The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-22
DICTATOR M'CABE

When it was first announced that
 Congress had called for an investiga-
 tion of the facts leading to the charg-
 es preferred against Dr. Wiley by
 Messrs McCabe, Dunlap and Wicker
 sham, The Journal expressed the opin-
 ion that no one would welcome such
 an investigation more than would Dr.
 Wiley, unless it was the general pub
 lie. Although the body created by
 Congress to look into this matter has
 mass of evidence already presented
 shows how accurate The Journals
 statement was. Every point brought
 out so far has put Dr Wiley in a still more favorable light while at the same time it has proved how we'll which the public has in those who are fighting him. It has been shown conclusively that Secretary Wilson unknowingly, probably-has been a passive tool of those vast interests which have made their millions by poisoning the country's food and so- phisticating it's drugs.
 The active partner in this attempt to nullify the national pure food law and make its action abortive is So- licitor McCabe. According to the ev- idence presented, McCabe both falsi- court proceeding in at least one pure food easel A firm pleaded guilty to the charge, brought by pr. Wiley's as- sistants. that certain soft drinks con- tained "cocain, benzoin acid and coal tar dye.' MT. McCabe would nor lie in that form, but when the print er's proof" came he erased the words "benzoic acid" and substituted the word ''caffein." This, of course, makes the government report of the case an official falsehood, but apparently Me Cabe feels that falsifying is permis- sible when 1t is done in the interest of the conservation of sodium ben zoate. The fact of the matter is, the real power behind the throne so far as the administration of the Food and Drugs Act is concerned-is Solicitor McCabe. By framing and manipulating the departmental rules with all the skill of a pettifogging lawyer, he has put himself in a posi- tion of being sole judge whether ca ses against food 'tdopers' should or should not be prosecuted. pr. Wiley's bureau investigates cases of food adul- teration and drug misbranding, care fully and scientifically examines the products and submits evidence to show that certain foods or drugs are adulterated or misbranded. MT. Mc- Cabe, by the autocratic use of powers that he has delegated to himself, may bury in the government files all the evidence submitted. That he has thus withheld from the courts evil dence of violations of the law has been shown at the present congress SlOnal investigation.
 It is not surprising that a man who could thus protect" manufac- turers who might have been proven guilty, should have altered the courts decrees when such decrees brought that were distastefui to him and the interests. The exercise of this au- tocratic power, which has long been known to those who were conversant with the inner workings of the De- partment of Agriculture, may explain why the New Hartford Canning Com pany, of which Vice-President Sher- man is the reported head, was not for selling short-weight products even though evidence to that effect had been collected by Dr. Wi ley'S assistants.
 fought for over seventeen years to get the Food and Drugs Act on the federal statute books finally succeed largely to the aggressive ness and honesty of the chief of the Bureau of Chemistry. That act, al- sive as it might be, can still furnish 8 large degree of protection to the public. At the outset the chief of the Bureau of Chemistry tried vigor- ously and unf1inchingly to enforce it. Such enforcement against vested wrongs and opulent dishonesty was to those in high places The fortunes that might be made by polluting the food-supplies of the country were not to be abandoned without a struggle. Pressure was brought time and again to secure pr. Wiley's removal but in each case it was found that that official was too strongly entrenched in the hearts of the great American public to be re- moved on any mere trumped up charge. When the present charges were made against Dr. Wiley. the public and the press showed that they lad confidence in him. The inves- .igation that was demanded, and that | S now being carried on, is proving l IS rapidly as possible that the judg- nent of the press and of the public l s to be relied on. Dr. Wiley will | come out of the case stronger and bet CT loved than ever. His traducer= we believe. will be relegated to tha' | political oblivion to which they be | ong.-Journal of the American Medi- I