FOOD STANDARDS COMMITTEE

Quite as important as the rules and regulations for carrying out the provisions of the law was dependable information respecting the methods of judging the quality of foods and drugs by standards which were legal and conclusive in their character. About the time of the beginning of the experimental work for determining the effect of preservatives and coloring matters upon digestion was originated the idea of establishing under proper authority standards of foods. Accordingly about 1902 a section was added to the appropriation bill of the Department of Agriculture, authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to appoint a committee of this kind. Similar action was taken by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. When this authority was secured the following named representatives of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations were selected for this very difficult and important work: Mr. M. A. Scovell, Director of the Agricultural Station of Kentucky, Mr. H. A. Weber, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry in the College of Agriculture of the State University of Ohio, Mr. William Frear, Assistant Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Pennsylvania, Mr. E. H. Jenkins, Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Connecticut, at New Haven, and Mr. H. W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, D. C.

FOOD STANDARDS COMMITTEE

Left to Right: Prof. M. A. Scovell, Director, Agricultural Station of Kentucky, H. A. Weber, Prof. Agricultural Chemistry, University of Ohio, Dr. William Frear, Assistant Director, Agricultural Experiment Station of Pennsylvania, Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director, Agricultural Experiment Station of Connecticut; Dr. H. W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture

This committee was enlarged subsequently by additional members, but the five original members remained as its nucleus and principal actors until the Secretary of Agriculture at the instigation of the Solicitor of that Department abolished the committee by having the authority for its continuance withdrawn from the appropriation bill. This, however, only temporarily prevented its activities. Subsequently, after the Chief of the Bureau resigned, it was reorganized and is still at work. The value of the contribution made by these five original members is almost incalculable. We had frequent meetings lasting for days at a time, usually held at the Department of Agriculture, but in many cases we met in other cities where it was more convenient for interested parties to attend. You may have some idea of the extent of our investigations by seeing the official papers piled up on the table before us, as shown in the illustration. The results of the deliberations of this committee were published from time to time by the Department of Agriculture as official documents. They have become the guide and director, not only of the national food law, but also they have been approved and adopted by the various states.

Before this committee also appeared practically the same interests which on the enactment of the food law appeared before the committee to establish rules and regulations to carry the law into effect. They continually presented their claims for indulgences before the Food Standards Committee. The character of this opposition has already been definitely illustrated. It was not based on ethical grounds but on individual and industrial interests without relation to the welfare of the consuming public.

The result of all these preliminary investigations shows the wisdom and timeliness of their inauguration. Had it not been for these fundamental investigations the Bureau of Chemistry would have been totally unprepared to have organized the machinery which immediately went into effect January 1, 1907.

It is hardly necessary to add. that all the conferences, indulgences and collaborations with vested interests which thereafter were resorted to as a means of defeating the purpose of the law have effectively nullified the efficiency of the standards originally established.

The Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce cannot be blamed for affixing their signatures to these documents. They assumed that these decisions were intended to carry the provisions of the law into effect. The Secretary of Agriculture stood in a different position. He knew the exact purpose of putting the decisions of the Remsen Board into effect. He boldly proclaimed that the Board was created to protect the manufacturers. Leaving his Solicitor to interpret the law, he was firmly convinced that these restrictions were legal and binding. He gave himself wholeheartedly to the effective plan of prohibiting the Bureau of Chemistry from exercising its duty to enforce the law according to its letter and spirit. The food and drugs law became a hopeless paralytic. It still breathed but its step was tottering and its hand shaky. The clot on its brain has become encysted. There is no hope that it will ever be absorbed. Only a capital operation will restore it to health.