YOUR MONEY'S WORTH
Sheridan, Mary
Your Money's Worth By MARY SHERIDAN WHILE the news may not make Cabinet-size headlines, the appointments of the new Administration to the federal consumer and regulatory agencies will tell us what...
...Less carefree than the average city consumer is the farmer...
...Your Money's Worth By MARY SHERIDAN WHILE the news may not make Cabinet-size headlines, the appointments of the new Administration to the federal consumer and regulatory agencies will tell us what we need to know about its attitude toward the public service units dedicated in their quiet and unspectacular way to the protection of public health, protection against false and misleading advertising, protection of power resources, and protection of free speech on the air waves...
...The group would investigate "prices charged the ultimate consumer for food, fuel, and clothing and the costs and methods of producing, processing, and distributing these and other consumer goods" and recommend remedial action...
...The provision which forbids shipment of foods, drugs, and cosmetics which have been produced under insanitary conditions can hardly be enforced at all except through factory inspection...
...Consumer groups, women's clubs, labor unions, and individuals concerned with public affairs will have the opportunity to test this pledge during coming months...
...Again, "most" are not enough...
...It is up to Congress to clarify the wording of the act so that FDA will quickly have the authority it needs to protect everyone's health—and pocketbook...
...The agencies include the Federal Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Power Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission...
...Pertinent Pamphlets Storage for Your Home...
...A call to hands, housewives...
...they weren't a problem in 1938...
...After two years of hearings on food additives, the Delaney Committee has recommended restrictive legislation to insure the safety of foods we buy...
...Most manufacturers, it should be added, have from the start gone along with the intent of the law and permitted FDA inspection...
...Especially designed for people with heart ailments or high blood pressure, the fundamentals will be helpful to anyone who wants to lose weight without sacrificing nutrition...
...a danger to public health is ever-present...
...Farm income has dropped steadily for five months...
...Matthew J. Brunner, a skin specialist at Northwestern University, claims, "The reddened and irritated skin commonly associated with what is known as dishpan hands, is becoming a leading occupational disease among American housewives who are overly tidy in their constant pursuit of dirt...
...Meat prices are down, goods are plentiful...
...This Farmer's Bulletin No...
...The cost of processing and marketing farm foods has also increased...
...This factory inspection power, so vital to the detection of violations of the pure food and drug law, was knocked out by a recent 8 to 1 Supreme Court decision...
...The test case before the Supreme Court involved an apple processing plant in Yakima, Wash., where the owner refused to permit federal inspection...
...It is available for 25 cents and a doctor's prescription from the New York Heart Association, 3 East 103rd St., New York, N. Y. Notes A Senate fact-finding committee to study and investigate "all problems affecting consumer interest" is the aim of a bill introduced by 28 Senators headed by Guy M. Gillette, Iowa Democrat...
...Without changing a comma in the law, the Administration can wreck these agencies by appointing men who don't believe in the usefulness of their functions, and by starving them for funds...
...Will Congress act quickly on the President's request for legislation, again for the protection of public health, to close the loopholes in the food and drug law by giving the Food and Drug Administration the clear authority to make factory inspection of foods, drugs, and cosmetics...
...Automobiles led the installment debt items...
...At the end of 1952, installment and charge account debts were estimated at 23 billion dollars...
...While the figures for gross farm income during 1952 are almost certain to set a new high record, the farmer's actual share of' the consumer's dollar spent for food has shrunk to 46 cents...
...1872 costs 10 cents from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Food for Your Heart...
...The Court upheld the legality of his action and had a good deal to say about the vagueness of the act's wording...
...Higher prices may be in the offing for furniture, rugs, shoes, and some appliances, and food still nibbles away about 40 per cent of most family incomes, but the current consumer buying mood is carefree...
...and leaving collars turned up until a shirt is put on . . . Dr...
...House Plants...
...A 48-page pamphlet prepared by the nutrition department of the Harvard School of Public Health covering low-sodium and low-calorie diets...
...Eisenhower has pledged that his Administration will protect the social gains of past years...
...The work, however, vitally affects just about every individual in the country every day...
...Here is legislation for consumers everywhere—in civic groups, women's clubs, co-ops, and labor unions —to promote, demand, and work for...
...In the field of drugs, there is no other way to check the control methods used by manufacturers to insure purity, potency, and correct labels on products which often mean life or death to the patient...
...What are their backgrounds and their connections...
...He blames housewives for their widespread use of irritating detergents and insistence on getting their hands, without gloves, into antiseptic solutions, polishes, bleaches, and other cleansing agents...
...The names are dull and difficult, and so, I might add, are the official releases...
...Since credit restrictions (Regulation W) were removed last May, installment buying has zoomed to what some experts regard as a dangerously high peak...
...Even though most food manufacturers do establish the safety of new ingredients before using them in foods offered for sale, "most" are Jiot enough...
...A similar proposal last year never reached a vote . . . In a survey of 1,000 families who bought new homes during 1950, 45 per cent reported that although they were generally satisfied with their new housing facilities, closet and storage space wasn't ample . . . How long will a white broadcloth shirt last...
...A 15-page booklet, illustrated with line drawings, containing suggestions on the arrangement of storage facilities and for building storage items...
...Watch for the appropriations made to these agencies, to give them the manpower and facilities to carry out their purpose...
...One section of the food and drug act authorizes government agents to enter and inspect factories or processing plants after receiving permission from the owners...
...Notable are the ideas on special storage for work clothes, children's clothes and toys, and sewing supplies...
...Advice for indoor gardeners on pots, soils, watering methods, and diseases...
...C. W. Crawford, FDA Commissioner, has emphasized that "adulterations can best be detected at their source by going into the plant and seeing what is being done...
...Similar testing of food additives or chemicals is not legally required...
...Saving and Buying One of the paradoxes of the period is that we are saving at record high levels and, simultaneously, buying with abandon on the installment plan...
...In those instances where soluble filth gets into the product itself, laboratory analyses cannot be relied upon to detect it, and here again factory inspection evidence is essential...
...For maximum wear, the study recommended keeping starch to a minimum, hanging instead of folding and buttoning (who has the closet space...
...Clearly the purpose intended in the food and drug act was to give the FDA the enforcement teeth to carry out its work of detecting adulteration and mislabeling of foods, drugs, and cosmetics...
...Meanwhile, retail food prices have remained high and the prices farmers paid for food, appliances, and cars have gone up...
...Are they men or women likely to put public interest ahead of private...
...American Consumer, particularly when he buys an automobile," said the Journal of Commerce last November, "is stretching his credit dangerously thin . . . Too many people with four-cylinder incomes are buying eight-cylinder cars...
...With high personal incomes and full employment, most consumers seem in no mood to worry about their credit payments...
...Watch for the appointments to regulatory agencies such as those mentioned above...
...A single copy is free from Extension Service, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash...
...And keep an eye out for the appropriations to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and to the Bureau of Human Nutrition and to the Anti-Trust division of the Justice Department...
...Under the 1938 law, new drugs must be tested by the Food and Drug Administration to insure their safety before being placed on sale at drug counters...
...Another section of the act makes it a criminal offense to refuse to permit entry "as authorized" in the first section...
...Tests made by the experiment station at Texas A & M found that a shirt could be worn 68 times if sent to a commercial laundry after each wearing, a few more times if laundered at home...
...Most" Are Not Enough On legislation, will the Administration support the Delaney Committee's recommendation for requirement by law of adequate testing of new ingredients—food additives or chemicals—in food products before they are put on sale to the public...
Vol. 17 • March 1953 • No. 3
