LEGALIZING ADULTERATION OF FOODS

When these bills came before the House, the Bureau of Standards appeared as the chief protagonist of this effort to mutilate the Food Law. At the time the hearings were begun on March 2, 1926, a formidable array of opponents to the measure was on hand. Among these were Mr. George S. DeMuth, representing the bee-keepers, the Hon. Franklin Menges, representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, Mr. W. G. Campbell, chief of the Regulatory Service of the Department of Agriculture, Dr. George M. Kober,.eminent physician and Dean of the Georgetown University Medical School, and Mr. Harvey W. Wiley, farmer. Among the protagonists of this measure was Mr. Frederick Bates of the Bureau of Standards. Following is a brief outline of his testimony.

He said he did not feel it would ever be necessary to defend the creation of industries of such momentousi importance, and when the Bureau of Standards created crystallized dextrose, a carbohydrate of great food value, great stability, great purity, and great cheapness, it was deemed a waste of time to attempt to take out a basic patent on a subject in which the process of manufacture requires so many individual steps..He called attention to the fact that the Bureau of Standards for the first time in one hundred years had successfully crystallized manite and dextrose from.a water solution, and that is the crux of the whole matter.

He referred to the fact that there had been, he presumed, several hundred patents on the subject of dextrose. As an example he cited Mr. W. B. Newkirk, a practical sugar-maker.

"He was the man I sent to the Corn Products Refining Company to perform the first experiment, and he threw down four thousand pounds of chemically pure crystallized dextrose after forty years of failure."

Mr. Bates grew more enthusiastic as he was questioned in regard to whether Mr. Newkirk in his patents had mentioned any of the things discovered by the Bureau of Standards. Like the men in Buckram, these patents "grew apace." Finally (page 122) Mr. Bates said:

"I suppose 500 would be a conservative estimate of the number of patents on dextrose processes now in existence. Possibly there are 1000."

These patents must have been granted in foreign countries. Very few are found in our patent office, even including the six taken out by Mr. Newkirk after he left the Bureau of Standards.