The Sunday Oregonian., March 05, 1922, Magazine Section, Page 7, Image 93

THE SUNDAY OltEGOXIAX, PORTLAND, MARCH 5, 1922
MAN WHO GUARANTEES PURITY OF OUR NAT
W. G. Campbell Tells of Wonders Wrought Within Fifteen Years by the Bureau of Chemistry
of the Department of Agriculture, of Which He Is the Head, and Describes the Early Struggles
search staff, the chemists, which gave manufacture of candied orange peel,
the bureau its name. While we are are typical results of this investiga-
very proud of the work of our en- tion- The price of culled oranges in
forcement officers, we are none the California used to be IS a ton. The
less enthusiastic over the accom- price advanced to something like 130
I.l'shments of the research men of the a ton.
laboratories. Aside from examining
food. It is'th. business of these chem
ists, under the law,- to make investl-
BT WILLIAM ATHERTON DU PUT.
frw"iHIS government has had an
even ririeen years of me
pure food law," I said to the
man who sits in the one-time seat of
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. "What is the
difference between tbe food I buy at
the corner grocery today and that
which I purchased before Uncle Sam
clamped on the lid?'
W. G. Campbell, lanky, raw-boned,
strong-featured executive, through
all these years enforcement officer of
the pure food bureau, now Its head
as chief of the bureau of chemistry,
department of agriculture, threw out
his hands expostulatingly, palms out.
"It isn't the same food," lie said.'
There is almost nothing sold today,
that. you once saw on the grocers'
counters. The consumer does not
realise the changes. They were slow
In coming, one at a time, but in 15
years the food supply of the nation
has undergone a complete change.
"1 "remember very well when we
began enforcement in 1907. We were
a new agency of the government cre
ated after much agitation. Pure food
was the prime sensation of the dec
ade, followed a little later by conser
vation. Congress gave us a law to
force. We knew little about how
to proceed. Wo bad no trained en
forcement officers.
"In those days, however, it was like
hunting in a new country overrun
with game. There was no difficulty
In finding material upon 'which to
work. One had but to send an agent
around the corner, and tell him to go
into the first grocery store, and take
down the finit food package he saw
on the first shelf. He would take
this package- around to the labora
tory and have it analyzed. It would,
in all probability, be found to violate
the law.
"Very likely, it would contain pre
servatives known to be injurious ta
ttle health and forbidden by the new
law. It had but to be traced back
to the packer responsible for it to
find a law breaker. It was prima
facie evidence against him. He might
be prosecuted or he might be merely
warned. Prosecution would come
with the second offense.
"Some manufacturers fought des
perately against giving up preserva
tives. They argued that they were
harmless and that foods could not b '
kept without them- " Put harmful
preservatives have not been use
these many years, although this has
not driven from the market the prod
ucts in which they were formerly
used. The bureau of chemistry
showed that preservatives were
needed only when the product was
unclean. If It' were kept clean" and
fresh, if it were properly sterilized
and then sealed, it would keej in
definitely. Filthy food required a
preservative, but not clean food.
Putting the ban on the preservative
made cleanliness necessary. The la
specifically covered fitness of foo4
from the standpoint of cleanliness,
but thus there was a double require
ment of this prime virtue..
"So the primary change in tbe foods
that you buy is that they are clean,
which they formerly were not, and
that they are without chemical pre
servatives." "I came to Washington from Ken
tucky," this man Campbell was say
ing, "as a youngster not long out of
"There is a left-over element of the
greatest of all American crops, corn,
the utilization of which has been a
dream of the scientific study of ag
riculture. The bureau of chemistry
has been working upon the problem
of utilisation of the corncob. It has,
is beljeves, finally demonstrated by
products which may be secured from
the corncob which will make it com
mercially profitable to retain and
work over that familiar discard. It
has been found in the first place
that corncobs yield a considerable
quantity of glue. It has been found
that they yield a good deal of cellu
lose, which is used in the manufac
ture of such articles as paper, gun
cotton, explosives, and which is ex
tensively used in the film industry.
