The Washington times., 1911-08-09
FEDERAL INTERFERENCE
WITH STATE FOOD LAWS.

tion to the consumers, or as means
to multiplying tho food laws of the
States?"
1t is an amazing situation which has
unfolded under tho questioning of
Solicitor McCabe of the Department of
Agriculture. Mr.. McCabe appears not
merely to have become the whole thing
in all food-law matters, but to have
conceived that his especial function
was to use the great power of his
position and pull for the protection of
the food manufacturers and the en-
barrassment of the State authorities.
There has been no more startling at
tack on the sovereign power of the
States than that which the Federal
authorities directed against the In
diana pure food act. The money, the
prestige, the authority of the National
Government was poured out with
lavish hand in the effort to sustain the
Remsen boards holding that benzoate
Is not injurious.
Indiana had a law against use of
benZoate of soda. 1t was attacked in
the courts. Seventyfive witnesses were
sent to Indiana to testify in favor of
benzoate. The Government paid their
expenses. The character of testimony
wanted from them was so plainly in
dicated by the policy of the depart
ment that no man could doubt that his
tenure of position would be more
secure if he made his statements as
strong as possible in favor of the
benzoate users.
Wiley was told not to testify.
Sergeant Buzfuz McCabe does not hest
tate to admit that he didn't want
Wiley to appear because Wiley was
opposed to benzoate.
One Government expert did go and
testify againstSbenzoate; and for that
offense he was dismissed!
Tainted science is about the last
commodity Uncle Sam can afford to
deal in. Science, to be science, must
be open minded; like justice, it needs
10 be blindfolded. You cannot mix
science and propaganda without ruin
to science.
The incident of benzoate, bad as it
is, remains after all only an incident.
There has now been barred the evil
dence of a general purpose to reverse
the very purpose and spirit of the pure
food law.
I Passed as the national supplement
and complement to the pure food
efforts of the States, it appears that
under the Machiavelian manipulations
of this man McCabe it has been per-
verted from its original purpose, and
made SO far as possible the means to
defeating the State laws. This In
diana story is a shameful chapter of
administrative prostitution.
The steps in this progressive cam
paign for suffocation of the national
food law tell the whole story.
The law did not contemplate the
Wiley McCabe- Dunlop board of review.
But it was created.
The law did not dream of the
Remsen board. 1t was created.
The law did not suspect possibility
of a political lawyer passing on ques-
tions of chemistry. But in effect Nc
Cabe became superior to Wiley.
The law did not remotely justify
spending vast sums through the
Remsen board, in order to undo the
work of Wiley.
But more than 100000 was thus
spent.
When legal justification was de-
manded, and Assistant Attorney Gen
eral Fowler denied it, the ever-ready
McCabe was permitted to opine that it
was all right.
When Wiley's testimony as a scien-
tifc expert was demanded on behalf
of Indiana, Wiley was told not to CO.
His testimony had to be corkscrewed
out of him, against the protests of his
superiors, by a legal procedure.
But a battalion of experts" every
man jack of them devoted to overturn-
ing the Wiley view, was shipped out to
Indiana at Government expense, to
help destroy the law of the State.
Solicitor McCabe is manifestly not
the man for the position he holds. If
in that position he has been merely the
reflection of a policy dictated higher
up, then somebody higher up is the
wrong man in his position.
Rureaucrats and martinets of the
McCabe type cannot be dispensed with
too soon. But
It would be peculiarly pusillSnimous
to dismiss McCabe as a vicarious sacri-
fee for the sins of the whole Admin
istratior.
1t is too late to claim that McCabe
acted without authorization and sup
port from Secretary Wilson,. McCabe
cannot decentIy 90 without Secretary