for hours, and as they recover, a cup of coffee will hasten their recovery and will build them up and stimulate them.

Now, suppose they do not get coffee; suppose they get some articleMr. MANN. They ought to drink Postum Cereal.

Mr. BIGELOW. Suppose the article they purchase as coffee is a coffee substitute.

Now, I have some samples here. This one reads "Old Reliable Coffee." Some place about this label there is the word "compound.' I do not see it now, but I know that it is on the label. At any rate, that is a coffee substitute. It contains no coffee.

The CHAIRMAN. What does it contain; what is it?
Mr. MANN. Is it not more healthy?

Mr. BIGELOW. I will take up that question in a moment.

Mr. RICHARDSON. The principal recommendation of the coffee, anyway, is in its color when you go to drink it.

Give it the right color and the right look and it will taste pretty

well.

Mr. BIGELOW. That depends on the individual.

Mr. COOMBS. It is the same with whisky.

Mr. MANN. Do you drink coffee?

Mr. BIGELOW. Ordinarily I do not.

Mr. MANN. Do you consider it a wholesome substance to drink? Mr. BIGELOW. That is a matter that depends on the person. That is why I say that this is not properly branded.

Mr. MANN. Is it not the general opinion of physicians that coffee is injurious and not beneficial to health?

Mr. BIGELOW. I notice that most physicians whom I know drink it. Mr. MANN. I know. They drink whisky, too.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Don't you think the coffee depends more on the cook knowing how to fix it and arrange it? It is hard to get a cook that will do that.

Mr. BIGELOW. Yes. Now, in the case that I mentioned, this coffee substitute would not take the place of coffee. These mixtures are composed more or less of cereals and peas or pea hulls. Chicory is sometimes used, though not as frequently as before chicory was so expensive as it is now.

Now, I claim that a coffee substitute that contained no coffee, if used for the purpose I have mentioned, would affect the health of the patient.

Now, let us take the other side. Suppose that this coffee substitute also contained coffee, and suppose it is given to a person with whom coffee does not agree. There are many such people. Suppose it contained 50 per cent or more of coffee-some coffee substitutes do-and it is sold under the advertisement and with the recommendation that it can be taken with impunity by those who can not drink coffee. There are such articles on the market, and I have known of a number of cases of people drinking them and suffering from them who can not drink coffee.

Now, I will pass on rapidly.

Mr. RICHARDSON. About the coffee, before you leave that, is it not a fact that the very best housewives and housekeepers frequently mix Java and Rio, and that produces the very best coffee you can serve on the table, that mixture of coffees?

Mr. BIGELOW. I think the majority of consumers prefer a mixed

coffee; I mean mixtures of coffees, not coffees mixed with other articles.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Is it not a fact, too, that frequently the dealers. those who sell coffees, have them mixed that way in order to meet the demands of the public?

Mr. BIGELOW. Yes, sir; they mix them that way.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Then would you pronounce those mixtures unwholesome?

Mr. BIGELOW. Those are mixtures of coffees, and I was speaking not of compounds of coffees, but mixtures of coffees with other articles. Mr. RICHARDSON. Would you think that a law would be reasonable and fair that would require each one of these coffees to be marked on the outside?

Mr. BIGELOW. I see no objection to that.

Mr. RICHARDSON. And in the proportion that they are in there? Mr. BIGELOW. I see no objection to that.

Mr. RICHARDSON. When you admit that each one is perfectly wholesome!

Mr. BIGELOW. Yes, sir.

Mr. RICHARDSON. And you do not think that that kind of a law would be unreasonable?

Mr. BIGELOw. I do not think so.

The CHAIRMAN. Coming back to this label a moment, this label reads, "Old Reliable Coffee"-giving the manufacturer's name"One pound, full weight. A compound of delicious drinking coffees, guaranteed to please those who like a full, heavy-bodied cup of coffee." You say that there was no coffee in this?

Mr. BIGELOW. No, sir. That was to comply with the law that required them to put upon the label the word "compound," and that was why they put the word "compound."

The CHAIRMAN. It was compounded of various ingredients, leaving coffee out entirely?

Mr. BIGELOW. Leaving coffee out entirely.

The CHAIRMAN (reading). "Fine Old Java Coffee."

