Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-08-27
EMERY Has HOT
TILT WITH WILSON
WISCONSIN MAN ATTACKS REF
EREE BOARD AND AROUSES IRE
OF SECRETARY.
BADGER IS CALLED UNFAIR.
Rcselts Accusation from Agricultural
Executive, but Adjournment Shuts
Of Debate.
TALKS TO PURE FOOD DELEGATES.

DENVER. Colo. Aug. PA bitter
tilt over the merits of the Remscn ref
cree board. appointed at the instance Of
President Roosevelt to investigate the
uses of benzoate of soda as preserva-
tive. took place between Secretary of
Agriculture Wilson aud j. 9. Emery OF
Wisconsin, president of the association.
during the session of the annual pure
food convention here today.
Emery attacked the findings of the
RemSen board and charged Secretary
Wilson with blocking reinvestigatlon
Secretary Wilson warmly defended the
board.
Il wish we had the money to procure
them for the department of. agriculture,
he said. land | hope they will be given
fair hearing here.
Mr. Emery instantly resented this re
mark and repeated his charge that the
secretary had blocked the appeal to the
President for a reinvestigation of the
hcnzoate subject. Prior TO the con
vention at Mackinac, YOU gentlemen had
condemned our entire department ut
Washington" retOrtCd the irate Sccre-
tary, land l did not think you were the
proper material TO make supreme court
out Of"
Further debate was interrupted by adj
jourument
Emery Makes ACdfeSS.
Sounding the warning to be ever on
the alert against new forms of food and
drug authorizations and eXhaustvcly re
viewing the history of reform in dairy,
food and drug laws, j. Q. Emery today
gave the presidents annual address. High
praise was given to DR.. II. w. Wiley,
chief of the federal bureau of chemis-
try. whose name he said, lin the minds
of the American people is inseparahly
associated with purity and honesty OF
food products
Must Continue Fight.
Commissioner Emery urged the as
ISOLATION to continue the fight against
the use of benzOate of soda and other
chemical personalities in food products,
and deplOred the action of the govern
ment's referee board, appointed at the
instigation of certain manufacturers of
foods to investigate the question of the
harmfulnesS OF such preServatlyes, in de-
Gliding that benzoate of soda is harmless.
The assumption of the three secretaries
(Cortelyou, Wilson and Strauss, the otli-
Gals at the time charged with making
regulations for the enforcement of the
national food and drug act. with refer
ence to the report of the referee board,
lit having been determined that ben
Zoate of soda mixed with food is not
deleteriOuS or poisonous and IS not in
furious to health was branded by Com
missioner Emery as 'unwarranted and
false
Fraud VS.. Square Deal
Mr. Emery detailed the conditions that
prevailed Il decade and more ago when
the labOring man carried full dinner
pail, as the political parties referred TO
it, but full of what? Embalmed beef;
sausage loaded with potato flour and
Lake Michigan water; oleomargarine
bought as butter, at the price of butter:
glucose bought as and for pure sorghum
or molasses; Gamers wastes preserved
with benZoate of soda instead of genu>
line fruits; bread made from q low grade
of wheat flour, artihcially blcached to
deceive him into the belief that he is
getting what he is entitled to, namely,
the best grade of wheat flour; filled with
'never-ending frauds and receptions, imi-
|tationS of the genuine"
/ Three Courses Open.
There were three courses of proce-
dure open to the people of the country
iundere these conditions. They could
quietly acquiesce in them, allowing an
army of food authorizations to rob then
of their health and of their income;
leach man could fight his own battle
with the powerful food aduterating
interests, by the highly expensive re,
course of long and technical lawsuits;
and the third and better method
which the people have chosen. "to de
fine food adulteration by legal enact
ment, provide by law and at public
expense for food commissioners, food
chemists, food inspectors, etc, for
vigorous and impartial enforcement Of
these laws for the purpose of protect
ing the public against the harmful
consequences Of food adulteration.
! "And this method" continued Mr..
Emery, SIS the square deal" This is
the method of fair play; and that is
what the American people love and
are fully determined to have. He who
fails to realize that the American peo-
pie will ultimately make hard the
way of the transgressor against the
purity and wholesomeness and honesty
of food products fails to discern the
signs of the times"