8 



ter not positively injurious to health, such food, drugs, or liquors can 

 not be as nutritious and wholesome as the pure articles, and especially 

 important does this feature of adulteration become in the matter of 

 drugs used to pre\ 7 ent or cure disease. To be fed on debased and poi- 

 soned food, tainted or diseased meat, until the body sickens, is surely 

 bad enough, without the efforts of the physician to prevent or allay dis- 

 ease being frustrated, by his inability to secure unadulterated drugs and 

 remedies fitted to do his work. 



OUR EXPORT TRADE. 



Our export trade, of which so large a proportion consists of agri- 

 cultural products, is also suffering from the same cause, and here again 

 a heavy burden is laid upon our farmers. With the total of American 

 exports annually in the neighborhood of $700,000,000 of which 73 per 

 cent, consists of agricultural products, the force of these observations is 

 at once apparent. We have had many examples of the alertness with 

 which European governments seize every excuse for excluding, or embar- 

 rassing American export trade, while England, that most astute of all 

 governments, is putting forth herculean efforts to develop the resources 

 of its own colonies, and thus greatly increase the tremendous competi- 

 tion against which our farmers have to contend. It may not be amiss 

 to call attention also to the deplorable effect of this general system of 

 adulteration upon the morals of our people. Nothing has been, in 

 recent years, more startling than the fact, elicited by inquiry and inves- 

 tigation into food adulterations, that men standing well commercially 

 and socially, who would scorn apparently to do a dishonest action, 

 frequently misbrand their productions, selling articles of food branded 

 us pure, which they know to be impure. This fact was prominently 

 brought out during the lard investigation, when the heads of wealthy 

 and reputable firms unhesitatingly testified to the fact that they sold 

 compound articles of food branded pure. 



Other reputable firms, while disapproving of such methods, admitted 

 the practice of them, claiming that unless they adopted the methods of the 

 trade they would be driven out of business ; and one of the strangest 

 sights during the investigation referred to, was that of a dealer praying 

 Congress to enact laws which would compel him and his fellow-dealers 

 to do an honest business. We find that in other countries, notably in 

 England, all the power of the law is invoked to prevent such practices? 

 while in many of them laws have been enacted, directed against the 

 debased hog products manufactured in this country. 



The lard investigation brought into prominence another product, 

 namely 5 cotton-seed oil, as a comparatively new vegetable fat for culi- 

 nary purposes. Most authorities assert this product to be perfectly 

 harmless, while some few declare it to be injurious. However that may 

 be, it is shown to have been used extensively as a means of adulterating 

 both lard and butter, while it is probably sold as olive-oil more exten- 



