The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-07-07
KANyA5-cOAAENT
THE FIGHT FOR PURE FOOD.

THE FIGHT FOR PURE FOOD.
1t is reassuring to learn that the
Ieoeral department of agriculture is
goihs 10 push vigorously its war for
pure foods and that it will have avail
able Tor the coming year a sufficient
sum OF money to promote this work.
What the pure food law has done thus
Iar is TO take out of the market those
Iormer artlcles of commerce that were
aosolu.eIy ruinous to health. 1t has
not stopped adulteration, nor will it do
IL. Ihere are some adulterated food
stunts which are preferred by a great
many consumers to the pure article
either because they have become used
10 them or on account of the lower
price, and there are now offered for
sale pure articles that previously were
rarely found in the stock of goods of
any merchant.
unoer the operation of the pure food
law, the customer may get just what
ne wants. Extra quality means a
hlgher price of course, but he still has
the option of taking the adulterated
artlcle at the lower figure, and in eth
er event he knows just what he is get
tlng. To what extent adulteration has
Deen carried on for many years the
nuyer is just now learning. On fully
three-fourths of the foodstuffs offered
for sale appears in conjunction with
liz WOl0 Slyi VI Gull
pound'-articles many of which the
patron had formerly been led to be-
lieve were pure. The pure food law
SUN permits the use Of preservatives,
which are harmless. but it insists that
the ract OF such use shall be made
known by the manufacturer to the
PUBIC The statute has not hurt the
honest manufacturer, but 1t has eff
fectively put out of business the other
sort that was making millions by daily
poisoning the American stomach
Leavenworth Times.
LET THE GOOD WORK GO ON.
The fact that twenty-four paper
companies pleaded guilty to maintain
ing combination in restraint of
trade and arranged to pay the fines
imposed upon them by the court
shows in way the change in senti-
ment on part of at least some of the
trusts" A few years ago these same
companies would probably have
fought the case through the various
courts, confident that they would be
upheld and that their sacred business
would not be thus ruthlessly inter-
fered with; but now they know better
than this.
There have been many campaigns
of education, but one of the most i'm
portant has been the campaign of edu-
cation which has been carried on dur
ing the last two or three years for the
benefit of Illegal combinations. When
the progressive Republicans took up
the work of driving out unworthy
business associations, when they be-
gan the active work of discriminating
trusts and the fight on predatory
wealth, there was such a shout as
must have gone up when the walls of
Jericho fell. Why, that was interior
ing with business. and business in this
IA CO hod oil <v-%
of "the-public-b be- damned" platform.
Not for single instant did the va
rious companies propose to allow their
sacred business rights to be interior
ed with.
But now all this has changed. Some
companies which a few years ago
would have thrown a fit at the idea,
now claim to, be perfectly willing to
be regulated Others say they will
take the public into their confidence
concerning their. business and are
willing to bear punishment for It..
Such is the result of the campaign of
education. but the end is not yet. Let
the good work go on.-Salina Journal.