TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF HON. ALFRED H. JONES, STATE FOOD COMMISSIONER.

1623 Manhattan Building, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

To His Excellency, Charles S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois:

I have the honor to herewith transmit this, my twelfth annual report of the Illinois State Food Commission, for the year 1911, in compliance with that part of section one, of our new State Food Law, approved June 2, 1911, and in force July 1, 1911.

CHANGES IN THE DEPARTMENT.

As will be seen from the roster of the Illinois State Food Commission on the first page of this report, many changes have been made during the past year, in the membership of the State Food Department as well as in the State Stock Food Department, which is a bureau within the State Food Department.

It is made the duty of the State Food Commissioner to enforce the law in regard to the regulation, sale and analysis of concentrated feeding stuffs for domestic animals the same as to enforce the law passed by our General Assembly to prevent fraud in the sale of dairy products, their imitation or substitutes, to prohibit and prevent the manufacture and sale of unhealthful, adulterated or misbranded foods, liquors or dairy products, and enforce the State sanitary laws and along with the State Food Standards Commission to adopt standards of quality, purity or strength for the various food products of the State.

Our present General Assembly was more liberal with the department in the way of appropriations for help and apparatus for the laboratory, as well, as a larger appropriation for rents for the department, than ever before.

Since the revision of the food law passed in 1907, as approved June 2, 1911, and in force July 1, 1911, the commission has taken charge of the sixteenth or top floor of the Manhattan building, Chicago, except two rooms in the southwest corner thereof. The north part of said sixteenth floor has been devoted to the laboratory, the east side for offices and the remainder of the west side for the bacteriologists, inspectors and storeroom for the department.

Our present General Assembly has assisted the department very much in the way of needful legislation and especially in passing a new sanitary food law, which is "An Act to prevent the preparation, manufacture,

packing, storing, or distribution of food intended for sale, or sale of food, under insanitary, unhealthful or unclean conditions or surroundings, to create a sanitary inspection, to declare that such conditions shall constitute a nuisance, and to provide for the enforcement thereof." A copy of this new sanitary law, and the rulings made thereunder for the enforcement of same, will be found in this report under their proper titles.

Our present General Assembly has also made many changes in the State Food Law of 1907, and the changes will be found in added sections 20-A and 39-A, and amendments to sections 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21 and 40 thereof, and since the new revised State Food Law of July 1, 1911, went into force additional rulings, standards, etc., have been made and the same are published under their proper heading in this annual report, and the former rules made by the department, for the labeling of the various food articles of the State have been revised, in harmony with the changes made in the law and the same are published under their proper head and made a part of this report.

Our present General Assembly has also assisted the department very much in a revision of the State Stock Food Law relating to the manufacture, sale and analysis of concentrated commercial feed stuffs for feeding farm live stock and domestic animals generally by revision of the same-making more definite what are concentrated commercial feeding stuffs and the manner in which they should be sold, as well as larger appropriations for carrying on the work of enforcing the law, and attention is respectfully called to same under its proper title.

The State Food Standards Commission, during the past year, has been very diligent in determining and adopting a standard of quality, purity or strength of milk, cream, ice cream, and many other food products that require a special standard, and the work of the Standards. Commission will be found under the proper heading in this report.

HEARINGS AND PROSECUTIONS.

During the past year there have been taken by our inspectors over 3,673 samples and reported to the office of the State Food Department for the purpose of analysis, or to determine whether they were properly labeled, stamped or branded as the law requires, not taking into consideration the tests made as to milk and dairy products.

As stated, some of these samples were taken for the reason that they were misbranded, or not properly labeled, in conformity with the requirements of the State Food Law, and others to determine whether they were pure or wholesome, or contained coloring matter or preservatives that were harmful.

Of these samples analyzed more than 2,550 were found to be pure, or to meet the requirements of the law, and about 1,123 were found to be adulterated or mislabeled and illegal and consequently in violation of the food laws.

Under section 40 of our State Food Law preliminary hearings are provided for when it appears from the examination, or analysis of the

sample that the provisions of the law had been violated, by giving the party or parties offending a notice, in writing, to appear before the commission at the State Food Commission's office, 1627 Manhattan building, Chicago, on a day fixed in the notice, together with a copy of the findings, and also, by sending to the party, whose name appears upon the label of the sample taken as manufacturer, jobber or packer, a similar notice.

The object of this provision of the law is to give the party or parties. so notified of such charge, an opportunity to be heard before the suit is brought against them, and after such hearing, if it appears there is probable cause of guilt, then such party or parties violating the law, whether dealer, manufacturer, jobber or packer, may be prosecuted for such violations.

Under section 40 of our new law then, the persons or firms in whose possession were found the various articles of food offered for sale in violation of the law were summoned to hearings, and of the 1,123 hearings granted, 882 cases were adjudged to be of a minor or technical character, such as could readily be cured by the use of labels conforming to the law's requirements, or by the slight changing of the methods of manufacture or sale, and such cases were not prosecuted in the courts, on the agreement of the parties summoned to make the required changes to conform to the law. In the remainder of the violations, namely, 239, suits were instituted, and of such suits, 143 were terminated within the year and ninety-six are now pending in the various courts.

DUTIES OF FOOD OFFICIALS.

