STARVING AMERICA 
 
 BY ALFRED W. MX ANN 
 
mm inrk 
 ?tate QJollcgs of Agriculture 
 
 At (Ifotnell UnluEraitg 
 
 aitljaca. ?3. ^. 
 
Date Due 
 
 mW 
 
 _igp^gg^" 
 
 Library Bureau Cat, No. 1137 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 TX 353.M2 
 
 Starving America, 
 
 3 1924 003 711 433 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003711433 
 
STARVING AMERICA 
 ALFRED W. McGANN 
 
THIS PICTURE OF THE ALTHOR S YOrNGEST CHILD, \\HO HAS 
 NE\'ER BEEN SICK. IS INCLUDED BY REQUEST OF THE PUBLISHER 
 AS THE BEST EVIDENCE OF THE SOUNDNESS OF THE VIEWS ON 
 FEEDING CHILDREN AS SET FORTH IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES. 
 
STARVING 
 AMERICA 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED W- McGANN 
 
 MEMBER OF VIGILANCE COMMITTEE, 
 
 THE ASSOCIATED ADVERTISING 
 
 CLUBS OF AMERICA 
 
 Copyright, 1913 
 By F. M. BARTON 
 
 F. M. BARTON 
 CLEVELAND NEW YORK 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 During his seventeenth and eighteenth years, the 
 writer suffered a severe illness which resisted treat- 
 ment for eighteen months. This experience re- 
 sulted in a keen interest in the subject of food. 
 After his recovery, brought about finally by dietetic 
 treatment, he was thrown into daily association for 
 two years with Professor James R. Campbell, then 
 an instructor in chemistry at Pittsburg College. 
 His room in the college adjoined Professor Camp- 
 bell's room, and they spent much time together in 
 the discussion of chemical theories, and their ex- 
 perimental proofs. He conceived a profound vener- 
 ation for the mysteries of organic life, and began 
 to look upon food as the embodiment of all the 
 forces, which, when properly co-related and re- 
 leased, are responsible for the continuation of life. 
 
 As an amateur, he began to study biochemistry, 
 and the chemistry of foods, but could find nothing 
 authoritative on the subject. Dietitians were divid- 
 ing food into four groups: Carbohydrates, proteins, 
 fats and "ash." The division of "ash" was always 
 exasperatingly ignored, and apparently had little if 
 any meaning for the dietitian, and was not consid- 
 ered by him as significant or important. 
 
 In the meantime, the writer learned that a diet 
 of pure carbohydrates, pure proteins and pure fat, 
 would not support life, and the subject of "ash" 
 grew more formidable and more fascinating. Phy- 
 sicians and chemists everywhere, admitted that 
 personally they knew nothing about "ash" in rela- 
 lationship to food, and did not know where to go to 
 get such information. Years of wrestling with the 
 word "ash" resulted in little that could be depended 
 upon until an experiment during a very critical 
 period in the writer's life began to throw a feeble 
 light upon the subject. 
 
 During this period, he was earning his livelihood 
 as an advertising man, though the study of biochem- 
 istry has been of absorbing interest to hirn at all 
 times. 
 
Then it happened that he was appointed adver- 
 tising manager of a large department store, which 
 operated a grocery department, and a new avenue 
 of a peculiar kind of information was thus opened 
 up to him. 
 
 During the two years of his service in this 
 capacity, he acquired fragmentary knowledge of 
 conditions which the outside world did not suspect. 
 
 Then another and almost bottomless fountain of 
 information concerning modern food conditions was 
 tapped. He became the advertising man of a large 
 food industry, and for five years his constant daily 
 associates were food inspectors, chemists connected 
 with the national and state departments, food man- 
 ufacturers, importers, jobbers and commission men. 
 
 For three years of this five-year period, he was 
 employed under the roof of a modern food factory, 
 and spent a great deal of his time in the laboratory 
 of that factory. 
 
 All the while, light was breaking upon the sub- 
 ject of "ash," and the facts revealed in this book 
 were applied to the diet of his children, with results 
 that confound nearly all accepted notions of feeding 
 children. 
 
 During this time. Dr. Wiley was leading a great 
 food-reform movement. The writer began working 
 with him and for him, and by virtue of his position 
 was able to encourage and promote many food re- 
 forms in a purely commercial way. His motives 
 were continually assailed, because of his commercial 
 affiliations, and it was even said by enemies of food- 
 reform, that he had an ax to grind, and was making 
 money out of his position. 
 
 The writer had always a strong belief that the 
 food-reform movement would work out its own 
 destiny, and, in his position as advertising manager, 
 sought by every means at his disposal, to put this 
 belief into action, but, with a specialized knowledge 
 of modern food conditions acquired by years of 
 service on the inside behind the screens, and with 
 a clear understanding of the limitations of the mod- 
 ern food industry, he no longer expects a great iood- 
 
reform to come through advertising as now con- 
 ducted. 
 
 The advertising manager cannot state the whole 
 truth in a food advertising campaign, for the reason 
 that those who pay the advertising bills rightly in- 
 sist that their advertisements shall center about the 
 talking points that will sell their product, always 
 keeping clear of trespass upon ethical ground. 
 
 The food manufacturer fears to step outside the 
 limits of a careful conservative campaign, because 
 he feels that a radical departure from trade cus- 
 toms would jeopardize his business. As a com- 
 mercial institution, he declares that his chief 
 function is not to educate the masses, and points to 
 the fact that no profit is to be derived from such 
 policy. 
 
 Because of these obstacles in the way of reform, 
 the writer no longer looks to commercial publicity, 
 or to legislation as means through which to enlight- 
 en the people. Most of the conditions described 
 here are unknown to our legislative bodies, and it 
 will be a long time before Congress can be educated 
 to that point, where the distressful facts here out^ 
 lined will be noted and acted upon. 
 
 The reform work must be done in the schools. 
 
 Our children must be taught the meaning of de^ 
 praved foods. They must learn how those foods are 
 processed, bleached, colored, de-natured, de-germiriA 
 ated, de-mineralized, chemically treated. They must 
 be taught the relationship of such food to sickness 
 and death. They must be taught the relationship 
 of natural food to health and life. The true condi- 
 tions, now concealed from the public, must be ex- 
 posed, in order that the public may make its own 
 choice, guarded by a complete knowledge of factSi 
 These facts are presented here in a manner under" 
 standable to the layman for the first time, and with 
 the addition of the Catechism of Vital Questions and 
 Answers, this work places before the people a full 
 and complete exposure of the evil conditions, which^ 
 unmolested, now menace the health and life of 
 America. 
 
Jidnh ^. (Align 
 
 October, 19 
 1912. 
 
 My De!ir UoOann: 
 
 Your booK has staggered me. It is startling, 
 appalling. Tou <lo-"not Know how rauoh it disturbs me. 
 Its force Is— terrific, Its logic Invincible. 
 
 I do not Know of any other man who would dare 
 wrestle with the problem as you have done. Hho will have the 
 courage to publish this book? 
 
 Certainly from now on you will be lashed and 
 Jrldlouled and hated in Siany quarters and heavy pressure will 
 be applied to Keep the truth in the darkness of eontroversy, 
 but through it all your merciless analysis will stand naked 
 to compel attention. 
 
 Vast upheaval will oome "out of your work and 
 1 shall not be' greatly surprised to aee after Its publication 
 the spirit of a great and helpful revolution at our doors. 
 
 When I told you that no book of a hundred years 
 Vf0iO.d «(iaal the construct ive force of yours, I meant It. 
 I can oonoelve of nothing sn tremendous, so stirring, so over- 
 ■wheOmlag as tbe manner In which you have presented our greatest 
 /latlonal msnaoe and its remedy. 
 
 Yo-wi- sincere 
 
 jL._^(E.aM^ 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I The birthday party 11 
 
 II Fifteen million defective children ... 23 
 
 III Dust thou art — New light on an old 
 
 truth 27 
 
 IV What the minerals do 31 
 
 V Ferments 43 
 
 VI Minerals lost or changed 49 
 
 VII White bread starvation 57 
 
 VIII Polished rice 69 
 
 IX Other nations alarmed 77 
 
 X Proper food or medicine 85 - 
 
 XI Meat eating insufficient 99 
 
 XII What we should eat— Real food 103 
 
 XIII Candy, ice cream and other foods . . . Ill 
 
 XIV A raid on impure foods 129 
 
 XV Food adulterations 137 
 
 XVI Food preservatives 147 
 
 XVII Bacteria in food 159 
 
 XVIII Labels that mislead 165 
 
 XIX The "Poison Squad" 169 
 
 XX Keeping foods 173 
 
 XXI The procession of little white caskets 177 
 
 XXII What to feed the child 183 
 
 XXIII Increasing death rate 193 
 
 XXIV Food experiments in schools 197 
 
 XXV The hungry soil 201 
 
 XXVI Food reforms in the grocery store. . . 207 
 
 XXVII An ideal restaurant 217 
 
 XXVIII Starting a bakery 233 
 
 XXIX For physicians only 241 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BIRTHDAY PARTY. 
 
 There was something cruel in the shrill five o'clock 
 whistle, that released the flour-mill workers from 
 their toil, but no man heard its tragic note. It 
 meant only that the day's labor was finished, and the 
 workers were glad. Had there been a prophet on 
 the street comer, to interpret the meaning of that 
 screaming steam for them, as they came down the 
 factory steps, they would have laughed and gone 
 their various ways, some into convenient saloons, 
 others hurriedly to their homes. 
 
 One man, tall, pale, neatly dressed, clerk of the 
 factory office, stopped a moment as the men broke 
 line, and said to himself: "How many of these 
 poor fellows are blessed at home with a little Helen 
 like mine?" The very thought of the child seemed 
 to soften the hard lines of his serious face, and un- 
 consciously he smiled. 
 
 "I guess they all have their little birthday parties, 
 too," he said to himself, and with a quick step, he 
 set out for the nearest candy shop. 
 
 He had left the oifice promptly, and other whistles 
 were blowing, but their shrill screams had no mes- 
 sage for his light heart. 
 
 For a whole week, little Helen had reminded him 
 almost every day not to forget to bring candles for 
 the great birthday cake, about which there had been 
 so much planning at home, and he had remembered 
 them a dozen times that day. 
 
12 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Seven different kinds of candy, of seven different 
 colors to catch the children's eyes, and seven pretty 
 candles were purchased, and snugly tucked into the 
 deep pockets of his overcoat. 
 
 "Life is indeed worth living," he murmured 
 buoyantly, as he turned off the main thoroughfare 
 into the street that led to his door. 
 
 The weather was raw and chilly, so mother did 
 not allow the little girl to run as usual to meet her 
 father. She caught cold easily, and each cold seemed 
 more difficult to cure than the one before. So her 
 face was pressed against the window, as she waited 
 eagerly for her father's coming. 
 
 As he approached the door, he saw beside the 
 last of the year's geraniums on the sill within, the 
 darling face of his little one against the pane. For 
 the first time in seven years, a convulsive shudder 
 passed over him, as he caught sight of those white 
 little cheeks, but it was as meaningless to him in 
 that moment, as the shrill factory whistle to the 
 men whom he had left a half hour before. 
 
 Helen was in his arms. He lifted her high, and 
 holding her aloft, he noted again the white cheeks 
 of his angel, and looked into her laughing eyes 
 stupidly. 
 
 Something in the grim and sudden drooping of 
 his mouth transmitted itself into the mother's heart, 
 and she turned away from her husband's gaze, and 
 looked over the housetops into the gathering dark- 
 ness. No one may know the things she saw. 
 
 "Did you bring my candles, papa ?" cried the little 
 one as she spied his bulging pockets. 
 
 "Did I?" came the proud and laughing answer. 
 "Well just look here," and the packages were opened. 
 
