488 The Bleached Flour Decision [April 



Judge McPherson of the lower court held that the meaning was to 

 be interpreted in the light of the piain purpose of the act and that 

 the intention was to prevent the addition of any poisonous sub- 

 stance, and in any quantity, which might render the article injurious. 

 According to the new ruHng the government must prove that the 

 added poisonous substance is in sufficient quantity so that it w^ould 

 render the food injurious. To a piain man this reading appears 

 directly contrary to the purpose of the act, which clearly was to 

 Protect the people against the addition of any substance of a known 

 poisonous character to foods. 



This is another example of courts deciding against the people 

 and in the interest of "big business." The bleaching of flour 

 Profits no one but the miliers; no one claims that it improves the 

 flour. Its taste is injured as the Government showed. If it is 

 not to conceal inferiority so that a higher price can be had for the 

 flour, why do the miliers use the process? Such decisions furnish 

 additional argument for the recall of judges and decisions. There 

 can be no question as to the verdict of the people on this case w^re 

 it submitted to them. 



There would seem to be no reason, so far as this decision is 

 concerned, why small amounts of arsenic, strychnin or other poisons 

 could not be added to food with impunity. But what shall we say 

 of physiologists and physicians who testify, for a price, that a food 

 is not rendered injurious by the addition to it of small amounts 

 of poisons? Is it more charitable to believe that they lack char- 

 acter or ability? 



M. C. 



A Committee on Occupational Diseases in the Chemical Trades 

 was appointed by the New York Section of the American Chemical 

 Society in February 1912. The objects of the Committee may be 

 Occupational diseases specifically stated as follows : 



in Chemical trades i. To hold itself ready to advise the Legis- 



lature of the States of New York and New Jersey in reference to 

 matters pertaining to occupational diseases in the chemical trades; 



2. To study various bills presented in the Legislatures in an 

 efTort to avoid unwise legislation; especially that which might be 



