minutes have been for the consumers. We have heard mostly from representatives of the drug industry and the advertisers. I represent the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs, a federation of 30 clubs in the city of Washington, numbering about 5,000 members. We represent the consumers' class about which Miss Edwards spoke yesterday. Miss Edwards brought to your attention yesterday what represented the opinions of thousands of women back in the States. On November 27, 1933, the present inadequacy of the Food and Drug Law, drafted under the leadership of Dr. Wiley in 1906, was explained to us, as well as the provisions of Food and Drug bill S. 1944 at our regular meeting. A month later, on December 18, after we had secured all possible information on this subject, we voted to endorse the principle of bill S. 1944 and to recommend its passage without substantial modification. We believed in the administration's food bill to be the best bill, the most disinterested, and the best from the standpoint of the consumer, because it had been drawn by food experts devoted to the interests of the consumer. On January 13, at the midwinter board meeting of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, at the instance of our federation, a motion was passed, as follows: The board of directors of the General Federation recognizing the necessity of amending the present Food and Drugs Act, enacted in 1906, and now inadequate, recommends to the State federations of the study of Senate bill 2000 with a view to its passage without substantial amendment. According to the State federation bulletins which came in February, the clubwomen all over the country are forming committees, and are studying the administration's bill. Mrs. Grace Morrison Poole, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, has accepted the position of honorary vice president of the American Pure Food League, of which I am acting as president. The General Federation of Women's Clubs will definitely vote on this measure in May, next, at its council meeting. If, after these 5 months of study, these 2,500,000 women vote to endorse the administration's bill, one of the greatest armies of consumers in the country will work for its enactment. Dr. Wiley gave much of the credit for the passing of the first food law to the organized women of the country, to the women of the General Federation. The point which the consumer always bears in mind in considering this bill is that it is a consumers' measure, and that the primal idea of the old law and of this new bill is to favor the consumer in any case where there is a dispute between the welfare of the consumer or the profit of the manufacturer. In speaking as president of the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs, I may say we endorsed the principles of S. 1944. I do not see the need for the two super committees of food and health provided in bills S. 2000 and S. 2800. The two committees provide l in S. 2000 have 5 each, and of 5 and 7 in 2800 would a great burden. on the taxpayer, and I doubt if the consumer would have any greater security than he has with honest officials in charge of the administration of the law. The administration bill as originally drafted contains all of the provisions of the old law, but it aims to stop the gaps and eliminate. the compromises which had to be accepted in order to get any law at all in 1906. Bill S. 1944 also left the way open for the control of new foods, drugs, and cosmetics which may be invented or compounded in the future. In the two last bills there is no appeal for the consumer from the decision of the supercommittees on foods, and no opportunity for appeal for the State food departments from an adverse decision of the supercommittee on health. I wish to concur with the women's organizations who spoke yesterday that we would like to see the word "minimum" taken out of section 11 in bill S. 2800. The word "minimum means of the smallest possible degree. The minimum food standards would mean the lowest standards for the consumers' benefit. I believe that one member of the committee acted for the Food and Drug Institute. I would like, Mr. Chairman, with your permission, to place in the record an article from The Nation of February 21. The CHAIRMAN. Permission granted. (The article referred to is as follows:) ALL FOR PURITY There are no interested, profit-motivated lobbyists at Washington; only patriots, crusaders, guardians of our most sacred institutions, saviors of humanity. If you doubt this, read the transcript of the public hearings held December 7 and 8 in Washington on the Tugwell-Copeland food and drug bill, which is one of the most fascinating and dramatic documents the Government Printing Office has ever issued. If, after that, you are still cynical, you should read the mail the President, General Johnson, and Postmaster Farley are getting these days from the patriotic medicine men, vitamin men, and cosmeticians whose sole concern is the welfare of the present administration and the N.R.A. The names of these correspondents cannot be divulged, but here are a few samples of their style: "With yourself and every other loyal citizen of the United States endeavoring to assist in the relief of unemployment, it would seem that any type of legislation that would retard the recovery of business would be unfortunate at this time. Therefore, House bill 6110 and the Copeland bill should be given serious consideration as their effect upon an enterprise with an annual output of over $2,000,000 would be serious indeed * "We have no objections to regulation but * * here is no ordinary regulatory measure of the industry. Here is a bill known as the Tugwell bill ** * that openly demands that the Secretary of Agriculture in enforcement of regulations be final and absolute without appeal to the courts Now I'm no disgruntled manufacturer writing you; I'm quite well able to take care of myself and have been doing it in this business for many, many years # * Practically all the worthwhile factors in proprietary cosmetic, drug, food. and advertising industries are in accord that these Tugwell measures are impossible of amendment and should be withdrawn * "I have recently been impressed with the danger to the administration that is resulting from the agitation created by what is