54 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



arrangement, or where monopoly operates, to pnt the combined product 

 of many factories into the market under that trade-mark which is 

 most in favor with consumers the public have no remedy at trade-mark 

 law. The large wholesalers oppose the proposition to have the label 

 tell, under all circumstances, the name of the real manufacturer. The 

 independent manufacturing firms strongly favor it. There is nothing 

 so fatal to monopoly or so stimulating to the competition of individual 

 merit as where law requires an article of merchandise to be always 

 identified in the market with the name of the person or firm who 

 made it. 



Congress has passed several laws relating to inspection and cor- 

 rect labeling. In 1890, a law was passed authorizing the inspection of 

 meats intended for export, and forbidding the importation of adulter- 

 ated foods and drugs. In 1891, the meat inspection provided for in the 

 act was extended to meats intended for interstate shipment. The pro- 

 visions of this law were further extended in the Appropriation Act of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture for 1905 to apply to 

 daily products intended for export. In 1896 congress provided for the 

 bottling of genuine whiskey in bond and its identification to the con- 

 sumer by means of a tax stamp over the cork. In 1897 a law was 

 passed prohibiting the importation of inferior teas, and providing for 

 a board of experts to adopt standards by which to measure the quality 

 of imported teas. The law and the provision authorizing this board 

 of standards have been held to be constitutional by the United States 

 Supreme Court. During the war with Spain a special tax was levied 

 upon certain products, among them adulterated flour. The tax stamp 

 served to identify the flour subject to this tax, and the business was at 

 once destroyed. In repealing the war taxes the act relating to adul- 

 terated flour was not repealed. 



In 1896 Congress passed an act providing for the taxing and label- 

 ing of filled cheese. Oleomargarine was a subject of federal legislation 

 as early as 1885. This act was passed as a tax measure, and in con- 

 nection therewith provided for the proper labeling of oleomargarine. 

 This law was amended in 1902, fixing the tax on oleomargarine, colored 

 to resemble butter, at ten cents per pound, and on the uncolored at 

 one fourth of one cent per pound. It also taxes renovated butter, and 

 requires it to be so branded. 



The Appropriation Act of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture for 1903 and subsequent appropriation acts have authorized 

 the Secretary of Agriculture to put into effect the act of 1890 relating 

 to the importation of adulterated foods and drugs, and to adopt and 

 fix standards for guidance in the enforcement of the law. Appropria- 

 tion acts of the Department of Agriculture have also authorized the 

 study of the effect of antiseptics and artificial colors on the human 

 system. It was under these acts that the chief of the Bureau of 