 "See the purple one? that's for our little queens 
 and the white one is for our little queen's heart, and 
 
the blue one is for her eyes, and the golden one is 
 for her hair, and some day" — his voice dropped a 
 little, "and some day, our little queen's lips will be 
 like the red one, and her cheeks like the pink one. 
 See, aren't they pretty, these birthday candles, with 
 a color for every candle, and a candle for every year 
 of our little darling's life, with this big green candle 
 for the summer Sundays, when we will all go again 
 with our luncheon to the green woods?" 
 
 The next day little Helen's playmates came, and 
 the birthday party with its great frosted cake, and 
 its lighted candles, and ice cream bricks, red, and 
 white, and green, and brown, and the fancy candy of 
 seven diiferent hues made a riot of color for all. 
 The children were transported with the rainbow 
 goodies before them. Such chatter, and clatter, and 
 laughter and song with little Helen crowned in a 
 whole afternoon of childhood's glory, could not be 
 crowded within four home wallg. Some of its full- 
 ness must flow over into the busy streets, and be 
 heard far off, even in the heart of a father busy at 
 his work three miles away. 
 
 All the afternoon he heard, he saw, he knew, and 
 when that shrill whistle sounded again, he had for- 
 gotten the strange pain of the night before, and 
 was off, for at least an hour of the party was to 
 be reserved for his arrival. 
 
 They were happy "good-night" wishes that ended 
 that happy day, and when little Helen's mother 
 tucked her away in her warm little bed, she, too, was 
 happy. 
 
 The next day Helen did not feel well, and did 
 not go to school. She had a little fever, which her 
 mother called an "upset." The fever continued an- 
 other day, and they called a doctor. He felt her 
 
14 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 pulse, looked at her tongue, and asked what she 
 had been eating. 
 
 When told about the birthday party, he smiled, 
 and said she had probably eaten too much. He gave 
 her some medicine, and in a few days she apparently 
 was well again. 
 
 The doctor did not know, that the milk of which 
 that ice cream had been made was "loose milk." He 
 did not know that a microscopical examination of it 
 would have revealed 90,000,000 organisms to the 
 cubic centimeter, which is much less than a teaspoon- 
 ful. He did not know that many of those organisms 
 were of a pathogenic character. He did not know 
 that the ice cream was stiffened with a "bodifier" 
 made of commercial gelatin, which the Bureau of 
 Chemistry at Washington, has shown to contain as 
 many as 6,000,000,000 organisms to the gram, of 
 which there are twenty-nine in a single ounce. He 
 did not know that among those organisms were some 
 of the most deadly forms of bacterial life. 
 
 He did not know that those colored candies were 
 made chiefly of glucose, sweetened with about 10% 
 of sugar. He did not know the action of glucose, 
 and "refined" sugars when excessively consumed. He 
 did not know that on a glucose diet, bees and white 
 mice are quickly killed, although it has been gener- 
 ally supposed that glucose is a good food for the 
 child. He did not know that the flavors of that 
 ice cream and candy were derived from ethers, and 
 were purely artificial. He did not know that their 
 colors were "certified" coal tar dyeg, and so he 
 charged Helen's illness to "overeating," but he 
 did not place much importance upon the food itself, 
 which she had over-eaten. 
 
 Let us sit down to-night at the dining table in 
 one of our average homes, where there are children, 
 
and discuss this thing sensibly, frankly, fully. Let 
 us learn why Helen caught cold so easily, and why 
 it was difficult to cure those colds, and why she 
 had periodical "upsets." 
 
 Let us hear the real note in that shrill mill 
 whistle, and let us seriously face the issue as parents, 
 teachers, or physicians. We will discover what un- 
 dermined the health of that little girl, and destroyed 
 the happiness of that little family. 
 
 Of what did their breakfast consist? Let us 
 see. There was the usual coffee, and the usual rolls 
 and toast, with one of the many popular breakfast 
 foods, served with milk produced by cows fed on 
 demineralized brewer's grain, and by-products of the 
 cotton seed oil, and glucose industries. Is this not 
 the breakfast of millions? you ask. Stop, for this 
 is serious business that we are discussing. There 
 must be no argument, until all of these cruel pages 
 have surrendered all their cruel facts to all the 
 flour-mill and food factory whistles of America, that 
 their warning may be heard and understood. After 
 that, the argument, but now the food of the child. 
 
 Breakfast foods, com, barley, wheat and rice 
 must "keep." They must look "nice." The spirit of 
 little Helen is asking, "By what processes are these 
 two requirements fulfilled?" 
 
 The pages that follow will answer, and if the 
 answer cuts deep into hearts that have been pierced 
 already, let the later wounds inspire atonement. _We 
 have gathered together for the sake of the child. 
 
 At noon, as the father did not come home, the 
 mother fried the potatoes left from the last night's 
 meal, and added a bit of bologna or cheese. Helen 
 liked bread or biscuits with syrup for lunch. 
 Helen's mother did not know what had been taken 
 out of the bread and biscuits, and what had been 
 
16 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 taken out of the com that produced the syrup. She 
 liked strawberry jam, or some other fruit jam from 
 the grocery store, with its 10% of fruit, and its 
 10% of apple juice, made from the sulphured skins 
 and cores of the dried apple industry, with its 70% 
 of glucose, sweetened with 10% of sugar, and held 
 together with enough inorganic phosphoric acid to 
 supply the jellying quality, and preserved with "one- 
 tenth" of one percent benzoate of soda, to prevent 
 the mass from fermenting. 
 
 Only "one-tenth of one percent" of this chemical 
 is declared on the label. The presence of as much 
 as four more tenths of benzoate of soda in many food 
 products was determined by the Commissioner of 
 Agriculture of the State of Georgia, through the 
 report of the State Chemist, published as serial 
 number 56, in September, 1912, in spite of the fact 
 that only "one-tenth" was declared on the label of 
 those products. Little Helen's doctor did not know 
 this. 
 
 Little Helen's father and mother were not taught 
 the chemistry of food in the schools, nor the relation- 
 ship which refined food would some day bear to their 
 anemic child. 
 
 But we must not go too fast. The evening meal 
 was quite suited to the father's needs. It consisted 
 of chops, or pot roast, or sausages, or baked beans 
 and ham, with vegetables of the season, fresh, or 
 vegetables of some other season, canned, and a home- 
 made pie or pudding. It was the average American 
 meal, and it is the average meal with which we are 
 concerned. 
 
 During the afternoon, a confectionery store dowa 
 the street received many of the pennies of the little 
 girl. It had existence for the purpose of attracting 
 those pennies. There are just twenty million of such 
 
THE BIRITIDAY PARTY 17 
 
 pennies spent each day in the United States, by 
 school children. Helen "feasted" between meals on 
 colored glucose at the candy store. 
 
 She had been always of a delicate type, anemic 
 and nervous. At different times she had been 
 treated by the family physician for tonsilitis, acute 
 chorea and anemia. At the age of six she under- 
 went an operation for adenoids. In the United 
 States at the same time, there were more than 200,- 
 OOD such operations among the children. She had 
 taken a tonic of iron and manganese. 
 
 Remember these words, "iron and manganese." 
 At other times tonics of strychnia were pre- 
 scribed, and on two occasions she was given by- 
 chloride mercury, and chloride arsenic. 
 
 Her teeth, like those of other millions of children 
 were decayed. At times mother said, "I wonder if 
 we feed Helen properly?" but Aunt Jennie always 
 answered, "Her ills are natural to childhood, and to 
 be expected. She will outgrow them." The neigh- 
 bors told her that the less attention she paid to her 
 child's food, the better, because people who were 
 always worrying about food had the hardest luck. 
 Here and there a plump child was pointed out to 
 her, as a model of what eating "anything and 
 everything" would produce. It was not known that 
 the plump child's plumpness had nothing to do with 
 muscle-tone ; nothing to do with normal functioning ; 
 nothing to do with vitality or high resistance. It 
 was not known that the plump child fed on "every- 
 thing and anything," succumbed even more quickly 
 than the thin child, but grandmothers and mothers 
 had fed children for ages, and surely they must 
 know a little about their business. So little Helen's 
 mother felt that, as they said, the child would event- 
 ually outgrow her illness. 
 
18 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 A few weeks after the birthday party, as Helen 
 was going home from school, she was caught in a 
 rainstorm. Her mother changed her clothes as soon 
 as she came home and gave her a hot lemonade. 
 That night she had a high fever and again the doctor 
 was called. 
 
 When he came, he uttered one word, "pneu- 
 monia." 
 
 That father and mother in the year 1910, stricken 
 into dumb and sudden darkness, in the tenderest and 
 brightest hour of their sweetest hope, faced the same 
 unutterable emptiness of life that a quarter of a 
 million of other fathers and mothers in the same 
 year faced. For in the United States, in the year 
 1910, 235,262 little children under ten years of age, 
 went into the great beyond, to give testimony to the 
 darkness of earth. 
 
 The apparent cause of Helen's death was pneu- 
 monia. The real cause was mal-nutrition, low re- 
 sistance, insidious starvation. 
 
 If 235,262 children had lost their lives in an 
 epidemic, or in a massacre, it would have aroused the 
 nation, but if those 235,262 little children travel ob- 
 scurely in one year into death, the nation neither 
 heeds nor understands. 
 
 When the Titanic went down with 1600 souls 
 aboard, the cities of civilization put on an inky cloak 
 of sorrow. The multitudes of many lands stood at 
 the edge of the sea, calling through the night in 
 their desperation, for the waters to bring their 
 fellows home. Less than two thousand perished, but 
 they perished in a heap. Man's power for them had 
 come to an end. Beaten and humbled by the sense- 
 less block, the earth was dazed, because the tragedy 
 was strange and sudden. The slow moving, dead- 
 
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY 
 
 19 
 
 lier peril that walks with us in the day and sleeps by 
 our side at night, arouses no man. 
 
 Are we insensible to this fearful loss, because 
 our children fall quietly like the petals of autumn 
 roses ? Have we grown careless to this fearful loss, 
 because it goes on day by day, increasing each year? 
 Do we not care to take the trouble to learn its 
 cause? 
 
 A Bulletin prepared in 1912 by the United States 
 Bureau of Education states that : 
 
 400,000 children have organic disease 
 1,000,000 children have tuberculosis in some form 
 1,000,000 children have spinal curvature 
 1,000,000 children have defective hearing 
 4,000,000 children are suffering from mal-nutri- 
 
 tion 
 6,000,000 children have enlarged tonsils, adenoids 
 
 or other gland diseases 
 10,000,000 children have defective teeth 
 15,000,000 children need attention for physical de- 
 fects which are prejudicial to health. 
 On January 24th, 1912, the census director at 
 Washington issued mortality statistics for 1910, re- 
 vealing for that year, 805,412 deaths in the United 
 States. Roughly tabulated some of these are — 
 
 Infants under one year of age 154,375 
 
 62,946 
 17,943 
 
 Children from two to five years of age 
 Children from six to ten years of age . . 
 
 Total deaths of children under ten 235,262 
 
 Youths from ten to 19 years of age 31,508 
 
 Deaths between 20 and 29 years of age 62,957 
 
 Deaths between 30 and 39 years of age .... 68,957 
 
 Deaths between 40 and 49 years of age .... 72,935 
 
 The appalling sacrifice of infants indicates that 
 
 nearly 200,000 American women entered into the 
 
20 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 shadows of motherhood unfit to bring their children 
 into the world, or having brought them into the 
 world, were unfit to care for them. With such a 
 background as this, our proud parade of Paris 
 fashions in softly folded tissues, delicate silks, and 
 wools, ravishing creations, takes on the leer of re- 
 fined debauch. 
 
 Two hundred and thirty-five thousand two hun- 
 dred and sixty-two little children in the rear of that 
 parade were denied the right to enter their "teens" 
 and many thousands of young men and women facing 
 life with all its possibilities went wearily into the 
 great beyond while the heart of womanhood was 
 brooding over the captivating styles of dress. 
 
