The Washington times., 1909-06-11
ISDOCTORED WHISKY WORTH
MORE THAN PURE Food

The "joker" in the Bowers whisky
opinion is disclosed today in The
Times. That opinion would license the
use of color for concealment of in
feriority and deception. 1t would IL
cense cumulative manipulation of
aged whisky with new neutral spirits.
an admittedly different article.
kilograms from State pure food Of
heials show that if President Taft ap-
proves the opinion of the Solicitor Gen
eral, he viii practically deliver the
Federal pure food law bodily over to
the adulterators of whisky by allow
ing them to deceive the public just as
they were doing before Congress en-
acted that statute. The States. are
not going to destroy their pure food
laws by aeeeding to the remarkable
Interpretation, as viii be seen from
their outspoken protests.
II President Taft reverses Mr..
Roosevelt, ex-Attorney General Bona
parte and lief Chemist Wiley on the
honest label for whisky, he viii find
himself in open conflict with standards
for whisky approved by the food com
missioners of twenty-six States. The
Roosevelt Bonaparte Wiley rulings
were in strict accord with these stand
ards In his message TO Congress urg-
ing the passage Of the Federal pure
fool D----.--Fs
the Importance of uniformity between
the States and the Government. Con
gress passed that law only after the
whisky rectifers had claimed to have
defeated 1t session after session. It is
this element that Mr.. Bowers now ex-
cuses from the effect of the statute
which public opinion finally passed
over their opposition.
Why has the consumer less right
to know when whisky is manipulated
and deceptively colcred than any other
food and drink unless it is that whisky
adulteration having killed Federal pure
food legislation for years now success
fully throws its strength against its
enforcement DR.. Wiley has always
said the fraud was gigantic It seems
that il is.
Congress did not close interstate
commerce to adulterated and manipu-
lated whisky, bit it did provide that
the public should be notified upon the
theory that the consumer had a right
70 know. Congress said that mixtures
might 60 into interstate markets, pro
vided these articles were labeled.
branded, or tagged. so as to plainly
indicate that they are compounds. i'm
itations, or blends, and the word
compound imitation OF blend as
the case may be, is plainly stated on
the package in which it is offered for
sale" Mr.. Bowers avoids this provis-
ion entirely, or simply quotes another
part OF it with regard to color which
plainly defeats his own contention.
since his own quotation shows that
color can be used for the purpose Of
coloring only" which does not mean
that 1t can be used to initiate even in
3 blend"
The section which the Solicitor Gen
eral avoids was the very crux of At
torney General Bonaparte's three opin
ions 70 the effect that the consumer
should be notified. 1t is this section
that Theodore Roosevelt upheld in his
famous ruling, and the courts are with
him. II Was in complaint of the words
"comp pound" and limitation" in this
section of the law, as interpreted by
Mr. Bonaparts and enforced by Mr..
Roosevelt, that the rectifers were &C
corded hearing by President Taft and
his Solicitor General. II is from the
use Of these words compound" and
imitation" as applied by Congress in
the law, and By President Roosevelt in
It's administration, that the Bowers
opinion now ingeniously relieves adul-
terstors Of whisky by the mere trick
of saying that original whisky does not
cease TO be whisky even after you put
neutral spirits into it and color the
mixture hack to look like the original
aged product.
Federal Judge Cochran declares of a
mixture of whisky and spirits ut was
not whisky. It was whisky compound
ed with grain distillate-it was TO
reach wider market that they reps