The Washington herald., 1912-09-15
DR.. r. 3. DOOLTTTLE FINDS "a FIT
INSHOESLEFTVACANTBYDR. WILEY
Former Assistant Of the Pure Food Chief Is
Foe Of Adulterators Has Reputation
for ShreWdneSS and Makes MiSbrand-
erS Walk Strait and Narrow Path.
By JAMES B. MORROW.

ceased to Scrutinize the 1000 ana drlnk
Of the American people Roscoe E. Doo-
little, slim. shrewd. gray-eyed expert,
was right at hand to take and occupy
the vacant place. Wiley could have
been called the big policeman who COM
PEELED adulterators, short-weighters, and
misbranders to mind their p's and q's
end walk with humility and scrupulos-
ity inside the great law of 1906. Doc
little, who is thirty-seven years old. does
not bulk so large physically. but he un-
derstands the tricks of crooked trade
in food and drugs as well as any man
in or out of the United States.
Nor does he forget that there are more
than 300 "canning, preserving. and
picking establishments in Athis country,
that they are capitalized for $40. COO.
that they annually manufacture eatable
products valued at s157.o0o 900. and that
they pay $4,000. 900 yearly to $1,000 sea-
sonaI and regular workers There is
the commercial tomato crop, for in
stance. More than 30s,0oo.00e cans are
prepared for market every summer.
Packed in cases, they would load about
L $50 railway cars. Put on the ground
end 10 end they would reach almost
around the world. 49,
Canned peaches SO laid down. would
cover the distance between New York
and San Francisco. II all the other
fruits and vegetables were added to the
peaches and tomatoes there would be
cans enough to belt the earth two and
-one-half times. The salmon pack would
fill 1.25O freight cars. and the s1rdine
pack, the oil weighed in, would load LIS
Gags. Some itinerant men and women
complain, or boast that they must live
in handbags, and trunks. Most Ameri-
cans, settled or itinerant, as a matter
OF fact. live largely out of cartons. cans,
and bottles. Dr. Wiley says 1t is one
of the reasons why the food bills of all
households are SO high. The consumer
pays for the package. whether 1t be
made of tin. pasteboard. wood, or glass
The New Pure Food Policeman.
After graduating from the Michigan Ag-
ricultural College, where he paid his ex-
penses by teaching school during his own
vacations. Mr.. DoolittIe was appointed as
sistant chemist of the State Food and
Dairy Commission. He was soon pro-
NOTED to the Office OF chemist. and held
the place for eight years. In 1904 he be-
came chief of the New York food and
drug laboratory, leaving the service of
Michigan, his native State. to join in the
national work that was being done by DR..
Wiley. He had two assistants; when he
left New York in the autumn of 1911 and
came to Washington as a member of the
Food and Drug Inspection Board, he had
a staff of forty men. While in New
York he had jurisdiction over foreign
foods and drugs. Six of his expert chem
lists inspected crude drugs; the rest
watched the incoming consignments of
coffee, tea, olive oil, timed vegetables,
jams, preserves, spices. and wines.
We consume more food from foreign
lands" Mr.. Doolittle said to me, than
is commonly believed. When We hear
that food is imported. We naturally think
of Russian caviar, pate de foie gras and
other luxuries. All of our coffee. for
which We spend S&l,0eo.0Oo d year, all Of
our teas. cocoa, pepper, allspice, ginger,
nutmeg. and mustard are grown else
where. Much of our sugar and olive oil
come from foreign countries We-also i'm
port lemons. pineapples. and bananas, as
well as dried figs and currants. Salted
fish, and fish preserved in oil. macaronis
marmalades and canned tomatoes. peas,
beans. artichokes, and mushrooms are
bought abroad. During a single year 92,
900 shipments OF foreign foods, valued at
sS5. CO.., COO. were received in New York, also
crude drugs invOiced at $4,000.
Formerly there was~a great deal of
fraud practiced with sArdines, the best
of which are caught of the French coast
and are cooked and packed in olive oil.
French labels were put on cans of inferior
Spanish and Portuguese sardines packed
in oil pressed from cotton seed. The ma
tional food law of 1906, however. gave
us authority to handle all such cases
of misbranding. 1t will be news to some
persons to hear that California cans near
ly 100000 pounds of sardines annually
and that the humble sardine, or young sea
herring. is one of the principal indus
tries of Maine. The Maine sardines are
packed in oil. mustard or tomato sauce.
some Frauds of Foreigners.
Caviar is the roe of sturgeon and
is prepared in Russia. There was, a time
when the roe of other fish was called
cavair and was doctored with salicylic
acid TO keep it from spoiling.T Exhausted
spices-that is, spices from which the
essential oils had been extracted-came
to this country in considerable. guam
titles. They were used by American
manufacturers 10 adulterate genuine pep
per, mustard, cinnamon, and so on.
Some foreign cheese manufactured out
of SKINNED milk, was also imported and
sold-at fancy prices, I suppose-in the
American market. Olive oil, SO labeled,
was part peanut oil. the peanuts being
ground in France for the italian trade.
Olive oil is still adulterated not in Eu-
ing is done in this country. The law
requires. however. that the cans con-
tanning such oil shall be properly labeled.
Consumers. therefore, have only to read
the printed matter on each can in or
der to learn what they are buying.
Some of the experts in the foreign
branch of our service have become won
derfully skilled in their work, Our cof-
fee man, for example, after spreading
the contents of a pound package of
roasted coffee on a table can pick out
the berries that were grown in Brazil,
Arabia, Abyssinia, Ceylon, Java, Gen.
trail America, and the West Indies, II
such berries happen to be in the pack
age. He knows all kinds Of coffee by
sight and by taste. We have destroyed
the traffic in fraudulent Mocha and Java
coffee, the sale of which was very COM
mon a few years ago.
But We have not given all OF our time
and thought to foreign foods. Many of
the crude drugs out of which medicines
are made and prescriptions are filled
for persons who are critically Ill were
debased by adulterants. Such shipments
are not admitted 10 the Enited States.
We have difficulty. however. in prevent
ing adulteration after the drugs reach
. the dealers and manufacturers scattered
throughout this country. Until recently
also there was no way to stop the sale
OF medicines guaranteed to cure such
. diseases as consumption and cancer. II
can be done now, / am happy to say. by
an amendment to the pure food and
drug law, which was proposed in the
House OF Representatives by Mr., Sher-
ley. of Kentucky"
How Soda Beat the Doctor.