Mr. BIGELOW. Yes, sir. Now I have some samples here of compound jellies and jams, compound jams.

I have here a number of labels of fruit jams marked "compound." but the word "compound" is put in such an inconspicuous place that it would not be seen on the label.

In that connection I might call attention to canned corn and canned peas that I found at a grocery store last fall, and which were sold as high-grade articles.

Mr. TOMPKINS. The distinguishing feature of the "compound" is that it does not contain any of the things that are said to be compounded. Here is blackberry jam, “blackberry compound," and the distinguishing feature of it is that there are no blackberries in it.

Mr. BIGELOW. No, sir; those are not the usual features of compounded goods.

Mr. TOMPKINS. When you come to the coffee, there is no coffee in that?

Mr. BIGELOW. Coffee substitutes may or may not have any coffee

in them.

Mr. RICHARDSON. You have not found it in any of these particular instances.

Mr. BIGELOW. The word "compound" is frequently used on coffees which are mixtures of coffees themselves.

Mr. COOMBS. That says, "delicious mixture."

Mr. RICHARDSON. And there is no coffee in it at all.

Mr. BIGELOW. I was speaking of a sample of soaked peas given me by a grocery store last fall as a high-grade article. These were packed in a Western State where it was required that the word "soaked " should be put in a conspicuous place on the label, and so it read, "Prepared from carefully selected stock and soaked in artesian-well water," the word "soaked" being printed in large capitals. I called the attention of the clerk to that, and he said it was a great recommendation, and improved the quality of the goods very much, this soaking in artesian-well water. I am sorry that I could not find that label in the laboratory this morning, so that I have not got it here. Just one word more before we close, to call attention to some labels of olive oil which I obtained in the market, and I would like to have the gentlemen look them over. Those oils had no olive oil in them at all; some of them were imported and some of them not, but no olive oil at all.

Mr. COOMBS. No olive oil at all?

Mr. BIGELOW. No, sir. Most of them had no olive oil at all.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Then that is not a compound, if there is no olive oil at all.

Mr. BIGELOW. And in relation to the wines, may I give one instance. Several years ago Dr. Wiley asked me to go to New York to interview some of the wine importers, and obtain samples of the imported wines to compare with those that we had obtained from the customs officers. I went into one small importer's, and asked for a sample of Rhine wine. I said, "What brand have you?" "Any brand you desire." After a long conversation-he did not know who I was-he offered to put up for me a dozen cases of wine under the label of any one of a number of manufacturers or wine makers in Germany, and under any name I desired. I said, "Can you give me the 's liebfraumilch?" He said, "Yes," and went to a drawer and showed me the label. I said, "Have you got the cap?" "Yes sir,” and he went to another drawer and produced it.

Now, I do not mean to say that that is characteristic of the importers of wine, but it is possible. And in Philadelphia I went into one place kept by an alleged importer of wines, and I asked an Irish laborer who was temporarily in charge if he could give me a certain make of Rhine wine. He said that he did not know just where their Rhine wine came from, but the vineyard was somewhere in California. Mr. COOMBS. It must have been an improvement, then.

Mr. BIGELOW. I am sorry not to be able to call your attention in detail to many of these things, but I would prefer not to go on to

morrow.

Thereupon, at 12.10 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned until to-morrow, March 20, 1902, at 10.30 o'clock a. m.

MARCH 20, 1902.

Committee met at 10:30 o'clock a. m., Hon. William T. Hepburn in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN. The Committee will be in order. Mr. Magruder, will you take the stand.

STATEMENT OF MR. JOHN H. MAGRUDER, OF WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. MAGRUDER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I represent the Business Mens' Association of Washington, D. C., and the Business Mens' Association favors the Hepburn bill, and the reason we do so is because it is a bill that protects everyone. The manufacturer who turns out poor goods may be compared to the man with a clear conscience; he can stand in the sunlight and fear no one. He has nothing to hide, and no defects to cover up. His whole character will bear the inspection of daylight.