known as the Tugwell bill There are four main points to note about this huge correspondence, of which only a few typical examples have been excerpted: (1) That the names of most of the ready letter-writer firms are already familiar through notices of judgment issued by the Food and Drug Administration at the termination of cases brought under the present inadequate law, in post-office fraud order or in the Federal Trade Commission cease-and-desist orders; (2) that the writers invoke the principle of "recovery as opposed to "reform" in order to defend businesses which in most cases are demonstrably a danger and a burden to both the public health and the public pocketbook; (3) that they do not hesitate to misrepresent both the nature and effects of the bill, as for example, by asserting that administration action would not be subject to court review although such review would be easily available to defendants under both the original bill and the present revised Copeland bill; (4) that the writers, by implication, threaten the administration with a political headache and political defeat, regardless of the merit of the issues involved. The nature and methods of this lobby can best be understood by examining the following "Who's Who" of the leading lobbyists. A complete list is as impossible as would be any attempt to estimate the expenditure, undoubtedly large, of the proprietory drug, food, and advertising lobby to date. FRAN (CASCARETS) BLAIR Mr. Blair represents the Proprietary Association, the chief fraternal order of the patent-medicine group, but even closer to his hear, one suspects, is Sterling Products. This firm manufactures Fletcher's Castoria, Midol, Caldwell's Syrup and Pepsin, and Cascarets, a chocolate-covered trade phenopthalein and cascara laxative recently seized by the Food and Drug Administration. The Proprietary Association and Mr. Blair, plus the National Drug Conference, are backing the Black bill, written by Dr. James H. Beal, chairman of the board of trustees of the United States Pharmacopoeia. The Black-Beal bill would further weaken even the present inadequate law, make seizures practically impossible, and permit nostrum makers to "get away with murder" in their advertising. In short, it is a sheer fake. HON. THOMAS B. (CRAZY CRYSTALS) LOVE Mr. Love, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, is attorney for the Crazy Water Co., of Mineral Wells, Tex., manufacturers of Crazy Crystals, a prominent exhibit last summer in the Food and Drug Administration's wellknown "Chamber of Horrors." At the December hearings Mr. Love said, "No harm has ever resulted, or is likely to result, from the misrepresentation of the remedial or therapeutic effects of naturally produced mineral waters", which is a brazen enough falsification. Two kinds of harm result from such misrepresentation-harm to the health of the victim who takes a dose of horse physic under the illusion that a dose of salts is good for what ails him; harm to the victim's pocketbook because he paid about five times as much for that dose of salts as it was worth. H. M. (OVALTINE) BLACKETT Mr. Blackett is president of Black-Sample-Hummert, a Chicago advertising agency. His pet account is Ovaltine, that mysterious "Swiss drink which puts you to "sleep without drugs and performs such miracles with underweight children, nursing mothers, busy workers, and old people. "Food and drug advertising ", Mr. Blackett writes to magazine and newspaper publishers, "is different from other classification. It must actually sell the product. It must put up a strong selling story-strong enough to actually move the goods off the dealers' shelves." More briefly, Mr. Blackett believes it would be impossible to sell a "chocolate-flavored, dried malt extract containing a small quantity of dried milk and egg" for what it really is at least for a dollar a can. WILLIAM P. (JACOB'S LADDER) JACOBS Mr. Jacobs is president of "Jacobs' Religious List ", which would appear to represent the alliance of the fundamentalist business and the proprietarymedicine business. As a publishers' representative of the "official organs of the leading white denominations of the South and Southeast", he offers a combined weekly circulation of 300,317 to the God-fearing manufacturers of Miller's Snake Oil (makes rheumatic sufferers jump out of bed and run back to work), kidney medicines, rejuvenators ("Would you like to again enjoy life?"), contraceptives (presumably for an equally holy purpose), reducing agents, and hair growers. Mr. Jacobs is secretary and general manager of the Institute of Medicine Manufacturers; he is, in fact, a member of the old southern patent-medicine aristocracy. His father, J. F. Jacobs, was author of a profound treatise on The Economic Necessity and the Moral Validity of the Prepared Medicine Business. the compromises which had to be accepted in order to get any law at all in 1906. Bill S. 1944 also left the way open for the control of new foods, drugs, and cosmetics which may be invented or compounded in the future. In the two last bills there is no appeal for the consumer from the decision of the supercommittees on foods, and no opportunity for appeal for the State food departments from an adverse decision of the supercommittee on health. I wish to concur with the women's organizations who spoke yesterday that we would like to see the word "minimum" taken out of section 11 in bill S. 2800. The word "minimum means of the smallest possible degree. The minimum food standards would mean the lowest standards for the consumers' benefit. I believe that one member of the committee acted for the Food and Drug Institute. I would like, Mr. Chairman, with your permission, to place in the record an article from The Nation of February 21. The CHAIRMAN. Permission granted. (The article referred to is as follows:) ALL FOR PURITY There are no interested, profit-motivated lobbyists at Washington; only patriots, crusaders, guardians of our most sacred institutions, saviors of humanity. If you doubt this, read the transcript of the public hearings held December 7 and 8 in Washington on the Tugwell-Copeland food and drug bill, which is one of the most fascinating and dramatic documents the Government Printing Office has ever issued. If, after that, you are still cynical, you should read the mail the