The Colorado statesman., 1917-01-13
Uncle Sam Protects People From
Impositions on Part of
Manufacturers.
MANY SAMPLES ARE TESTED
Thousands of Shipments Offered for
Import Found to. Violate Law
and Are Excluded From
Country.


is sold adulterated food or drugs 1t is
not because Uncle Sam does not do his
utmost to prevent it. Government OIL
cials in charge of the enforcement OF
the federal food and drugs act never
relax their vigilance, and their efforts
in thousands of cases have prevented
impositions upon the people at the
hands of manufacturers.
During the last year United States
department of agriculture officials an
alyzed 29,S33 samples of foods and
drugs offered for interstate shipment
and for import. A physical examina-
ton was made of samples fIom 76,46S
shipments offered for import. OF these
foreign shipments, 6,353 were found to
violate the law in some respects and
were either excluded from. the country
or admitted only after the importers
had relabeled them to comply with the
law. OF the samples of domestic prod
ucts Analysed $685., either because of
the nature of the product or because
the label on it did not tell the truth,
| were found to be in violation of the
federal law. In 1854 cases the depart
ment recommended to the department
of justice that criminal prosecution be
instituted against the manufacturers
or that the goods be seized. In many
cases, where there was no evidence of
intention to defraud and where there
was merely some easily remedied flaw
in the wording of label, the shippers,
after being warned in hearings, volun-
tarily took steps which made their
products fully comply with the require
ments. In all, there were held S,1l5
such hearings, many of which resulted
in the prosecutions indicated and the
gathering of evidence for large num-
Der of additional cases.
The bureau of chemistry, in its an
nual report, also calls attention to the
fact that through the system of service
and regulatory announcements now in
use, manufacturers are given due no.
| tice of the requirements and thus are
enabled voluntarily to make their
products conform to the law. In this
way the government achieves it's pur-
pose, frequently without entering into
needles and very expensive litigation.
| In the regulatory work, special en-
phasis has been given to the control of
drug products and foods liable to spoil
age and pollution. These frequently
constitute a serious menace to health.
The food inspectors have been ill.,
structed to be particularly watchful for
| interstate shipments of bad eggs, milk,
oysters and spoiled canned goods, and
false and fraudulently labeled medi-
cines and spurious, synthetic drugs.
|
Attempts to counterfeit or adulter-
ate imported drugs have been more
common since the recent high price
and scarcity of many of these products
encouraged their imitation. 1t is in
| teresting to note that of the 1,03d
cases terminated in the courts during
the year, 1913 were brought on account
of the false and fraudulent labelling of
medicines. In all of these medical
cases save five the courts found for the
government, and this, it is believed,
has exercised an important deterrent
effect on the vendors of nostrums
shipped from one state to another.
The work of controlling the fraudu.
lent labels of medicines and mineral
waters has been greatly strengthened
by the establishment of a separate of.
flee to deal with these matters. At the
request of the secretary of agriculture
an officer of the United States public
health service has been detailed tc
take charge of this work. Moreover,
through the close cooperation estab.
lished with the foods and drugs Off.
cials of many of the states, the depart.
ment was able to direct the attention
of the local authorities to the presence
of spurious drugs in their states and,
as result, much of these fraudulent
goods in the hands of local dealers and
beyond the reach of the federal au-
thorities were destroyed by state and
municipal officers who, in many cases,
prosecuted those responsible for the
local traffic.
Extend Milk Control.
The cooperation in the sanitary con-
troll of the milk supply of small cities
has been extended in Illinois, Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and in
New England. 1t is proposed to re-
peat this work year after year, extend
ing it each year to new territory. In
some localities bad conditions were
found, due in the main to insufficient
cooling and careless handling. Per-
haps the best results of this work has
been that it stimulated some of the
local authorities to take up similar
work Independently, so that definite
permanent improvement of the milk
supply of a number of cities has result
ed. The cooperative work on the con-
troll of the shipment of decomposed
eggs has been extended to cover much
of the territory in which shipments
originate so that eggs are now candled
hafora shinment far more than former