It has been found finally, however,
that there is a product of corncobs,
furfural, which may have mora com
mercial possibilities than all the
rest. Furfural is a material which
can be used in the manufacture of
interstate and their enforcement of
ficers helped ours.
"Then there were the different
branches of industry. Tbe reputable
canners, for instance, wanted to ob
serve the law. They formed an asso
ciation to cleanse the industry and
keep it up to scratch. They tolioed
the industry. Associations grew up
in most of the food-preparing groups
that did much toward keeping those
groups honest."
Raised Platforms Handy in
Spring- and Fall Rains.
Desirability la Wet Weather
Shown Conclusively.
THIS real estate agent was endea
voring to impress Mr. Klinker
with the extreme desirability of the
house in Nearvllle. He opened the
door at the cellar stairs with a
flourish.
"We'll go down if you like,",' he said
briskly, "but you can sea there's
everything anybody could wish in. a
suburban cellar -hard cement bot
tom, whitewashed sides, good coal
such products as plpestems, combs and wood bins, approached by raised
and a great variety of useful and
ornamental articles. Tho value of
these various products is such that
it is believed that factories may be
established for their production. In
fact, such a factory of considerable
proportions is Just now being planned
for erection in the city of Phila
delphia. "Probably one of the most outstand-
ing discoveries of our scientific staff
was mads during the war by Dr. H. D.
Gibbs and C. C. Conover working in
our laboratories. Before tho war the
Germans had specialized in coal-tar
by-products from which dyes are
made and our scientists had not found
it necessary to master the problems
of dye making.
"There was a certain coal-tar prod
uct known as phthalic anhydrid
platform; furnace the same, set tubs
the same."
"What's the need of those raised
platforms you speak of?" asked Mr.
Klinker, peering into the darkness.
"Handy in the spring and fall
rains," said the agent. "Shows the
advantage of this location, that
they're all you need. Street below
this, I'm told, a small boat goes with
every cellar, but we don't handle that
street at all."
The Musical Reformer.
In Kentucky they tell of a colonel,
a fine officer in the old days, who
was a bit of a martinet. One day, it
seems, he sent for the leader of his
regimental band and thus criticised
its work:
"I have observed a lack of uniform
ity in tbe performance of this band
that must be remedied. Yesterday,
while on parade, the largest man in
the band was playing on a tiny bit
of an instrument a flue or some
thing of that sort and tho big drum
was being played by a midget of a
man. That kind of thing doesn't ldok
well at all. I want the big men to
play the big instruments and tho lit
tle fellows the little instruments. And
even ririeen years of me If - ' r - i I II
N
nV0'iiiil??.'i ill Nh.
ni- : JtU f a M
5S , ff jj there is another point. I want the
5sSt ASsrfL 1 -rSrj I L-"B55P trombone players to slide their in-
S?S5K? " 1 ' 1 1 -JZSZTtZZSm J sTii- " strumenta in and out in unison. It
? Ngi1' ' 1 C"-SSSt annoys me to see them all out of step
H, . I 7-.Ji " X. - V with their bands."
' -;3ppffii" " The) Lesser Evil.
" :e'i.1 which wa the basis for the tnanu-
j " " - . facturo of many dyes and many cbem-
' . ioals. We had been buying this
Is
W. G. Campbell, chief of the pure food
..t burrnu.
would never be able to make an im
pression. "Today the job la virtually finished.
Almost all food is good- Almost all
drugs are what they, purport to be.
We have made over the food and drug
and drink supply of the nation. There
were tbe so-called Iithia and radio
active waters that used to be popular.
They were largely without merit, and,
in the light of truth, have disap
peared. Milk preserved with formal
dehyde which the babies used to drink
is all gone. It is a different world,'
"The Spanish-American war came
a few years before the United States
la3 enacted a pure food law. One of
the outstanding features of that war
was the scandal which resulted from
the impure food that was supplied to
our fighting men, and the illnesses
and deaths which resulted from that
food. Th 'embalmed beef scandal of
the Spanish-American war wag gen
erally regarded as a national disgrace
and was a thing that stuck very deep
ly into the crop of the American
citizen.