Now, the Corliss bill, on page 4, section 4, line 3, says:

SEC. 4. That any person or persons, company or corporation, engaged or interested in the manufacture of food products may at any time submit to the food commissioner a formula for the manufacture of any preparation intended for food or drink, with a sample prepared after such formula, and it shall be the duty of said food commissioner to approve or reject said formula and enter upon the record of his office, hereinafter provided for, such formula, together with the approval or rejection thereof, and if rejected, the specific reasons therefor.

Now, that bill allows anyone to prepare foods which may not have a particle of the article that they intended it to be.

And then again for every merchant that clause can get up one of the biggest advertisements that any merchant wants. If he gets the written sanction or guaranty of the Agricultural Department, at the same time his liberty to use it, and that is one of the things that I like about the Hepburn bill, that when this board decides upon an article, they decide what an article shall be, they do not decide on the quality of an article and give it to a man and tell him that his article is good and pure and can be sold. That is the feature which I shall come to in the Hepburn bill hereafter.

Now, gentlemen, here is something that reflects on the grocery merchant, and which made me a little hot, because I have not any secrets in my business, it is open and above board to anyone, there is nothing I want to hide, and nothing that I wish to conceal. I have never done it in my life, and I am not going to commence now.

What I refer to is in the Evening Star of Monday, and it seems that these gentlemen appeared before your committee on Saturday, and perhaps the halls of Congress may vibrate, for I see that at the very same hour I was talking on the same subject before the Senate committee Senator McCumber's committee-I was talking for the laboring man and for all human beings; he was talking for his own pocket, and I had no great interest in this bill. I can protect myself. I sell the best of goods that can be procured, and I pay the most money for any article. I go direct to headquarters. I go to the manufacturer and the producer. I do not go to the so-called manufacturer who sells at wholesale, and who will also sell to families, as this house does. I know that to be a fact, and they have sold goods in this city.

Now, this is in the Evening Star of Monday, March 17, 1902. headed:

It is

Secrets of grocers-Facts told a Congressional committee-How jelly is made-The production of olive oil.

Well, now, that is a question that must be left to a person himself, about olive oil. People do not like pure sirup. The heading of the article goes on:

People would not recognize pure maple sirup-Testimony of Mr. J. H. Madden, of Chicago.

Now, it is quite a long article, but it says down here:

As preliminary to his advocacy of the Corliss bill, he said that for the last fifteen years he had been in charge of the manufacturing department of his firm, and during that time he had never known of an authentic case of poisoning from the use of canned goods.

I do not agree with the gentleman. Now, I did not hear the testimony here, but I heard the testimony of the gentleman before the Senate committee that he had tested a can of tomatoes and had not found a particle of tomato in it. Did he so testify here? Did he tes tify as to canned tomatoes that had not any tomatoes in the can?

Mr. TOMPKINS. I am not saying that he did not, but I do not remember it. He spoke about some compounds. Yesterday we had some testimony in regard to compounds; for instance, coffee that had not any coffee in it.

Mr. MAGRUDER. He testified over there about tomatoes. Now, there are tomatoes (canned goods) that are put up that will poison people; not in the can, but they are put up in such a kind of way that they will poison. And he says here that it is an idea that there is no case on record of such poisoning.

Now, we have seen it often-not in my practical experience, because I have never had any fear of the canned peaches, or tomatoes, or anything going out of my store. But the class of merchants that the Hepburn bill will protect are the corner groceries. There are over 1,500 of them here in Washington, and it is that kind of merchants that need protection. They do not know the class of goods. These men, salesmen, come here, and they are the best talkers, and they can convince those men, and they try to convince me, that everything is pure, and that I should not be afraid to sell it. A great many things should not be sold, but they will sell a swell head-that is a common expression among merchants-a swell-head can, with the head bulged out. If that can goes out, it is injurious.

If I see the least sign of a can raising and swelling, I know it can be sold, but I am afraid to sell it on account of the customers. I throw that aside in the waste barrel. I suppose that on my canned goods through the season there will be $100 worth thrown away, because fear it, and would not use it myself, and would not let anybody else eat it.

Mr. TOMPKINS. That is because of the presence of gas and fermentation?

Mr. MAGRUDER. Fermentation; yes, sir.

Mr. TOMPKINS. A gas arising in the can?

Mr. MAGRUDER. Yes, sir. Now, here is this article, under the heading, "Information about jelly." That, gentlemen, seeks to protect that so-called jelly.