 A study of these brutal facts should not alarm 
 us. It should inspire hope. By ignoring the truth 
 or by refusing to look into it because of the grim 
 depression which accompanies the contemplation of 
 such a holocaust, we betray our unfitness to deserve 
 a better fate. 
 
 By facing the situation bravely and by determin- 
 ing to find out the cause of America's Slaughter of 
 the Innocents we prove that in some measure at 
 least we are worthy to account for our stewardship 
 of the lives that have been put into our keeping. 
 
 If in the year 1912 a hostile army should visit 
 our shores and put to death a quarter of a million 
 of our young people, there would be weeping and 
 wailing and gnashing of teeth. We would cry to 
 heaven for vengeance and in letters of blood the 
 world would record upon the history of the 20th 
 eentury a crime unparalleled in all the ages of man. 
 
 That hostile army has visited our shores and is 
 now ruthlessly destroying our children. 
 
 It is the army of ignorance, indifference, com- 
 placency, selfishness and passion. The crowds in 
 
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY 21 
 
 the market place, in the cars, on the street, in the 
 theatre give no thought to the waste of life going on 
 around them. They do not see it. 
 
 "With desolation is the earth made desolate be- 
 cause no man thinketh in his heart." 
 
 If most of these deaths are preventable and if by 
 teaching the fundamental principles of life to our 
 children at school, to our young men and women, to 
 our young fathers and mothers, we can make this 
 dreadful thing impossible, then, indeed, the remedy 
 concerns us all and our failure to heed the facts, 
 as they stand, puts on the shirt of murder. 
 
 Of the total number of deaths, tuberculosis was 
 responsible for more than 80,000. These figures rep- 
 resent the number of those who perished of the 
 disease in that year, not the number of those who 
 were afflicted with it and incapacitated by it. 
 
 Sixty-four thousand died of diarrhoea and this 
 number indicates in no manner the number who dur- 
 ing the year were stricken with diarrhoea and re- 
 covered. It does indicate the prevalence of grave 
 errors of diet. 
 
 Between the ages of ten and nineteen years, 
 tuberculosis caused 24.5 per cent of the total deaths. 
 Between the years of twenty and twenty-nine tuber- 
 culosis caused 35 per cent of the total deaths and 
 between the years of thirty and thirty-nine tubercu- 
 losis caused 28.5 per cent of the total deaths. 
 
 Cancer, kidney disease and appendicitis stalk 
 along in menacing dignity as important attendants 
 of the great executioner. 
 
 The National Association for the Study and Pre- 
 vention of Tuberculosis informs us that in the year 
 1911, $14,500,000 were spent throughout the coun- 
 try in the war against tuberculosis. About the 
 same amount was spent in the year 1910. Of the 
 
22 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 •total sum spent last year, $11,800,000 were spent in 
 the treatment of consumptives in sanitariums and 
 hospitals ; the remainder was spent by anti-tubercu- 
 losis associations, open-air schools, dispensaries and 
 Boards of Health. New York, Pennsylvania and 
 Massachusetts in 1911 spent nearly $7,000,000 in 
 fighting this disease and in the early part of 1912 
 State Legislatures and other public bodies appropri- 
 ated over $10,000,000 to continue the work. 
 
 The mission of these relentless figures is to 
 awaken you and to arouse in you an interest in the 
 national health. They show that a little army of 
 noble men and women is fighting out there in the 
 field of sorrow with such poor weapons as they have. 
 This book will throw the light on another weapon. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIFTEEN MILLION DEFECTIVE CHILDREN. 
 
 Two hundred and thirty-five thousand children 
 died in the homes of our nation in one year. But 
 how about the living? When the Reaper, Death, had 
 such a harvest, were not his attendants. Disease 
 and Pain, following in his train? 
 
 The evils that brought about the death of more 
 than a quarter of a million delicate children in the 
 United States during a year — what was their effect 
 on children with a little more vigor and vitality? 
 What is the actual condition of the school children 
 of the present day? 
 
 All over America and Europe public school chil- 
 dren are being examined by physicians in their 
 search for disease. 
 
 Half tne children in a school in the slums of 
 Leeds were found by Dr. Hall to be suffering from 
 rickets, a result of lime and phosphorus starvation. 
 How came that so? We shall see. 
 
 In the Edinburgh school, 40% of the children 
 were found to be suffering with diseases of the 
 ear, a result of general systemic disorder, brought 
 about by insufficient food of the right kind or an 
 abundance of food lacking in nutritive value. 
 
 Of 10,500 school children the British Dental As- 
 sociation found 86% suffering from defective teeth, 
 the result of a diet lacking in the mineral elements 
 upon which the bones and teeth depend for their 
 existence. 
 
24 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 In the Dundee schools 50% of the children were 
 found to be suffering from defective vision. 
 
 In Alameda, California, the Superintendent of 
 Schools says that out of 3600 pupils, more than 300 
 are afflicted with physical defects, observable even to 
 the layman. 
 
 Mayor Fitzgerald of Boston in the month of 
 December, 1911, announced the results of the first 
 three months' work conducted by Dr. William J. 
 Gallivan, Chief of the Division of Child Hygiene of 
 the Boston Board of Health. 
 
 The school physicians under Dr. Gallivan ex- 
 amined 42,750 children and only 14,957, a little more 
 than one-third, were found to be in a condition that 
 could be called healthy; 27,795 of the children ex- 
 amined were described as defective. 
 
 In this historic center of the learning and culture 
 of the United States, an investigation covering three 
 months discovered among the children of the schools 
 19,518 cases of defective teeth, 9,738 cases of dis- 
 eased tonsils, 3,509 cases of skin disease, 575 cases 
 of rickets and 1,611 cases of malnutrition. 
 
 The Bureau of Medical Research reports that "in 
 rural as well as in city schools, nearly one in three 
 have trouble with the eyes, nearly one in five are 
 mouth breathers, because of abnormal growths in 
 the air passages, besides many who are obviously 
 predisposed to tuberculosis and nervous trouble." 
 
 All these infirmities lower efficiency and for 
 this reason Public School Boards are ordering opera- 
 tions upon some children's throats for adenoids, are 
 correcting defective vision for others, doing dental 
 work, providing nurses, furnishing meals at cost 
 price. A few of them are sending cards of instruc- 
 tion on hygiene and diet to parents. 
 
DEFECTIVE CHILDREN 25 
 
 The charge for all these services is borne by 
 the community. If the work were not done under 
 school directions it apparently would not be done 
 at all. The state in these instances exercises vast 
 and elastic powers in the regulation of public 
 health and education. 
 
 The great question is : Why does not the State 
 make an attempt to get at the real cause of diseases 
 and instruct the people how to remove the cause? 
 
 Our purpose is to set down in plain words here a 
 number of common but deadly sins of diet, the 
 ignorance or disregard of which can end only in 
 disease. Our object is to put in plain form the prin- 
 ciples of life so that they may be understood and 
 heeded by parent and child. 
 
 He who would enter a race or struggle in a game 
 of the field must know the rules of the game or suffer 
 defeat. In the study of health and disease the laws 
 of nature are the rules of the game. They are simple 
 laws and easily obeyed, but when we ignore them, 
 the price we pay is death. Few of us give them at- 
 tention for the reason that we do not know them 
 and make no effort to know them until it is often 
 too late. 
 
 "A man is a fool or a physician at forty." 
 
 The object of the following pages is to make 
 the boy a physician at ten by making his parents a 
 physician when he is born. The period from his 
 infancy to his "teens" will thus be safeguarded and 
 after that he can face the future with no cry against 
 those who brought him into the world: "Why did 
 you handicap me through your ignorance from the 
 beginning?" 
 
 Every household wherein ordinary intelligence 
 abides can co-operate with those forces that are 
 striving to educate the nation to a sense of its duty. 
 
26 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 If it can be said that the home is the cradle of 
 the nation, it can be said more truthfully that the 
 pantry is the cradle of the home. 
 
 Much will be revealed to you here concerning our 
 crimes against our wheat, corn, rice^a;nd barley, 
 against our biscuits, crackers and bread, against 
 our canned vegetables and fruits, against our mo- 
 lasses, condiments and sweets, against most of the 
 things we eat, but we shall not destroy without 
 building up. If you would know the truth, told here 
 in all its shocking entirety and help in the work 
 of atonement read patiently the following pages. 
 
 The few chapters which are devoted to a descrip- 
 tion of the building of a human body out of its 
 food are necessary. Their careful reading will pre- 
 pare you for a complete grasp of all that follows in- 
 cluding the chapter on how to feed the child. That 
 chapter does not follow immediately because it is in 
 reality the summing up and interpretation of the 
 hundred food truths that must be understood thor- 
 oughly before intelligent provision for the child's 
 food-needs is possible. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 DUST THOU ART — NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD TRUTH. 
 
 Man has not probed into the real meaning of the 
 words, "Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt re- 
 turn." Our knowledge of the first law of life has 
 been lost. Perhaps looking closely we may find a 
 subtler meaning than the. one ordinarily given to the 
 saying of Jehovah God to Adam. We may find that 
 it is a law of life, not of death as we have thought. 
 
 Let us look at the soil from which we have 
 sprung. If we take a handful of fertile earth into 
 the laboratory and split it up, we find that it is 
 composed chiefly of sixteen elements. When we 
 analyze the body of a man, we find that it, too, is 
 made up principally of the same sixteen elements. 
 If we take next a handful of wheat, lo! again the 
 very same sixteen elements. This is the clue to the 
 riddle of life. 
 
 There never was a human body that did not 
 contain these sixteen substances. Evidently these 
 substances are present as the result of no accident. 
 They are: oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, 
 chlorine, fluorine, iron, phosphorus, calcium, potas- 
 sium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, sulphur, 
 silica, iodine. The body gets these elements from 
 its food. 
 
 These sixteen elements, found in the earth, and 
 in wheat, and in man's own body, have formidable 
 names, but as we eat them every time we eat a grain 
 of whole wheat and are not disturbed unduly over 
 
28 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 their presence at the dinner table, we do not believe 
 we will have much difficulty in. studying them to 
 find out just what they do for us, and how our in- 
 terference with them results in disease and death. 
 
 Soil that will produce vegetation must contain 
 oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, chlorine, 
 fluorine, iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, 
 magnesium, manganese, sodium, silica, sulphur and 
 iodine. 
 
 These special elements produce crops and with- 
 out them crops cannot be produced. 
 
 Without phosphorus all the other, elements are 
 worthless even though they be present abundantly. 
 The science that treats of the life and health of the 
 soil is so conscious of this fact that in order that we 
 may have a supply of phosphorus to put back into 
 the soil, to replace our annual drain upon it, the 
 United States government prohibits the exportation 
 of our limited supply of phosphate rock. 
 
 We get nitrogen and potassium and the other 
 elements from many available sources but the 
 amount of phosphorus in the mines and in the land 
 is so easily estimated and so very limited and so 
 positively essential, because there is no known sub- 
 stitute for it, we have had to resort to law in order 
 to save our soil from exhaustion. 
 
 The" upper crust of the earth, known as soil, 
 averages from six to twelve inches in depth. This 
 thin film of earth containing the vitalizing mineral 
 elements that give us all our vegetation is the cradle 
 of the world. The first seven or eight inches of the 
 virgin top soil of an acre of land weigh about two 
 million pounds. In this top soil there are only about 
 two thousand pounds of phosphorus. Thus we see 
 what a wonderful function it performs in combining 
 with the other elements that support life. One 
 
NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD TRUTH 29 
 
 little part of phosphorus in a thousand parts of 
 earth! Think of it! Nature's most profound laws 
 are qualitative, not quantitative. 
 
 Phosphorus, in proper combination with all the 
 other fertilizing or life-giving elements of the soil 
 together with scientific cultural methods, means 
 normal crops, means health, buoyancy, and vigor in 
 the animal life that feeds upon these crops. 
 
 The absence of phosphorus in proper proportion 
 means soil starvation and inevitable loss of vitality. 
 
