The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-05
The Public HeaIh
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IV---Pure Food Legislation
By Fredric J. Haskin.

label influenced the large fruit and
 vegetable packers to begin experi-
 ments to do away with benzoic acid
 and other preservatives. Years be-
 fore the national meat inspection law
 was passed the packers put up dis
 tinct meat produce for sale in Ken lucky. They had to conform to the plain label law and there were some things about which the truth might not. have been savory or appetizing. North Dakota is another State which Is in the van of the pure food light. Professor E F. .Ladd. who Is presi- dent of the Pure Food Congress at Mackinac, is a believer in publicity as corrective and deterrent agent. He has obtained the passage of State law authorizing the publication of his analyses of food products in the news papers of the State the counties pay. ing the bills for publication. Ills power over manufacturers of doubtful or questionable products has thus been greatly increased. for they are willing to conform to the strict letter of the
 law rather than to risk a general ex- l pose of their questionable methods.
 Mfr. Ladd is also leading a fight against bleached flour, subject which
 Is dear to the heart of Dr. Wiley of the Federal pure food forces. He de- clares that even If bleaching does not injure the flour ~that, In the interest of trade honesty, the label ought to say that 1t is bieached. pr. James H.
 Shepard, of North Dakdta Is another
 crusader He declAres that the two
 greatest instruments of food fraud are
 initiative colors and ffavors. which are
 used to make initiative and inferior ar
 ticles resemble the genuine and SUI
 perior. He Is particularly opposed to
 the use of poisonous aniline dyes.
 . In Michigan, Commissioner Bird has been making a strong light against
 the use of potato starch in sausage. He
 has figured 1t out that Michigan pays
 a million dolias year for sausage. By using potato starch the manufac- turers are enabled to add 20 to 50 ! to the product. Thus Mir. Bird declares that the Michiganders pay s200.o00 8 year for water In sausages held there | by the use of potato starch.
 So the story goes on through prac- | tically all of the States. But after all. 1t Is the Federal law and the Fed eral authorities from which the great | est results must be expected. A great | majority of food products that are sus- ceptible of adulteration are distributed | through interstate commerce, and only l the Federal law can reach them with | adequate and uniform force. The State and local authorities will continue to 1 exercise authority over purely local | affairs. and to them the people must ! look for purity of milk supply. the 1 cleanliness of grocery stores markets l and restaurants.
 It is to be doubted if Congress has
 ever enacted law which. if adequate | ly enforced will accomplish more far 1 reaching practical reforms than the Food and Drugs Act of June 30. 1908. Heretofore Federal legislation con trolling the character of labelling of 1 foods. drugs and beverages has been of
 restricted scope and has been limit l ed. practically. to adjusting. the rights and wrongs of individual litigapts. Under the ordinary criminal statutes there have been long lists of penalties | for frauds in mercantile transaction | under the trade mark regulations. The | Pure Food Act announces the broad | principle that manufacturers engaged I faithfully that every article of food l drink or drug is exactly what the la- l bel on the package represents 1t to be. | It is not the intention to split hairs 1 in defining labels. but as far as pos | sible the Kentucky policy" will be | followed. The Kentucky pure food au- | thorities did not ask a court what a
 certain label meant. They asked the l janitor of the building, a street car | conductor or any man in the street. | The question is not what the manu- | facturer says he means by his label. | but what the consumer thinks the label means when he purchases the package at the grocery store.
 1 The two years this law has been on the statute books have not suficed for more than experimentation. and if it | is finally construed by the courts in | consonance with It's spirit, so as to hermit enforcement tt will have a powerful Influence upon business ethics of the country. Although delays in l construction of the law and the neces- sary caution of administration were l inevitable, 1t is fact that no new law