Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-07
CHAPTER Ia.

IsB.
Adulterated candy. adulterated sau-
sage, sulphured fruits and glucose in
spire queer antics in official circles
the disposition of these cases, infiuenc-
ed by political Generalization, consti-
tutes an amazing mixture of farce,
comedy and tragedy. the significance
of which makes no appeal to federal
or State officials.
Throughout the year 1915 and 1916
all the food law cases of New York
State involving adulterated licorice,
adulterated maple sugar, adulterated
chocolate creams and other forms OF
adulterated candy, of which the chief
victims are children who have no vote
and therefore no representation at
the State Capital, have been sup
pressed through the private operations
of the Commissioner of Agriculture,
his official counsellor and the Attor-
ney Generals office.
Adulterated sausage. as we have
seen, in the eyes of the law is one
thing on one occasion and another
thing on another occasion, even
though both occasions be similar.
But adulterated candy is nothing on
any occasion.
The expensive outfit that sits in
Judgment on these cases has the au-
dacity to say that under the feeble
laws of the State it is difficult to pro-
ceed against them. Yet the very
Senators and assemblymen who make
or break the agricultural laws in
tended, at least for show purposes, to
protect the food supply of the people.
are themselves responsible for keeping
of the statute books the kind of laws
that would accomplish for the people
what their secretly denatured sub
stitutes are supposed to accomplish.
Among the Senators and assembly
men who have interfered with the law
in behalf of their privileged constitu
entS are the very men through whose
influence real laws have been smoth-
cred to death in the lobby or strang-
led to death in committee.
Weak as the law is it furnishes op-
portunity for a shameless exercise of
arbitrary powers, the pathetic victims
of which are helpless. When few
specific instances are cited here il will
not be wondered at that disregard of
decency, contempt for the meaning of
the law and abject blindness in the
presence of State problems that
grow out of the demoralized influ-
ences which direct the destiny of pure
food officials in their staggering jour-
ney through the pits and marshes of
waste, extravaganza and corruption.
Here are some typical cases that
tell their own indecent story.
Dried fruits, bleached with the
fumes of burning sulphur, have for
twenty years deted all efforts of the
government to control them. The
dried fruits commonly treated with
sulphurous acid or sulphur dioXide
are apricots, peaches, pears, apples
and sultana Taisins, the history of
each of which contains many disquiet-
ing features.
October 20, 1915. the Great Atlantic
and Pacific Tea Company, at Buffalo,
on Apricot Case 07903," and Peach
Case 07902," fell into the clutches of
months later January 81. George L
Flanders, official interpreter of the
law in the legal bureau of the Depart
ment of Agriculture, turned these
cases over to the Attorney General for
prosecution. Five months later. June
81, 1916. the Attorney General ap-
pointed Lafay G. Wilkie, n Buffalo
lawyer. to visit punishment upon the
Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Com
pany. Four months later, October 16,
Wilkie collected 500 from the Great
Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, and
for his services the Attorney General
paid him s62, turning over to the
State Treasurer S3S.
There is no city or town in the
country now free from the offense
charged against the Great Atlantic
and Pacific Tea Company. The fault
lies not with dealers but with the
producers.
Just two months before the Great
Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company suf-
fered the assault of the States agents,
Andrews, Loomis & Andrews, of Syra-
cuse, July IS, 1915, were assaulted in
the same way, the case against them
being described as "Apricots 05272."I