 Science recognizes that this subtle substance, 
 which it has taken hundreds of years to create, 
 must not be removed from the soil if we do not 
 wish the end to come. All the gold and silver and 
 precious stones of the mines, all the piteous cries 
 of starving multitudes cannot recreate this mys- 
 terious compounder of life. So science warns us 
 against our prodigality and tells us that if we want- 
 only destroy it or remove it from the earth or from 
 our food we must pay the price in death. 
 
 The laws that must be enacted to conserve the 
 fertility of the earth will make it a crime to destroy 
 the straw-stacks and rough forage that should be 
 used to bed the stables and pens where stock is fed 
 so that it can be burned and returned to the soil in 
 the form of agh to add its mineral fertility to the 
 exhausted land. In the milling districts of the west 
 the straw-stacks are often burned and as their 
 smoke rises heavenward it obscures the light of the 
 sun, symbolizing the darkness under which a waste- 
 ful and prodigal people wantonly destroy the ele- 
 ments that give them their life's blood. The life- 
 giving ash is not conserved. 
 
 However, phosphorus is only one of the mineral 
 elements, without which life on the surface of the 
 world would become extinct. But, because the avail- 
 
30 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 able supply of phosphorus is so small, it possesses 
 picturesque importance as an illustration of the ne- 
 cessity of minerals not only in the land, in the 
 vegetable and fruit and grain which the land yields, 
 but also in the life-processes of man and animal. 
 
 Iron, potassium, calcium, sulphur, silica, chlorine 
 and the other elements are as important as phos- 
 phorus, and when we remove any one of them from 
 the earth, we produce soil-sickness and the fruits of 
 the soil are dwarfed or do not appear at all. 
 
 "Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return" 
 is a profound utterance containing a great lessoA 
 which the twentieth century must learn. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHAT THE DUST, OB MINERALS, DO. 
 
 We have said that a handful of fertile earth, a 
 handful of wheat, and the body of man, each con- 
 tains about sixteen elements. Our purpose will be 
 to show the relationship of these elements to life. 
 
 Like the blood, the gastric juice, the pancreatic 
 juice, the saliva, the bile and other vital fluids of 
 the body are composed of mineral salts in solution. 
 
 It is evident that the mineral salts in the fluids 
 of the body are not there through accident. 
 
 Water forms about three-fourths of the adult 
 body and is the medium in which the chemical 
 changes of the body are carried on. 
 
 We could transfer an iron tank fiUe'd with pure 
 sulphuric acid from San Francisco to New York 
 and back again and the acid would not effect the 
 tank in any manner. If we introduced water into 
 that tank the acid would immediately become very 
 active and destroy the tank. Thus you see that even 
 water is a wonderful medium through which to 
 convey the forces of nature. 
 
 We can believe, therefore, that the body of a 
 man weighing a hundred and sixty pounds, made up 
 of more than a hundred pounds of water, contains 
 all that water as the result of no accident. 
 
 Of the solid matter to be found in the human 
 body about one-fifth is made up of the minerals- 
 iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, 
 sodium, sulphur, etc. Chlorides and phosphates 
 
32 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 with carbonates and sulphates form the chief of 
 these mineral salts. What do they do for us ? 
 
 If we put a trace of blood under the microscope 
 we discover a wonderful sight. Hundreds of little 
 corpuscles are seen swimming about. Most of them 
 are red, but a considerable number are white. Each 
 has its own work to do. 
 
 A single drop of blood contains many millions of 
 corpuscles, far more than all the visible stars in the 
 sky. These corpuscles are not the only things found 
 in the blood. In addition to them we find many 
 mineral salts such as iron, calcium, phosphorus, 
 sodium, potassium, magnesium, sulphur, chlorine, 
 etc. These substances are always found when pure 
 and normal blood is examined, so it is evident that 
 they must get into the blood through some definite 
 channel and in obedience to some well defined law. 
 The red and white corpuscles have certain well de- 
 fined work to do. It is also evident that anything 
 which interferes with their work or that keeps them 
 out of the blood is an enemy of life. 
 
 To make that blood nature obtains her building 
 materials from food. All food contains some of these 
 building materials. Some food contains all of them, 
 except in such instances where man ignorantly re- 
 moves them. If by accident, we should for a few 
 months consume food deficient in some of these 
 building materials we would quickly feel the effects 
 in our general health. It is easy to understand that 
 if we are partial to a particular kind of food from 
 which a considerable proportion of nature's building 
 materials have been extracted, we are going to 
 develop disorder. 
 
 When the laws under which nature operates are 
 suspended, nature simply does not operate. Man 
 might as well expect a jeweler to make a watch 
 
WHAT THE MINERALS DO 33 
 
 without the materials from which the wheels and 
 springs and screws and bearings are made as to 
 expect nature to make a drop of normal blood with- 
 out the elements that enter into the coraposition of 
 blood. 
 
 Nature will set up a warning for ug before fatal 
 damage has been done, but if we do not understand 
 the warning and do not heed it, we head straight for 
 destruction, unless, in the meantime, some accidental 
 change of diet provides the body with the elements 
 it needs in order to maintain its balance. 
 
 Our food is the most important thing in life be- 
 cause upon it all other things depend. We digest 
 and assimilate that food in obedience to a fixed law. 
 If we keep well without knowing that law we are 
 fortunate. It is evident that we should make an 
 effort to locate that law, understand it and apply 
 it. 
 
 Each little drop of pure blood is an expression of 
 that law. Anything that interferes with the purity 
 and character of the blood is an enemy of life. Be- 
 cause man leaves everything to chance and as a rule 
 refuses to accept the idea that it is necessary to pay 
 attention to his diet, he sends a call into the un- 
 known darkness and demands hundreds of diseases 
 to come forth from nothingness to assist him in 
 managing the world. 
 
 If we remove one element of the necessary six- 
 teen from the food we introduce the beginning of 
 disaster into the body. 
 
 If two elements are removed the body may make 
 use of the other fourteen for a time, but soon the 
 unnatural condition under which nature is thus 
 forced to operate will assert itself and disaster will 
 follow. 
 
U STARVING AMERICA 
 
 If three or four or five substances are removed 
 from the building materials, the inevitable collapse 
 will take place a little sooner. If seven or eight 
 elements are removed destruction is speedy. When 
 all sixteen substanceis are removed starvation begins 
 at once. 
 
 Thus we see that the matter of breakfast, dinner 
 and supper, is not a matter to be left to accident or 
 to an untrained kitchen drudge or to a food factory 
 concerned chiefly in the profit-paying characteristics 
 of its products. 
 
 If we are pale or ansemic ; if our energy seems to 
 be exhausted; if we feel little like undertaking the 
 commonplace duties of the day ; if our children have 
 lusterlesp eyes, pinched cheeks, underdeveloped 
 limbs or abnormal tendencies, let us look to our 
 food. If our children are bright, sturdy and resist 
 disease by not falling victims to the ills which it is 
 wrongfully assumed must come to all children, let 
 us congratulate ourselves upon the lucky accident 
 that has for a time brought to them a supply of the 
 building materials necessary to their development. 
 
 In congratulating ourselves let us understand 
 the facts. 
 
 An apple falls from the branch of an apple tree 
 to the earth in obedience to a fixed law. A bullet 
 leaves the mouth of a gun in obedience to a fixed law. 
 Rain and snow fall from the clouds to the earth 
 under fixed conditions and in obedience to fixed laws. 
 
 If our children are well to-day as the result of 
 the operation of a law concerning which we know 
 nothing, it is necessary to learn something of that 
 law in order that we may consider to-morrow. 
 
 The child is well as the result of happy accident. 
 Let us keep him well by understanding the law by 
 
WHAT THE MINERALS DO 35 
 
 which he continues well. The sixteen elements are 
 part of that law. 
 
 The body gets these elements from its food and 
 from no other source. 
 
 These substances must be in the food in order 
 that the body may take them from the food. 
 
 We will now try to find out what these substances 
 do and why they are necessary and how many of 
 them are artificially removed from our most familiar 
 foods without our knowledge, and through our 
 study find the law that will keep us well. 
 
 The sodium found so extensively in the blood is 
 found to perform a remarkable function in the pro- 
 cesses of digestion. Without sodium, digestion can- 
 not be carried on. 
 
 That is evidently part of the law because it 
 always operates in the same way. 
 
 Without sodium, we cannot live. 
 
 Potassium gives life to the nervous system and 
 assists the heart to beat by influencing the relaxibil- 
 ity or resiliency of the muscles. The heart is a great 
 pump and if it did not send the blood into the lungs 
 the body could not obtain the oxygen necessary to 
 its life. Potassium destroys the hardening influ- 
 ences that menace muscle, joint and artery. It 
 makes the tissues soft and pliable. 
 
 Linen made from flax grown on granite soil rich 
 in potassium is noted for its suppleness and softness, 
 whereas linen produced from calcareous soils is 
 hard, brittle and of little strength. 
 
 When the body cannot get the quantity of potas- 
 sium necessary to carry on its wonderfully complex 
 duties, the heart ceases to serve its master, the body 
 dies. 
 
 Here is a little laboratory experiment, which 
 
36 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 will assist us to grasp an idea of the work which the 
 minerals perform in the human body. 
 
 Eat a tablet of citrate of lithium. Take a clean 
 platinum wire, hold it in a blue Bunsen flame. Note 
 that it gives no coloration to the flame. Now pass 
 the platinum wire along the skin of your forehead, 
 or across your palm, return it to the flame, and note 
 the beautiful yellow flame of sodium, showing this 
 mineral in the elimination processes of the body. 
 
 Now take a blue glass, and look through it on the 
 platinum wire in the flame, and note the beautiful 
 lilac flame of potassium, showing this mineral also 
 at work in the elimination processes of the body. 
 
 Potassium keeps the tissues flexible and active, 
 and assists the sodium to carry off the carbonic 
 gas, manufactured as one of the end-products of 
 combustion in the furnaces of life. 
 
 Now about one-half hour after eating the citrate 
 of lithium tablet, again clean the platinum wire thor- 
 oughly. Pass it over the forehead, or across the palm 
 of the hand. Put the wire into the flame, and be- 
 hold the vivid red flame of lithium. In one short 
 half hour, the lithium taken through the mouth, has 
 circulated through all the avenues, highways and 
 byways of the human body, and has appeared in its 
 marvelous journey on the surface of the skin. 
 
 Through this little experiment we get an idea of 
 the hidden forces at work in our bodies. As a rule 
 we give no thought to these forces and so are rarely 
 prompted to question the character of this or that 
 food although these forces are derived from food 
 alone. 
 
 Those little soldiers that we have called cor- 
 puscles are never out of the presence of iron. Con- 
 taining, no iron themselves, they nevertheless float 
 
WHAT THE MINERALS DO 37 
 
 in a fluid which does contain iron and if the iron were 
 not there, the little soldiers would die. 
 
 Iron combines with oxygen no matter where we 
 find it. 
 
 The blade of a pocket knife is "rusty" or the 
 hinge on a barn door is "rusty" or a rifle barrel is 
 "rusty," and rust is simply a combination of iron 
 and oxygen. 
 
 This wonderful afl[inity of oxygen for iron is part 
 of the law under whose operation oxygen gets into 
 our bodies. Without the iron in the blood we could 
 not get oxygen and in a few minutes we would be 
 dead. 
 
 If we choke a man or woman for two minutes, 
 shutting off the oxygen, we are guilty of murder. 
 
 Oxygen is so necessary to life that we perish the 
 moment it is taken from us. If the blood contains 
 only half of the iron necessary to bring into the 
 body all the oxygen required, the body from its 
 diminished oxygen supply will grow pale and sicken. 
 Iron is absolutely necessary. It is part of the 
 law. 
 
 The waste matter which is accumulating in our 
 tissues during every second of our existence would 
 kill us in twenty-four hours if it were not rendered 
 harmless and carried away. When only partially 
 removed the result is dyspepsia, diabetes, rheuma- 
 tism, etc. 
 
