Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-11-03

The conditions discovered in two large
commercial fee cream factories by
representatives of the New York
Bureau of Municipal Research throw
additional light upon the nature of
the frozen dainty which the people con-
| sumo under the name of ''ice cream
but which IN only too often merely n
cemetery for dying bacteria or u
stock farm for the breeding of live
organisms.
| In the ice cream factory investigated
it was found that the finished product,
| including the cost OF labor, light, ice.
rent interest on investment delivery
service, horse feed and raw materials,
/ sold for fifty-five cents a gallon to the
retail stores that parcelled 1t out to the
public.
This price represented ten cents a gall
lon more than much of the ice cream
sold in New York city, where the re-
tail dealers purchase it at 11A cents
a quart.
| This price included the ice, packing
and labor necessary to keep it in a
saleable condition in the stores.
The investigators discovered in the
plant large quantities of a product
manufactured by a glue company, in
Chicago, and sold to the ice cream
manufacturers at twenty cents pound.
| Five kettles of the slaughterhouse by
product were simmering in hot water
bath prior to surrendering their con-
tents to the freezing machines.
The factory formula called for one
pound of the raw glue for each ten
gallon batch of ice cream.
This glue feature of twentieth CEN
tury dietetics, with all its odors of
the glue pot, represents one of the
amazing developments of Americas toll
Grafton of the many profitable prac-
tices which originate in stockyard and
slaughter house delirium.
IF the people don't know about it
glue is good enough for them," seems
to be the philosophy of the glue barons
Notwithstanding the fact that Secretary
Houston, of the Department of Agri-
culture has found it necessary to. order
much of the imported glue, commonly
used in the production of candy ano
ice cream, to be branded, "Inedible. not
for food purposes"
The vanilla" found in the plant was
a coal tar derivative known as cou-
marin,
There was no strawberry syrup oil
any other fruit product in the factory
although a number of chemical COM
pounds and coal tar dyes representing
the berry patch and orchard were or
view.
Are these the favors you employ?'
was asked.
YES" replied the foreman.
That word yes" properly interpreted
might express itself in the following
picture:
Give me a plate of strawberry
peach, or vanilla ice cream" says the
customer as she draws dollar bill OF
a coin from her purse.
The proprietor of the ice cream par
lor or his cashier sounds the coin OF
scrutinizes the bill.
The money used In exchange for
ice cream must be real money. Plug
ged nickles. lead quarters or counter
felt bills are not popular The govern
ment pursues them hotly. Yet in eX-
change for the public's certified money
protected by thousands of officials,
there is no official objection to counter
felt food. e,
How can a chemical mixture OF
ethers. coal tar amaranth, sugar, con-
densed milk and glue be called straw
berry ice cream? Ask the ice cream
industry.
| In the same neighborhood the squad
representing the New York Bureau OF
Municipal Research investigated an
other ice. cream factory.
Factory No. 2 vigorously denounced
the proprietors of factory No. !. There
was strong competition and keen
feeling among them.
But factory No. 9, obtained a better
price for it's products than the price
obtained by factory No. /, paid a bet
ter price for its glue, which was billed
at % cents a pound less per cent.
Some dealers guaranteeing their pro-
duct to conform strictly to the require
ments of the food and drug act OF
June so. 1916, ask so cents pound
for edible gelatine, free from arsenic
copper, zinc, sulphur dioXide, bacteria
and offensive odor.
Other dealers ask forty cents for the
| same product.
Some dealers say they can produce
pure" gelatine for thirty two cents q
! pound, declaring that at less than
fthirty-two cents a pound 1t is not pos
sible to produce II chemically and bac-
teriologically pure product
In factory No. the stencil from the
glue kettles was nauseating. although
in the finished ice cream no trace OF
evil or Objectionable odor or flavor
could be detected.
Following is an unappetizing ex-
perieuce in these two ice cream plants
the bureau of municipal reseach squad
purchased gelatine from a wholesale
bakers supply houses in New York city
for. use in the manufacture of ice cream
and candy Mt twenty -eight cents q
pound. twenty four cents a pound
twenty cents a pound, 16 centaa pound
and fourteen cents a pound.
The twenty EIGHT cent gelatine was
! found to emit as violent an odor as
the fourteen-cent stuff but only while
in the glue pot dissolved in warm
water.
AS far as the State itself is concerned