The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-09-23
The Fight On DR.. Wiley
(The Worlds Work.

There 10 no better Illustration OF the
difficulty of really effective govern
ment than the distractions that have
been put in the way of DIR. Wiley, the
head of the bureau of chemistry at
Washington. So long as the pure food
and drugs act ran foul of only small
violators, it was easy to enforce it;
bur, as soon as it hit the vested in
terests of the rich and strong, the
most amazing series of successful OBJ
structions were put in the way-so
amazing and SO successful that the
story will be told with some fullness.
Here is a man--Dr. Harvey w. Wi
ley--who has given his whole working
life to the protection of the people
from bad and poisonous food and
drugs. 1t is to him that we owe such
an important advance in more careful
living and such quickening OF the
public conscience as we owe to hardly
any other living man; and the whole
people are his debtors. He is the di-
rect cause of a wider and safer pub
lie knowledge and or more healthful
habits OF life.
Still the pure food and drugs act is
not yet enforced against the great
offenders. DR.. Wiley has had his
hands tied from the time of its en-
actment. The board, whose duty 1t is
to report violations of the law, con-
sists of DR.. Wiley, DR.. Dunlap. chem
list, and DIR. McCabe, the solicitor OF
the department of agriculture. But
out of the thousands of cases of adul-
tedation and fraud that have been dis
covered, practically no cases against
the strongest corporations and groups
Of lawbreakers have been brought to
trial. DR.. Wiley is a man of scientific
distinction, of accuracy and of respon'
sibility. Yet his two associates on this
board, men to say the most of them
of far less ability and less distinc
ton. have been permitted to check al
most every move that he has made
The aged secretary OF agriculture has
given his confidence and his support
to them and withdrawn it from DR.
Wiley.
More than this-the attorney gen
eral, reversing an opinion prepared
| by one of his own subordinates anC
accepting an opinion by Mr.. McCabe
declared that the referee board Of dis
tinguished chemists (the RemseI
board) was authorized by the law
a very dangerous and very doubtful
construction of a plain statute; ant
this board has been used to prevent
l 0f ho 1oxxy
the use of benZoate Of soda. Thi!
Remsen board has never declared tina
benzoate of soda is permissible pre-
servative. 1t has never been asked
whether it can be or Is extensivel.
i used to preserve rotten food. 1t wa
asked only if it proved injurious to thu
health of strong young men whel
taken for time in small quantities
They found that it did these younl
men no appreciable harm. Then thi
declaration was used to permit tn
Gamers and packers of rotten fruit
and vegetables to continue to put then
I'D in benZoate of soda. Even if Der
zoate Of soda does no harm to health
it's use in Disgusting rotten food bring
it within the proper prohibition OF tn
law.
This incident is a good ILLUSTRATION
J of the way in which DR.. Wiley ha
been baked and hindered. Influences
! legitimate and illegitimate, have bee
used to prevent the enforcement of tn
/. law in its most important application:
J Inside the government and outside
the manufacturers of dangerous an