 The iron in the blood uniting with the oxygen 
 in the lungs carries its life-giving freight to the 
 tissues where it oxydizes or burns up the waste sub- 
 stances so dangerous to life. 
 
 If the iron is not present in sufficient quantity 
 to keep up with the demands of the body, a large 
 quantity of oxygen that ought to be inside the body 
 
38 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 doing its work will remain outside the body ready 
 and willing to work but unable to get in. 
 
 When fire with the aid of oxygen attacks a piece 
 of wood it produces smoke and ashes. The oxygen- 
 burned waste-products in the body have to be car- 
 ried away just as the smoke of the fire has to be 
 carried off through the chimney and the ashes raked 
 off through the bars of the grate. 
 
 The oxydizing processes going on in the tissues 
 produce carbonic gas. This gas is taken up by the 
 sodium and discharged through the lungs as carbon 
 dioxide. 
 
 The sodium besides having work of its own to 
 do has to help the oxygen and the oxygen has to 
 be helped by the iron. 
 
 These substances work not singly and alone but 
 in beautiful order and in perfect harmony with 
 each other. 
 
 Meat is not wholly a godsend to the man who 
 eats much of it for the reason that it is deficient in 
 the mineral salts which the body requires. In con- 
 sequence, he who eats meat to excess is plagued with 
 rheumatism, asthma and corpulency and is sent to 
 the mineral springs in order that he may drink 
 water containing calcium, magnesium and sodium 
 sulphate. 
 
 Calcium, assisted by phosphorus, magnesium, 
 silica and fluorine, builds up our bones and teeth. 
 Fluorine is found in the whites of our eyes. 
 
 If we reduce the quantity of calcium needed by 
 the body in constructing its bones and teeth, we do 
 just what the house-maker does when he uses insuffi- 
 cient material with which to build. 
 
 The body makes a poor job of its work just as 
 the house-builder makes a poor house. 
 
WHAT THE MINERALS DO 39 
 
 Children have defective teeth because they are 
 not supplied with sufficient calcium-phosphate and 
 calcium carbonate or because when these substances 
 are really present in their food, they eat other food 
 that destroys them and removes them from the 
 body. 
 
 Fluorine is prescribed in numerous diseases of 
 the eye as fluoride of calcium. Chickens get the 
 fluorine required for the production of their eggs if 
 they have a chance to pick up little specks of granite. 
 When confined in a wooden hen house and fed on 
 food containing no fluorine they easily develop 
 chicken cholera and chicken diphtheria. The yolk 
 of the egg requires fluorine. The enamel of the teeth 
 requires fluorine. The bones of the spine require 
 fluorine. The pupil of the eye requires fluorine. 
 
 When the farmer's fertilizer contains no fluorine 
 his cereals and vegetables suffer. The old curse of 
 nitrate fertilizer compels our nation to support a 
 standing army of dentists, but it has not yet inspired 
 us with the knowledge that would prevent curvature 
 of the spine among children. 
 
 Silica is a mineral of the alkaline group and as 
 such it possesses powerful antiseptic properties. It 
 helps the body to defend itself against the invasion 
 of disease-breeding bacteria. Silica also influences 
 the nervous system to do its proper work in the body. 
 Accompanied with sulphur, it has much to do with 
 the development and health of the hair. 
 
 Animals which are fed upon foods from which 
 any of these substances are artifically removed, die. 
 
 These minerals not only themselves engage in 
 the construction processes going on constantly with- 
 in our bodies, but they also exercise a controlling 
 influence over the destructive influences that 
 threaten us from within and without. 
 
40 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 The smallest boy in the laboratory can be made 
 to understand the wonderful oxydizing properties 
 of sulphuric acid. When this acid i§ generated in 
 the body, though small in quantity, if its generation 
 be continued systematically, even for a short time, 
 its results can end only in disaster. 
 
 A few drops of it taken into the body from a 
 bottle will produce death. 
 
 If food, from which the minerals have been re- 
 moved, is introduced into the body it results in the 
 formation in the intestines of free sulphuric acid 
 from the albumenoid sulphur. 
 
 The sulphuric acid abstracts basic elements from 
 the intestines and tissues, thereby impairing or 
 destroying them. 
 
 Meat, which is minced and immersed for a few 
 hours in cold, distilled water, loses its phosphorus 
 and potassium salts. It also loses its color. If 
 cooked in this condition it will be found to be taste- 
 less. If fed to dogs and cats these animals will eat 
 a little, then refuse to take more and if fed on noth- 
 ing else, they will actually die quicker than animals 
 not fed at all. This can be accounted for not only 
 by the generation of free sulphuric acid in the body 
 of the animals, but also by another fact. 
 
 The animals fed on the demineralized meat in 
 addition to being deprived of substances that will 
 sustain life are obliged to dissipate their reserve 
 vitality at a rapid rate through the efforts of their 
 organs to throw off the useless food imposed upon 
 them, whereas the animal that is being starved out- 
 right is not called upon to expend its strength faster 
 than the simple laws of starvation demand. 
 
 The first part of the law which we are endeavor- 
 ing to establish is that these mineral substances 
 
WHAT THE MINERALS DO 41 
 
 are so important in our body that when deprived of 
 them we suffer disease or death. 
 
 It follows that we must see to it that our food 
 contains them. 
 
 There are some dietitians who declare that our 
 food contains an excess of mineral salts. This is 
 sometimes true, but it is as it should be. There is 
 much evidence to indicate that frequently the excess 
 of salts may be carried out of the body in life's 
 processes faster than they are taken in the food 
 without any consequent evil results. 
 
 Nature has provided a reserve store-house from 
 which in emergencies the body may find the ele- 
 ments it needs, but if our diet is of a kind that ex- 
 hausts nature's store-house, we face the consequences 
 that inevitably follow the violation of any of nature's 
 laws. 
 
 This fact must be remembered in the feeding of 
 children because when the food of the infant is 
 changed from a purely milk diet to a mixture diet 
 great injury may result through a deficiency of 
 lime salts. 
 
 A purely flesh diet, for example, is poor in lime 
 and many of the foods on which children are fed 
 have half the lime removed from them before they 
 are put upon the table. Elsewhere, baby's diet 
 based on the importance of its mineral content will 
 be carefully outlined, also the diet of baby's mother. 
 
 Spring time is the season of high spirits in 
 nature. Man alone in the spring complains of lassi- 
 tude. All around him under the action of nature's 
 unmolested law he witnesses the miracle of rising 
 sap, the quickening strength that swells the bud, 
 the impelling energy that forces the spear of grass 
 to lift itself upward through the lately frozen clod. 
 Man contrasts his weariness with the power and 
 
42 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 mastery, the sparkle and glow, the warmth and surge 
 and buoyancy of spring, yet just as the earth has 
 the green grass in its depths so has he the freshness 
 of nature in his heart. He is just as much a part of 
 nature. Nature's laws grip him just as tightly in 
 their grasp. He needs his "tonic," or thinks he 
 does, because unlike nature he does not follow the 
 laws of life but closes his eyes upon them and sets 
 up standards of his own. Unhappily his standards 
 are at war with heaven and so he pays his price in 
 death. 
 
 Little Helen would be in her mother's arms to- 
 day, strong, bright, happy, if ! 
 
 The mortality records compiled by the census 
 director at Washington, D. C, for 1910, showing 
 that during that year 235,262 children under ten 
 years of age died in the United States, force us to 
 realize that as a nation we have been busier build- 
 ing tunnels, subways, railroads, skyscrapers, 
 bridges, air-craft and Atlantic liners, and living in 
 luxury than in developing healthy, normal bodies. 
 
 The time has come when we must teach the child 
 that if he wishes to live and grow strong and be 
 useful, he must eat the foods God has made necessary 
 for the growth of his body. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FERMENTS. 
 
 In the bodies of animals and plants these sixteen 
 elements are built up into highly complex combina- 
 tions and as they are being built up they are also 
 being broken down. 
 
 As the tissue is destroyed by daily wear and 
 tear, it is transformed into simpler chemical com- 
 pounds and passed out of the body. In order that 
 the living body may replace its broken-down cells, 
 it must find a constant new supply of the elements 
 from which those cells are evolved. 
 
 These elements as we find them in the soil can 
 be called non-living matter. The chemical processes 
 which transform this non-living matter into living 
 tissues are the same in plants and animals with this 
 one mark of distinction. 
 
 Plants are capable of taking the non-living 
 matter from the earth and compounding it into the 
 wonderfully complex substances which form their 
 structure. Animals do not possess this power. 
 Animals are dependent for their existence upon food- 
 stuffs prepared from the non-living matter of earth 
 by the plants that have the power to prepare them. 
 Plants obtain the energy which enables them to do 
 this mysterious work from the sunlight and only 
 in the presence of sunlight can they carry on the 
 up-building processes which give them their tissues. 
 Green grass will not grow in the dark. 
 
44 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 We know that under the influence of sunlight, 
 plants are capable of combining the carbonic gas 
 and nitrogen of the air with water and the mineraj 
 salts of the soil into such substances as starch, fat 
 and albumen. " Their ability to bring about these 
 changes depends upon the presence of a chemical 
 substance which is found in their green parts and 
 which is called chlorophyl. 
 
 We know that chlorophyl requires exposure to 
 the sun's rays in order to perform its mysterious 
 work, but of the processes by which it does that 
 work we know little. We know that various parts 
 of the plant and various organs of the body contain 
 substances that can be extracted. These substances 
 are called enzymes or ferments, such as pepsin, 
 trypsin, ptyalin. 
 
 These ferments are found in the grains, also in 
 the saliva and digestive juices of the body. 
 
 We know that in the human body they serve the 
 purpose of assisting to transform the various food- 
 stuffs which are furnished to the animal by the plant 
 into substances that can be absorbed and built up 
 into animal tissue. 
 
 Ordinary baker's yeast ig a ferment having the 
 power to transform starch and sugar into alcohol 
 evolving at the same time a waste product in the 
 form of gas. So there is nothing difficult in the 
 consideration of ferments except to keep them alive. 
 That we kill them in our food with "harmless" pre- 
 servatives or remove them by mechanical means will 
 be shown as we proceed. 
 
 It was thought at one time that the ferments 
 found in the digestive glands were the only ferments 
 to be found in the animal body. Accordingly our 
 knowledge of their conduct in the processes of di- 
 
PEKMENTS 45 
 
 gestion was limited. It has been determined in 
 recent years that ferments are of many kinds and 
 they are present in every cell and are intimately 
 concerned in all the manifestations of life. 
 
 As many as a dozen different ferments have been 
 found for example, in the liver-cell. It has also 
 been demonstrated that for the maintenance of life 
 in the case of the higher plants, the organized fer- 
 ments are of profound importance. 
 
 Through them the higher plants obtain their 
 nitrogen in a form which they can subsequently 
 utilize. So even in the presence of all the necessary 
 minerals or mineral salts if these ferments be absent 
 or dstroyed or enfeebled vegetable or animal life 
 cannot exist. 
 
 In the animal body some of these ferments such 
 as pepsin, can act to advantage only under an acid 
 condition; while others, such as ptyalin, require an 
 alkaline condition; still others can act under acid, 
 alkaline or neutral conditions. Fixed laws control 
 them. Certain ferments will act only upon certain 
 definite substances and under the proper conditions. 
 We trifle with those conditions at our peril. In its 
 proper place, later on, the geranium of little Helen 
 will tell us much. 
 
 Fat-splitting ferments, for instance, will act only 
 upon fats, diastase ferments will act only upon 
 starch and sugar, proteolytic ferments will act only 
 upon albumens. 
 
 Of their chemical composition little is known that 
 is definite. We do know that food of the wrong 
 kind, food badly prepared, food which has suffered 
 an unnatural loss of some of its elements can set up 
 conditions that are hostile to the action of these 
 ferments,~and that in setting up these conditions, we 
 
46 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 are inviting physiological discord, which means 
 disease. 
 
