The Washington times., 1911-09-15
WILEY WINS, FATE
OF COHSP|RATORS
L HELD IN BALANCE
Taft Defers Action In Case
! Of Men Who Plotted
b.. Against Doctor.
Continued from First Page.)

CONTINUED from First Page.)
public the benefit of the doubt" That
is, when there was room for debate as
to the propriety OF permitting certain
food, drug, medicine or preservative to
be used; when there was a considerable
fund of respectable authority in opposi-
ton to the use of such a debatable
article-then Dr. Wiley believed 1t
should be forbidden.
The anti-Wiley forces were just as
frank about admitting that they were
giving a larger consideration to the
business interests involved. They did
not want to interfere with established
methods of doing business, II they could
avoid 1t.
The character and persistence of the
movement to tie the hands Of. DR..
Wiley, to take from him the powers
that the law clearly intended TO give
MIN, and to emascrlate the pure food
law, startled the whole country when
the facts became known. The real
the story that the committee on per-
sonnel at the Department of Agriculture
had recommended that Drs. Wiley and
Kebler be allowed to resign, and that
DIR. Rusby be removed because of ir~
regularity in the method of DR.. Rusby's
employment as chemical expert.
DR.. Rusby is famous drug expert,
and DR.. Wiley needed 10 retain him for
testimony In cases in court, under the
food and drug act 1t was impossible to
employ him regularly, and d.. RuSby
demanded $40 day for services in his
laboratory. and $50 day for services
as a witness in court. There was no
claim that these charges were excess
i've. The difficulty was to make nav
ments or this basis and keep within the
law.
An Agreement Made.
Finally Drs. Kebler and Rusby
agreed that DR.. Rusby should be put
on the salary roll at 5000 year and
should do work enough, at the per diem
figures indicated, to earn that salary
This was exactly the plan that had
been adopted when the Remsen board
was created, and was held to be within
the law.
The correspondence referred to the
Remsen board as an exact precedent
for this settlement, and 1t was assumed
that this matter was perfectly regular,
because the Attorney General had pass
ed on the Remsen boar dand held it
legal
But despite this, the anti-Wiley plot
ters seized upon this Rusby incident as
a pretext for charging DR.. Wiley with a
grievous violation Of the law. They
charged that he, DR.. Rusby, and DR.
Kebler had agreed upon a plan to over
pay DR.. Rusby in violation of law
They had the personnel committee lin
vestigate'' the AFFAIR and report that
the offense was capital: Dr. Wiley
should be required to resign, Dr. Rusby
should be dismissed.
In making UP the record Of the in
vesttgation the plotters did something
which afterward reacted to their COM
plete discontinue, and convicted them
at the bar of public opinion, of no other
purpose than the destruction Of DR.
ThAv nIlnfnd
the proposed method of paying DR..
Rusby, but deliberately left out of II
the sentences which referred to the
Remsen boards establishment, as a
precedent for the proposed procedure
In the Rusby case. This made the record
utterly misleading, and in a fashion
provided an excuse for the higher Of
ficials-Secretary Wilson and Attorney,
General observation-disclosures the
recommendation.
Solicitor McCabe. who made up the
record in the affair, is given the credit
for this suppression of a part of the
document which, had 1t appeared, would
have put very different face on the
whole case.
During the investigation by the Moss
committee, it came out that there were
various other instances Of garbling or
partly suppressing the record. DR..
Wiley and Secretary Wilson. for in
stance, both testified that DIR. Wiley
himself went to the Secretary with the
case of DR.. Rusby and submitted the
plan of his employment, which the Sec
retary approved.
DR.. Wiley even said that the Secre-
tary first approved the employment Of
Rusby at a higher salary, and that
afterward he CWiley) went back, ex-
plained that 1t was not necessary to
pay so much and had the authorization
changed so that the salary should be
reduced several hundred dollars.
In the face of these facts, the per-
sonnel committee-really, Solicitor Nc
Cabe-recommended that DR.. Wiley be
required to resign, on the charge that
he had violated the law!
The explanation of the Rusby case and
the complete refutation of the fiimsy
charges on which DR.. Wiley's dismissal
was intended to be based was simple
and easy when the Moss committee got
busy hearing witnesses. The thing
which startled the committee and the
country even more was the development
Of the details of the long, intricate plot
by which the food law had been broken
down and the authority of Wiley taken
from him.
The law made the chief chemist, that
Is, DR.. Wiley, the head of the system
tor enforcing it. First, in order to ov-
ermatch the zeal of DR.. Wiley for pro-
tecting the public, the Secretary OF Ag-
rtculture, by Executive order, created
the board of food and drug inspection,
and turned over to il the powers and
duties that the law gave Wiley.
On this board were placed, besides
Wiley, another chemist, Or. F. L. Dun
lap, and the solicitor of the department,
George P. McCabe. 1t presently devel-
oped that Messrs. Dunlap and McCabe
were uniformly as one in all matters
of law and policy. When Drs. Wiley
and Dunlap disagreed about a matter
by Mr.. McCabe, despite the fact that