1030 



Dec. 20, 1906 



American Dee Journal 



quite willing to bury the hatchet, and 

 forgive him for the part he has taken 

 in securing this Pure Food Law. 



C. P. Dadant. 



We agree fully with Mr. Dadant in 

 what lie says in the foregoing. And we 

 believe that there is a brighter day ahead 

 for honey-producers, because of the in- 

 creased prices they will be able to se- 

 cure for their honey just as soon as the 

 new Pure Food Law is enforced, so that 

 honey will not need to come in competi- 

 tion with glucose and other adulterants 

 which it has had to meet in the open 

 market. Food products will have to be 

 sold for what they are hereafter, and 

 judging from what we have heard al- 

 ready, retailers are beginning to be 

 mighty careful to know just what they 

 are offering as honey. 



Gleanings has done a good thing in 

 preparing and publishing the following, 

 which will well repay reading again if 

 you have seen it before : 



The New National Pure-Food Law; Its Pro- 

 visions, Penalties, and Scope. 



The Hepburn pure-food bill, one of the most 

 important measures that ever passed Congress, 

 became a law on June 30 of this year, but 

 will not be in force until January 1, 1907. 

 I have before me a copy of the law, and the 

 ruks and regulations applying to said law as 

 they were prepared by the Secretaries of the 

 Treasury, of Agriculture, and of Commerce 

 and L,abor. That the new law has "teeth" in 

 it, can not be denied. It is going to do more 

 to wipe out adulteration and misbranding than 

 anything that has ever been done before in 

 half a century. While in a sense it is re- 

 stricted to interstate and territorial business, 

 yet its practical working effect will be to pre- 

 vent the dishonest food and medicine purvey- 

 ors from doing business in any State, whether 

 it has a pure-food law or not. No glucose 

 mixer or adulterator, after Jan. 1st next, will 

 dare put his goods on the market again ; for 

 if he does he is liable to run up against Uncle 

 Sam in a way that will not only subject him 

 to a heavy fine, but may put him behind the 

 bars where he will stay for a time. It is a 

 well-known fact that law-breakers are far more 

 afraid of United States officials than mere 

 State officers. 



It is vitally necessary that every bee-keeper 

 and honey-seller know something about this 

 new law. Even honest men might inadver- 

 tently become entrapped; and it is important, 

 alike for both the law-abiding as well as the 

 would-be law-breaker to know what the law is. 

 In a general way it makes it a crime against 

 the United States to misbrand or adulterate 

 any food product, medicine, or liquor, without 

 showing the exact contents on the outside of 

 the package. In any State where there is no 

 pure- food law one may adulterate and mis- 

 brand as before, providing his products do not 

 go beyond the limits of that State. But the 

 moment they pass beyond the border-line into 

 another State he is liable to fine and impris- 

 onment. There is where the rub is. Inas- 

 much as it would be impossible to do a strictly 

 within -the- State business, the practical working 

 effect of the law would be that misbranding 

 and adulterating will have to stop on every 

 foot of ground owned or controlled by any 

 State or by the United States as a whole. 

 The law goes further. One can not adulterate 

 or misbrand goods that are to be used for 

 export into a foreign country without taking 

 fearful chances. 



Penalties. 



Any person who shall violate any provision 

 of this law relating to an interstate or terri- 

 torial business shall be guilty of a misde- 

 meanor, and shall, on conviction, be fined 

 not to exceed $500, or be sentenced to one 

 year's imprisonment, or both; such fine and 

 imprisonment to be at the discretion of the 

 court. For each subsequent offense and con- 

 viction he shall be fined not less than $1,000, 

 or sentenced to one year's imprisonment, or 

 both, at the discretion of the court. 



The penalty for exporting misbranded or 

 adulterated goods will be $200 for the first 

 offense, and $500 for a succeeding offense, or 

 to be imprisoned, one year, or both, at the 

 discretion of the court. 



Guarantee op Purity Required. 



