The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1905-11-30
r o LADD
Eminent Authority Discusses Impure
Meats and Commissioner Ladd',
Work in North Dakota.

Eminent Authority Discusses Impure
Meats and Commissioned Ladd's
Work in North Dakota.
Replying to DR.. Eccles' statement,
that what is called in North Dakota
pure food is, in his opinion, filthy food,
r. M. Allen, secretary of the National
Food association, says:
81 was in Washington last February.
and saw an article for Dr.. Eccles in
The Evening Star on Food Adultera-
tions and Prices in which DR.. Eccles
undertook to show that the pure food
campaign was raising the price of
foods, and he charged us with being
in a conspiracy to increase the cost
of living. l made a reply to this com.
munication, giving statistics from our
Kentucky work to show that the en-.
forcement of our state law had lower.
ed the prices Of foods. Since then he
has changed his argument. from the
matter Of cost to the question OF
health.
81 wonder in the light Of DR.. Eccl4s
argument, how America ever develop
ed such robust men and women be-
fore boric, saliclyic and benzoic acids
and formaldehyde were employed to
preserve foods. And even in the light
of his argument I cannot help prefer.
ring the old, well-cured country ham,
which is fast becoming a memory, to
the new product which is said to be
cured, but which is colored with creo-
sote and preserved with boric acid to
keep it from spelling. The old coun-
try ham did not spoil because it was
properly cured, and the new ham
must have boric acid in order to make
the green ham keep, while it is being
represented to the consumer as q
cured ham.
a most damaging admission for his
cause. Does he e to tel lus that
! the foods which the American manu-
facturers and dealers are supplying to
us are subjected to conditions which
render the food full Of 'murderous
germs? Does he mean to teell us that
under the last fifteen or twenty years
Of the unrestricted use Of antiseptic
in foods, the old art of preserving
foods by heat, cold, sugar, and the
various ripening processes have been
so entirely forgotten that, if preseva-
tives are prohibited, the people will
have to eat a mass of decaying animal
and vegetable matter? If formalde-
hyde had been known to the ancients
as a harmless food p~reservative, but
ter and cheese would not be among
our food products; for these products
are but the outcome of attempts to
preserve the food properties Of milk,
and now this cheese art has been so
thoroughly accomplished that its pro-
ducers know how to co~unteract the
germ, which comes to make the milk
product unwholesome, with another
germ that ripens the product into a de-.
icious food substance.
"And so kraut, sausage, jelly, pick
les, hams are but perfected methods of
wholesome food preservation. But
these methods cost money, and some
of the food producers wish to come
into the market saying, "My milk is
produced in clean surroundings; my
jam was made from fresh fruit and
sugar and sealed while yet hot; my
hams were cured after the old country
fashion, when, according to DR.. Ec-
cles' confession, they have but a mass
of antiseptic, inocullated meat and veg
etable matter, the decaying germs Of
which would kill us if it were not for
he antidote of the antiseptic.
III Prof. Ladd's enforcement of the
provision Of the law which prohibits
antiseptics in North Dakota has un.
masked such a condition of affairs as
DR.. Eccles describes, he has a provi.
sion Of law which deems an article OF
food adulterated If it consists wholly
or in part Of a deceased, decomposed,
filthy or putrid animal or vegetable
substance North Dakota's legislature
evidently had in mind just such a con
dition of affairs as DR.. Eccles pictures,
and it is evident that the enforcement
Of this provision along with the pro.
vision prohibiting ~antiseptics, will pre-.
vent the legislature and the courts and
the food commissioner Of North Da.
kota from being annually responsible
Tor the murder of 121, 250 people,"
Fred Ku1awatz had q narrOw occonc.