The Washington times., 1911-10-22
NEEDED: A NEW MAN AND
A NEW POLICY.

Every few days the mail brings
from the Department of Agriculture
fat envelope containing printed
Notices of Judgment" under the pure
food act. Some animadversion has
been indulged heretofore to the char.
acter of these notices. They seer.
to indicate that somebody, somehow,
is betraying the food law. Attribute
it to the district attorneys, to Mr..
Solicitor McCabe, to the Bureau of
Chemistry, to whomever you like, the
fact stands that penalties inflicted on
violators of the food act are utterly
inadequate.
This law is one of the most i'm
portant on the Federal statutes.
The people are as one in the deter.
mination that it shall be made effec.
tive.
There has recently been a nation
wide sensation over evidence of a
policy designed to render this act just
as meaningless, just as ineffective, as
possible.
At the head of the legal organiza.
tion entrusted with this laws en-.
forcement is Mr.. Solicitor George P.
McCabe, of the Department of Agri-
culture. Mr.. McCabe's. general record
requires no exposition now. Some
specific aspects of it may we'll be
brought to attention.
The latest batch of notices of food
law judgments numbers thirty -one.
They relate to cases which were tried
and decided before the recent outburst
of indignation-and publicity-con-
cerning this acts possibilities of ex-
treme moderation in dealing with
criminals.
Observe one in particular. In May
the Federal court at Indianapolis de-
cided a case in which it was charged
that Hammond Dairy Feed was mis-
branded. Hammond Dairy Feed is very
extensively used all over the East
1t lis sold as a high class milk -produc-
ing ration for cattle, and dairymen
use it in immense quantities.
It's. label showed it composed of
cotton seed meal, distillers' grains,
malt sprouts, mixed broken grains,
corn, wheat, barley, oats, and pure
cane molasses.
The court decreed that in fact it
contained these things land approx.
mately 25 per cent weed seeds.'' II
contained much less protein and much
more crude fiber than the label indi-
Gated.
The manufacturing company, which
does very large business, pleaded
guilty AND WAS FINED $500 AND
COSTS.
1t would be just as well worth
while to fine the First National Bank
of your town 5000 for issuing forged
notes, and then turn it loose with a
general permit to issue as many more
as it liked.
That fine is joke; bit of solemn,
grim humor. 1t is not enough to have
any possible effect on the big concern
that sells the dairy food under in
vestigation. Rather, it is likely, to
be construed as an invitation to "go,
and sin some more"
Here is st. Louis concern, con-
victed of selling flavoring extract
which pretended to be vanilla. The
court found that it contained mo ex-
tract from the vanilla bean in any
aPpreciable quantity"
That is, the thing wasn't what it
pretended to be at all.
1t was purveyed by an apparently
solid. responsible concern.
THE COURT FINED THE COR.
PORATIoN S. AND COSTS!
. Another invitation to lie, to mis-
brand, to violate the law, to affix
the thumb to the end of the nose and
twiddle the fingers at the statute.
Another license to forge, to coun-
terfeit, to issue bogus goods and pre-
tend that they are guaranteed under
the pure food and drugs act!"
But it's more than that.
It's another telling argument in sup
port of people who don't think our