The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-13
OFFICIAL BAN PUT UPON GREEN" TEA United States to Exclude
 the Artificial Color BRAND IS NECESSARY All Colored Teas Must Be so Brand ed if Made By Artificial Pro-
 cess to Conform With
 Pure Food Law
BRAND IS NECESSARY

New York, February 12.-(Special)- Good. old-fashioned green" tea if 1t Is artiflcially coloredN is to be excluded will become thing of the past. This result will follow from a decision just reached by the board of seven tea ex- perts appointed by the United States government which has just concluded an animated session in this city. The result has come about through a de- cision of Attorney General Wickersham on a question of law referred to him by the trade MT. Wickersham de- cided that the pure food law requires that all colored teas must be plainly time 1t was a question in the enforce ment of the law whether these i'm ported green teas came under the op- erations of the pure food act. This was the point which was referred to At torney General Wickersham and he de- cided that they did. Hereafter all such colored teas must be branded.
 This decision put 1t up to the tea trade to determine whether they should stop dealing in the colored teas alto gether. The question was referred to board of tea experts selected by the government consisting of seven men prominently connected with the tea i'm porting trade, two of whom are from New York, two from Chicago and one from Boston, Philadelphia and San
 Francisco. The chairman of this board Is George Hewlett.
 A division at once arose in the trade. Three members were in favor of con- tinuing the importation of the colored
 teas, to which many people are accus- toned and attaching the labels, "artifi
 cially colored" as required The rest of the board, four in number, were in favor of excluding the artificially coored teas altogether, that Is, of ceasing to import or deal in them. As the tea importing trade is a very close corporation 1t was perfectly practicable by such an agree ment to shut these colored teas out of
 the market altogether The advocates of exclusion argued that the selling of ar
 officially colored teas is actually fraud on the public. The effect of coloration is to make rotten and faded leaves, dry stems and other useless stuff in the pro- duct, look exactly like fresh leaves. It enables the producer and the dealer to
 Wolk OH great uedl Ol WOTl1lleSS lDd- terial on the public as good tea. Tea which, if uncolored is worth about 25 cents a pound, is sold at 50 cents or 60 cents or even more, when treated with prussian blue and other mineral dyes.
 Although the first division in the board of experts was four to three, it has been the purpose of the board to reach unani- nous agreement if possible after a full discussion. The minority agreed to come around to the position occupied by the majority and the eventual decision was
 unanimous
 The first effect of the decision has to
 raise the price of artificially coored ideas.
 There is only small stock of these teas
 in the country and the decision to ex- clude them will of course render them still more scarce. Those who have been using these teas will continue to demand them from the trade. The wholesale price
 of colored teas rose cent a pound on
 the first report of the decision.