The Washington times., 1911-08-19
THEPOINTABoUTTHE WILEY
M'CABE AFFAIR.

DR.. Wiley probably doesn't much
care whether he retains his position as
chief chemist or not.
He gets $1,000 year, if recollection
is correct, in that position. He could
get $4,000 year tomorrow in private
employment.
And he would be worth 100000 a
year to any manufacturing concern on
whose labels he would write his per:
sonal assurance that its food products
were fit to eat.
The doctor would be benefited finan-
| cially by being driven from public
service.
AS to vindication, he has about all
one man ought to want. He will be
busy the rest of his life Juggling off
and cording up the oodles of it that
have been showered upon him by the
testimony in the Moss investigation.
So, with all honors and with a huge
increment to his personal fortune, the
doctor could well afford to retire. He
doesn't need to care what the McCabe-
Dunlap Lilliputians try to do in the
way of binding him.
But how about the public?
1t DOES CARE.
1t has found out how much it needs
Wiley.
1t knows now, as never before, how
little chance it has to escape from the
fool poisoners if the plotters are to be
put on guard.
1t has learned how powerful are the
interests that seek, for the sake of a
little nasty profit, to ruin the health of
Infants, invalds, the aged, and the
defenseless poor.
1t has seen a mighty corporate power
reach into the private council of a
Presidential Cabinet, and ERASE THE
PURE FOOD LAW FROM THE
STATUTE BOOK.
1t has seen how easily small men
are handled by big forces that can
command money and authority.
1t has noted the revolving spectacle
of tainted science, giving out from one
hand a certificate of respectability to
food fraud, AND WITH THE OTHER
HAND GATHERING IN A FAT FEE
AS ITS RECOMPENSE FOR THAT
BETRAYAL OF BOTH SCIENTIFIC
HONESTY AND PUBLIC INTEREST.
1t has marveled at the success with
which men of the McCabe- Dunlap type
accomplish the ends to which they set
their foxy, ferretty intellects.
1t has discovered that some men
succeed because they are so small that
their movements are not detected by
folks of mansize.
And, realizing this, it has become
fearful of the regime of little men who
can work without being seen.
That is why it will not do to let
the public service lose DR.. Wiley The
public does not intend to lose him.
President Taft will have to disappoint
the plotters who had well-nigh got him
committed beyond recall to their pro-
gram.
For once, the President has had a
bit of political luck.
Nobody doubts that he would have
fallen into the mesh spread for him.
He fell into the spirit of the Ballinger
plot against conservation; he loaned |
himself, willingly, gladly, enthusiastic
ally, to the Ryan Ballinger plan to
donate Alaska to the Guggenheims;
and he would have donated his services
to the poisoners' project to ruin Wiley |
and complete the food laws destruction
at one stroke.
Nobody seriously doubts all that.
But fortunately for him, the Presi- |
dent was saved from taking the step
till after the plot had been exposed |
to public gaze.
Even so sorry a judge of public |
opinion as our President will not now |
make the mistake of sustaining the
little McCabes and Dunlaps.
The people insist that DR.. Wiley |
shall keep on working for them. They
demand that he have the shackles re-
moved from his wrists; that he shall
be given the free hand, the right to
use his own wisdom instead of being
ruled by the ignorance or the men
dacity of other men.
Not only must Wiley be kept at the
head of the Bureau of Chemistry He
must be made the REAL head, not the
nominal. He must be left absolutely |
certain that he has no need to fear
the stab in the back, the sandbag from
behind, the hemlock in the casual cup. |
Let Wiley have free rein and full
powers, and our food law will begin
to mean something.
Thus far, it has meant mighty little, |
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