The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1912-10-10

~ 80
yer great many newspapers, and a
u ga Il many aagazines. He knows all
about Washington politics. He ought,
Ito. q He llas been on the ground, for
\ Years and knows the ssituaticn from
every side puSffean, Democratic,
Progressive. INSIDE saId. Sout. He has
4 probably written more Interviews with
Roosevelt than any other. writer; =, : !
SO when Mt, happened the other day
! !: that someone said something about,
Rooseyelt,,z'Mr. Nesdham had his own ,,,
opinions about the matter. Moreover,
j. he had the facts In, His own possessioa,
B II, He has put them down here with fine
Y feeling, the feeling that comes from
SS Sdeep-rooted conviction Of the truth.
I But why go on? Let Mr.. Needham
.tsa speak for himself. He wrote his own
/; /, title fqr this article, and 1T follows.
I ~. $si.. z, R.,sAND ."D0o." WILEY
y BY Henry Beech Needham. -,
A bill designed, supposedly, to reg
I il,ntate, If not eradicate tsthsa great
American q fraud" was passed at the
last session of Congress and approved
s by the president. Forthwith, "old
!, 200, Wiley, as the newspaper men
affectionately call him, rose in his
wrath and 1pointed out Joker in
the law, which. he claimed, would serve
5 ! as as an avenue Of, escape for the patent
medicine fraudsmen. No doubt he was
right; but the, question naturally raises
why did not the doctor discover this
joker" before the bill became a. law?
The doctor Is at the head of a well
equipped magazine. .bureautin Washing
ton, and presumably It is Hup to- him
to examine bills. relating to food and
drugs and in ewsry way safeguard the
<1nterestsso sof the CONSUMER Either we
must conclude that, like Homer, DR..
valley occasionally mods or that at the
!, time the bill was before Congress the
call Of the hChatauqua circuit was
clarion :.5.. p. -
IN his spesch at indianapolis attach
Ing Taft and also Roosevelt the good
doctor, again mods. 1t so happened that
one of the incidents touched upon Jy
him is familiar to me, for the reason
that DR.. Wiley sought ny help in the
premises. i would not detract in the
slightest degree from the unselfish
courageous battles which DR.. Wiley
fought often single-handed, against tha
tood dopers and poisoners.' But in his
new found avocation as q political or
ator, DR.. Wiley IS notably unfair to the
man who stood back of him in perhaps
the. bitterest fight of his official career
at washington refer to Mr.. RooseI
-Yelt, who was president at the time,
and 1 speak with authority, because Of
the fact that at Dr.. Wiley's
urgent solicitation helted him 10
carry his fight over Secretary Wilson :
head to the president. '".
If pure food is to be an. issue in this
campaign, the public is entitled to all
OF the facts. For many years DR..
Wiley, aided in splendid manner by
the food and dairy commissioners of
many OF the states, urged food and
drug legislation by the federal con-
gress.. On two occasions such an act
was passed by the house, but the upper
branch of >congress-then known as
the senate = Of special interests"--
throttled\t the bill. Indeed, for seven
teen years the senate would not per-
NIT pure food to come. to O. vote.
GIlph 'aiA
sion Of 1905-f90S IN or about this
time several magazine writer's turned
their attention to the subject of pure
food and drugs. Everybody remem~
bers the remarkable series in "Col-
lier's" written by Samuel Hopkins
Adams. I tried to do my part with an
article published in ? the Worlds
Work" The cumulative effect Of this
editorial prodding brought results,
IN the early spring Of 1906 the Senate
passed the pure food bill. The fight
was won--so the reformers said. ~.
But at that period of .ouripolitica1
history there was a working. agree
ment between the senate and house
AS a sop to public opinion, a bill
would be passed by one house without
q" opposition, only ito pigeonholed in the
other branch of congress. Undoubtedly
this was the program Of the Aldricb-
Cannon machine. II not, why did the
Dill slumber in the house for about four
months--until the very last days or
the session? -..-..
Right here Dr. Wiley mods. He gives