"Time
passed and- the pure food
law came into being. More than a
decade was necessary to develop effi.
cient administration of it. Then came
the world war, an event in comparison
with which the Spanish-American war
sank into insignificance. Armies were
stupendous, supplies for them were
in such proportions as to appal him
who attempted to measure them. Yet
the world war came and went and
more than four million men, at home
and abroad, living under all sorts of
circumstances, were fed, and of these
4,000,000 men it was very rarely, in
deed, that a ' case was reported of
one who suffered from improper food,
and of all those mountains of rations
that were prepared and used no in
cident developed which reflected upon
their quality and excellence. Here, I
hold, by comparing the food of 1917
with that of 1898, is to be had a
nllv0 lllaf ""Pt 1 in ir n start in the
law. I had been doing some enforce- stupendous demonstration of the
ment work for the state and thought results that have been brought about
that a year in Washington would be
a helpful experience to me. But the
lure of the job got me the fascina
tion of spreading out an organiza
tion that would reach every corner
and country grocery of the nation;
that would warrant clean food and
honest food to each of the hundred
million. That is a guarantee that did
not exist until a decad and a halt
ago, a thing that has since that time
been made a reality. It has. been a
through the enforcement of this act.
and tbe transformation that has taken
place in the food of the nation.
"Aside from tho question of purity,
this enforcement of the law, fathered
by Dr. Wiley, has resulted in an ad
vancement j toward honesty in busi
ness which is almost beyond the pos
sibility of measuring. In the old days,
for example, it was quite the cus
tomary thing to put three sizes of
were of old. Here is a typical case
upon which we are now working.
''The manufacturers of Jellies find
that their ability to make a product
of the desirable physical constituency
depends upon the presence in the
fruits they use of that peculiar qual
ity which, will cause them to Jell. It
is an ingredient known as pectin
which causes a fruit Juice to jell.
"Now, in some fruits there is a
great deal of pectin and in some
fruits there is virtually none of it.
Strawberries, for instance, have little
pectin, and it is very difficult to make
strawberry Jelly or jam out of the
pure product, Apples, on tho other
hand, have a great deal of pectin and
apple Jelly gives the maker very little
trouble. This pectin in apples is a
very easy thing to extranet and may
be produced on an inexpensive basis.
Take apples, for instance, that are
not ef a marketable grade and that
are used in a press for the making of
cider. After the juice is pressed out
of them the residue still contains the
pectin, and it may be extracted as a
py-prpduct. A little of this pectin
may be introduced into crushed
strawberries Intended for Jelly or
jam, and it will cause that substance
to jell in a very satisfactory manner.
"When" a small quantity of apple
pectin is used In the strawberries for
this purpose we regard it as still legi
timate that the jelly resulting should
be labeled 'strawberry Jelly. Since
tbe apple pectin is much cheaper-than
the crusned strawberries, and it en
lot of satisfaction to go along with cans of a given product on the market ables the manufacturer to add large
and label them'on-pound cans,- two- quantities of water and suger, the
pound cans' and 'three-pound cans,' temptation on tha part of the pro-
when, as a matter of fact, the 'one- ducer is, therefore, to increase the
, it. - -
"Do you remember the fight that
some of the tomato catsup people
made for the use of preservative? It
took years to convince them that
their catsup would not spoil f It
was made 'Of clean, fresh tomatoes.
There is no falling off of the supply
of catsup and no harmful chemicals
pound cans' contained about two-
thirds of a pound, the 'two-pound
cans' contained about a pound and a
half, and tha "three-pound cans con
tained a little over two pounds. Goods
were quite generally put up in these
are used today. The product is merely deceptive packages and sold in this
kept clean. way.
"And do you remember the unre- "The food and drug act as original-
etricfed deception as to the contents ly passed required that if the quantity
of the drugs which were so vigorous- of contents in the package was stated
i fici ahunHan'iv rirt? it must be correctly stated. To be
quantity, of it and to decrease the pro
portion of strawberries. The ques
tion then comes as to' where the line
should be drawn. How much apple
pectin can be used in making a prod
uct which may be legitimately called
strawberry jelly? This is a problem
for tbe interpretation of the'bureau
and possibly .of the courts.
