Omaha daily bee., 1916-07-26
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Letter From DR.. Wiley.

Omaha July 25.-To the Editor of The
Bee: One does not like to hear the great
initiative work that was accomplished by
DR.. Harvey w. Wiley belittled 1t took
brave man to be the father of pure food
legislation in \thi scountry and his 'pernic-
ious activity" cost him his position. In 1903
he brought about the celebrated hearing on
What Is Whisky" and later he fought
the interests" concerning the aduteration of
foods, with unnatural preservatives, such as
boric and salicyic acids and benzoate OF
soda. He believed that tie housewife was
right and that good natural vinegar and
sugar were the more wholesome as preserVa-
tives and that the reason that the people
preferred the handiwork Of their mothers,
rather than the grocery store, even If it did
spoil once in while, was that the latter
took the short cut for commercial purposes
and that the work of the housewife was not
only more palatabe but that man had to
be in good health and with the stomach OF
an ostrich to digest the other.
In the Spanish American war. We heard
much of "embalmed meats"-that is meats
that would keep all right in hot weather by
being converted into kind of leather. but
they were hell on the stomachs of the
soldiers.
If you will notice the troops on the Mex
lean border now, you will see that that day is
past. What is the matter with those who
would make big profits that they must en-
danger the lives of those who fight their
battles And send them flour as quinne as
was done in the civil war.
Even big pickle and preserve man adj
vertises now that he can do without chem
icals and if so that is the work of DR..
| Wiley.
| 1t is this sort of thing that has brought
US face to face with prohibition in this
| state. In 1908 there a hearing before
| the royal commission in England on dis
| titled alcoholic liquors and the same at
| Washington in 1909. Being interested to get
! at the facts of the hearing and failing to
get the book of the testimony from any
other source. appealed to DR.. Wiley and
| he sent me the only copy he had. 1t Is book
of some 1900 pages. mostly in fine print,
and it has evidently been bought up and out
| of circulation. In this country only chemists.
| pharmacists. distillers and rectifying men
testified, but in England they went into the
medical end of it also, with physicians on
| the stand. There has never been a hearing
in this country on the manufacture of beer
Or wine or any other fermented liquors.
The following shows how DR.. Wiley feels
at present:
Washington, July 10, 1sl6.-Dear Dr..
|
| the clipping of your picnic speech and
| your letter of July 10.
| am glad to know that the work I did
| or tried to do to secure pure beverages
, Of an alcoholic character is appreciated.
| l have only few moments to answer
| your letter and TO say, that while I appre-
ciate your courtesy 1 think you make a
mistake In opposing statewide prohibition.
| When l lost my fight for the purity of al
coholc beverages l realized that the only
| alternative to save the people from the
woes of adulterated whisky, brandy, rum
and beer was universal prohibition. I
therefore am a moderate, consistent. but
determined advocate of nationwide prohibi-
ton. l am, very truly, H. w. WILEY.
am sorry that ! cannot agree with DR..
Wiley. for it was only of the manufacture
that his great hearing dealt with, with here
and there medical testimony from the Eng
lish commission. 1t seems foolish to me
that l should be so radical in dealing with
a great provision of natural law.
/ believe that proper legislature In this
state can make progress. where Washington
did not rather than make the mistake this
fall of prohibition and then have us all re-
greet later that we did not educate a legisla-
ture up to see that it was up to it to do the
| proper thing in this sovereign state. Such a
| bill can be drafted.
GEORGE P. WILKINSON, M. D.