FRAUDULENT TRADING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 11, 29 August 1911, Page 6

FRAUDULENT TRADING.

The Manchester Chamber of Commerce Monthly Record recently published a letter that was despatched Try the secretary to tire President .of tire Board of Agriculture on the subject of fraudulent sales of laid and snet substitutes. It appears that

. the deceptions are frequent and cou- ' siderable, and though it would be an offence against the law to dbsci ibe the substitutes as lard or suet, it is suggested that “in many, cases re- ! toilers simply expose the imitation j for sale without name, and that buy- | ers obtain it by simply naming the i price or by indicating the article on I counter.” As the articles “may bo ! harmless in themselves, and effecting in some degree the same purpose” as the genuine article, there is no intention to prohibit their sale. The contention of the Chamber of Commerce is that to refrain from a false trade description is not sufficient; it is necessary in the case of substitu--1 tions for food products that they should be conspicuously labelled with I a correct description, and to this end the Board of Agriculture is invited to publish official definitions of lard and suet as well as to introduce legislation on tiie subject. The law already compels provision dealers to mark margarine plainly, lost the purchaser should deceive himself; it would seem only fair to scrupulous dealers as well as to consumers that the same care should he required with other articles of food. The protection I of the purchaser, and especially of the simpleton purchaser, is an acknowledged function of modern Governments, and a Bill has recently been introduced into the United States Congress to amend the Pure Food and Drugs Act, and so to stop the sale of “worthless nostrums labelled with misstatements of fact as to their j physiological action.” The original [ Act has already been effectual in- stopping, false descriptions as to quantities and ingredients, but a decision of j tiro Supreme Court has determined { that the more fantastic falsehoods j about curative properties may be I maintained. It is a curious fact j that some of the defendants m tiio lowoi Courts pleaded guilty, but, as the “North American” puts it, “ev-

ery one of these offenders may, under the recent ruling of the Supremo Court, resume business, deal out the

stuff which he has admitted to be worthless, take tiie money of men and women- dying of cancer or Bright’s disease, and hasten victims / of pneumonia into their graves.” It may he agreed, however, "hat. it would be extremely difficult to limit the sanguine clement in drug advertisements', and there must still remain that insult to human intelligence, the testimonial. Nevertheless it would he a good lav/ that should compel any man who professes to sell a drug which cure's a disease or show in Court what ground, if any, he has for his belief. Most quaok medicine vendors would break down under the simplest lay examination.