The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-07-21
THE RAID ON DIR. WILEY.

The effort to get rid OF DR.. Wiley,
Chief Of tho Bureau of Chemistry OF
the Department of Agriculture. is clear
ly in the interest of the disreputable
concerns whose adulterations and i'm
pure preparations put up for food Dr.
Wiley has been so severe upon, and has
ousted from the markets. Those who
wish to put up impure stuff without
regard to the law have been very much
exercised for a long time, because they
could neither buy, intimidate, coax, or
deceive DR.. Wiley. He is on to all of
their tricks, and is able, however sly
it is, easily TO thwart every effort
which the tricksters make to beat the
law, He has been absolutely unassail-
able heretofore, but now it appears
that the watchful agents of the food
adulterants have caught DR.. Wiley in
technical error, They find that be gave
to one of his bureaus outside experts
greater compensation than the law
allows. This, Of course. he ought not
to have done, and yet the fault is not
one of such gravity as would call for
the dismissal from the service of such
man as DR.. Wiley. On the contrary,
it would appear as though the matter
could have been adjusted by word
from the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr.,
James Wilson.
But Mr.. Wilson, by the report, aban-
doned DR.. Wiley at the first sign of
trouble, and left him at the mercy of
his foes, washing his hands of the whole
affair in sort of Pharisaic, or puritan"
ical style Of indifference that is at once
exasperating and faithless. No ono
knows better than he that the fight
against DR.. Wiley is brought on by
the upscrupulous manufacturers and
dealers in food preparations, those who
are guilty of adulteration and mis-
branding Of various food packages, and
in general of those who wish to evade
| the force of the law and cheat the pub
lie through unlawful and harmful pre-
parations. No one knows better than
Secretary Wilson that but for DR.,
| Wiley's diligence, and thorough devo-
tion to the work, the law would have
been practically set aside, in favor of
| the cheats and frauds. No one knows
better than Secretary Wilson the temp
tations, the discouragements, and the
heart wearing assaults that have beset
DR.. Wiley IN order to sway him from
his determination that the law should
be given due effect, and the public be
protected as the law designed that pro-
lection to be given. And yet at the
first breath, without anything substan"
tial being charged against DR.. Wiley,
Secretary Wilson abandons him to his
fate, and is quite willing to see him
ousted from his position. 1t is shame
full position for him to take.
The arrangement made by DR.. Wiley
with DR.. Rusby whereby the latter
obtained more pay than the law pro"
vided. was one which DR.. Wiley, as di-
rector of the Bureau, no doubt consid-
cred to be specifically in line with the
policy of securing the best results foI
the department. 1t involved no waste
of money, as the New York Tribune
says. and covered no selfish or self
seeking motives. Whatever departure
there may have been from the strict
construction of the acts regulating com
pensation, can be remedied by chang.
ing the conditions under which DR.
Rusby was employed. 1t is quite pos.
sible that DR.. Wiley may have been al
fault in the matter of this pay, but
that is surely small thing; and il
seems like a purposeful hostility on the
part of the departmental board to rec
ommend that he should be invited tc
resign for this cause.
Dr. Wiley's work has been so conspic
uously important and emlnently service