The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-02-22
N. D. NO MORE A
DUMPING GROUND
FOR YEARS IMPURE FOOD WAS
DUMPED INTO THE NORTH DA-
KoTA MARKETS BUT PROFESS
SoR LADD HAS CHANGED
THIS.

North Dakota is no longer being,
made the dumping ground for adul-.
terated, m~isbranded and sometimes
injuriously treated foodstuffs, accord
ing to a statement Of Prof. e. T.. Ladd,
made in an article in The North Da-
kota Farmer published at Lisbon,
Professor Ladd says:
To Safeguard the Health.
From personal experience / know
that from 1890 to 1902 North Dakota
was a veritable dumping ground for
the waste food products to be found
in the United States. 1t seemed as
though there was nothing which was
not adulterated and misbranded, often
doped with injurious ingredients and
sold to the consuming public of this
state as of high quality, and often I'M
der beautiful labels. Our meats were
embalmed with chemicals, borasic
acid and sulfites; and it was hard to
find hamburger steak OF sausage, not
loaded down with these chemicals and
further treated with coal tar colors
and acids to give the appearance Of
smoke. Canned meats were the same
way, only being further deceptive, for
chicken and turkey, while ~conspicu-
GUS on the label, were wanting in
the cans. This is now of the past
and no more does it exist. Nearly
every can of corn coming into the
state had been bleached with sulfites
because of bad sanitary conditions in
the factory, then sWeetened with
saccharin, a coal tar sugar with no
food value and used wholly for decep-
ton, and of which the late Vice Presi-
dent Sherman said that the substitu-
ton of this product saved his firm
in one year "a, 900. And the corn was
often only plain field corn, not sweet
corn as labeled. For the past six
years we have had none of this. To-
matoes were mostly water and green
tomatoes colored with coal tar dye.
Peas were treated with copper salts,
sweetened with saccharin, and at
times preserved with borax. Extracts
were made from chemicals and wood
alcohol. Vinegars were diluted acids
colored to resemble cider vinegar.
Spices were nearly all adulterated
with ground cereals, shells,
olive stones and colored to resemble
a particular spice; while olive oil was
usually cottonseed. Twelve-year old
whiskey might be from t~wenty-four
to forty eight hours old with not a
trace of true whiskey-only chemi-
calls, fusel oil and alcohol colored to
suit the fancy. But oh, the jellieS,
jams and preserves that were fed to
us composed of rotten apples, skins
and corns trampeled under foot at the
factory, then dried or desiccated. ship
ped in quincy sacks to the jelly or
preserve factories, steamed, pressed
and .~evaporated to form a body to
which and, at hat time, dangerous
glucose was added, colored with coal
tar dye, millet seed added to the jam,
saccharin for sweetening, benzoate Of
soda to preserve the rotten stuff from
further spelling, and chemical 1avors
to resemble grape, currant, ounce,
ETC., while beautiful Autographs, cost
ing more than the contents, decorated
the face of the container! Was it n
wonder then that these We're days Of
stomach troubles, dyspepsia, diarrhea
and misery? Do you think the food
adulterator gave up these practices
without a bitter fight? These prac-
tees which were bringing to him a
profit enabling him to enjoy the IuxA
uFies of life, while the people were
consuming stuff which was unfit for
consumption. No, it has been a con-
tinuous and bitter fight from the day
the work started to this very hour.