ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND MEDICINE 291 



Dakota, of real efficiency. Without doubt the universal press 

 agitation met the general demand for it, and was the control- 

 ling force that induced the senate in 1899 to appoint a com- 

 mittee to investigate food products, as for fifteen years food 

 bills have been up for passage in the senate. 



In April, 1904, in a speech on the bill pending, Mr. Hey- 

 burn said: ''Although twenty one or twenty two pure food 

 bills have been before the senate, this is the first time any one 

 of these measures has been discussed on the floor of the senate, 

 under any circumstances." (As the senate really passed a bill 

 which originated with the grange and which did not pass the 

 house, it must have passed without discussion.) 



The senate investigation committee was appointed after 

 the adoption of the following resolution: * 'Whereas it has 

 been for years publicly charged that in the manufacture of 

 articles of food and drink many manufacturers of the United 

 States who transport their goods from one state to another, do 

 most grossly adulterate such products, to the serious detriment 

 of the public health and to the defrauding of purchasers: 

 Therefore, resolved, that the committee on manufactures of 

 the senate is hereby authorized and directed to investigate and 

 ascertain what, if any, manufacturers are adulterating food 

 and drink products, and which, if any, of said products are 

 frauds upon the purchasers." 



Senator Mason of Illinois was chairman of the committee. 

 Several food manufacturers and chemists of national fame 

 testified before this committee in different cities of the United 

 States. The most important evidence was given by Dr. Wiley 

 who for many years has been chief chemist of the agricultural 

 department of the United States. He said that nearly every 

 kind of food in the market had been at some time adulterated, 

 or mis-branded, rendering it either harmful or fraudulent. 

 It was said that Davenport, Iowa, and other localities where 

 maples did not grow, made Vermont maple sjT'up, made it too 

 of cheap yellow sugar and vegetable extracts, sometimes ex- 

 tract of hickory bark. Dr. Wiley testified that he had had 

 occasion to make a careful examination of almost every variety 

 of food that had ever been upon our markets for sale, also 

 drinks, because you include in foods all the beverages and con- 