.
"In this problem there is an excel-
A New York man tells of an excit
ing bear hunt in Mississippi. The bear
was surrounded in a small cane
phthalic anhydrid from the Germans, thicket. The dogs could not get him
During tho war it cost as high as out, and the gentleman who was at
$7.50 a pound. Dr. Gibbs and Mr.
Conover, in our laboratories, worked
upon the problem of the economical
manufacture of this product and
finally succeeded in developing a
method which apparently was much
the head of the hunting party called
to one of the darkles:
"Gus, go in there and get that bear
cut!"
Gus hesitated for a moment and
then plunged into the cane. A few
for example, he is not. of course, get- gations intended to lead to the utut- more economical ana therefore supe- moments later tne negro, me Dfar
ting 14 ounces of actual peas, but 14 zation of agricultural products. There rlor. It resulted in tha production of and the dogs were rolling on the
ounces'oftthe prepared peas immersed was a group of these chemists of phthalic anhydrid on slch a basis that ' ground outside. After the hunt was
in th llnnM which is a Dart of the ours, for example, who, some years it has been recently selling at about over the man from the north said to
lAnt nxtmnlft of th Rnrt nf rHff1ii1t!- . . . i ; ,;t..A n InvKtliratlnii Intn a k . .. s nmm-rl tha riarkv:
. . - - - - .... ti i 1)11 iicr m n 1 1. rescues lud uuiiauuiDi. axu. uio.'.y.vu -- . n . -- w lli... n f
The soothing sirups for the babies sure, manuiaoturers v wnich. constantly face our chemists. This product is part peas end part the study of the use of citrus fruits ..Had this method of production 'Gus, wercn t you afraid to go into
contained opium, but the mothers vl"w,,7.nJ"Q'1, of da It 0 3e"y or any fruit is ques- litJ" Now, the problem arises as to which were not of good enough qual- been developed by a chemist outside that thicket with the bear?"
knew if not. Anybody could mix up 'Unrt marking the!r tioned U is'sent to one of our labora- where the lin sha11 be drawn aa t0 ,ty to be marketed aS fruita- In th of the government, it would have re- Colonel said Gus. "it was Jos dl.
anv- sort of concoction and claim it caption. Instead of marking their ns . no one or our laoora- .-. - nen that such a can oranre industry of California, for ex- .,.n, in a Rt.UDedous fortune for him way: I neber had met dat b ar. but I
as a sure cure lor consumption, si. - "7 " , ' ...v.v mi . , t must contain. Obviously, If the con- ample; tne rruit musi db oi very - anJ for hia employers, and the puwio
Vitus' dance, or a double chin, and fans Iff'0 tabllsh first the amount of pectin in tents of the can 'are mostly liquor cellent quality to make it advisable" hava K0n6 on jndefinitely pay-
eell it to whoever was so credulous ne m " " -.rl this Jelly. Then he must establish the and small quantity of peas, the cus- to ship it across the continent and inff tribute to him. It being developed
as to buy. f'nca tn PU ! "a..nHrT it raount of PeoUn Inat he should ex- tomer is not getting the same food sell it on the fruit stands. If an in- by a government scientist, however,
"These things were done only
comparatively short time ago, but are
. these cans as r.prw.uiw. peot t0 ini , the f , . the amount d'vldual orange, for example, is to
continued to buy tnero as pounos. in primary ingredient of th. in rph. v,fc it , defective it la culled out.
the enforcement of the pure food law .."1 " " . . ' 7T'. . i:'...-- .
was pussunally acquainted with d
old boss, so I Jest nacliurally took dat
b'ar."
today a closed, chapter in our national " ,,. ,.,,,... therefore to m iai'iei oi would accommodate, wnewim, may -it i"" ..
