ADMINISTRATION OF IMPORTANT REGULATORY LAWS 79 



raising the standards in the preparation of meat and meat 

 products. Until this is accomphshed the object of the law 

 cannot be fully realized. 



Another criticism which has been urged against the meat 

 inspection law is that it tends to defeat the purpose of the 

 earlier legislation passed to promote the live stock industry. 

 The validity of this criticism rests upon the degree of fair- 

 ness used in the administration of the law. Necessarily, 

 there must be something of a compromise between the pro- 

 tection of the health of the people and the protection of the 

 live stock industry. The loss which live stock producers 

 suffer in the rejection of animals considered unfit for food 

 is perhaps more than offset by the advantages such a system 

 of inspection affords in detecting, localizing and eradicat- 

 ing animal diseases. 



The Food and Drugs Act 



As has already been indicated, it is only within compara- 

 tively recent years that the federal government has con- 

 cerned itself directly with the protection and conservation of 

 health. For many years this was thought to be the province 

 and business of the States. However, in the tremendous 

 increase in the activities of the central government in other 

 matters directly and immediately affecting the lives and wel- 

 fare of individuals, a very considerable body of federal 

 health legislation has been gradually developed. At the 

 present time, each of the ten executive departments is en- 

 gaged directly or indirectly in the administration of one or 

 more acts of Congress designed primarily to safeguard the 

 health of the people." ' 



The food and drugs act," commonly called the " pure 

 food law," was approved the same day as the meat inspec- 

 tion act, June 30, 1906. Both were the outgrowth of previ- 

 ous statutes which had proved inadequate or ineffective. 



Briefly stated, the food and drugs act forbids the im- 



10 Report of the Solicitor of tiie Department of Agriculture, 1914. 

 " 34 Stat. L. 768. 



