The great outcry raised by all these startling revelations concerning
the unscrupulous methods of the food poisoners resulted in the passage,
in 1906, of the epoch-making Food and Drugs Act, which gave the United
States a most elaborate and minute set of laws for the protection of
the public and the punishment of offenders. The result was an immediate
and decided improvement in many departments, especially that of canned
fruits, concerning which Dr. Wiley wrote in 1911 that "the time is now
rapidly approaching when all such goods will be free of any imitation
or adulteration, and this will add greatly to their value in the
markets of the country."
In many other directions, however, the drugging of foods with slow
poisons continued. The snake was only scotched, not killed.
"If you took all the food in New York City to-day and put it in a big
tent down in Texas, I would throw away 40 per cent. of it," said Gaston
G. Netter of the Geneva White Cross Society (which is the International
Pure Food Association), in October, 1911. "The people here in New
York City are being hourly poisoned by food labeled as absolutely
pure. I buy it and test it every day and I know. I saw some sardines
marked 'pure sardines in olive oil.' They were a disintegrated mass of
decayed, poisonous fish, and the oil had never known an olive. A large
percentage of the vinegar used for preserving such things as prunes is
an acidulated preparation fatal to the lining of the stomach."
The vinegar sold by many grocers in defiance of the law is made with
acetic acid, which is prepared by the destructive distillation of wood.
So little of this is needed that the adulterator can make a gallon of
"vinegar" at a cost of two cents, or a barrel for a dollar. This, sold
in bottles, yields a profit of over $20 a barrel. Sometimes a trace
of malic acid or concentrated apple juice is added to give a reaction
which may _fool the analyst_. It is this poisonous stuff that is used
in American homes to dress salads and is put into bottles of chow chow,
chili sauce, and the pickles so dear to school children.
Concerning the cheap candies that are still dearer to the children,
Harry P. Cassidy in an address before the wholesale candy dealers
(reported in the New York "Sun" of March 10, 1912), said:
"We have found burnt umber in candy which is sold and guaranteed as
pure to the small shopkeepers. We have found stearin in it which
melts only at a temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas the
temperature of the human body is only 98.6 degrees. We have found
furniture glue and dangerous ether flavoring matter and paraffin and
shellac and many other injurious substances which the members of this
association handle."
Another speaker at this meeting, Prof. Charles La Wall, spoke of
lampblack as being used to color so-called licorice and of marshmallows
that had been blued with ultramarine, just as bluing is used in washing
clothes. Poisonous sulphuric acid may be contained in molasses,
glucose, shredded cocoanut and many other things. "As candies are often
composed chiefly of these four products, a child in buying a penny's
worth of candy may get four doses in one of the deadly sulphites such
as the cleaner uses in whitening our straw hats."
America is specially noted, as Rutledge Rutherford remarks in the
"National Food Magazine" (1912), for two things--its chemicalized food
and its infantile mortality. According to the estimate of the New York
food expert, Alfred W. McCann, three million persons in the United
States were made ill by adulterated foods in 1911.
That was five years after the passing of the Pure Food Law. The trouble
with that law is that it is not interstate. A dishonest man in one
State can do all the food "doping" he pleases as long as he does not
sell any of it in another State. Most of the States now have laws of
their own on this matter, but often they leave much to be desired.
What is worse, these laws are not enforced; or, if the criminals are
brought to bay, the punishment is so mild that it does not prevent a
repetition of the offense. "If a grocer knew that a can of tomatoes or
a can of sardines sold by him could be taken to the corner and analyzed
and if found bad that he would be prosecuted, the pure food law would
be a real thing," says Gaston G. Netter, who asserts that if New York
City would bring about such a reform--at a cost of perhaps $150,000 a
year--it would "do away with half the medical clinics."
Fines alone will not suffice to bring about a reform. We can hardly
follow the example of the Turks who, if a baker gives false weight or
adulterates his bread, cut off one of his ears and nail it to the door
post. But we could follow the example of the wise municipal officials
who compelled the Munich brewers to make honest beer, out of malt and
hops alone. At first, fines were imposed for using other materials, and
these fines were made larger and larger; but the brewers found they
could pay the highest fines and still save money by using chemicals.
Then the lawmakers changed their tactics; the "man highest up" was
threatened with imprisonment. The millionaire brewers had a pardonable
aversion to jail--and from that time on Munich beer became the best in
the world. Ere long, whole trainloads of it began to be sent daily in
all directions--to North Germany and Russia, to Paris and London, to
Vienna, and to the cities of Italy. The brewers had been compelled, at
pistol's point, to acknowledge the truth that, after all, in the long
run, honesty is the best policy.
Some of the largest American manufacturing firms have followed this
policy voluntarily, though the prices they have to pay for good fresh
material places them at a great disadvantage to the adulterators who
buy any rotten old thing and "renovate" it, or else make the article
entirely of chemicals.
"In four years," said Alfred W. McCann (in March, 1912), "the
Government has caught nearly fifty wholesale adulterators in the act of
shipping bogus vinegar from one State into another. In every instance
the Government won its case, but in every instance petty fines were
inflicted by the courts and the same offenders were caught again and
again.... Small fines have no deterrent effect on food frauds. The game
is too profitable to suffer extinction under any other influence than
jail sentences, and jail sentences have not been imposed in a single
case brought by the Government against food or drug adulterators."