Every food commissioner and food official in the different states as well as in the United States, whether State or National, is anxious to detect foods that are adulterated or unfit for human consumption, or misbranded, and to punish the seller of them, as will be seen by the reports of the different commissioners.

The public seeking for facts as to the sophistication and false labeling of their foods, therefore, naturally turn to the reports of these food officials, as in these reports are contained a list and description of their discoveries of adulterated and misbranded foods; also of the prosecutions made by them on account of these different violations.

It is therefore incumbent on the commissioner to report the progress made by his department so that the people may be advised, not only as to what foods are wholesome and fit for human consumption, but also as to those foods that are not wholesome, or are adulterated and falsely labeled so as to deceive the purchaser or consumer.

The purchasers and consumers of the various food products of the country, therefore, scan the reports of these food officials for the exact truth. Universal interest has been aroused by the faithful and successful services of these food officials, in the performance of their duties to the public.

The people are not now looking for the "thrills" they used to get before they had these State and National food laws for the enforcement of these laws has driven comparatively all the old sophistications of the people's food from the markets of the country.

For instance, the old story of alum in bread, when no record or discovery of alum in bread had been made; that the confectionery of the children was filled with poisonous chemicals, dyes and fillers, when the reports of nearly every food commissioner in the United States show that the candies and other confectioneries are now generally made of sugar, which is the product of the cane, or the beet, or glucose, which is the product of the corn, colored and flavored with the same colors and flavors that go into the other foods; and that corn syrup, a product of corn, was placed into the honeycomb instead of the products of the flowers by the ever industrious honey bee, when there is no record or discovery that the cells of the honeycomb ever had been filled with the sweets of the corn.

And again tea was formerly under suspicion and accusations were made that it was adulterated with willow leaves, tea leaves, clay and poisonous dyes. Now under the National Pure Food Law all the tea imported into the United States has to pass inspection and consequently the tea is comparatively pure.

Formerly the meats of this country have been attacked on account of containing harmful chemicals, but since the passage of the National Food Law and the rigid inspection by the National and State food inspectors, it is found that the law is being generally observed by the packers of the various meat products and that the meats of the country today are entirely wholesome and sanitary.

CO-OPERATION AND UNIFORMITY.

As stated in our former report, the great trouble in the past was that we had no national food law to regulate the interstate commerce in foods, and the laws of the different states not being uniform, there could be no coöperation or unity of action among the various food officials of the states. Each state had its own laws, rulings, labels and standards as to how foods should be prepared, labeled and sold, and the commissioners of the different states had been interpreting their respective laws and requiring the various foods to be prepared, labeled and sold so as to conform to their respective laws without any regard to uniformity or coöperation, hence the manufacturer and packer of foods not only of our State, but of every other state in the Union, had to keep a different set of labels for each state and territory of the Union, and prepare their foods, and sell them in conformity with those requirements.

Since the passage of the National Food Law and rulings and standards made thereunder, and state laws modeled after the national law and rulings and standards made to conform with the rulings and standards of a National Food Law, we now have comparative uniformity of action, and substantially one set of labels for the various food products will suffice for every state and territory in the Union.

The paramount effect of these laws, state and national—and obtaining uniformity and coöperation. under the same upon the manufacturers and packers of foods is that it requires them to properly label foods, so as to make the public familiar with the foods prepared by them.

Thirty-five states have already revised their state food laws so as to conform with the National Food Law that went into effect January 1, 1907, and with the efforts being made in the other states to have their laws revised and modeled after the National Food Law, so as to conform to it, it will be but a short time until every state in the Union will be in line with the National Food Law.

These state food laws are enacted under the police powers of the state; a power not possessed by the national government which is inherent in the state for the purpose of protecting the lives, health and morals of the people. The laws that have been enacted in the different states and in the nation have been so enacted at the instance of public sentiment and demand. That demand was superinduced by the knowledge of the existence of fraud-the result of predatory commercialism-such commercialism predicating its assumed rights upon the assumption that its action was a requirement of competition, rendered necessary by the public demand for cheaper food products, all of which was based on a false premise in so far as presented or defended in that light.

The underlying fundamental principle that has produced such fraud in the past has been commercial greed. Such action has produced resentment and reaction that has resulted in the laws now upon the statute books of the several states and of the nation against commercial fraud and misrepresentation in the manufacture and sale of the various food products.

Such statutes have met with the approval of the best manufactures and retailers, and they stand today among their warmest sponsors and supporters, anxious with all food officials that these laws shall be upheld.

Fifteen years ago the state food commissioners and state food officials of those states that had state food laws organized an association under the name of "The Association of State Food and Dairy Departments" for the purpose of securing 'a National Food Law and uniformity of legislation in regard to the manufacture and sale of foods within the different states.

When I was appointed State Food Commissioner, in 1899, I immediately joined this association and have been a member of it ever since, and have coöperated with the members of this association in securing a National Food Law and urging upon the commissioners and food officials of the different states the necessity of having their food laws revised and modeled after the National Food Law.

After the passage of the National Food Law, in 1906, the title of this association was changed so as to include the national food officials, and it is now known as "The Association of State and National Food and Dairy Department."

The association has had its annual meeting each year and published the proceedings of its annual conventions, the last annual meeting being held in the city of Duluth, in the state of Minnesota, from August 21