ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

or employee of the United States authorized to perform any of the duties prescribed by this act who shall accept any money, gift, or other thing of value from any person, firm, or corporation, or officers, agents, or employees thereof, given with intent to influence his official action, or who shall receive or accept from any person, firm, or corporation engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, any gift, money, or other thing of value given with any purpose or intent whatsoever, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and shall, upon conviction thereof, be summarily discharged from office and shall be punished by a fine not less than one thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars and by imprisonment not less than one year nor more than three years.

That the provisions of this act requiring inspection to be made by the Secretary of Agriculture shall not apply to animals slaughtered by any farmer on the farm and sold and transported as interstate or foreign commerce, nor to retail butchers and retail dealers in meat and meat food products, supplying their customers: Provided, That if any person shall sell or offer for sale or transportation for interstate or foreign commerce any meat or meat food products which are diseased, unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome, or otherwise unfit for human food, knowing that such meat food products are intended for human consumption, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for a period of not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment: Provided, also, That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to maintain the inspection in this act provided for at any slaughtering, meat canning, salting, packing, rendering, or similar establishment notwithstanding this exception, and that the persons operating the same may be retail butchers and retail dealers or farmers; and where the Secretary of Agriculture shall establish such inspection then the provisions of this act shall apply notwithstanding this exception.

That there is permanently appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of three million dollars, for the expenses of the inspection of cattle, sheep, swine, and goats and the meat and meat food products thereof which enter into interstate or foreign commerce and for all expenses necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this act relating to meat inspection, including rent and the employment of labor in Washington and elsewhere, for each year. And the Secretary of Agriculture shall, in his annual estimates made to Congress, submit a statement in detail, showing the number of persons employed in such inspections and the salary or per diem paid to each, together with the contingent expenses of such inspectors and where they have been and are employed.

F. I. D. 1-25.

APPENDIX D.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY,

H. W. WILEY, CHIEF OF BUREAU.

FOOD INSPECTION DECISIONS 1-25.

INTRODUCTION.

For the information of importers and exporters of food products and of the public it is advisable to publish more widely than would be possible by decisions given to individuals or firms the opinions of this Department rendered by the Secretary under the existing law relating to the examination of food products before shipment to foreign countries and to the examination of food products imported into this country. The following digest shows the principal decisions rendered to date covering these points, together with circulars and other printed matter relating thereto. It is proposed hereafter to issue at convenient intervals similar decisions and opinions which may be rendered.

Approved:

JAMES WILSON,

Secretary of Agriculture.

H. W. WILEY,

Chief, Bureau of Chemistry.

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 1, 1905.

(F. I. D. 1.)

LAWS UNDER WHICH THE FOOD INSPECTION IS CONDUCTED. To investigate the adulteration of foods, condiments, beverages, and drugs, when deemed by the Secretary of Agriculture advisable, and to publish the results of such investigations when thought advisable, and also the effect of cold storage upon the healthfulness of foods; to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the character of food preservatives, coloring matters, and other substances added to foods, to determine their relation to digestion and to health, and to establish the principles which should guide their use; to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the character of the chemical and physical tests which are applied to American food products in foreign countries, and to inspect before shipment, when desired by the shippers or owners of these food products, American food products intended for countries where chemical and physical tests are required before said food products are allowed to be sold in the countries mentioned, and for all necessary expenses connected with such inspection and studies of methods of analysis in foreign countries; to enable the Secretary of Agriculture, in collaboration with

FOOD INSPECTION LAWS.

563 the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, and such other experts as he may deem necessary, to establish standards of purity for food products and to determine what are regarded as adulterations therein; to investigate, in collaboration with the Bureau of Animal Industry, the chemistry of dairy products and of adulterants used therein, and of the adulterated products; to determine the composition of process, renovated, or adulterated and other treated butters, and other chemical studies relating to dairy products, and to make all analyses of samples required for the execution of the law regulating the manufacture of process, renovated, or adulterated butters.

To investigate the adulteration, false labeling, or false branding of foods, drugs, beverages, condiments, and ingredients of such articles, when deemed by the Secretary of Agriculture advisable, and report the result in the bulletins of the Department; and the Secretary of Agriculture, whenever he has reason to believe that such articles are being imported from foreign countries which are dangerous to the health of the people of the United States, or which shall be falsely labeled or branded either as to their contents or as to the place of their manufacture or production, shall make a request upon the Secretary of the Treasury for samples from original packages of such articles for inspection and analysis, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to open such original packages and deliver specimens to the Secretary of Agriculture for the purpose mentioned, giving notice to the owner or consignee of such articles, who may be present and have the right to introduce testimony; and the Secretary of the Treasury shall refuse delivery to the consignee of any such goods which the Secretary of Agriculture reports to him to have been inspected and analyzed and found to be dangerous to health or falsely labeled or branded either as to their contents or as to the place of their manufacture or production, or which are forbidden entry or to be sold, or are restricted in sale in the countries in which they are made or from which they are exported. (Sections of appropriations act of March

3, 1905.)

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no person or persons, company or corporation, shall introduce into any State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia from any other State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or sell in the District of Columbia or in any Territory any dairy or food products which shall be falsely labeled or branded as to the State or Territory in which they are made, produced, or grown, or cause or procure the same to be done by others.

SEC. 2. That if any person or persons violate the provisions of this act, either in person or through another, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than two thousand dollars; and that the jurisdiction for the prosecution of said misdemeanor shall be within the district of the United States court in which it is committed. (Act of July 1, 1902.)

(F. I. D. 2.)

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL RELATING TO THE SCOPE AND MEANING OF THE ACT OF JULY 1, 1902 (32 STAT., 632), REGULATING THE BRANDING OF DAIRY AND FOOD PRODUCTS FOR INTERSTATE COMMERCE.*

August 1, 1903.