Food and drug adulterators are wealthy men, but they are not stingy.
They gladly share their sordid earnings with the politicians who
protect them. "Why do the States delay in enacting uniform laws
patterned after the excellent national laws?" asks Mr. McCann; and his
answer tells the plain truth: "Each State has some powerful pet food
industry to protect and some weak legislators willing to do the bidding
of the fakers."
Every reader of this book perused in the newspapers the story of the
disgraceful conspiracy in Washington against Dr. Wiley, and remembers
vividly the nationwide outburst of indignation which came to the rescue
of the courageous chemist and made him a national hero. He remained
for the time being, but his enemies were not punished, although the
President promised to reform the Department of Agriculture. His failure
to do so is one of the principal reasons why he was not re-elected. Dr.
Wiley, seeing that his efforts to secure the enforcement of the Pure
Food Laws were useless, at last resigned, and in "Good Housekeeping"
for October, 1912, he gave some of the reasons for this step.
The Remsen Board was created for the express purpose of reviewing
his decisions against food manipulators. It never missed a chance to
reverse them, to the huge delight of certain manufacturers and dealers.
Although the Moss investigating committee unanimously pronounced the
Remsen Board as wholly without authority, its decisions were followed
by officials of the Government; important matters referred to it were
held in abeyance. For instance, an exhaustive report of the experiments
made in the Bureau of Chemistry, which showed, in Dr. Wiley's opinion,
"the injuriousness of copper sulphate when added to foods, has been
hibernating in the Department of Archives for the past four years and
its use permitted in the interim."
The opposition to Dr. Wiley's decisions brought about "practical
paralysis in all matters pertaining to the addition of benzoic acid,
sulphurous acid, saccharine, sulphate of copper, and alum to food
products. As it was the addition of these bodies which constituted 95
per cent. of the total adulteration practised, it is easy to see that,
so far as adulteration was concerned, the food law became practically a
dead letter."
The physicians of the country, who, better than others, know the danger
of using drugs indiscriminately, sided with Dr. Wiley. At a meeting in
Pittsburg of the American Medical Association, representing 25,000
physicians and surgeons, that body "in spite of the decision of the
referee board, pledged itself uncompromisingly against benzoate of soda
and all other chemical forms of food preservatives."
How bitterly the war against Dr. Wiley and pure-food legislation was
carried on, not only at Washington but in various States with aid from
Washington, is illustrated by the following extract from a letter
written to Dr. Wiley by the Health Commissioner of Indiana:
It is not necessary to recall to you the tremendous
difficulties under which the State labored when it endeavored
to prevent the overthrow of its pure food law because of the
activities of the Department of Agriculture in behalf of the
firms who were seeking that end; how we were refused the
assistance of yourself and your chemists; how we had to compel
the getting of testimony by an order of the court of the
District of Columbia, and how, on the other hand, employees of
the Government known to be in sympathy with the firms bringing
suit against us were sent to Indianapolis to testify against
the State at the expense of the Department of Agriculture.
Another illustration of the war on the Pure Food Laws was given in the
New York "Globe" of Oct. 24, 1912, by Alfred W. McCann. After pointing
out that "there has been no let-up in attempts to deceive," and that
"food ideals depend absolutely on the integrity and zeal of a few
so-called fanatics like Dr. Wiley, who are thus far responsible for all
the advance we have made," he goes on to say:
In the State of Pennsylvania one of the most active pure food
workers, who has contributed energy and zeal to the cause of
the people, H. P. Cassidy, special agent of the Pennsylvania
Dairy and Food Department, after ten years of remarkable
service has been removed from office by the same kind of
pressure which finally disposed of Dr. Wiley.
Charges were made a few days ago against Mr. Cassidy, whose
activity had resulted in more than 8,000 arrests for food
adulterations in the City of Philadelphia alone. He demanded
a hearing before the governor. The hearing was granted. The
charges fell to pieces and Mr. Cassidy, like Dr. Wiley, was
vindicated. Two days later the Pennsylvania authorities
notified him that, although he was found guiltless, harmonious
relations between him and his chiefs had been strained, and
therefore for the good of the service it was decided that he
should be dismissed.
If the pure food movement were making the kind of progress
which it is thought to be making, such backward steps would
not be tolerated by the people, for the dismissal from office
of such a man as Cassidy will serve as a warning to other pure
food officials not to be too zealous in the discharge of their
duties.
The direct result of Cassidy's dismissal will show itself
in the State of Pennsylvania by a long line of cowardice in
applying the law. I make this prophecy and guarantee its
fulfilment.
It is needless to dwell further on these disgraceful efforts to thwart
the Pure Food Laws. Dr. Wiley did not exaggerate when in summing up the
situation he printed the following, in italics:
_No further blot upon the administration of law can, in my opinion,
be found in the history of the United States than this effort of the
United States Government to paralyze, belittle, and destroy a law
passed in the interests of the people of the country._
[Illustration][A table full of food]