 It is imperative that we do not interfere with 
 the normal conditions that control the conduct of 
 these ferments. All this will be explained so simply 
 that we will doubtless wonder why we ever tolerated 
 the food conditions that are here described. 
 
 We know that human gastric juice is acid in 
 action, the results of the presence of free hydro- 
 chloric acid, that it contains sodium chloride, cal- 
 cium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium 
 phosphate and iron and depends on these elements 
 for its existence. We know if we remove any of 
 these elements or change any of them or prevent the 
 body from finding any of them, by removing them 
 from our food, we establieh unnatural conditions 
 in the gastric juice and immediately bring about 
 disorder. 
 
 We know that the pancreatic juice is alkaline in 
 action and contains sodium chloride, potassium 
 chloride, phosphate of magnesium, and lime. From 
 this we learn that one part of the digestion ig car- 
 ried on in an acid medium while another part of it 
 is carried on in an alkaline medium and our con- 
 ception of the intricacies of the human laboratory 
 increases in admiration and amazement. 
 
 It becomes evident in the contemplation of these 
 mysteries that man has no right to ignore the won- 
 derfully complicated structure of his body when 
 he decides that he shall go into business and man- 
 ufacture foods for the human species. 
 
 These enzymes or ferments have such a pro- 
 found influence upon digestion and assimilation that 
 we receive a shock when we learn that in the prep- 
 aration of our food we destroy them or change their 
 nature artificially. 
 
FERMENTS 47 
 
 These mineral salts and ferments, — let us put 
 it bluntly and nakedly, — are removed from our diet 
 by commercial practices that pander to our false 
 taste-standards and those who remove them have 
 succeeded, to some extent at least, in establishing 
 scientific justification for their work and are able 
 at this stage of the world's enlightenment to fog the 
 atmosphere quite enough to cloud any attempted 
 work of reform under the darkness of controversy. 
 
 Chemists and pathologists are to be found who 
 are willing to go on record with some such state- 
 ments as these: 
 
 "Of the metabolism of foods, of chemical change, 
 of the exact action of enzymes and bacteria, we are 
 profoundly ignorant, therefore we should not give 
 much consideration to the mineral content of our 
 diet." 
 
 "We get so many minerals in so many articles 
 of food that we can afford to remove most of them 
 from our diet, and, anyhow, so little is known about 
 the conduct of these minerals when ingested with 
 food that the subject is at least not important enough 
 to occasion grave alarm." 
 
 Signed statements such as these in spite of such 
 cases as that of little Helen and her 235,262 com- 
 panions constitute the defense of those whose food 
 industries would suffer if the people enacted state 
 and national laws that would forbid men to denature 
 their food supply. 
 
 For reasons of their own some men tell us that 
 if we have enough carbohydrates, protein and fats, 
 bread, meat and butter, we need not bother about 
 the minerals or ferments of our food. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THESE MINERALS ARE LOST 
 OR CHANGED BY CHEMISTS? 
 
 The history of life on the surface of the earth is 
 the history of food. Nature builds the bodies of 
 men from food. If certain sixteen elements are 
 necessary in food to build up our bodies, and we 
 remove one or more elements, we invite decay and 
 disease into the body. All food contains some of 
 these building materials; other food — at least as 
 the Creator made it — contain all of them. Some- 
 times man heedlessly removes some of these ele- 
 ments, leaving the food poorer as building material. 
 
 Thus we see that the menu card of breakfast, 
 dinner and supper, is not a matter to be left to ac- 
 cident or to an ignorant kitchen-drudge or to a 
 food-factory concerned chiefly in the profit-paying 
 characteristics of its products. 
 
 "We have seen that phosphorus is so necessary to 
 the life of the soil that the United States Govern- 
 ment has forbidden the exportation of any of our 
 limited supply of phosphate rock. If the one part 
 of phosphorus in one thousand parts of earth in 
 normal farm land is removed from the soil we have 
 a crop failure. If any other of the mineral elements 
 are removed we also have crop failure. 
 
 Phosphorus in the soil is no more important than 
 lime or iron, or potassium in the body. We will 
 select lime to illustrate the work which the minerals 
 found in our foods perform in the body. 
 
50 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 If we kill a frog and place its still-pulsating 
 heart on a slab of marble, it will be noticed that 
 the frog's heart will not lose a single pulsation for 
 a long time. Eventually, of course, it will collapse 
 and become lifeless. If we wish to prolong its pul- 
 sations for many hours, we need only bring it into 
 the presence of a solution of lime. 
 
 Under the mysterious influence of this common- 
 est of earths, that dead heart will for hours show all 
 the manifestations of life that might be seen if we 
 could peer into the breast of the living animal. 
 
 Lime makes it possible for the digestive ferments 
 to perform their duties. 
 
 If we rob our food of its lime digestion cannot 
 go on. 
 
 Rennet is a ferment. It is used to make curd 
 from milk. Curd is the first step in the making of 
 cheese. In order that the rennet may do its work 
 it is necessary that the lime in the milk be made 
 soluble and the cheese maker, in order to make it 
 more soluble uses hydrochloric acid. 
 
 Tartaric acid or even vinegar would assist in 
 this. 
 
 If the lime were not soluble, that is, if it did 
 not enter into solution with a liquid the curd would 
 never become cheese. This is proved by adding a 
 little oxalic acid to the milk while making the curd, 
 or by sterilizing it at the boiling point. 
 
 The oxalic acid throws the lime out of solution 
 so that it cannot assist the ferment to do its work 
 and the ferment, deprived of the help of lime, refuses 
 to perform its duty and the cheese is not made. 
 
 If you should cut your finger the soluble lime in 
 the blood causes it to coagulate and you do not 
 bleed to death as you would if it were not for this 
 soluble lime in your blood. With a knowledge of 
 
MINERALS LOST OR CHANGED 51 
 
 these facts we see why lime is so necessary to us. 
 When we diminish its proper quantity in our blood 
 we lower our vitality and destroy our resistance to 
 disease. 
 
 The only way we can interfere with the presence 
 of lime in our body is by removing it artificially 
 from our food or by interfering with the ability of 
 our organs to make use of it by eating food of a 
 kind that robs our body of the lime that our food 
 contains. 
 
 In every kitchen, restaurant and hotel we are 
 robbing our food not only of its lime but of many 
 of its other mineral salts through our ignorant 
 methods of cookery, and before our food has reached 
 the kitchen we have permitted the manufacturer to 
 tob it of a large quantity of its priceless mineral 
 salts. 
 
 When we study the records of defective teeth 
 among school children we face only the surface 
 symptom of much deeper ravages that are going on 
 within the body unseen and unsuspected. 
 
 Dr. James R. Mitchell, Lecturer in Chemistry at 
 Forth Worth University Medical College, declares 
 that 86% of the school children of Louisville have 
 badly decayed teeth in spite of the fact that they 
 live in the Lime Stone State! 
 
 Doctor Mitchell has pointed out how our dentists 
 prescribe tooth washes and tooth pastes; how they 
 advocate oral hygiene; how they fill cavities and fit 
 bridges, and all the time ignore the fact that the 
 great cause of tooth destruction is to be found in 
 lime and phosphorus starvation. 
 
 Some dentists tell us that the sugar we take into 
 our mouth in the shape of candies acts directly and 
 destroyingly upon our teeth. They shut their eyes 
 
52 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 to the fact that destruction starts first in the pulp 
 of the teeth beneath the surface enamel. 
 
 The vital processes of the body can not be carried 
 on without lime. Consequently, if there is a deii- 
 ciency of lime salts in the food, the body actually 
 begins to tear down its own structure in order to 
 obtain this necessary mineral. 
 
 It burrows; into the only available source of 
 lime supply, the soluble lime of the teeth and bones 
 and gradually consumes that lime until, in the teeth, 
 it leaves only a shell of enamel over the cavity. 
 
 The enamel sooner or later cracks and breaks 
 under the strain and the damage is discovered. The 
 ruin was accomplished long before we had any evi- 
 dence of it, although the opening up of an avenue for 
 the entrance of bacteria from without hastens the 
 decay. 
 
 Sugar and fruit acids have no effect on the enam- 
 el of the teeth. Sound teeth can be immersed in a 
 solution of such acids and sugars for months and 
 suffer no erosion. The sugar does not act directly 
 on the teeth and the dentist treats the symptom, not 
 the cause of our bone destruction. 
 
 Sugar and lime have just as remarkable an affin- 
 ity for each other as the iron and oxygen which we 
 have described, so that when we consume an excess 
 of mineral hungry sweets the sugar with irresistible 
 thirst drinks up the soluble lime of the blood stream 
 and the blood retaliates by sapping the soluble lime 
 from the teeth and bones. 
 
 Druggists know how wonderfully lime combines 
 with sugar and accordingly they make what is 
 known as Syrup of Lime. One thousand parts of 
 water will take up one part of lime, but if we add 
 sugar to the water, it will take up thirty-five times 
 as much lime. 
 
MINERALS LOST OR CHANGED 53 
 
 Our children will suffer and our prospective 
 mothers will suffer, if they get an excess of refined 
 or denatured sugar in their diet or if our food in- 
 dustries continue to remove the soluble minerals 
 from the chief source of our food supply. 
 
 We advance step by step in our study of the in- 
 dispensable minerals of our food supply and as we 
 advance we must bravely face the great cause of our 
 infant mortality, the great cause of our pale and 
 anaemic women, the great cause of our nervous and 
 unfit men. We must continue to advance until the 
 simple remedy for many of our infirmities is laid 
 bare. 
 
 Big butcher shops grind the bones of the ox or 
 sheep or hog into what they call "chicken-bone." If 
 we do not feed our chickens a plentiful supply of 
 lime in the shape of such "chicken-bone" or in the 
 shape of cracked oyster shells or some similar lime 
 food, they will lay soft-shelled eggs. 
 
 The dog which is not fed bones will have bad 
 teeth. His skin will be tettered, his hair will fall 
 out and his disposition will be cross. The lioness 
 that is fed with meat alone and no lime in the shape 
 of bones will bear cubs with cleft palates. 
 
 Caged mice fed on processed com meal and dis- 
 tilled water will get "nerves" just as men and women 
 robbed of their lime will get "nerves." As the lime- 
 free diet is continued the mice will be stricken 
 with convulsions. 
 
 In the laboratory when pneumonia germs are 
 studied it has been shown that when a stationary 
 growth has been reached a little sprinkle of lime 
 will revive the culture. 
 
 Lime is necessary for the strength of the bones, 
 for the hardness of the teeth, for the firmness of the 
 muscles, for the tone of the nerves, for the coagula- 
 
54 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 tion of the blood on demand, for every pulsation of 
 the heart, for the digestion of our food, for the func- 
 tioning of the kidneys and other vital organs, for the 
 health of the body. 
 
 When a baby is improperly weaned and deprived 
 of its necessary lime, its bones will be softened and 
 it will develop rickets. The muscle that is deprived 
 of its lime will quiver and twitch. The nerve will 
 do the same. 
 
 We know how oxalic acid acts on the lime of the 
 body when introduced with food. 
 
 Food manufacturers who use other chemicals do 
 not know how those chemicals interfere with the 
 mysterious processes of life. They say that many 
 food chemicals are "harmless" and some scientists 
 are found to agree with them. 
 
 But the fact remains that there is premature and 
 untimely death everywhere. Is it unscientific to 
 connect these deaths with the follies of our diet sys- 
 tem? We leave that to you. One fact remains. 
 
 This is now true : In the gradual breaking down 
 of the food laws for which Doctor Wiley devoted 
 twenty-nine years of his life, there are nearly twenty 
 drugs which can be legally put into our "pure" food 
 supply and there are twelve necessary elements 
 which can be legally taken out of our "pure" food 
 supply. 
 
 Such facts are eloquent of commercial ignorance 
 or guilt. 
 
