The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-18
Retail Merchants, JObbers and
Manufacturers Discuss New
Pure Food Law.
IMMEDIATE ENFORCEMENT
WILL WORK A HARDSHIP
Matter Is Let Largely to the Dis
cretiOn of State Inspector
John Peterson.

AS far as any definite action on the
Immediate enforcement of the new pure
food laws in all Of their strngcncy is
concerned. the matter still rests in sus-
pense. notwithstanding the conference
held Thursday afternoon between Gov
ernor Cutler and some twenty-five or
thirty retail merchants, jobbers, and
manufacturers. In other words, it was
left TO the discretion of John Peter
son, State dairy and food commissioner,
whether or not some foodstuffs wil be
at once confiscated simply because they
arc not labeled in accordance with the
provisions of the new act, or do not
quite measure up to the standard, al
though they are pure, unaduiterated,
and perfectly harmless.
The meeting was held for the puT
pose of discussing the new food laws
IN some of their bearings and, If pos.
sible. providing some means of avert
ing the hardship which will work on
some OF the merchants if II is at once
enforced to the letter, In Justice TO
the Retail Grocers & Butchers associa-
tion and similar organizations, it must
be said that they are not seeking TO
palm off any inferior goods on the pub
lie, for they were instrumental IN bring
ing about the passage of the act. In
fact. they stood by the measure from
The beginning and offered many sugges
tions TO its trainers, which made the
bin more stringent than originally had
been Intended
Important Oversight.
BY some oversight, however. no pro-
vision was made which would enable
the merchants to dispose Of some of
their goods which, although salable
and wholesome, are barred by some of
the tcchnicalities of the law. Perhaps
the greatest friction Is caused by the
label clause and this is limited almost
entirely TO some of the smaller grocers,
for the manufacturers have had ample
opportunity to relabel before the law
became effective last Tuesday But
previous to the adoption of the pure
food law, some of the grocers who do
but little business had purchased
canned and bottled goods, etc. which
were not labeled according to the pro
visions of the new law, and it is esti-
mated that il will require six months for
them TO dispose of the stock In this
case the problem of rclabeling becomes
more difficult and IN some cases it was
considered impractcable.
Attention was called to another phase
Of the question, namely, the sale of
goods which are entirely barred by the
new law. One of these which was men
TONED IN particular is food which con-
tain sacchariue. DR.. Beatty explained
that the objection 10 the use of saccha.
rlne IN harmless quantities In the prep
aration of certain kinds of foodstuffs
is that II robs the food of some Of its
nutrient qualities, and the customer
II kn
position that it does not contain sac
charine, is being robbed Of that much
food He admitted, however, that the
use OF saccharine. in small quantities.
in the kinds of food under discussion.
had no deleterious effect.
q. w. Mounts Suggestion.
G. W Mount suggested that the me-
thod of procedure in obtaining samples
of goods for analysis and confiscation
should be made TO correspond with that
prescribed by the National law. He
maintained that 1t was unfair for the
inspector to take samples from open
packages and show discrimination when
he did this with home products and
was compelled by the National law to
take samples from the sealed packages
of foreign manufacturers. Governor
Cutler acquiesced in this view of the
matter.
The discussion was informal and
among those who participated were: j.
G. Mcdonald, L. T. Terry, DR.. T, B.
Beatty, G. w Mount, j. NJ Marriott.
and j. w. Donnellan, Matters pro.
coed smoothly until the assemblage
found itself confronted on every hand
by the eternal tIf' and this was inter
posed at the critical moment by DR..
Beatty. who said that the law could not
be overruled and must neither work q
hardship on the merchant. or the com
missioner. Governor Cutler brought the
session to a close, by saying that the
only suggestion which he could CLEAN
from the discussion was that the mat.
ter be slept on for the present He con
graduated the merchants on the stand
which they took, in advocating the pas
sage Of the bill and said that it was
unfortunate that they did not think of
calling attention to the matter under
consideration before the bill was passed
He said that at present the commits.
sioner WAS all-powcrful and as for him