VERMONT DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. Ill 



Dairy and Food Legislation, 



Address of H. C. Adams, Madison, Wisconsin, delivered before the Annual 

 Meeting of Vermont Dairymen's Association held at Burlington, 

 Vermont, January 7, 1904. 



This is an age of honesty and of fraud, of progress and of decadence, 

 of Christianity and of infidelity. The warfare of arms seems to be 

 nearly over. The struggle for individual gain and for commercial su- 

 premacy by nations was never more fierce. The great battlefields of to- 

 day are the world's markets. The real kings are the sovereigns of indus- 

 try. The steel battleships of civilized nations are built rather to protect 

 trade than national honor. Human greed was never greater than now, 

 and the intelligence that directs it never so great. Laws to compel 

 honesty and decency were never so comprehensive as now, and the 

 necessity for them was never so great. Modern invention has brought 

 new blessings and given birth to new crimes. The burglar-proof safe 

 is a wonder of mechanical skill, but the modern thief tears it to pieces 

 with the harnessed power of electricity. The Red Cross and the 

 Salvation Army follow suffering and poverty to battlefields and slums 

 end municipalities hand over their government to public robbers. 



It is a busy age with startling contrasts of light and darkness, of 

 good and evil. Here in the United States we are endeavoring to give 

 the world a model in government. We are a long way from perfection, 

 but we are doing some things pretty well. The strong arm of state 

 and national law is being invoked more and more each year to stop the 

 stupendous frauds of which manufacturers and dealers in food products 

 have been guilty. There is no better field for legislative action. 



Every State in the Union now has dairy and food laws of more or less 

 efficiency. Twenty states have dairy and food commissioners to enforce 

 these laws. Food adulteration is always a fraud upon the pocket. It is 

 often an assault upon the health. The man who buys pepper made 

 largely of ground pepper shells is simply cheated out of his money. The 

 man who buys milk preserved with formaldehyd is cheated out of his 

 health. The purchaser of lemon extract that does not contain, as is 