 The childish appetite of little Helen for "inno- 
 cent" cakes, "innocent" candy, "innocent" crackers, 
 "innocent" white bread, led her gradually and insid- 
 iously to the hour when her resistance to death was 
 no longer equal to the "pressure and with her Two 
 Hundred Thirty-five Thousand, Two Hundred and 
 Sixty-two companions she went on her way to give 
 
' MINERALS LOST OR CHANGED 55 
 
 testimony to the ignorance of those whose love for 
 her was as high as 'the hills and as deep as the seas, 
 but whose light through which to express that love 
 was as dark as the night. 
 
 Those who raise fancy poultry for the poultry 
 show or prize chickens for the country fair know 
 how to feed their animals according to rigid dietary 
 laws. In consequence, we smile at the very thought 
 of the farmer mixing with his carefully and scien- 
 tifically prepared food, red, blue, green, yellow, 
 brown, purple or any of the legal coal-tar dyes, 
 borax, sulphurous acid, saccharin, sodium benzoate, 
 sulphate of copper, aluminum sulphate, butyric 
 ether, amyl ether, ethyl ether, oenanthic ether, va- 
 lerianate ether, formic ether benzoic ether, acetic 
 ether, etc. 
 
 All these drugs are now legal with the exception 
 of borax and saccharin. 
 
 Although they are legal, the man who has his 
 money invested in raising prize animals refuses to 
 color and drug the food upon which they depend for 
 their prize-taking qualities. Little pigs are ten- 
 derly cared for. So are the young horse and the 
 baby calf and wee chicks. 
 
 Caution, vigilance, common-sense, scientific 
 knowledge are required and exercised to produce 
 stock that will yield a profit. 
 
 In consequence when we invest our money in 
 animals we feed them on a "balanced" diet and the 
 young animals do not die when their food is of a 
 proper kind. 
 
 But human beings ! That is another matter. 
 We make the law say : "Thou shalt not buy car- 
 bolic acid, arsenic, opium, cocaine, unless the law's 
 restrictions are removed by trained and licensed 
 physicians." 
 
56 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Then we practically say : "Thy food may be what- 
 soever the food panderer provides." 
 
 Now let us tell you the startling fact that the 
 white bread of America is a human destroyer. 
 
 If you will read on we will now show you how 
 your daily bread is being robbed of its vitalizing 
 mineral elements and ferments. 
 
 Then we will tell you how to go about the work 
 of getting your share of straightforward, honest 
 foods, such as nature provides for you. 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 WHITE BREAD STARVATION. 
 
 Three times each day, for three hundred and 
 sixty-five days in a year, the housewife in each of 
 the twenty million households in the United States 
 spreads a table with food for the pleasure and nutri- 
 tion of her family. How many times is that? An- 
 swer, you of a mathematical turn of mind! And 
 each one of those billions of times — at least the ex- 
 ceptions are too few to count — ^the housewife places 
 one article of food on the table, whether in a man- 
 sion or a hovel, whether the tables be loaded with 
 the luxuries of life, or whether this be well-nigh the 
 only article of food on the board. Is it to be won- 
 dered at, that we call bread the "staff of life"? 
 
 But what if the staff on which one leans be 
 broken? What of the man's, progress, then? Let 
 us look at a few things about our modern bread. 
 
 The flour advertisements in the newspapers and 
 publications tell us peculiar and wonderful things. 
 Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to tell us 
 that our flour is washed, brushed, scoured, screened 
 and sifted through silk so that we get utterly per- 
 fect flour! 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to ex- 
 ploit anemic crackers, biscuits, cakes and our de- 
 voted, solicitous mothers, believing these advertise- 
 ments, feed these wonderful units of denatured nu- 
 trition to their babes and rear a race of such vigor 
 that it sends in one year two hundred thirty-five 
 
58 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 thousand two hundred and sixty-two of its little ones 
 under ten years of age where white bread and 
 chalky biscuits are needed no more ! 
 
 Nature never made a white grain of wheat, and 
 man never made a white loaf of bread until about 
 one hundred years ago in the city of London, when 
 an idle epicure conceived the fetching idea of start- 
 ling his guests with bread as white and lifeless as 
 the aristocratic cloth on which it was served. 
 
 The original grain of wheat contains, in organic 
 form, all of the twelve mineral substances needed by 
 the animal body. Chickens, guinea pigs or monkeys 
 fed on whole wheat bread will thrive, but chickens, 
 guinea pigs or monkeys fed on an exclusive white 
 bread diet will die. 
 
 How does the white bread get white? White 
 bread gets white because from the ground grain of 
 wheat three-fourths of the minerals, including the 
 phosphorus, iron, lime, chlorine, silica, sulphur, po- 
 tassium and magnesium are removed. 
 
 These elements are contained in the brown outer 
 skin of the wheat berry, called the bran, and in the 
 "shorts," "middlings," and "tailings," which are 
 sifted and bolted out of the ground meal, leaving 
 principally the white starchy part of the interior 
 part of the berry. 
 
 Nature in her divine effort to teach us that we 
 cannot interfere with the laws of life through thou- 
 sands of years of agricultural experience has failed 
 to teach us the priceless value of these subtle sub- 
 stances which she goes through so many divers ways 
 to assemble for our needs. 
 
 Not alone are the minerals removed, but one of 
 the wheat's ferments, discovered by M. Mege 
 Mouries in the inner cortical part of the wheat is 
 rejected in the fine white flour. Its function when 
 
WHITE BREAD STARVATION 59 
 
 introduced into the body is not fully known, but as 
 it is one of the things which we thoughtlessly de- 
 stroy, we mention it here. 
 
 Those who make our flour and our bread for us 
 think they can "prove" that they are conferring a 
 great blessing upon humanity in giving us the re- 
 fined white product with which those slaughtered in- 
 nocents were so familiar and when we raise a cry of 
 protest against their "proofs" they laugh and show 
 us the signatures of chemists. 
 
 What chemist's signature will open up those little 
 graves and deliver back to the fond and empty arms 
 of grieving parents the million children that have 
 died in this country during the past four years ? 
 
 The millers admit that they do not give the peo- 
 ple white flour or white bread through their own 
 choice, but that because the people think they want 
 white flour and white bread they are obliged to 
 pander to them. 
 
 If we take an animal membrane, a bladder, and 
 fill it with a solution of any mineral and hang it up, 
 there will be no leakage through the skin ; not a drop 
 will appear on the outside of the bladder. We can 
 let the solution remain in the bladder for days and 
 it will-guard its contents as safely as a glass bottle. 
 
 If we now take the filled bladder and immerse it 
 in another solution of different density or of differ- 
 ent kind, the contents of the bladder will immedi- 
 ately begin to pass out through the walls of the blad- 
 der into the solution on the outside of the bladder, 
 while the solution on the outside will pass through 
 the bladder membrane into the inside, so that event- 
 ually we will find the solution on the outside and the 
 solution on the inside exactly the same in character. 
 
 The dissimilar liquids are now thoroughly dif- 
 fused. This is called osmosis. It might also be 
 
60 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 called life. Osmosis is going on in the body all the 
 time. 
 
 We recreate the mineral constituency of the blood 
 every time we eat and thereby we keep changing the 
 character of the fluid on the outside of the cells in 
 order to keep it different from the fluid inside so 
 that osmosis during life never ceases. 
 
 In fevers, accompanied by extreme exhaustion as 
 the result of inability to consume food, or in cases of 
 starvation, the fluids inside the cells and outside the 
 cells gradually become identical in quality so that 
 osmosis becomes very feeble and almost ceases. 
 When it ceases altogether death arrives. 
 
 The minerals which nature put into our wheat 
 and which we so deliberately remove are lost to us 
 forever and the vitalizing missions which they would 
 have naturally and beneficently performed are never 
 performed at all. 
 
 Hundreds of tons of these "useless" bi-products 
 are annually removed and devoted to purposes for 
 which they were never intended. More of this later. 
 
 This debauching has been going on now for a 
 century and yet we stand in stupid bewilderment be- 
 fore the advancing scourge of tuberculosis. 
 
 We cannot seem to understand that we are de- 
 liberately reducing our national vitality by every 
 ounce of organic mineral salts that we take out of 
 our food and destroy. 
 
 Then as to the bran sifted out of the flour some 
 millers say that the silica which the wheat berry 
 contains is practically "ground glass" and he cau- 
 tions us against feeding "ground glass" to our ten- 
 der babes. 
 
 They should also say that because wheat contains 
 iron, it contains horse-shoes ; that because it contains 
 lime, it contains bone dust or white-wash; that be- 
 
WHITE BREAD STARVATION 61 
 
 cause it contains magnesium, it contains face powder 
 that because it contains phosphorus, it contains 
 match heads; that because it contains fluorine, it 
 contains the enamel of human teeth and the whites 
 of human eyeballs ; that because it contains chlorine, 
 it contains bleaching compound ; that because it con- 
 tains sulphur, it contains the flames of Hades. 
 
 There are many prejudices to overcome in restor- 
 ing whole wheat products and whole wheat bread 
 with all their wealth of vitality to the people. The 
 "ground glass" idea will probably meet with the sym- 
 pathy of many doomed souls who are reluctant to 
 give up their sickly loaf. 
 
 Some of the millers say that this "ground glass" 
 contained in the bran of the wheat is an irritant and 
 that, therefore, people not in normal health cannot 
 use it without injury. 
 
 Some "Science Notes" fell into our hands in the 
 month of December, 1911, stating that an "English 
 Commission," but not mentioning what kind of an 
 "English Commission," has been looking into the 
 subject of bread and that it finds the presence of 
 bran in the use of whole wheat to be advantageous 
 in special cases, but that in general, it is an undesir- 
 able element in bread because it is itself indigestible 
 and interferes with the digestion of other nutritious 
 factors in the food. 
 
 Of couse, it is indigestible in the sense that in 
 its course through the body it is not taken up by the 
 body and transformed into tissue. 
 
 We do not digest pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon or 
 any other spices. Ground spices, like ground bran, 
 contain much indigestible fibre but this fibre con- 
 tains valuable properties, the influence of which 
 upon the digestive processes is well known. 
 
62 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 The miller who through his soHcitude for our 
 welfare would not permit us to eat whole wheat says 
 nothing about our consumption of pepper, cinnamon, 
 nutmeg or ginger. 
 
 We all know that the seeds of strawberries, rasp- 
 berries, figs and grapes are indigestible, yet no being 
 discards the seeds out of strawberries, raspberries 
 or figs before eating these luscious offerings of 
 mother nature. 
 
 The millers in their consternation at the thought 
 of our eating the bran of the wheat fail to warn us 
 against eating corn on the cob. Every time we eat 
 a "roasting ear" we eat the "bran" of the corn and 
 every time we eat beans or peas, we eat the "bran" 
 of the bean and the "bran" of the pea and it is 
 well that we eat these things, because while they 
 are not digested in themselves, they surrender to the 
 body the invaluable mineral salts which they contain. 
 Accordingly, while it may appear to the dullard 
 that they have no place in the diet of man, they con- 
 tribute wonderfully to the life-giving properties of 
 his food. 
 
 Just as chopped meat surrenders its mineral salts 
 to the water in which it is immersed, through the 
 processes of osmosis that we have described, so also 
 does the bran of the wheat surrender its minerals 
 to the body in the same way. But — ^the bran not 
 only furnishes indispensable mineral salts to the 
 body, but its chief virtue is as a regulator of the 
 persistaltic action of the alimentary tract by which 
 its contents are kept moving onward. 
 
 One of the curses which white bread, or robbed 
 bread, has inflicted on the people is constipation. A 
 thousand ills are traceable to this disorder. 
 
 Read the patent medicine ads to get an idea of 
 how many thousands of people require "pills." 
 
WHITE BREAD STARVATION 63 
 
 Inhibited peristalsis is the malevolent origin of 
 the woes of so many American women who are 
 afflicted with uterine and ovarian diseases. 
 
