The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-08-16
THE AWFUL PRICE OF GREED
DOPED FOODS THAT SICKEN AND
DESTROY ARMY OF PEOPLE.
Expert Says 100000 Children Were
Murdered Last Year in the United
States by Poisonous Drugs.

CHICAGO.-Twoh hundred and if
ty thousand children were killed last
year by poisoned foods, according to
RutIedge Rutherford, a food expert,
who as a newspaper correspondent
unearthed the embalmed beef scan
dal of the Spanish-American war. By
the side of his latest expose the en-
balmed beef scandal appears as but
a petty offense.
He declares that more people are
killed by adulterated food in one
year than the number engaged in the
Spanish-American war. Counting
the deaths of babies alone, he says,
they number more by 10000 than
the total number of all the soldiers
that were killed in all the battles Of
the four years of the civil war. The
single years total of children'S
deaths from food poisoning amounts
to more than 80 times as many as the
sum of all the American losses, in
Guiding dead, wounded and captured,
during the eight years Of the revolV
tionary war,
Anything for the Dollar.
In the mad race to increase profits
through cheapening the cost Of pro-
duction recognized pOisons are being
inserted in foods in order to make
use of all grades of raw products, !
good, bad and Indifferent, to avoid
factory waste and to make the prod
ucts keep indefinitely without spoil
ing Such poisons find their way into
food factories Of many descriptions,
and are especially numerous in can
dies, soda fountain beverages, ice
cream products, bakery goods and
other cheap 'dainties' devised as
magnets to attract pennies from the
children.
The main service of the chemicals |
is to deceive, according to the author
of the remarkable report. SacchaTin |
deceiyes children into believing a |
product is sWeetened with sugar |
Coal tar dyes deceive them into be- |
lieving it is colored with fruit juices |
or made of fruit products. Formalde- |
hyde, or other chemical employed to |
keep milk from turning, deceives |
them into thinking the milk is fresh, |
when in reality it is dangerous from |
pollution. In such cases, he says, the |
chemical hides the i'll taste and smell, |
which are natures means of warning |
the consumer that the products are !
poisonous.
Some of the instances of food adul- |
teratiOns related by Mr.. Rutherford |
are almost too shocking to admit of |
belief. Yet he shows from official |
records, seizures and government
and state reports that they actually |
occur, and that conditions are rapidly |
going from bad to worse.
Wholesale Slaughter.
Mr. Rutherford estimates that
100000 adults and children died
from the effects of food adulteration
last year and that fully 100000 !
persons were. rendered needlessly |
sick by the same cause. There are
many diseases of more or less preva- !
Ience in the United States which have |
their origin in the poisonous chemi- |
Gals used in food adulteration and
preservation. Kidney disease is often |
caused by saccharin in food; appen- |
dlclts results from consuming bo-
racIc acid; ptomaine poisoning comes
from the use of decomposed food |
when the signs of decompositiOn have
been concealed by benzoate of soda.
formaldehyde or other chemicals. and |
typhoid fever is often the cause of
drinking milk or eating ice cream
IN which chemicals are used to cover
the evidences of decay. The chemi-
Gals used in decayed food destroys
the offensive taste and odor, thus
robbing nature of her means for pro-
tectlng us from danger. The vilest,
most malodorous factory refuse may