Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-09-01

food adulteration. And this method it
is that is 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 hon
esty of food products, fails to discern
the signs of the times"
President Emery told of the siren
uous warfare made against food re
forms by the adulterators and of the
final accomplishment of one of their
purposes when they secured from the
referee board appointed by President
Roosevelt partial endorsement of
their contention regarding boric acid
as chemical preservative.
'Your executive committee was
unanimous in the opinion that the
battle for the elimination of chemical
preservatives from foods had practIc-
ally been won by the states when the
report Of the reference board was an
nounced," said Mr.. Emery, 'that all
but small minority of those food
products in which chemical preserva-
tives had formerly been used were be-
ing furnished to consumers free from
chemical personalities. Formaldehyde
had been eliminated from milk; bor-
acic acid from meats, fish, dairy pro
dt1af hn 10
fountains, patronized largely by child
rem, We're almost purged of salicylic
acid, benzoic acid and other chemic-
ais. Your executive committee rea-
soned that if the report of the referee
board was to be so construed by the
national authorities as to legalize the
use of benzoate of soda, then logically
this preservative would go back into
condiments, fountain syrups, wines,
beers, elders, fruit juices, jellies, jams,
cordials, fish, canned products, pie
filings, mince meats and syrups:
would be introduced into milk, meats,
butter cheese, meat extracts, oysters
and other foods, making easy and en-
couraging the use of refuse and waste
material and unsanitary and unclean
methods in food factories; that if the
national government should endorse
benzoic acid it would thus license one
of the personalities which encour-
ages the same conditions in fruit
vegetable and other food factories as
were abolished in the meat packing
establishments by the national meat
inspection law In fact, they were of
the opinion that the constituting by the
national government of the report of
the referee board, that sodium benzo-
ate when added to foods is harmless.
if acquiesced in by the states. would
usher in an age of chemical preserva-
tives in foods and beverages of all
kinds, worse than existed before the
enactment of food laws
Speaking Of those whose selfish in
terests have been encroached upon bv
the movement for .purer foods Mr..
Emry said:
Il can see how the food adulteratfng
interests and the cuckoo food journals
could raise the clamor against sone
man power as they did In the case of
Or. Wiley; how those interests could
bring political and other pressure to
bear upon the food commissioner
against the faithful, Independent and
energetic performance of duty which
such law would impose. can see
how such consequences could be
brought about by such a course of
procedure; but / fail to see how the
establishment of food standards nv
the law making power of the respect
i've states, by writing into those laws
the definitions and standards of food
products as recommended BY the Joint
committee on standards, would bring
about state of chaos and confusion.
Rather, it would bring about state of
stability and uniformity that nothing
else possibly can"
PRESIDENT Emery recalled the burn
ing words of Congressman H. G.
Adams and of Senator John G.
Spooner demanding more effective
pure food legislation. He spoke en-.
couragingly to the assembled repre-
sentatives of the pure food movement
and OF their achievements in the in.
terests OF the consuming public. "The
states must not be halted in such
splendid achievements he said
either by those who have been pra.
tlceps crimfnis in the manufacture and
sale of fraudulent and deceitful arti.
cies OF food, or by the national gov
eminent which in the matter of food
laws and their administration has not
Kept pace with these progressive
states They who do not advance re.
cede. As states, we cannot stand
still in food law enactment and ad.
minlstratfon- We must advance or we
snail recede. We are here to take
counsel as to the future. Remember.
ing that the rights of the consumers
nave not yet been fully and nerna