52 ANNUAL REPOKT OF THE Off. Doc. 



on Sanitation of the National Canners' Association, which urges 

 sanitary legislation much more drastic and rigid than any Food 

 Commissioner in America has ventured to propose. 



What is needed is additional power on the part of the Dairy and 

 Food Commissioner to supervise the conditions of production, manu- 

 facture, sale and delivery, and, so far as it may be necessary, to safe- 

 guard the soundness of materials and the sanitariness of surround- 

 ings essential to the production and delivery of clean, sound foods. 

 Surely the policy of adopting modern methods for the prevention of 

 undesirable conditions is more rational than the condemnation of 

 products after their appearance upon the markets, for the former 

 method conserve the food supply, the latter tends to waste it. 



In this connection, I welcome the opportunity to call attention to 

 the progress made in some of our sister commonwealths in the elim- 

 ination of unsanitary conditions in food manufacture and sale, and to 

 note that these improvements have been secured without recourse to 

 more drastic procedure of the courts. The food agents in these 

 states visit not to punish, but to help. The introduction of methods 

 of scoring factories, warehouses and shops as to sanitary conditions 

 and the publication of scores, have developed a wholesome competi- 

 tion between food factories and food shops without the need for re- 

 course, except in very rare cases, to legal proceedings as a means for 

 obtaining obedience to the law and the marked improvement in sani- 

 tary conditions. There is no good reason for believing that the same 

 policy would not be likewise productive of desirable results in Penn- 

 sylvania. Under this policy, the Food Commissioner, cooperating 

 with the food producing and selling interests, does little more than 

 promote the organization of these interests for their self-improve- 

 ment. 



It is true that such a policy would be an innovation in connec- 

 tion with food control work in Pennsylvania. Constructive work on 

 the part of the Dairy and Food Bureau has in the past been prac- 

 tically impossible because there has been no legal authorization of 

 such action and no financial provision for its maintenance. There is 

 much ground for a complaint of injustice on the part of food pro- 

 ducers and sellers, when statutory offenses are created by laws of 

 very general scope, without some balancing provisions for assistance 

 to the producing interests in solving the new problems raised by the 

 new requirements. An attitude of reasonable consideration and help- 

 fulness on the part of the State toward those whose business is sub- 

 jected to those requirements should, it seems to me, appeal to every 

 sensible citizen. 



It may be objected that the suggested legislation would entail 

 large additional expense. But experience elsewhere has shown that 

 most of this work can be performed without any increase, or at least 



