Greenwood daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1919-1926, 1920-03-19

WASHINGTON, D. c., March 1S-
Legislation to protect the purchasing
public from fraud in connection with
all the articles they buy is proposed
IN bill just introduced by Repre-
sentative Rogers Of Massachusetts.
Every kind of merchandise, not cover
ed in the pure food and drug act, is
covered in this bill of Mr.. Rogers in
cludlng woolens, cotton goods, cloth
ing, shoes watches, silks, etc.
The bill as drafted deals only with
goods entering into inter- state COM
merce, and goods imported from for
eign countries. The powers granted
congress under the constitution to
deal with Interstate commerce are
invoked. The bill has been referr-
ed, therefore to the House committee
on interstate and foreign commerce,
which is to give a hearing to Mr..
Rogers and other supporters of the
measure at an early date. 1t has a
strong backing, many of the leading
manufacturers Of the country favor
ing the plan.
Ever since the enactment of the
pure food and drugs law, to guard
the public against adultered foods and
drugs, and it's enforcement by the aid
Of the bureau Of chemistry in the de-
partment of agriculture, there have
been demands that the federal gov
ernment take steps to protect the peo
pie from fraud in the manufacture
and sale of other kinds of goods which
they must buy. Proponents of these
measures have argued that the peo
pie are entitled to know what goes
into the manufacture of the clothes
they wear to keep them warm in win
ter, for instances, as we'll as to know
what it is they are putting into their
stomachs. 1t was in line with this be-
lief that congress year or two ago
enacted a law for the District of Co
lumbia imposing penalties for false
advertising of various commodities.
But the people, according to Mr..
Rogers, have reached the conclusion
that the most feasible way in which
to deal with the subject is to have
the articles which are sold, marked, in
dicating just what the article is and
what it is made of, in cases where 1t
is necessary to describe the ingre-
dents which go into its make up.
The British have the bulge on the
Americans in this matter of protect
ing the purchasing public, he said. AS
early as 1887, law was enacted In
England-the British merchandise
marks law-which has proved of great
benefit. The United States has no
similar law, except where foods and
drugs are concerned.
Mr.. Rogers bill aims to cover the
whole range of articles sold to the
public. There are other measures
now pending before the Senate COM
mittee on manufactures proposing to
deal with certain kinds of articles.
There is the Kenyon pure paint bill,
introduced several years ago by Sena-
tor Kenyon of Iowa, upon which ex-
haustive hearings were held by the
committee, but upon which the SEN
ate has never acted. Another similar
measure is the Capper pure fabrics
bill, which provides that all yarns,
cloths and cloths, containing wool
must be labeled to show what goes IN
to the make up of the goods. Sena-
tor Capper who halls from Kansas is
anxious not only to protect the wear
ers of wooden goods from fraud but
also to aid the sheep raisers and wool
producers.
The use Of shoddy in the manufaS