life. The pure food law required that U Was f L that the net P6Ctln lndlcate quantity of it the canner of the peas which has th. of its handling suffers an abrasion it
the label show habit-forming ingredi. ?"a ""food rJ? iven package tha' has been introduced from the less food value undersell the canner is called out, for it is known that
ents in the bottle, and it prohibited we ,hA.it 1 tVl " package. Sus outs'd' an .-not normally a part V the peas having the higher food that orange will decay. In this way
the making of false claims in the tas it made possible r any pur- J?9 fru'1 whto,hf is the foundation value? The bureau takes the position it comes to pass that there are great
. , was it made possiDie lor any yur of tne Droiuct We u,Bt TO . - .,. v,,7- ,.tltl nraneea which mav not
Ilia ua.ua.WKc, w V. A t.aAcc, 1. : . .
i ii o raKU
the facts wore turned over to the
publLc and whosoever desires may use
the Gibbs process. Dr. Gibbs made no
money out of his discovery, but h.
did acquire a reputation which re
sulted in the dye manufacturers of
fering him a salary with whlcn the
Marino Race Knds In Dead Heat.
TACOMA, Wash. A marine race
from Ran Francisco to Tacoma endd
recently here in a dead heat. Th.
schooner Phjliss, a lumber carrier,
and the Admiral Sebree of th. Ad-
the
(hasr tn examine
n a ra, n t- ti a f . . . . i . m j i.
. orm,ne iuit wnac was iae ounuu ui in . ,i..,: , - . - . ...m i
w h n I w , ..iivu. ( laucuus loss joiijes ana foods is adulteration, and, tnereiore, me rasroitr, " "'"
- " , " tne meiOiWB TOT tne clAtentlnn r.f Tm l ..: l .. I low Tf hn a ril I In ' .
"To answer this question, the buT
reau of chemistry established a
laboratory in California and insti
tuted a very careful investigation. As
a result of these investigations cer
tain new activities have grown up.
The making of orange marmalade.
tain and necessary quantity In such be shipped to market.
department could not compete ard as n'iral " lett the Golden Gate at the
established, overnight, a
4T a I T m a A ft vr t a
h " in-sa W " J u tne metnodB ror the detection of the ia violation of the law. It has
drug business. "Now that a decade and a half has n,,-tif, th. n,n. n . . t
TTiftppn vvirs aeo we Rent out for j j ... .j. i , j . - t- t"-"-ii wuu iney worxea out sianaaras lor aumo iruin
Fifteen years ago we sent out for passed and the new order in food hon. contain. ,,,. and Is-in ths nrocess
samples and proceeded against manu- esty nas been pretty well established,"
facturers. It was merely a question
"Here is another of th TtmhiAm . .. , .. a r ri . v. a nnn
I aBked Mr. Campbell, "what are your ,hlt "CI" ?
f hnw ma-nv cusea we coulrl nros- s.in.i ...hi.n.cr A "
rt' a i- V. a (...) T I n fenA vwnA . . f
cute. There was a little squad of 50 "The violations for which we are instance( pea8 which reach the con.
inspectors to safeguard the food of now required to- look," replied Mr. aumer in can8. Whe on
th. nation. It looked as though we Campbell, "are more refined than they can of reaJ) whlch is n5arkea 14 oz-.
"Probably three-fourths of the
force of the bureau of chemistry is
today made up of the enforcement
staff and one-fourth of it of th. re-
a consequence in our losing nun.
"It would have been impossible to
accomplish suoh results as - we have
attained in enforcing the pure food
law with the small staff given the
federal bureau of chemistry had U
not been that other agencies co-operated.
The federal law, of course, ap
plied only to articles which entered
interstate commerce. The states made
same time, and as they squared away
for their trip north both crews de
termined to make a race for It. They
were neck and reck up the coast, but
at Capo Flattery the Admiral Scbrre
gained a . short lead. Captain K
ArnBten of the Phyll. however, was
equal to the emergency and he cut in
between Duncan dork and the cape,
thus saving two miles. it was an
even race down Pugrt sound to Ta
coma. Captain Fred Nyntrom was In
th. preservation of orange Juice, the laws to handle goods that were not charge of the Admiral Sebre.