PURE FOOD IN DANGER
Amidon, Beulah M.
PURE FOOD IN DANGER Decision in Whiskey Case Opens Way for Adulterated Foods. President Taft Must Act By BEULAH M. AMIDON MRS. AMIDON is chairman of the food sanitation committee of the General...
...Now Mr...
...The adulterators chose whiskey for their fight because they knew public sentiment would be little concerned about the adulteration of whiskey...
...If, as they ask, all kinds of whiskey may be sold under the general label "whiskey," so may all foods and drugs be sold under a general label that covers all forms of adulteration known to the "trade...
...Third: A chemical combination without any trace of maple syrup...
...All these forms were known in the "trade" as maple syrup...
...Through the press, the mail, the telegraph, and the spoken word, let the President hear the voice of the citizen...
...That is what the consumer has always understood by the term of "whiskey...
...At the time the pure food law was passed there were three main kinds in the "trade...
...Thus any interpretation of the law that will permit the adulteration of whiskey will apply equally to all foods and drugs...
...First: Straight whiskey made by distillation from grain...
...It is up to the public...
...Thus a statute which was intended to prevent deception in labeling is so construed as to immortalize by Act of Congress all existing deceptions...
...This is the identical argument made now by the whiskey men...
...The pure food act as construed by President Roosevelt, compelled an honest whiskey label...
...This will end if the Bowers decision is upheld, and the whiskey men will win the fight...
...It is not mentioned or referred to in the statute by name...
...Second: Whiskey made by a combination of alcohol and whiskey, with coloring and flavoring...
...The American people do not know it;—but that is part of the scheme...
...The pure food law knows whiskey only as a drug, or a food...
...She has been keeping a vigilant eye on the recent efforts of unscrupulous manufacturers to undermine the pure food law...
...Rests With Taft IF the people do not want honest labels telling the truth about the food which sustains them and for which they pay their money, President Taft will follow the advice of his Solicitor-General, approve the opinion, and in the end bring back upon the market the same class of bad goods that flooded the country in 1905, and against which the honest label is our only protection...
...The Bowers opinion, if approved, will restore the old deceptions...
...In the following article, she states clearly and forcefully the far-reaching effect of the Bowers decision—Editor's Note...
...What the Bowers Opinion Means PRESIDENT TAFT asked an opinion of Solicitor-General Lloyd Bowers as to the proper labeling of whiskey...
...Here is the gist of the Bowers opinion...
...At the time the pure food law was passed there were three main classes of whiskey...
...THE national pure food law is at stake in this whiskey fight...
...Second: Maple syrup combined with glucose or cane syrup...
...The Roosevelt-Bonaparte-Wiley decision compelled every article to bear a true label—one that honestly informed the consumer as well as the "trade...
...AMIDON is chairman of the food sanitation committee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs...
...but the last two were simply a fraud on the consumer...
...that the public did not know its flavor, and that their preparations were just as healthy and tasted better...
...All these forms were known in the "trade" as whiskey, but the constituency of the last two was unknown to the consumer...
...Third: Alcohol reduced by water and colored and flavored to resemble straight whiskey...
...Take maple syrup...
...Bowers holds that everything that was known in the "trade" as whiskey at the time the pure food law was passed may still be labeled as whiskey...
...The consumer does not know this...
...How It Works APPLY the Bowers opinion to any article of food...
...First: Straight maple syrup made from sap...
...As to him, they were simply clever forms of adulteration...
...but every food and drug adulterator in America knows it...
...While the pure food law was pending in Congress, the syrup concocters testified before the committee that there had been no pure maple syrup in the market for years...
Vol. 1 • July 1909 • No. 27
