Mr. KELLY. Some of these experts in nutrition yesterday said it would; but I know there is not as much gluten in the mixed flour as in the pure wheat flour. They say that is the tissue-building part.'

Mr. FORDNEY. Therefore the man who eats it does not get as much good from the cheaper flour as he would from the pure wheat flour? Mr. KELLY. I should say not.

Mr. RAINEY. Neither does he pay as much for it.

Mr. KELLY. No; but he did at one time, because he paid for it the price of straight flour.

Mr. RAINEY. Do these Minneapolis mills send any of their product down into your country?

Mr. KELLY. Yes; the Minneapolis people sell flour everywhere. Mr. RAINEY. And do they sell it cheaper than yours?

Mr. KELLY. They do not manufacture our kind of flour. We make high-grade soft-wheat flour, and they make spring-wheat flour. Mr. RAINEY. You do not compete with them?

Mr. KELLY. No, sir. They sell to bakers and we sell to people who do their own baking. I mean, our flour is used by people who do their own baking.

Mr. RAINEY. They sell to the commercial bakers?

Mr. KELLY. Yes, sir; to the bakers. I do not believe they can make biscuits out of spring-wheat flour.

Mr. LANNEN. I should like to ask in regard to that picture-if the side that has the picture of the girl on it does not contain the principal label on the package?

Mr. KELLY. I think every man can form his own opinion on that. The Government has one side of the sack and we have the other. Mr. FORDNEY. My friend, the girl is the principal side to everything. [Laughter.]

Mr. LANNEN. The side that is exposed to the consumer, which lies upward on the shelf, is the one that has the picture of the Chinese or Japanese girl on it; is that correct?

Mr. KELLY. I do not know. I have never seen it piled outside of our plant.

Mr. RAINEY. You put on the flour the legend necessary to comply with all pure food laws?

Mr. KELLY. I guess it does that.

Mr. RAINEY. And you put the same thing, meeting the same requirements, on the other packages of straight wheat flour?

Mr. KELLY. No, sir. We did formerly, but the department told us not to, and we quit it. We always obey the law down there.

Mr. RAINEY. You used that psychological brand that we all use at that time. Do you think it would take more inspectors to enforce the food laws as they apply to flour with the wheat and corn flour mixed than if straight wheat flour is sold?

Mr. KELLY. It depends on how you do the inspection. If you do it under the present regulations it will take a great many less. It will not take near as many as it would require to inspect every day's output chemically-I mean, make a laboratory test of each day's output of flour.

Mr. RAINEY. Is there any inspection of straight wheat flour at all? Mr. KELLY. Anybody has the right to make laboratory tests of it,

and I presume State authorities and possibly Government authorities do do it.

Mr. RAINEY. Just the same as they do with any other food products?

Mr. KELLY. We have a daily laboratory test made ourselves.

Mr. RAINEY. Straight wheat flour is subject to the same inspection as, and no more than, any other food product?

Mr. KELLY. Yes.

Mr. RAINEY. That would be true of mixed flour, too, would it not, if this present law as to mixed flour was repealed?

Mr. KELLY. I do not know. They would have to inspect it a little more if they wanted to prevent a whole lot of mixing without labeling.

Mr. RAINEY. They do get along pretty well with other food products, do they not?

Mr. KELLY. Yes: I think so.

Mr. RAINEY. With molasses, for instance?

Mr. KELLY. I am not familiar with molasses.

Mr. RAINEY. And with every other food compound? The Government enforces the food laws as to every other food compound? Mr. KELLY. I am not familiar with those customs.

Of course, you can mix corn flour so that you do not have to pay a tax on it. It was done very largely last year. The Southwestern Milling Co. and my distinguished friend back there, Mr. Blish, of Indiana, made flour last year with 51 per cent of corn flour in it and 49 per cent of wheat flour and did not have to pay a tax on it at all. Mr. FORDNEY. They sold it within the State, do you mean?

