Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/59

Rh Chemistry, assisted by details from the medical staff of the army, experimented with the 'poison squad' and as a result has recommended against the use of salicylic, benzoic and boric acids to preserve foods.

Congress passed a good law in 1902 prohibiting the misbranding of foods as to the state or territory in which the product is produced. This law was passed primarily to keep western cheese producers from labeling their product as 'New York' cream cheese. The law applies, however, to all foods, and it puts into partial practise one of the important principles of identification, namely, where a product is made. Where a product is made is an important bit of knowledge. Foods sometimes have exceptional qualities by reason of certain conditions of climate and soil and skill in packing or preserving. And so it is that certain fruit, vegetable, dairy and wine districts are known for the superiority of their products. The producers in these districts have the right to an honest market, while consumers should have the means to identify the foods from such districts should they so desire.

Correct labeling as to the geographical place of production prevents imposition in another way. A man can pack cottonseed oil for interstate commerce and label it 'olive oil,' but if he is compelled to state that the 'olive oil' is packed in Georgia or Alabama, the public becomes suspicious that it is getting cottonseed oil. A 'New Orleans' molasses, packed in one of the glucose districts of Illinois, is open to the same suspicion. A can of 'salmon,' packed in Minnesota, is known by its place of production to be carp. Between products of the same class this law is effective; but between the imitation and the product imitated, it is of little avail, for raw materials can be shipped into a district famous for its cheese, jelly, syrup, wine or whiskey, and the label of the imitation then bears legally the name of that district which is in favor with consumers.

Federal legislation is incomplete. The Hepburn-McCumber-Heyburn Pure Food Bill proposes to complete it. Not by a tax, but by a law which will command all the principles of identification to be truthfully and fully represented before foods, drugs and liquors are allowed shipment from one state into another. Such a law will make it possible to follow fraud across the state border and to punish the person responsible for the manufacture of an adulterated or misbranded product. Such a law will tend to unify state laws, but it will not interfere with state laws nor will it protect that state which does not maintain equal inspection over its own commerce.

The attitude of the food interests toward pure food legislation is either passive or antagonistic. The meat packers represent to consumers that their meat is 'U. S. government inspected.' The act of 1890, which relates to physiological wholesomeness only, permits them to make this representation, although meats, 'U. S. government inspected,' may contain antiseptics, aniline dyes, cheap fillers and any