A special feature of this bill is that no 

 dealer in food or drug products will be liable 

 to prosecution if he can show that the goods 

 were sold under a guarantee of ^urity from 

 the wholesaler, manufacturer, jobber, dealer, 

 or other party residing in the United States, 

 from whom purchased. It is proper to remark 

 right here that it is very important that every 

 purchaser of honey or beeswax secure from 

 each wholesaler, jobber, or producer, that the 

 goods purchased are guaranteed by him to be 

 pure. In the event that it is found afterward 

 that they are adulterated or misbranded, the 

 presentation of this guarantee by the dealer 

 will protect him, when proceedings will be 

 taken up against the maker of the guarantee, 

 and he, in turn, as I understand the law, can 

 go back to the original oroducer, provided, 

 of course, that he, in turn, is protected also 

 by a guarantee of purity from said producer. 

 As I understand it, this guarantee will not 

 apply in any case where the original package 

 in which the goods were received has been 

 broken and the goods have been put into other 

 packages. 



It will come to pass that, before a sale can 

 be consummated, a guarantee of purity will 

 have to be furnished. When the examina- 

 tion or analysis shows that the food or drugs 

 are adulterated, the dealer furnishing such 

 goods shall be duly notified. 



Procedure when Adulteration or Misbrand- 

 ing has been Detected by a United 

 States Officer. 



Section 4 of the law is liberal toward the 

 suspected offender in that it gives him a 

 chance for a hearing before the actual penalty 

 is applied. When examination or analysis 

 shows that he is possibly or probably guilty, 

 notice is served to him or to the parties from 

 whom he obtained the goods, or who exe- 

 cuted the guarantee as provided in the law. 

 A date is fixed by the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, or such other official connected with the 

 food and drug inspection service as may be 

 commissioned by him for that purpose, when 

 a hearing shall be held. Said hearing shall 

 be in private, and shall be confined to ques- 

 tions of fact. If it be shown that a mistake 

 has been made, the parties shall be discharged; 

 but if it be shown that he is guilty, the fact 

 will be published, and in addition the offender 

 will he subject to the penalties already men- 

 tioned. 



The adulterators of fond products fear pub- 

 licity more than anything else. They do not 

 care so much about a small fine, but Uncle 

 Sam has fixed it so that the law-breakers 

 shall get a big fine, s<>me free advertising, 

 and, in addition, a free ride, perhaps, to 

 prison. No wonder there was a tremendous 

 glucose lobby present to kill or weaken the 

 measure when it was before Congress. No 

 wonder the liquor and patent-medicine people 

 feared it. 



Misbranding, or Labeling Honey as Coming 

 from One Apiary that was Produced • 

 in Another. 



Not only is it made a crime against the 

 United States to misbrand an article of food 

 by putting out a cheap substitute under the 

 name of something better, as, for example, 

 a glucose mixture for honey, but it will also 

 be unlawful to sell a pure honey under a label 

 showing that it came from some particular 

 apiary when, as a matter of fact, it was pro- 

 duced in another. Let us take a concrete 

 case: Mr. John Jones has purchased a lot of 

 labels that read: "Pure Honey from the Apiary 

 of John Jones." We will say he has pro- 

 duced 1 0,000 pounds of extracted honey. He 

 has a right to use this label on all the honey 

 he produces in his apiary or apiaries, but on 

 no other, however Pure. He builds up a big 

 trade, and there is more demand for his goods. 

 His 10,000 pounds of his own production is all 

 gone. He goes out into the open market and 

 buys more honey of the same source, no bet- 

 ter and no worse than he produces in his own 

 yard ; but if he uses the same label to put 

 out this honey he will be rendering himself 

 liable, if I understand the law. It is true 

 no chemist could ever show whether the honey 

 bearing such labels was produced in his apiary 

 or not; but other evidence might show a mis- 

 branding, and our Mr. Jones would be up 

 against Uncle Sam in a way that would kill 

 him before his old trade. 



