11 



NEED FOR NATIONAL LEGISLATION. 



All of the State officials with whom I have consulted, or whose works 

 1 have read, unite in asserting that State legislation alone, can not pre- 

 vent adulteration, sophistication, and misbrandiug of the food supply, 

 and the evils that exist will continue until the Federal Government 

 exerts its powerful influence to put down these frauds, alike injurious 

 to health, morals, and fair trade. 



The writer, desiring to present the case in as clear a light as possi- 

 ble, and within reasonable limits, has selected from the mass of evi- 

 dence before him that only which bears the unmistakable stamp of 

 reliability and authenticity, and not nearly all of that. For the greater 

 convenience of the reader, the work is divided into various parts, as 

 follows : 



(1) A notice of the work done by the Department of Agriculture. 



(2) Extracts from reports of various State authorities and sanitary 

 bodies. 



(3) The necessity for inspection of animals intended for food both be- 

 fore and after slaughter. 



(4) Public opinion. Extract?, etc., together with a list of adulter- 

 ants used as far as obtainable. 



(5) A list of anti-adulteration laws and where to be found. 



Unless Congress takes steps to remedy this evil of debasing and 

 adulterating our food and other products our export trade is certain to 

 be seriously and disastrously affected, and among the many important 

 matters of legislation, that the next Congress will be required to act 

 upon, there will be none more important than that of legislation for the 

 prevention of food adulteration and the misbranding of food products. 



The bills reported to the Fiftieth Congress by the Agricultural Com- 

 mittee cover to a great extent the question of live-stock investigation, 

 and as this question has been coupled with the other, I submit a paper 

 on this subject which forcibly presents the necessity for this inspection. 



No legislation, unsupported by public opinion, is really effective, hence 

 I have collected and submit as fair an expression of public opinion upon 

 this question as space and time would permit. Such expressions will 

 be found in Part 4. 



During the process of the work confided to me, I have necessarily 

 accumulated a mass of evidence from the principal sources already in- 

 dicated, which it is unnecessary and perhaps useless to include within the 

 limits of this report. It has been necessary to confine myself to that 

 which in my judgment seemed to be sufficient to clearly prove the 

 widespread existence and the dangerous tendency, from a sanitary, 

 commercial, and also from a moral point of view, of this adulteration and 

 debasing of the food and drink supply of the entire country, as well as 

 of medical and remedial agents. The writer, however, is impelled to 

 state before presenting his conclusions, from the evidence in his posses- 



