The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-24
Yours very truly.
A NEEDED LAW.


 A NEEDED LAW.
 Again Congress is wrestling with pure food and pure drug bill and there are indications that what Is known as ethe Hepburn bill' may become law. This bill. as we find it alluded to by The New York Mail. places the res possibility primarily on the manufac- turer of :he adulterated or otherwise hurtful articles, It defines rigidly and carefully the standards of purity or strength which must be followed, and provides that if the goods offered are not up to this standard, but are not otherwise injurious, the fact must be plainly stated upon the bottle or box It makes, as we have said. the manu- facturer primarily responsible, with his liberty and his property. for any at tempt to send out adulterated, injurious or fraudulent goods. but the retailer IS also responsible if he has an opportu- nity to know that the goods are of this description. Most important of all- for most of the States have pure food TeEutdllOHS Ol liNAl ON interstate traffic in the fraudulent stuff.''
 The original draft of the bill provid- ed for the punishment of any dealer who receives or offers for sale any adulterated food or drugs. but at the instance of Senator spooner it was modified by making it's provisions ap- ply only to those who knowingly" handle such aduIterated goods and The Mail seems inclined to think that the word "knowingly" should not have been inserted. as it offers too many opportunities for evasion. .-
 We are not usually inclined to favor any position that Spooner takes but in this case we think him correct. It would be little short of monstrous to hands an inferior or "dootored" article might pass. wholesale merchant in Montgomery; for example, orders q car load of canned goods of various kinds from the manufacturer, to be sold here by the case or single can,-- package or box to his customers. It would be out of the question for him to examine each article. even if he were a competent chemist. To ascer- tain if any of the goods had been mixed 1t would be necessary to open and test every package, can or box offered for sale. That being an impossiblity it would be an outrage to punish him if one or more of the articles sold proved to be adulterated.
 The modification of the Hepburn bill is fair and just. The general provis- ions of the bill. or the intent of it, is directed against interstate traffic in | adulterated. misbranded, poisonous or l deleterious foods. drugs, medicines or liquors" and makes 1t unlawful to manufacture, offer for sale or deliver 1 for shipment from one State to another any of such articles This, we hold, strikes at the root of the evil. It is de- signed to restrain or punish those who are actually guilty and not impose q penalty or an impossibilty on an in nocent third party.
 That some law of the kind should be made and enforced is too plain to need argument. The evil has reached a point where we can never be sure that any thing we buy to eat or drink is exact- ly what it is represented to be. When a man buys and pays for one thing and gets something else he is not only swindled but in some cases he buys an article that is really dangerous. The great majority of merchants. we are satisfied, do not wish to handle aduI- terated goods. much less poisonous ones and they as well as their custo- mers are entitled to protection. It is the manufacturers who knowingly adulterate their wares, who should be punished. Let no guilty man escape" is a good motto in this mat ter, and to that should be added, Let no innocent man be punished" Con- eress will do a good deed if it can enact a law that will punish those who deserve it and not place the penalty on those who are unknowingly duped into receiving and selling adulterated | goods,