Newspaper Page Text
The Atlanta Georgian
“Nothing Succeeds Like—THE GEORGIAN"
AND NEWS
"Nothing Succeeds Like—-THE GEORGIAN”
r"y()L. vn. NO. 312.
ATLANTA, GA., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7,1909.
PPT/'n?. In Atlanta—TWO CENTS.
JTon Train*—FIVE CENTS.
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What “Pure Food” Means
to Humanity
By F. L. SEELY,
P URE FOOD is a term that is not clear to the majority of the
people.
Everybody wants good food and tries to havp it, but
“pure food” and the new “pure food laws” are not’ exactly
understood.
Fifty years ago the flour was ground at home or at the vil
lage mill. . ’
The meats were smoked at home. The pickles and preserves
and ketchups were made at home in the old-fashioned way—
their preservation lay.in the art of cooking, aided by sugar and
pure vinegar—the flour was, honest flour, not whitened chemical
ly, nor robbed of its life-giving properties for the sake of looks.
In 1830 a successful railroad was operated; fifty years ago
the lines of rnilroads were covering the cotintry.
Telegraphs were bringing distant points ncarey, and the
mails were growing.
The village millers saw Minneapolis-produce as much flour
as ten thousand villages could use.
We have seen mighty slaughter houses that convert a drove
of cattle into every conceivable product and by-product down to
toilet soap, digestive ferments and glue, and we havo seen the
few dozen jars of pickles and preserves replaced by tho fifty-
seven varieties that swallow up a carload of fruits or vegetables
as quickly as our ancestral mothers could handle a basketful.
No harm in all of this of itself, it is true.
Tho bringing together of tho mighty forces of capital has
given us cheaper foods and has gone a long way toward mak-" /
ing us the greatest nation on earth today, but these great food
factories found it necessary to employ chemists; a great many
chemists are more anxious to demonstrate their skill than to pro
tect the stomachs of humanity from chemicals; so wo find that
with seventy-five to eighty millions of people for a market' and
no law restricting the use of chemicals in foods, the butcher be
gan to find it profitable to preserve and redeem meat with for
maldehyde, a powerful chemical and - disinfectant, and to make it
look red by the use of saltpeter. v
The miller found that .he could remove the oily parts of tho
wheat kernel and with the aid, of chemicals produce a perfectly
white article.
Preserves, “like mother used to make,’’pickles and ketchups
began to flood the. market, and in the place of the quantities of
pure materials and skill, that mother used in making these pre
serves, nnd ketchups and pickles, we found glucose, salicylate
of soda (the cheap coal tar kind), benzoate of soda in large
quantities, artificial coloring that made ketchups look like ’
red paint, fusel oil in alcoholic liquors, lime in sugars and medi
cines adulterated.
We will gfant-that the pure food laws, when they came
along, went a little too far, and brought down on them a great
deal of antagonism,Its is the case with most reforms, but since
they have gone quietly into effect and the actions of the pri
vately hired chemist are watched by the government-paid chem-
Publisher The Georgian, v
ist, the butcher leaves out the formaldehyde and the potassium
nitrate.
The miller has been instructed not to bleach his flour with
chemicals.
. The pickier and preserver may not use chemicals And colors
except very small amounts of sodium benzoate which it has
been found is not injurious in small quantities, but must be
shown on the label, and the chemist must tell the public if he is
selling poison. So, take the matter as a whole, the honest manu
facturer has been relieved of unfair competition and the stomachs
of eighty millions of people have a better chance.
It is inconceivable that this branch of the world’s industries
should have been neglected so long.
The foods and agriculture of the world are tho largest and
most important of all; nnd it seems to us highly proper that the
government should throw around these industries every protec
tion and attention.
The value of farm products of the nation for last year (1908)
was the greatest in history—$7,780,000,000. This is four times the
value of the mines, including all the gold and silver and the
mineral oils.
The greatest crop was corn, with 2,643,000,000 bushels.
The wheat crop was worth $620,000,000, the greatest in his
tory.
The oat crop, $321,000,000.
The total value of cereals alone was $2,694,000,000.
The nation’s meat bill is over $3,000,000,000. Each family
in the United .States eats over 1,000 pounds of meat a year, and
the government was called upon to inspect in the year 1908, 53,-
996,511 animnls before slaughtering.
One hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred nnd
twenty-six enreasses and nearly a million parts were condemned.
n * Three-fourthA of the cattle condemned had tuberculosis.
So, take the matter as a ( whole, what do we find! Simply a
-great, big, overgrown nation that in less than a hundred years
has grown from eating from the kitchen to eating from the great
factories, and only within the past few years have any decided
steps been taken to control the doings of the food producers.
We find that the big, honest'manufacturers who have striven
to keep quality foremost are at the head nnd front of the pure
food movement, some even fighting to have the government re
strict the use of chemicals that arc even now permissible.
We find that at last the greatest branch of industry the
• world knows is having recognition, and we find Atlanta taking
her part in crowning the uncrowned king of the earth’s products
—our foods. The Georgian has lent its hand nnd its heart
and its head to. make this, the first attempt, a success, and we
call on all our people.to give the attention so great an event de
serves and to visit the exhibits and become acquainted with food
values and improvements that you know not of; and to the
faithful workers who have labored so hard to bring about this
grand movement we say.Godspeed.