AMERICAN FOOD PRODUCTS.

Evening Star, Issue 12881, 2 August 1906, Page 8

AMERICAN FOOD PRODUCTS.

— ■+■ ; Mr Champe Andrews,'counsel of-the Medical Society of the County of New York and .'( leader in the movement to put an end to the poisoning 'of the people by means of adulterated foods and patent medicines, writes to the New York ! of ‘The Times’ as follow? rho exposure, of the methods ;of the Beef Trust, / though, horrifying, fails to'carry its full'significance unless viewed as incidental and accidental exposure of a general system of adulteration and deception’in food products. Those familiar with the subject' know that the g-sed .of many producers of food and medical products in the United States is responsible for conditions in business that are positively, revolting. Fraudulent weights, infring-uumts of copyright and. labels, . and cheats and frauds of similar characters are the.'sina’Jc.-t .part of these evils." Substitution of base and injurious ingredients in botH-irugs ahu ft-cds is; practised. on a’ gigantic scale. Dangerous dyes, chemicals, and adulterants' are used wherever they can be substituted for more expensive materials. The one idea is‘to sell to, the pubUc_ as .baseman, article as .possible for as high a. price as possible. That the public are gradually awakening to the need of organisation in their own defence is shown by the call for a conference of public-spirited men and women and representatives from philanthropic, charitable, and religious bodies generally to meet in v New York in the autumn to discuss ways and means to suppress the adulteration of food products and the substitution of drugs and unrestricted sale of opium, alcohol, and poisons of many sorts in patent medicines. This movement, first suggested by me in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has been taken up by the Academy of Medicine in New York, the Civic Union of Philadelphia, and many other prominent organisations of the country. Though no public announcement has been made yet in the Press of the_ United States for. various reasons, it bids fair to be a reform movement as far-reaching in its plan and scope as any reform movement of tho last 100 years. The outcome will undoubtedly be the formation of a national society for the preservation of public health.”