Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-02-06
PURE FOOD LAWS
 ID bE UNIVERSAL Secretary Wilson Com ments on Activity of Var ious State Legislatures in Enacting Measures.
END TO CONFUSION
An Amendment Put Stop to Salaries of Chemists in the Agricultural
 
 Department-Appropriation Asked For Enforcement of Laws Govern. ing Pure Food Matters.
Special to the Graphic.

Special to the Graphic.
 in five years it Is probable that we shall have pure food laws throughout the country that are uniform in standards and in definitions of adul- terations," said Secretary Wilson, commenting on the activity Of various state legislatures in enaeting laws : which conform closely to the national pure food and drugs act
 Already many states have On their statute books excellent laws regulat- ing food products and we are inform ed that other states have measures pending before their legislatures which in a short time will be passed. Ohio has first-rate pure food laws and they are executed by State Food and Dairy Commission. A pure food bill, corresponding with the national law, is pending before the Indiana legis- lature and a similar measure has been prepared for introduction in the legislature of Illinois. Several states already have passed laws adopting the definitions and the principles of the law enacted by the Congress, among these states being Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Vermont and Penn sylvania.'
 In a statement made a few days ago before the House Committee on Agriculture, Dr. II. H Wiley, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of the De-
 partment of Agriculture, predicted that, in brief time, there would be an end to all the confusion in the various states arising from the en- actment of the national pure food law.
 What we want" said he, "and | what is coming is perfect uniformity of standards. This lack of uniform ity has been the cause heretofore of l much tro,ple to manufacturers, be- cause every state had a different law, different definitions and different methods of procedure. The result was that when a manufacturer had made his goods so that they suited one state and sent them into another state they did not comply with the provisions of the laws of the latter commonwealth. I believe that in eight or ten years, at most, there will not be state whose laws regarding pure food will not be practically uniform with all the rest
 It was the purpose of the Agricul- tural Department to employ, in the enforcement of the national law, chemists who work in the pure food departments of the states: but an amendment has been made to the agricultural appropriation bill pro- hibiting the payment of any employe of any state, county or municipal gov ernment for such services. By off, cials of the department this amend ment Is regarded as mistake. They believe that it will be scarcely possi- ble to obtain chemists who are fa- miliar with pure-food work without employing some of those now in the service of state or municipal govern ments. It is pointed out that the great majority of chemists are not qualified for this special kind of work, because they have had no experience in it.
 Secretary Wilson has asked Con- gress for an appropriation of s46O,00O to enforce the pure food law, as he figures that it will require about $lO.- 900 year to carry the law into ef- feet in each state.