Mr. KELLY. Sold it in interstate business and sold it anywhere, and did not violate a law of any kind.

Mr. FORDNEY. What do you say that these men made a mixed flour, 49 per cent wheat flour and 51 per cent corn flour?

Mr. KELLY. Yes.

Mr. FORDNEY. And paid no tax?

Mr. KELLY. And did not pay, were not required to pay, a tax on it. Mr. FORDNEY. It is not required to pay a tax?

Mr. KELLY. No, sir; not when the principal ingredient is not wheat flour.

Mr. FORDNEY. Oh, I see the point.

Mr. LANNEN. Might I ask if he sold that flour under any name that implied it was flour?

Mr. KELLY. I believe Mr. Blish called his flour "war rations.' did not say what it was.

99 He

Mr. LANNEN. Did the name "mixed flour" or "compound flour ” or "adulterated flour" appear on the label at all?

Mr. KELLY. He just put on it "war rations," and everybody ate it, and was happy, I reckon.

Mr. LANNEN. If he had put a name on there which implied that it was flour, he would have had to pay a tax?

Mr. KELLY. NO; he would not have had to pay a tax. He only has to pay the tax when the principal ingredient of the compound is wheat flour.

Mr. LANNEN. Mr. Chairman, if he puts in there only 49 per cent of wheat flour, he does not have to pay a tax unless he sells it under a name that would imply that it was flour. If he does not sell it under

a name that would imply that it was flour, he does not have to pay the tax. If he sells it under a name simply reading "war rations," then he does not have to pay the tax.

Mr. KELLY. Well, I just know, Mr. Chairman, that several of my friends and competitors did sell that kind of flour last year and did not violate the law, and did not pay any tax, and did not put any stamps on it.

Mr. FORDNEY. Suppose a merchant that sold that should say to a customer, "I have got a brand here called 'war rations,' the finest in the world; cheaper than Pillsbury's Best; first-class flour," the customer takes it home and thinks he has got flour, does he not?

Mr. KELLY. Yes; I guess he would.

Mr. FORDNEY. Yes; certainly he would.

Mr. KELLY. But he just called this "war rations." What the retail merchant told the ultimate consumer I do not know.

Mr. FORDNEY. I think that is going to be the name of our next revenue bill, "war rations."

Mr. KELLY. It is a good trade name.

STATEMENT OF MR. J. B. McLEMORE, SECRETARY SOUTHEASTERN MILLERS' ASSOCIATION, NASHVILLE, TENN.

Mr. McLEMORE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the Southeastern Millers' Association has been in existence a good many years. This association was formed a number of years ago to promote the interests of flour millers, its purposes being somewhat similar to all flourmilling associations. We have been, primarily, for a number of years interested in pure-food work, not boasting of our accomplishments, but merely stating that we have, through the aid of our association throughout the Southeast, put a large number of statutes on the books of the various States controlling the sale of food, and some time prior to the passage of the pure food and drugs act of 1906 we had acts passed throughout the Southeast establishing certain weights for certain packages of flour and billboarded the country offering rewards for the detection of people who short weighted. I state that fact merely to show you that we are in favor of any measure that will secure fair play to the consumer, both as to weight and quality, whatever that measure may be.

We may perhaps differ as to methods, but not as to purpose. We have always taken the position that the ultimate consumer's interest was our interest, and we have tried to defend his interest, at the same time believing that we were best protecting our own.

Last year it was my pleasure or good fortune to organize a number of these flour-mixing plants. As secretary of the association, they naturally appealed to me in regard to the necessary steps to be taken, and I organized about seven or eight of them. I did not find the requirements of the Government burdensome. They were easily complied with. The forms were all prepared by the Government and supplied to the various millers. They were easily filled out, being records that are somewhat similar to the milling-intransit records that are required to be kept by the railroads. So far as the regulations are concerned, they are not burdensome at all, and any manufacturer could easily comply with them.