and thoroughly enforced should shield effectually the customers of the fancy. grocery store" F. -tt~' ~- ,.-7s
 Meanwhile, how do. we stand with ref erence to domestic products. compared with which imported food is trifling in quantity? Many of the states, especial ly in the east, have food laws. Some have good laws, earnestly enforced; some good laws with no machinery to carry them out; some lax laws, and some no laws at all2 There is no uni- formity except in so far as the states have copied one another's statutes. It is a remark of Professor Wiley chief of the department of agriculture's bu- reau of chemistry, that food rnanu- facturer requires the services of law yer to see that the laws of the different states are compiled with merely in the matter of printing labels. Take the case of a jam or jelly containing glu- cose in place of cane sugar; in Ohio or Massachusetts its label must show the exact proportion of each ingredient oc- cording to anaysis. Tn Minnesota, the label 'adulterated mixture" must be affixed to this same jam, in Penncy1ya- mia compound" and in Illinois ''imita- tion." In this state, the law can be complied with by the declaration in fine type around the edge of the label iii the guise of an ornamental border that the preserve contains sf11aH amount of corn syrup (glucose)s to prevent crystal lization." It is often illegal to sell in one state product which was put up in strict conformity with the law of it's next neighbor. }Ft" 2%.
 Toward remedying this chaotic condi- tion, congress has done almost nothing. The Pepburn National Pure Food bill which passed the < house last winter, reached the senate late in the session. and died there. At the demand of the dairy interests, however, a diserimina- ting tax was placed on oleomargarine colored as butter is eolored, though this is a perfectly wholesome article of food. Protection. against one form of decep- tion is also afforded by the act which makes it a misdemeanor to introduce into any state, a dairy or food product falsely labelled as to the locality of it's production. This law was introduced by Representative sherman of this state, and was designed especially to prevent the branding of cheeses pro duced elsewhere, as the famous New York full cream cheese" So far as the national law is concerned, 1t makes no. difference whether the product is really a full cream cheese, provided it were made in New York. 5.+. .~ =.
 The fortified wines, then the borax- preserved sausage the reimported cot tonseed oil, masquerading in the guise of pure oil," and the French peas col oredd with copper, congress is resolved to keep from ouh tables. It does not concern itself with the pure maple su- gar' which never saw a maple tree, the comb honey made of parofin and the indispensable glucose, the low-grade flour whitened with alum, the dilute acetic acid which passes as vinegar, the red wood and charred peanut shells in spice boxes, or the strawberry jam made of favored and tinted glucose and gelatin mixed with timothy seed, all of which are domestic products. The workingman may be sure that his petit pots and cognac are all that could be desired, however much doubt there may be as to his bread and salt.
 The consumer of impure food is cheated even when he Is not poisoned. If he wishes to economize by using oleo or the euphemistic "corn syrup" on his table, that is his own concern, but it is unfair both to manufacturers and buy CTS if these things can be put on the market as maple sugar and butter, If all the states had good food laws and enforced them, a national law might be unnecessary. As 1t is, one of the chief difficulties of city health departments is to hunt down the impure food pro- ducts brought in from other localities. It is comparatively easy to hold the manufacturers to account, and single rigid inspection of factory may result in holding back from the market large quantities of deleterious food products. 1t is a very different matter to seize half-dozen packages of this same food at, corner grocery store, and then throw the responsibility back upon the maker who may have violated no law of his own state. The national statute would not only stop shipments of the harmful commodities from one state to another, but also furnish a model for