Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-05-31
PURE FOOD LAW
TO BE ENFORCED
INSPECTORS IN THE FIELD PUT
INSPECTORS IN THE FIELD PUT
TT IN OPERATION.
AFTER THE STANDARD OIL
Tanks and Wagon System Attacked
Because of Observation-Disclosures
States is Leader in Manufacture
of Boots and Shoes.

1t is now expected that within a
very short time, possibly by the first
of the coming month, the food and
drugs act will be in full operation.
This is result that has been looked
forward to for a long time, but which
has been put off by a series of Incl
dents which have been beyond the
control of the Department of Agricul-
ture. The present expectation is bas-
ed on the fact that corps of inspec-
tors has at last been designated and
arrangements made for training them
and putting them at work.
The new staff of agents who will
enforce the law consists of chemists
stationed at different points through
out the country and inspectors who
are to buy samples and visit food
manufacturing establishments. The
chemists were appointed and sent
to their stations a month or more
ago. The inspectors were harder to
get; for out of large number of
men who took the examination given
by the Civil Service Commission, only
small proportion passed, and many
of these did not stand very high.
Two appointments from other branch
es of the service were first made and
then fourteen or fifteen others were
doci0, ofad frOpo op1OpO +bOco uhr
passed the examination. A final set
of twenty-five or more will be made
available for service at once. 1t had
been intended to have this whole
force Of inspectors attend lectures at
the Bureau of Chemistry in Washing
ton for two or three weeks in order to
familiarize them with some of the
leading problems Of inspection. This
plan has been modified, and at pres
ent it is intended to have the whole
body of inspectors conducted through
some factories in Baltimore and
neighboring cities by few competent
men experienced in such work, i'll
order to indicate to them the princi-
pie matters to be looked into. The
work of buying samples will, of
course, be done under direction and
will be largely routine in character.
Authoritative officers in the De-
partment of Agriculture who have
no connection with the Bureau of
Chemistry assert positively that the
public attitude as to the rigid en-
forcement Of the food law and the
support that is coming in from the
best class of manufacturers has been
such that there can be no thought
of hesitation in the full application
of the law to all classes Of products
They give the. strongest assurance
that every means will be resorted to
under the law in giving the widest
effect to it. The chief reliance will
be the corps of inspectors now about
to go into the field. It is realized, of
course, that the crucial period in the
history of the law will come when
adulterations begin to be detected
through the work of the inspectors,
and when the ground is cleared for
the institution of suits against those
who are found to be knowingly vio-
lating the provisions of the act. When
work of this sort is begun it will be
positively ascertained just how far
public opinion will support the pres
ent system of pure food law admin
istration. If the present position of
the more reliable manufacturers is
kept up it will not be long before
the application of the law will be-
come a matter of course, just as has
been the case with the meat inspec-
tion regulations. There will unavoid-
ably have to be suits against sporadic
violators of the legislation, but the
main features of the system will OBJ
viously justify themselves in practice.
The interstate commerce commits
sion does not intend to await the out
come of the efforts to force E. H
Hartman to answer questions put
to him before taking action on the
general subject matter of the inves-
tigation. 1t is considered likely that
either Hartman or the commission
will fight the case, in which the com
mission contends its right to compel
Hartman to answer questions to the
supreme court. This will take months
and it is likely that a decision will
be reached in the Hartman cases in
a week or so.
The Northern Presbyterian general