In order that a correct understanding might be had as to the scope of the law relating to the branding of dairy and food products, the opinion of the Attorney-General was asked concerning certain features of that act. Samples of labels which were used in com* Published as an unnumbered circular, Office of the Secretary.

mercial operations were submitted, with the request that an opinion be given as to whether or not they conformed to the provisions of the law. Two separate opinions were asked of the Attorney-General in regard to this law.

First, in the case of a firm,

established in one State and dealing in goods which were grown and manufactured in another State, the labels, however, bearing the name and address of the firm in its central place of business, the direct question asked was: Is not the label as it stands a distinct statement that the product bearing it is manufactured and prepared in (address of the firm given) ?

One particular object of the law appears to be to prevent the utilization of the name of localities which have become noted for the production of a certain food product in connection with other food products of a similar nature made elsewhere.

The second point on which the opinion of the Attorney-General was asked was as follows:

The question which I desire to propose to you now is, whether, under the provisions of the two acts referred to (Public-No. 158, approved March 3, 1903, regulating the importation of goods, and the act first mentioned above) it will be possible to prevent the misbranding of foreign products. In other words, would the provisions of Public—No. 223, referred to first above, apply to any foreign product entering into interstate commerce, or do they apply only to articles of food of domestic manufacture?

From correspondence conducted with large manufacturing firms, it is evident that they desire at once to conform to the provisions of these laws if they can only be distinctly made known. To this end I have deemed it advisable to publish the decisions of the AttorneyGeneral on these questions, omitting merely the names of the firms specifically referred to, for the information of manufacturers, dealers, and consumers.

JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture.

The SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.

DEPARTMENT of Justice, Washington, D. C., June 22, 1903.

SIR: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, inclosing one addressed to you by the Company, of Milwaukee, Wis., together with two samples of labels which they have submitted for your approval, and in which you say: These labels do not seem to fall within either class on which you passed your opinion of September 20. The goods described by these labels purport to be in every respect goods manufactured by the Company. They say in their letter, however, that

they purchase all their goods in Iowa.

The question which I desire to propound particularly in this respect is the following: Is not the label of as it stands, a distinct statement that the product bear

ing it is manufactured and prepared in Wisconsin?

One of the labels considered in the opinion of September 20 (24 Opin., 125) read: "Packed for Company (Limited), wholesale grocers, Shreveport, La." The other omitted the words "Packed for" and "Wholesale grocers," and was in these words: "The Company (Limited), Shreve

Brand Lima Beans,

port, La." They were held not to come within the act of July 1, 1902, c. 1357 (32 Stat., 632), regulating this subject.

The labels now submitted (which are to be used on canned goods) are substantially alike in form and character. One bears the words "Daisy Sugar Corn,

Company, Milwaukee, Wis." In the other, "Tip Top" takes the place of

the word "Daisy."

BRANDING OF FOOD PRODUCTS.

Section 1 of the act of July 1, 1902, provides—

565

That no person or persons, company or corporation, shall introduce into any State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia from any other State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or sell in the District of Columbia or in any Territory any dairy or food products which shall be falsely labeled or branded as to the State or Territory in which they are made, produced, or grown, or cause or procure the same to be done by others.

Section 2 makes a violation of the act a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than $500 or more than $2,000.

In the opinion of September 20, after stating that the mere omission of the place of manufacture can not be said to constitute a violation of the law and that the name of the wholesale dealer on the label or brand is not necessarily a representation that he is the producer or manufacturer of the goods, it was observed: "Of course, if goods are manufactured or produced in one State, and the wholesale dealer is a resident of another, and the label or brand is so worded as to represent the dealer as the producer, there would be a violation of the law if such commodities were introduced into one state from another." The Company, it is stated, purchases all their goods in Iowa. But the words " Daisy Sugar Corn, Company, Milwaukee, Wis.," clearly imply that the goods referred to are manufactured or prepared by that company in Wisconsin. The general public, unfamiliar with trade practices, would inevitably reach that conclusion. It seems to me, therefore, that these labels come within the statute as above construed. To hold otherwise would be to say that nothing short of direct and positive misrepresentation is inhibited. But that is more than the rule as to the strict construction of penal statutes can be said to require. The act in question aims to prevent the false labeling or branding of food and dairy products entering into interstate commerce. It does not, however, undertake to say what shall be held to constitute a false label or brand. Each case must therefore rest upon its own particular facts. But wherever the natural inference to be drawn from the form or words of a brand or label is contrary to the fact as to the State or Territory in which the articles referred to are made, produced, or grown, the case would seem to be within both the letter and the spirit of the law. The papers inclosed are herewith returned as requested.

The Honorable the SECRETARY OF AGRICUlture.

Respectfully,

P. C. KNOX, Attorney-General.

DEPARTMENT of Justice, Washington, D. C., June 18, 1903.

SIR: In your note of June 2, 1903, you transmit to me an excerpt from the appropriation act of March 3, 1903 (32 Stat., 1157, 1158), authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the adulteration of foods, drugs, and liquors, and forbidding the Secretary of the Treasury to deliver to the consignee any such goods imported from a foreign country which the Secretary of Agriculture has "reported to him to have been inspected and analyzed and found to be dangerous to health, or which are forbidden to be sold or restricted in sale in the countries in which they are made or from which they are imported, or which shall be falsely labeled in any respect in regard to the place of manufacture or the contents of the package," and a copy of the act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat., 632), in regard to the introduction into any State or Territory or the District of Columbia of any dairy or food products which shall have been falsely labeled or branded as to the State or Territory in which they are made, produced, or grown; and you ask my opinion, in substance, whether, under the provisions referred to, you have jurisdiction or power to prevent the false labeling or

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »