104 



January and February will be relatively warm months as during the 

 winter of 1911, or bitter cold months as during the winter of 1912. In 1911 

 the warm months brought about a very large production of eggs, and conse- 

 quently eggs in storage were taken out at a loss to the owners. The possi- 

 bility of such conditions obtaining acts as a deterrent to the speculator, 

 and all data at hand shows that the manipulation of food prices is not 

 materially increased by the practice of cold storage. 



As above suggested, there have been desultory attempts to regulate the 

 cold storage industry by legislation. The government of the United States, 

 although it has discussed the enactment of such legislation for several 

 years, has as yet taken no action. Several States, however, have enacted 

 cold storage laws of varying character. The first cold storage law of 

 record, in the United States at least, was enacted by the State of Indiana 

 in 1911, similar legislation following in the States of New York and New 

 Jersey in the same year. In 1912 the National Association of Food Officials 

 gave to a committee the task of drafting a model cold storage bill. After 

 many months of careful work and investigation and after the revision of 

 several tentative drafts, the committee recommended as a model bill for 

 enactment in the several States a draft which during the legislative ses- 

 sions of 1913 was enacted in approximately its original form as a law in 

 the states of California. Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota, and by 

 authority conferred upon it adopted by the Louisiana State Board of Health 

 as the law for that State. In 1912 the Massachusetts legislature enacted 

 a cold storage law, drafted after a most comprehensive investigation of the 

 subject by a committee of the legislature appointed for that purpose. The 

 latest law at the time of writing is that enacted in the state of Pennsyl- 

 vania. The Pennsylvania law differs in several points from the model bill 

 and indeed froni the early legislation upon the subject, which will be 

 referred to in detail later. 



At the present time eleven States regulate the cold storage industry by 

 law. The State of Kansas regulates the storing of certain food products, but 

 has no general law. The Canadian government, appreciating the necessity 

 for developing a cold storage industry, in 1907, passed a cold storage act 

 entitled, "An act to encourage the establishment of cold storage warehouses 

 for the preservation of food products." This act, while primarily not 

 intended as a regulative measure, but rather drafted for the purpose of 

 subsidizing the construction of warehouses, is in effect regulative in that 



