Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-06-19

ridiculous price, but the public al
ways paid the regular market price
for the finished breadstuff from which
il was made.
Such was the situation Aug. 10,
1918 on which day. in order to bring
the issue to a crisis as far as the au-
thorities were concerned. l arranged
with DR.. william H. Allen, director
of the New York bureau of Munic-
ipal Research, to have some OF his
men make an investigation with me
of the grain piers OF Jersey City.
Accordingly, DIR. W. H. Deaderick
and ]. H. Kirshman of the New York
Bureau of Municipal Research accom-
panied me on an inspection of the
Lehigh Valley flour and grain piers.
There we discovered $500 pounds of
unsound, musty, and inedible flour
packed in the regulation 196-pound
cotton bags.
These bags are porous. All flour
is shipped in them. Rats run over
them. They are subject to many un-
speakable forms of contamination in
the freight yards. But that is still
another matter relating not to nutri-
ton but to sanitation.
Notwithstanding the regulations Of
the New York Produce Exchange,
which require flour to be marked
Sound" or "Unsound" according to
the facts, none of this flour bore any
mark indicating its true nature and
no satisfactory explanation could be
made of this phenomenon by Flour
Inspector W. j. Taylor, in charge of
Piers I, G. and Z, Lehigh Valley
Railroad, Jersey City.
I notified the New York station of
| the bureau of chemistry, Department
of Agriculture. of our findings. where
upon Federal Inspectors Lind and
The government men were denied ac-
cess to the -four by the railroad off,
cials.
II is not generally known that Con-
gress has not endowed federal food
inspectors with the power of research.
They can be kept out of any factory
where the owner that factory does
not want him to enter, thereby max
ing their ability to obtain evidence
exceedingly difficult.
For a period OF twenty-four hours
| the government men believed that
they could do nothing with the stuff
which in the meantime, was able to
prove, had been rejected as "unsound"
by Messrs. Hewer & Siney, of the
New York Produce Exchange, and
sold at fraction more than a cent
pound to blending plant on Staten
Island.
In the meantime the governments
inspectors were in communication
with Washington ana were instructed
by wire to make another effort to ex-
anime the -four. They returned TO
the pier the following day but in the
meantime, somebody had performed a
mysterious ceremony over the decom-
posed stuff.
During the night the contents of the
lS6-pound bags were transferred to
l4o-pound bags. This manipulation
was intended to rescue the rotten
-four from the jurisdiction of the gov
ernment officials.
II has been held in the trade that
in more than one federal district
court the governments Jurisdiction
over any product, however rotten,
comes to an end once that product
has been removed from the original
package in which it had been shipped
into Interstate commerce.
DR.. Carl Alsberg, chief Of the Bu-
reau of Chemistry, was Immediately
notified of the complexity OF the situ-
alton, and, regardless of the legal as
pect of the case. his efforts finally
resulted in seizure of the rotten
-four on a libel issued by United
States District Attorney Warren
Davis, Trenton, n. j. The attach
ment was made by United States
Deputy Marshal Beekman. Jersey
City.
Prior to this seizure I had made
numerous vain attempts to obtain
action through the New York City
Health Department, but, for reasons
which have never been made public,
the Health Department refused then
as it still refuses to concern itself with
the unsoundness of the city's bread
supply.
1t is not generally known or even
suspected that unsound -four is ex-
ceedingly common. Rotten -four
bread is a matter OF frequent occur
renee in every large city in the United
States but as 1 shall prove to you
IN forthcoming articles, it is of no
more frequent occurrence than pound
cakes made Of rotten eggs; layer
cakes, lady fingers and vanilla waters
made OF the same unsavory stuff; de-
composed and chemically resurrected
meats sausages made OF tuberculous
carcasSes; ice cream made of foully
contaminated milk: candy made of
furniture glue. coal tar dye, glucose.
ethereal f1avors. lamp black, arsen-
ically contaminated shellac, stearic
acid and sulphites; soft drinks treat
ed with dyes, chemicals, saccharine
and soap bark; butter made of cream
containing pathogenic organisms;
lard manufactured from the fat of
hogs suffering from disease at the
NA4LS "a SiddBAASGB plCkleb, CnOW-ChOw
and relishes hardened with alum:
baking powders composed of metallic
compounds that ought never TO be
used for food purposes; passe poultry
artfully restored to a state of dis
guised putridity: canned vegetables
preserved with ammonium bi-fuoride.
a chemical the presence OF which is
most difficult to detect in the propor-
tons in which it is employed: Jams
and Jellies preserved with sulphites,
and the hundred other food abomina-
tlons that are rarely interfered with
by municipal or State authorities.
THESE charges against the food sup
ply OF America would, I fully realize
appear to he born in sensational hys-
terra, unsupported by facts IL it were
not for the overwhelming evidence
which / am able to present, notwith
standing many official efforts to mini
mize or discredit their importance.
Well-meaning and sincere people in
nigh places shuddered and then
smiled when I was first permitted TO
ADDRESS audiences of women's Clubs
teachers associations, mems clubs
and medical societies on these sub
jects. Hence it became necessary in
substantiation of such charges to pro-
duce evidence that could not be
shaken.
The evidence was produced. AS a
result large enterprises bearing snot-
less regulations have been unmasked.
Food adfIlfara