Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-06
GOVERNMENT THAT PAYS
Busy Hives Of Industry In Harrisburg
That More Than Pay for Them.
selves While Protecting the
Public at Large
by GEORGE NOX Mccain

by GEORGE NOX MCCAIN
HARRISBURG is something more than
IL headquarters for a sorry mess of State
politics.
One hears less Of politics to the square
foot of corridor in the Capitol than he does
in the grim, gray City Hall in Philadelphia
or the ugly City County Building in Pitts
burgh.
The State Capitol was once regarded as
graft in this country.
The public is forgetful. and the Capitol $
reputati ton in that respect is diminishing
with the years.
Particularly since It has been meta
morphosed into hive of beneficent indus
try-with exceptions in some departments,
Of course.
There are more intensely interesting
things going on within the walls of the
stately building than anywhere else within
the same area in the Commonwealth.
Day after day hundreds Of men and women
are scheming. planning, working and devils
ing ways and means to make our $500, 900
people happier, healthier and, If possible,
wcalthier.
1t seems almost paradoxical.
Let us take a few concrete examples TO
prove the assertion.
ENROM one division alone there stretches
forth network of police protection that
saves thousands of lives annually.
The public never thinks Of it as . part
OF the police power of the State.
Its officers wear no uniforms. There are
women as well as men on the staff.
Three prosecuting attorneys are employed
in the division.
Six of the cleverest analytical chemists in
the State are constantly at Its beck and call.
expenses.
1t was the best investment Of money, on
the basis Of direct returns, the State ever
made.
Why?
Because It turned into the State Treasury
5000 600 in cash as result of its operation.
That was the visible result in dollars and
cents.
The actual value OF lives protected and
saved is impossible Of computation or esti-
mate.
THE Bureau Of Foods is the name of the
L division.
James Foust Is its director.
Its function is to ferret out every dealer
in impure, adulterated or tainted foods or
beverages.
The butcher in Bucks County who loads
his country sausage" with rice flour water
the creamery man in Mercer who adds
water to his butter to increase its weight
the farmer in Fayette who adulterates his
pure honey with glucose the Pittsburgh
VI lHIlNNPIlllt puSHtuTl lneTCHHnJ VINO ulS-
penscs disease and death to unsuspecting
children in coal tar and saccharine drinks
and ices, or the retailer Of fish who palms
his putrid product on the poverty stricken
housewife, are all grist to Mr.. Foust's mill.
With two exceptions, last year was the
banner year in actual work since the de-
partment was organized
Its ofiicers--they don't call them police
men-had 1900 samples of food analysed
by its chemists.
no YOU get the idea Of what that means?
II If those 1000 samples of impure, adul-
terated or poisonous foods or beverages, from
all parts of the State, were handed in in
one two three order, It would mean that
one sample was examined every hour of the
twcnty-four for every working day in the
year,
Laws under which Director Foust oper.
ates are police regulations.
Many of his cases are of Oleomargarine
venders who evade the license or tax, law
Other offenders are concerns who misbrand
articles of food.
But in all cases the chemists must annlyze
to be sure of the fact so the culprit can be
punished.
1T is all in the days work." said Mr..
Foust, who has been director for fifteen
years.
''To keep the food for eight and a half
millions of people free from adulteration,
though, requires vast amount Of work.
was his comment.
TN ANOTHER department Of this great
L collocation Of men, women and progress
they are planning free fun for Boy and Girl
Scout troops and juvenile pleasure seekers
Recreation for tired business men and
workers in shop, mill. store and Office is
under consideration.
Roadside camps for automobile tourists,
with plenty of water and wood, are being
N tITNFN
Camp grounds deep in the forests are
being fixed up, and they can be had for the
asking, rent free.
Maps are being made that show the topog.
raPhy OF the country around these resorts.
Roads, hills, paths, trails, trout streams
and rivers are set forth 80 that danger of
getting lost is minimized for daring explorers
in the forest glades.
Booklets on the shrubs, bushes. trees.
vines. wild fruits and nuts are in course OF
preparation.
They re designed to make the boys and
girls Of the State familiar with woodcroft
and the secrets of the great outdoors.
0LNORESTRY" is the name of this magic
department.
They deserve to be known as 'joy
brngers," the workers in this rare domain
Clifford Pinchot, who knows more about
trees than any other man in the country-
at least Theodore Roosevelt thought so when
he appointed him National Forester--is its
chief magician.s
He is custodian Of 1,126, 23e acres Of
forests owned by the State.
In the last two years he added 77,oOO
acres to the total.
1t is In the cool shade of these forests,
on mountains, beside rivers, along trout
streams and on rolling lowland that all this
work for the pleasure, health and recreation
OF the people Is being laid out.
WITHIN recent years lot Of money has
" been spent in drilling for oil in eastern
and southeastern Pennsylvania.
1t was n chase after Fools Gold"
There is no such thing as oil in paving
quantities east OF the western slope of the
Aeghenles.
But the oil prospectors plunged ahead,
They spent their money like DRUNKEN sailors.
1t was money wasted through incxcusable
ignorance.
Again the blunt query: Why?
If these citizens had only bethought them
selves to apply to u certain department in
the Capitol they would have displayed
common sense and saved their coin.