The chronicle=news., 1914-07-21

Butter has been sold at the rate
of fifteen ounces to the pound for so
long time that the people of Colora-
do have forgotten the avoirdupois
weight table" said John Lynch, Pure
Food Commissioner of Colorado, in
his address before the second days
session of the Retail Merchants As.
sociation of Colorado at their Four
teenth annual convention this morn
ing.
Mr.. Lynch was the chief speaker
of the morning and in detailed ad-
dress made clear to the merchants
many of the technical points of the
pure food laws of both the state and
the federal government. Mr.. Lynch
is an auothority upon the pure food
indutsy and his address was one of
the strongest which has SO far been
heard by the merchants.
Mr.. Lynch said in part:
I'VE can all remember how the
embalmed beef scandal Of the Span
ish-American War was the immediate
cause of the enactment of the Ma
tional Food and Drugs Act. 1t
brought the necessity for regulation
of fodo manufacture and commerce
forcibly to the attention of the pco-
pie. There is no doubt that during
the period Immediately preceding
the adoption of the Act, food and
drug adulteration had become fine
art. Fraud and substitution in the
manufacture of foods, the unrestrict-
ed use of poisonous chemicals as pre-
servatives, the nostrums of the drug
market, sold as patent medicine cure
alls which to this day have by no
means entirely disappeared, opened a
wide field for research and reform.
1t also created an opportunity for
extremists, alarmists and radicals.
The muck raker was in the hey day
of his existence. Exaggerated ac-
counts Of food adulteration and its
harmful effects sold like hot cakes.
Magazines and book publishers We'd
with each other in securing the most
sensational stories. I well remem-
ber one sensational book in which
the author demonstrated to the sat
isfaction Of many readers that bolted
flour from which the dirty, dry and
indigestibe hull had been removed
had by this process been robbed Of
practically every nutritive constitu-
ent of the wheat. The Authors real
business was advertising whole
wheat flour, and in writing his book
he was simply working at his trade.
The public was not aware of these
facts. Therefore, he gained his
point, he advertised his product, and
in addition obtained several lucra-
tive commissions to muckrake east
ern cities. Food control executives
quite generally imbibed the spirit of
the day. They felt that it was en-
cumbent upon them to pose in the
limelight of publicity. The public
really demanded it of them. The full
duty of the official required that his
name often appear In the red ink
head lines of yellow press, there
fore, it was necessary for him to
make frequent and thrilling discov
cries of gigantic conspiracies upon
the part of food manufacturers. Food
poisoning became an obession of the
public mind. Every food 2roduct in
the market was looked upon with
suspicion, and every man who en-
gagged in the manufacture or sale of
foods was regarded as a food pois-
oner until he had established his in
nocence.
1.-THE tendency in food control to-
day which is encouraged by the atti-
tude of the present efficient head of
United States Bureau of Chemistry is
to throw the notoriety seeking, SEN
sational, erratic and irrational no.