The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-25
Secretary Wilson Defends Action
Upon PreservatiVes
MORE CHEMISTS WANTED
President of Food Association at Den-
yer Makes Attack Upon Wilson
Who Jumps Up and Offers
His Defense.

Denver, Col, August 24-That the adul-
teration of food Will soon cease altogether
in this country and that the Remsen
referee board. appointed at the instance
of President Roosevelt TO investigate the
use of benzoate of soda a preservative
would be sustained by his department
were assertions of Secretary of Agricul-
ture James Wilson at the opening of the
annual convention of the Association or
State and National Food and Dairy De-
partments today.
Secretary Wilson'S remarks followed a
bitter attack by J. O. Emory of Madison,
Wis. president of the association.
Pointing his finger at the secretary, Mr..
Emory disputed the report of the referee
board that benzoate had been found to
be not harmful, and then accused the Sec
retary of having urged President Roose-
welt to block re-nvestigation of the
subject.
Let me say" declared Secretary Will
son, jumping to his feet, that If we
have money enough there in Washington
toeemploy DR.. Ira Remsen and the other
four chemists on his board we will try
~ BCl lAClll lnlO TIC lllltnl VI dBTlCul-
ture. 1 have told the President that we
want the biggest men In the country in
the department or the department will
cease to grow and when it ceases to grow
don't want anything more to do with 1t.
I'm glad to see you have invited DIR.
Remsen and other members of the board
to appear before you. l trust you will
give them a fair hearing"
why shouldn't we give them a fail
! hearing?" shouted DIR. Emory.
/ This insinuation comes with poor grace
i from the Secretary, when we recall thai
1t was he who blocked our request tc
have benzoate of soda reinvestigated.
Il don't quite know what you mean.
said Mr.. Wilson.
ter in my pocket" retorted Mr.. Emory.
In it you recommend that our request
be not granted
"Will you allow me another word" in
terposed the secretary IF you will recol-
/ lect, you gentlemen, just prior to that
time at your convention at Macknac.
condemned all of us down in Washing
ton and I did not think you were the
right material to make a supreme court
out off,
Secretary Wilson. who described him
self as "an Interested spectator" and
not a delegate, was invited to speak by
A. H. Jones, food commissioner of Illi-
nols
I'VE in Illinois believe there is no more
faithful and useful servant of the peo-
pie than Mr.. Wilson," declared Mr.. Jones.
His efforts to drive poisoned food oct
/ of the country have been help to every
state commissioner In the union
In his address Secretary Wilson said:
From President Emery's report you
might infer we have done nothing down
in Washington. We are endeavoring to
operate the law with as little friction
as possible, showing leniency where hon
est mistakes are made. We have insti-
tuted many criminal prosecutions and
seized great quantity OF impure stuffs.
We have investigated the milk supply
of Chicago, Kansas City, 6t. Louis and
Cincinnati, have denied entry into this
country of imported foods found to be
impure and all the time we are devising
means of making the law more perfect.
1--WE hope to have our department CO.
operate with the various state depart
ments. l am convinced that 1t will be
only a short time before the adulteration
of foods in this country shall cease
altogether
The delegates from many states PROM
ised cooperation.
1t is the benzoate of soda question that
Will come up again on w wednesday,, when
four members of the referee board will
speak These are Dr. Remsen. DR.. Rus
sell Chittenden OF New Haven. Conn.
DR.. John II. Long of Evanston, H., and
Dr. Christian II. Herter OF New York. A
committee of II, composed of agricul-
tural college professors and state food
experts will then submit report en-
bodying the results of an investigation
of the referee board. DIR. NJ. A. Scoville
of Lexington, Ky, is chairman of the
latter committee.
1t is expected that an agreement will
be reached between the two factions, one
of which favors the adoption OF the fed
eral law by the states and the other the
framing of model state law. inde-
pendent of the federal law.
Secretary Wilson is here to defend the
federal law.