Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1913-07-18
DETECT FRAUD IN
FOOD PEOPLE EAT
State Officials Are Prepar-
ing to Make Arrests.
ALLEGED FORGING OF NAMES
Secretary Of State May Reject Refer
endum Petitions to Workmen's
Compensation Act II He Be-
Iieves Them Fraudulent.
Special Columbus Correspondent.
COlumhus OhiO

Special Columbus Correspondent.
Columbus, Ohio.
"HE fraud that has been de-
tected in the signatures on
the referendum petitions cir
culated for the workmen's
compensation act is by no means the
only fraud that has been rampant in
Ohio recently. Officials of the state
dairy and food department declare
that fraud is never ending in the pre-
paration of the food that Ohio people
eat, and that only an eternal watch
fulness is able to prevent wholesale
food adulteration. The adulteration,
they aver, is confined to no particular
product. 1t is most prevalent probably
in the preparation of maple sugar,
vinegar, linseed oil and milk, but it
has been found extensively in the
preparation of such products as bay
rum. AS a result of the newest fraud
detection, the state dairy and food
commissioner has prepared for dras-
itc crusade. His deputies will file
within the next 10 days "a affidavits
against dealers in various parts of the
and drug acts. Twelve of the affi-
davits are based upon the sale of
spurious bay rum. Several arrests
will be made for the sale of bad
vinegar. Quite few dealers will be
called upon to explain their extensive
sale of bad eggs. Other arrests will
be for adulteration of maple sugar
and linseed oil, and there will be ad-
ditional affidavits charging the unlaw-
full sale of oleomargarine. The total
number of arrests will be the largest
made by the dairy and food depart
ment in any single campaign thus far.
May Reject Petitions.
There is practically no doubt that
the secretary of state may reject the
referendum petitions on the work.
mems compensation act if he believes
them fraudulent. Attorney General
Hogan holds that it is clearly within
the jurisdiction of the state secretary
to refuse the petitions if he so desires.
Such course would mean the death
of the present referendum movement.
Those desiring referendum would
then have to begin the circulation of
petitions wholly anew if they wanted
the referendum carried out. Indi-
cations of fraud in the signatures con-
tinue to multiply. Frank C. Gaumer,
editor of the Champaign Democrat,
has examined the names filed from
Champaign county and finds that four
of them We're the names of dead men.
One petition from Erie county bears
the name of THE Erie Produce Com
pany" of Sandusky and shows that
the circulator evidently did not real
ize that all signers must be qualified
electors. James Flynn, Sr., of San
'dusky, incidentally was one of the
Erie county signers. He was Demo
cratic presidential elector last fall.
Ask Counties Assistance.
County prosecutors all over the
state are to be called to assist in the
prosecution of petition peddlers who
will be arrested on forgery and per
jury charges in the Green workmen's s
compensation law referendum cam
paign. This was decided Sunday after
conference between Gov. Cox and
Attorney General Hogan. With this
announcement came the statement
that petitions on file were being ex
amined by competent men from every
county and that not single man who
violated the law would escape.
Gets Better Position.
Political preferment, often consid
cred so difficult of requirement, has 9
way of placing itself directly in the
af 80 al
county, who will become postmaster
of Akron next February. A little
more than two years ago, Mr.. Reat
was chief clerk in the office of the
state labor commissioner. He was
slated to become head of that depart
ment but failed to get the appoint
ment at the hands of former Gov. Har
mon. So he resigned his clerkshiI
and ran for delegate to the Consti
tutional convention from his home
district and was elected. Law making
appealed to him when the work of the
convention was over, and so he rar
for representative and was elected
Now comes the prize postmastershiI
appointment at salary of consider
ably more than $4,000 year and Mr.
Read has now resigned his position al
representative to take the new
position. What appeals most to the
observer is the comparative ease will
which the Summit county man slipi
from -one position to another.
Won't Leave National Guard.
Jay f. Converse of Cleveland, mem
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