The law does not prevent him, however, 

 from adopting a trade label of wider scope 

 reading something like this: "Pure Clover 



Honey put up by John Jones." Under this 

 label he may sell his own honey and that 

 which he purchases. But^ just the moment 

 he buys a mountain sage or a pure bass- 

 wood, and sells it under that label, he will 

 be rendering himself liable again. If he de- 

 sires to have a stock label that will apply to 

 both white, red, and alfalfa clover honey he 

 can use the words : "Pure Clover Honey put 

 up by John Jones," for alfalfa is a clover 

 the same as sweet or red clover. He might, 

 in my opinion, without being liable, put up a 

 blend of white clover and alfalfa; but if he 

 desired to make a blend of clover and bass- 

 wood or sage honey, he had better adopt 

 the wording, "Pure Extracted Honey, put up 

 by John Jones." In every case, when John 

 Jones buys honey he will do well to require 

 the seller to give him a guarantee of purity. 

 The law is very clear in making it unlawful 

 to represent that a certain food product was 

 produced in any particular State when, as a 

 matter of fact, it came from another State. 

 To illustrate, no more can Ohio cheese be 

 sold as York State cheese. In the same way, 

 Wisconsin honey could not be put up under 

 the name of York State honey without ren- 

 dering somebody liable. 



Form op Guarantee. 



As I have already stated, it is quite im- 

 portant that every bee-keeper, when he buys 

 honey from some other bee-keeper, jobber, 

 or dealer, make him give a guarantee of pur- 

 ity. The guarantee suggested is as follows: 



I [we] the undersigned do hereby guarantee 

 that hone* or beeswax shipped, distributed, or 

 sold by me [us] [specifying the same as fully 

 as possible] is not adulterated or misbranded 

 within the meaning of the food and drugs 

 act, June 30, 1906. (Signed in ink.) 



Our customers are asking us to furnish this 

 guarantee, and we in turn are asking those 

 who furnish us honey or beeswax to give 

 us the same guarantee. No producer or job- 

 ber should hesitate to furnish such a writ- 

 ing: for the moment he hesitates, that mo- 

 ment his goods will be under suspicion. 



General Effect of the Law. 



There are many other provisions of this 

 law ; but those already given are the princi- 

 pal ones that relate to bee-keeping. Suffice 

 it to say, its general provisions apply equally 

 to all products, medicines, and liquors. m No 

 more can a medicine be sold under an inno- 

 cent name and yet contain some powerful 

 poison, unless the exact amount of such 

 poison as well as other ingredients be stated 

 on the label. Thousands of people have died 

 as the result of liquor, cocaine, strychnine, 

 and other deadly poisons administered in medi- 

 cines having an innocent name. 



The effect of this provision of the law is 

 going to be to drive a lot of dangerous pro- 

 prietary medicines out of the market. As 

 soon as the dear public knows what these 

 innocent-sounding medicines are, it will leave 

 them severely alone, and it ought to. 



This national Dure-food law may rope in 

 some innocent bee-keepers and other well- 

 meaning persons; but it is their business to 

 know the law, and Gleanings has taken this 

 opportunity to inform them. 



Every pound of honey that one buys of 

 somebodv else should be covered by a guar- 

 antee, else the purchaser may assume a great 

 risk; and, further, the label shall not be mis- 

 leading in any manner whatsoever. 



Honey as a Health- Food. — This 

 is a 16-page honey-pamphlet intended to help 

 increase the demand for honey. The first 

 part of it contains a short article on il Honey 

 as Food," written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It 

 tells where to keep honey, how to liquefy it, 

 etc. The last part is devoted to " Honey- 

 Cooking Recipes" and "Remedies Using 

 Honey." It should be widely circulated by 

 those selling honey. The more the people are 

 educated on the value and uses of honey, the 

 more honey they will buy. 



Prices, prepaid— Sample copy for a 2-cent 

 stamp; 50 copies for 70 cents; 100 for $1.25; 

 250 for $2 25; 500 for $4.00; or 1000 for $7.50. 

 Your business card printed free at the bottom 

 of front page on all orders for 100 or more 

 copies. Send all orders to the office of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