President, General Johnson, and Postmaster Farley are getting these days from the patriotic medicine men, vitamin men, and cosmeticians whose sole concern is the welfare of the present administration and the N.R.A. The names of these correspondents cannot be divulged, but here are a few samples of their style: "With yourself and every other loyal citizen of the United States endeavoring to assist in the relief of unemployment, it would seem that any type of legislation that would retard the recovery of business would be unfortunate at this time. Therefore, House bill 6110 and the Copeland bill should be given serious consideration as their effect upon an enterprise with an annual output of over $2,000,000 would be serious indeed * "We have no objections to regulation but * * here is no ordinary regulatory measure of the industry. Here is a bill known as the Tugwell bill ** * that openly demands that the Secretary of Agriculture in enforcement of regulations be final and absolute without appeal to the courts Now I'm no disgruntled manufacturer writing you; I'm quite well able to take care of myself and have been doing it in this business for many, many years * * * "Practically all the worthwhile factors in proprietary cosmetic, drug, food, and advertising industries are in accord that these Tugwell measures are impossible of amendment and should be withdrawn "I have recently been impressed with the danger to the administration that is resulting from the agitation created by what is known as the Tugwell bill * * There are four main points to note about this huge correspondence, of which only a few typical examples have been excerpted: (1) That the names of most of the ready letter-writer firms are already familiar through notices of judgment issued by the Food and Drug Administration at the termination of cases brought under the present inadequate law, in post-office fraud order or in the Federal Trade Commission cease-and-desist orders; (2) that the writers invoke the principle of "recovery as opposed to "reform" in order to defend businesses which in most cases are demonstrably a danger and a burden to both the public health and the public pocketbook; (3) that they do not hesitate to misrepresent both the nature and effects of the bill, as for example, by asserting that administration action would not be subject to court review although such review would be easily available to defendants under both the original bill and the present revised Copeland bill; (4) that the writers, by implication, threaten the administration with a political headache and political defeat, regardless of the merit of the issues involved. The nature and methods of this lobby can best be understood by examining the following "Who's Who" of the leading lobbyists. A complete list is as impossible as would be any attempt to estimate the expenditure, undoubtedly large, of the proprietory drug, food, and advertising lobby to date. FRAN (CASCARETS) BLAIR Mr. Blair represents the Proprietary Association, the chief fraternal order of the patent-medicine group, but even closer to his hear, one suspects, is Sterling Products. This firm manufactures Fletcher's Castoria, Midol, Caldwell's Syrup and Pepsin, and Cascarets, a chocolate-covered trade phenopthalein and cascara laxative recently seized by the Food and Drug Administration. The Proprietary Association and Mr. Blair, plus the National Drug Conference, are backing the Black bill, written by Dr. James H. Beal, chairman of the board of trustees of the United States Pharmacopoeia. The Black-Beal bill would further weaken even the present inadequate law, make seizures practically impossible, and permit nostrum makers to get away with murder in their advertising. In short, it is a sheer fake. 66 HON. THOMAS B. (CRAZY CRYSTALS) LOVE Mr. Love, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, is attorney for the Crazy Water Co., of Mineral Wells, Tex., manufacturers of Crazy Crystals, a prominent exhibit last summer in the Food and Drug Administration's wellknown "Chamber of Horrors." At the December hearings Mr. Love said, "No harm has ever resulted, or is likely to result, from the misrepresentation of the remedial or therapeutic effects of naturally produced mineral waters", which is a brazen enough falsification. Two kinds of harm result from such misrepresentation-harm to the health of the victim who takes a dose of horse physic under the illusion that a dose of salts is good for what ails him; harm to the victim's pocketbook because he paid about five times as much for that dose of salts as it was worth. H. M. (OVALTINE) BLACKETT Mr. Blackett is president of Black-Sample-Hummert, a Chicago advertising agency. His pet account is Ovaltine, that mysterious "Swiss" drink which puts you to sleep without drugs" and performs such miracles with underweight children, nursing mothers, busy workers, and old people. "Food and drug advertising ", Mr. Blackett writes to magazine and newspaper publishers, "is different from other classification. It must actually sell the product. It must put up a strong selling story-strong enough to actually move the goods off the dealers' shelves." More briefly, Mr. Blackett believes it would be impossible to sell a "chocolate-flavored, dried malt extract containing a small quantity of dried milk and egg" for what it really is-at least for a dollar a can. WILLIAM P. (JACOB'S LADDER) JACOBS Mr. Jacobs is president of "Jacobs' Religious List ", which would appear to represent the alliance of the fundamentalist business and the proprietarymedicine business. As a publishers' representative of the "official organs of the leading white denominations of the South and Southeast", he offers a combined weekly circulation of 300,317 to the God-fearing manufacturers of Miller's Snake Oil (makes rheumatic sufferers jump out of bed and run back to work), kidney medicines, rejuvenators ("Would you like to again enjoy life?"), contraceptives (presumably for an equally holy purpose), reducing agents, and hair growers. Mr. Jacobs is secretary and general manager of the Institute of Medicine Manufacturers; he is, in fact, a member of the old southern patent-medicine aristocracy. His father, J. F. Jacobs, was author of a profound treatise on The Economic Necessity and the Moral Validity of the Prepared Medicine Business. |