The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-03-20
MUCH PROGRESS
is ENG MADE
IN FOOD INSPECTION
Mrs. Kurtz Discusses the Work of Her
Department Before Council

Stating that the women of North
Yakima are justified in taking active
part in insisting on pure food inspec-
ton and that the ordinance is not Sc
we're and that much substantial prog
ress has been made, Mrs. Olive kurtz,
city food inspector, read very inter-
esting and forceful paper before the
presidents council last week. Among
other things Mrs. Kurtz said
THE women of North Yakima are
alive to the interests of our thriving
city. Many good things have been
accomplished in which the women
have taken the init ative and not least
among them is the protection of our
various foods ] could not safely say
how many times in the past six
months ] have heard the argument
that women had better attend to their
own household duties and keep their
hands out of politics and public af-
fairs
"Our food ordinance is not more
severe than that of other cities. In
fact, it was framed most carefully and
am effort has been made to cause as
little hardship as possible consistent
with reasonable cleanliness.
"Our pure food regulations are in
their infancy A few of our dealers
and some OF our less informed con-
sumers are not in sympathy with the
measure the former think it inter
feres with profits and causes more
labor. Some people of older years
think they have gotten along SO far
without pure food law and have lived
through 1T and can worry along to the
end On the same principle we can
do without gas and electric lights and
may as well be using the tallow dip.
I'VE are living in new era and at
no time in its history has the country
been alive to more vital questions than
those that affect the home in its vari-
Gus phases today.
Food sanitation is not a North
Yakima movement: it is an agitation
that reaches from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. Its effects are not confined
to the consumer. The dealer has
found it to his advantage to protect
his foods from insects and dust. One
of our grocers told me recently that
a new case which he had installed
for dried foods would pay for itself
in six months. Many of our dealers,
in fact most of them, have respond
ed most kindly to the ordina nee from
the beginning. A few have antag-
onized the measure, but we can
scarcely expect'it to be otherwise We
will have opposition to this as to all
other new regulations, but in order
that we may get the best results from
the pure food ordinance both dealer
and consumer must understand the
Importance of food sanitation and it's
effects upon our health conditions
If the consumer is educated to a
certain standard of cleanliness and de-
mands pure food and full measure
the dealer will comply with his re-
quest. The individual buyer can do
much by insisting on clean food and
full measure; this is the housewife s
part
I'VE must also have efficient and
reasonable laws that the honest dealer
may be protected. This is the citi-
zen's part. Buyers and dealers are
dependent ONE upon the other and
all working in cooperation will make
North Yakima the best city in central
Washington in all things that pertain
to clean and honest food"