194 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
individual effort or interest but is placed on public officials who are sup- 
posed to regard the interests of the whole community. 
In many states the laws against adulteration are good enough, but 
they lack the vitality of a public prosecutor whose official duty it is to 
enforce them. What, think you, would the law against oleomargarine and 
butterine amount to if left to individual and isolated effort to enforce it? I 
am sure it would be violated every day in the year. But where a dairy 
commissioner is on the alert, backed by a live dairy association, the state 
of affairs is quite different. The laws against the adulteration of all foods, 
medicines and drugs ought to be enforced in the same manner, through 
a food commissioner, who, if efficient and honest, can drive adulteration out 
of the market. 
If any one prefers to buy oleo for butter, or glucose for honey, he 
should be permitted to do so, for I believe in the largest liberty of the 
citizen consistent with the public good; but every article put upon the 
market for food or medicine should be branded truthfully, and any mis- 
branding or misrepresentation ought to be made a crime and punished ac- 
cordingly. 
No legitimate industry can live against the competition of fraud and 
deceit, and I am sure you will agree with me that honey can not be pro- 
duced and sold at a profit in competition with glucose, if the latter is per- 
mitted to sail under the flag of ‘““Pure White Clover Honey.” Glucose is a 
legitimate article of commerce, and if it is healthful as claimed, why can’t it 
stand on its own merits? Why must it be labeled what it is not? Why be 
palmed off for some higher priced luxury, with which it can never com- 
pete except under an assumed name 
I know of no way to successfully combat the evil tendencies of modern 
trade in the direction of adulteration and misbranding, than for all or- 
ganizations interested in the purity of foods, medicines or beverages to unite 
in the demand for proper remedial state legislation and to urge also upon 
congress the passage of a bill regulating the interstate feature of com- 
merce protecting states which have adequate pure food laws from being 
flooded, under the original package idea, with adulterated goods from the 
outside. 
The United States Bee-Keepers’ Association has stood and will stand 
for the enactment of such measures as shall place all food interests on an 
equal footing. No one interested party can bring the necessary pressure to 
bear upon congress, but where all organizations that prefer honesty to de- 
ceit unite there can be no such word as fail. No manufacturers’ association 
dare go before a legislative body or committee and object to the branding 
of any article designed for human consumption other than in a truthful 
manner. . 
The National Association of Bee-Keepers, after having given the mat- 
ter of adulterations a good deal of study, recommends the passage, by 
congress, of the Brosius Bill, H. R. 12,190, introduced February 27, 1899, 
and it urges upon all bee-keepers the importance of active co-operation. 
A word to your congressman asking his support of this meritorious meas- 
ure will do good. This act covers the inter-state feature. 
You appear to have adequate state legislation and supervision in Min- 
nesota, and if the enforcement of pure food laws is difficult or impracticable 
here, I apprehend it is for the want of proper national enactments to supple- 
ment your own efforts. 
