The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-06-11
THE PURE FOOD LAWS.
COMMISSIONER WATSON SAYS
THEY MUST BE ENFORCED
AGAINST HIGH AND
LOW.
'ealcrs I'm Impure Products Will BE
vigorously Prosecuted i'm Federal
and State Courts When They are
Caught.


cal ed in South Carolina as far as l
am able to do it, under State and fed
eral law, and / don't hesitate to say
that no matter who the man is or how
Dig the firm or corporation is, if can
get the evidence that will convict
him of furnishing dangerous pro-
oucts leading to the destruction of
LIE, l propose to use every means in
my power to land him either in a
state or federal prison."
This emphatic statement was made
yesterday by Commissioner Watson in
discussing the pure food and drug act,
the enforcement of which has been
placed under the direction of the
state department of agriculture One
inspector has been appointed and is
actively engaged in enforcing the law,
A laboratory has been established in
connection with the feed stuffs labor
atory.
Lets look at another phase of this
situation" continued the commits
sioner, brought about by the fact
that South Carolina has so manv wears
been a dumping ground for impure
and unsound foods, and in doing so,
remember this, that our people buy
nearly everything that they eat from
manufacturers in distant States. For
hog products alone we probably spend
at least $15,000,OOO a year: for dairy
products we spend $4,000, 900; for
western meats and canned goods. a
sum l dare not mention; for flour
alone, $20,00O,00O annually and for
ketchup, soda crackers, syrups and
candies and indeed everything almost
that we eat, sums that range into the
millions. l know of one grocery es-
tablishment alone that sells 5000
cases of canned goods every year and
fully two-thirds of these are cans of
vegetables. A low average value per
case would represent in this one stor.
an annual expenditure of about s12,-
600.
1T is a great work that is being
done by the State board of health"
said the commissioner, "in matters of
sanitation, in educating the people as
to the common rules of health. in the
handling Of epidemics, in the battling
with deadly diseases, and it is a great
work that the medical practitioner of
the State is doing. 1 am proud of the
work in those fields Of endeavor, fields
ever broadening, leading to the fullest
conservation of the human resources
Of the State; but nearly all of that
work, as valuable as it is, deals with
the human being already assailed by
disease; with conditions than can be
seen with the eye and are of common
repute.
THE enforcement of the pure food
and drug laws of the State, to my
mind, is Of far deeper consequence
and in that enforcement all of these
agencies should lend the fullest and
most complete cooperation. These
laws strike at the cause of most of the
disease; they strike at the cause of
most of the epidemics. Man can not
live without eating and when he takes
poison into his system through the
course Of his daily diet-a poison
which he has no means of knowing
Is there-he can not be blamed for de,
velOping the disease that often sends
him to the medical man too late for
anything to be done, or at least in
time only to survive after hard bat
tie. What we have learned Of corn
meal is illustrative of the slow alb
sOrption Of insidious poison in the hu~
man system. When the time comes
when the medical practitioner must
be called in, he writes his prescrip-
ton for the sufferin% infant for in
stance, and it is taken to the drug
which that physician intends that the
child shall have and knows that the
child needs, the purchaser is given
an adulterated product and the pun.
pose Of the physician is defeated. The
suffering child suffers on and has
been deprived Of a need of the hour
and then comes death. l do not know
how many deaths Of infants may have
been causd by the use of condensed
skinned milk, but | DO know this,
that this product was sent into the
markets of this state in perfect
food; that in all the mill villages il
appeared in packages of the same size
and general appearance as to labels
with good condensed milk, it was sold
at half the price and thousands of
people bought it and fed it to infants