 Bread made of the whole wheat just as it comes 
 ■from nature, together with the other reforms for 
 which these pages cry out, will save our daughters 
 and our daughters' children from the evils which 
 food follies have imposed upon them. 
 
 In Dr. Albert Westlake's new edition of his book 
 on "Babies' Teeth to the Twelfth Year," he says: 
 
 "Babies' teeth should receive consideration at 
 least six months before the child is born. Necessary 
 elements in their building up are furnished at this 
 period by the mother's blood, hence, the need of the 
 purity of the latter. 
 
 "Teeth require more organic phosphate (par- 
 ticularly phosphate of calcium and carbonates of 
 lime) than other parts of the body ; therefore, bone 
 food is necessary for the mother (cow's milk, eggs, 
 especially yolks, peas, beans, lentils, WHOLE 
 WHEAT, OUTER GRAINS, etc.) 
 
 "Dietetic treatment for the mother is very im- 
 portant at this period while bone is forming. 
 
 "The intestines of the child are also undergoing 
 vital changes at this period and earlier. This in- 
 cludes the primary fixation of the child's intestine 
 in the left hypochondriac region. 
 
 "It is, therefore, vital to the offspring to get 
 perfect peristalsis of the mother's intestines. Elim- 
 ination and evacuation should be regular WITH- 
 OUT DRUGS." 
 
 For this reason alone, the mother should not be 
 robbed of the potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, 
 phosphorus, sulphur, silica and chlorine which the 
 honest wheat affords. 
 
64 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 The millers will never know how many babies 
 they have handicapped by their disregard of the 
 laws of nature or by their assumption that they 
 know more than nature may teach. 
 
 No chemist can tell us in terms of grams any- 
 thing about the exact quantity of phosphorus, iron, 
 potassium, lime, silica or chlorine which we should 
 take into our bodies every day. Nature has fixed 
 that mysterious and hidden thing for us. Confound- 
 ed in our wisdom, we turn our backs and seek a new 
 way through the dark. 
 
 The chemist admits he can never tell us that, and 
 three chemists at Columbia University devoted 
 months to a study of three of these minerals, de- 
 termining nothing as to the quantity of them re- 
 quired, but determining everything as to their 
 necessity. 
 
 The millers and bread makers do not know the 
 trail of wreckage which they have left in the wake 
 of their mineral contempt. They do not know how 
 they have burrowed into the vitality of human life 
 while it is still in the mother's womb. They do not 
 know to what extent they have been responsible 
 for tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia, scrofula, 
 measles, scarlatina, anaemia, etc. 
 
 If we could stop at this point and launch in the 
 same manner our indictment against barley, rice, 
 oats, com, many prepared cereals and many break- 
 fast foods, all of them with a few lonely exceptions 
 being robbed as wheat is robbed, we would achieve 
 our goal of putting you on guard against the food 
 crimes of the nation and show you how to prevent 
 those crimes but we would go no faster than we are 
 going now. Read carefully and you will learn. 
 
 The crime of denaturing our food begins with 
 wheat and we will stick to wheat and "wheat 
 
WHITE BREAD STARVATION 65 
 
 products" until we have made it clear that we are 
 to continue our journey downward into an abyss 
 of national degeneracy if we do not stop and make 
 such soundings as will tell us where we are. 
 
 Normally healthy lungs give an acid reaction with 
 litmus paper. This acid has been found to be phos- 
 phoric acid. It is present in the lecithin of the 
 lung tissues. 
 
 In tuberculosis the lungs give a neutral or alka- 
 line reaction with litmus paper due to the absence 
 of phosphoric acid. 
 
 In all cases of tuberculosis of the lungs a deposit 
 of lime is found. Sometimes this deposit is very 
 slight but as the disease makes headway it becomes 
 so great that the anatomist has to deal with what 
 is called "the chalky lung." 
 
 It would be impossible for thig lime to be de- 
 posited in the lung tissues if the phosphoric acid of 
 the lecithin in those tissues was normal. 
 
 Chemistry, so far, has not established a final 
 anaylsis of lecithin. Lecithin is a phosphoric com- 
 pound of the body. Nuclein, however, which is an- 
 other phosphoric compound of the same importance 
 lis found to vary, depending upon the health of the 
 individual, between 2.5 per cent and 9.5 per cent 
 in its phosphorus content. 
 
 The blood of a human being containing as little 
 as 2.5 per cent of phosphorus in its nuclein substance 
 shows a quantity just as deficient in the lecithin of 
 the lung. 
 
 On the contrary, where the blood of a vigorous 
 body shows the maximum of 9.5 per cent of phos- 
 phorus in its total mineral content, the lungs show 
 an equally high percentage of this mysterious ele- 
 ment and it is always found in the form of phos- 
 phoric acid. 
 
66 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 As you decrease the phosphoric acid in the lungs, 
 you increase the lime deposit. As you increase the 
 lime deposit you prepare an alkaline field where the 
 germ of tuberculosis may take root and grow. 
 
 As you phosphorize the blood you render it 
 capable of supporting the nutrition of the lung 
 tissues and as the lung is kept in health, it is pro- 
 tected against the invasion of tuberculosis. 
 
 We cannot go into a theater, a church, a crowded 
 street car or walk along the dusty city street with- 
 out inhaling the living micro-organisms which cause 
 tuberculosis, but if our lungs contain their normal 
 quantity of phosphoric acid, we need have no fear 
 because the germs are destroyed as fast as they 
 enter our bodies. 
 
 If this were not so, everybody would be stricken 
 at the same time with tuberculosis and nobody would 
 resist the disease. 
 
 It is the same with typhoid fever. In cases of 
 typhoid epidemic, there are some who do not get 
 the disease. They do not get it because their vitality 
 is so normal that it resists the diseases. The absence 
 of a proper supply of phosphorus in the blood is due 
 to an insufficient supply of phosphorus in the sub- 
 stances taken as food. 
 
 Let it be remembered that from the hundreds of 
 thousands of bushels of wheat "milled" every year 
 in the United States, from the hundreds of thousands 
 of bags of rice "polished" every year in the United 
 States, from the tons and tons of barley "pearled" 
 every year in the United States, from the enormous 
 quantity of oats soaked, scoured, bleached and "pre- 
 pared" every year in the United States, from the 
 thousands of barrels of corn ground every year in 
 the United States, the phosphorus is removed. We 
 have seen what takes place when we remove phos- 
 
WHITE BREAD STARVATION 67 
 
 phorus from the soil and we are now beholding the 
 tragedy that is being enacted under our eyes as we 
 remove phosphorus from our bread and from our 
 bodies. More than half of the insane are consump- 
 tives. A peculiar fact has been noted in connection 
 with the bones of the insane. They are very brittle 
 and easily broken. This brittleness is due to phos- 
 phorus starvation. Where calcium phosphate is 
 present in normal quantity the bone is tough and 
 resilient. 
 
 Remember three-fourths of these substances are 
 removed from our daily bread. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 POLISHED KICE. 
 
 As we gather up the shattered fragments of the 
 broken statue that once stood so brave, so eminent 
 and so long unmolested before the pale ignorance 
 of the white wheat eater, we may catch in fancy 
 the murmur of spirit voices, among them, little 
 Helen's voice, saying: "We, the ghosts of little 
 children, are patrolling the night pulling down from 
 their high niches of darkness whatsoever symbols 
 of disease and death we find. Yonder a skinny fin- 
 ger beckons. It is the finger of bloodless fraud. 
 Pull it down, its name is Polished Rice." 
 
 Few Americans have ever eaten rice as nature in- 
 tended them to eat it. The beautiful grain, midway 
 between cream color and light brown in hue, with a 
 flavor that the polished rice eater has never tasted, 
 has been banished from the United States for many 
 years. , 
 
 The robbed substitute is the brushed, scoured, 
 polished and talcum coated grain of commerce so 
 degraded and denatured by the processes through 
 which it passes that if fed to the fowls of the barn 
 yard they will die when given no other food. If 
 fed on the natural grain containing all the elements 
 which nature placed in it they will thrive. 
 
 The "innocent" bowl of rice as we now scour 
 and polish it served to the growing child and the 
 convalescent struggling desperately upward out of 
 
70 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 the snare of disease, will not support life. We have 
 robbed it as we rob the wheat. 
 
 Not the cry of the alarmist, this! Behold the 
 facts. 
 
 In the Philippine Islands they have a disease 
 which they call beri-beri. We have similar diseases 
 in the United States but we call them inanition, 
 anaemia, neurasthenia, nervous prostration, par- 
 alysis, death. 
 
 Beri-beri journeys from one §tage to another 
 through all of these experiences. 
 
 Its name neither adds to its ability to kill nor 
 detracts from its ability to kill. Those who get it 
 die the death. 
 
 Dr. V. G. Heiser in the year 1910, then Director 
 of Health of the Philippine Islands, Doctor Fraser 
 of Singapore, Dr. Aron of the Philippine Medical 
 School, Dr. Highet of Siam, Dr. DeHaan of Java, 
 produced evidence that showed conclusively that 
 beri-beri is caused by a diet of polished rice such as 
 is exclusively consumed in the United States. 
 
 The polished rice does not introduce some mys- 
 terious germ into the body. It simply starves the 
 blood and tissues until they no longer offer a defense 
 to the germ, and then it takes up its seat in the 
 weakened body and develops. 
 
 Some chickens were fed with polished rice and 
 others with natural brovrai rice. As has been here 
 set down the birds fed on polished rice died, the 
 others thrived. 
 
 In the months of January and February, 1910, 
 there was a severe outbreak of beri-beri among the 
 inmates of the Culion Leper Colony which resisted 
 all treatment. 
 
 Then all polished rice was discontinued and the 
 natural grain substituted. The sick in the hospital 
 
POLISHED RICE 71 
 
 were treated with rice polishings. Rice polishings 
 contain the phosphorus compounds and other min- 
 eral salts, ferments and nitrogenous products which 
 are brushed, scoured and polished off the grain in 
 order to make it white for the delicate eyes of pale 
 women and children to glory in, for not in wisdom 
 but in glory do they eat. 
 
 A few months' diet of the natural grain to which 
 the rice polishings had been added brought about 
 complete cures and stopped the spread of the disease. 
 Yet little Helen could not find a pound not even a 
 short-weight pound of that natural brown rice in 
 all the land. 
 
 Science needed more evidence to convince it that 
 man had no right to denature his food. 
 
 So. Dr, Eraser, in the Straits Settlements, and 
 Dr. Aron of the Philippine Medical School set about 
 to prove that when we brush, scour and polish away 
 the phosphorus compounds and other organic min- 
 erals that are present in the pericarp of natural 
 rice we rob the human organism of its requisite 
 supply of these elements. 
 
 After this fact had been demonstrated to the 
 satisfaction of the physicians in the far east, it 
 was again experimentally confirmed in chickens and 
 later in human beings by feeding polished and un- 
 polished rice to a group of railway workers in the 
 Straits Settlements. 
 
 The Quarterly Report of the Bureau of Health 
 of the Philippine Islands for the first quarter, 1910, 
 says: 
 
 "The group of men that partook of the No. 
 1 polished white Siam rice developed beri-beri 
 within a period of approximately sixty days 
 while the group that partook of the unpolished 
 
72 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 rice remained free of the disease. Every ef- 
 fort was made by interchange of clothing, by 
 contact and by living in the same house to con- 
 vey the disease to the group that ate of the 
 unpolished rice but not a single case developed. 
 The process was then reversed. The group that 
 partook of the polished rice was changed to 
 the unpolished rice and vice-versa and within 
 a period of approximately sixty days the group 
 partaking of the polished rice developed beri- 
 beri. These experiments were further con- 
 firmed in Manila by the use of rice polishings 
 in the treatment of beri-beri patients who 
 showed immediate improvement in their condi- 
 tion and except when the disease was too far 
 advanced promptly recovered. In view of the 
 apparently certain evidence upon which the 
 etiology of the disease now rests a recommen- 
 dation has been made to the Governor-General 
 of the Philippine Islands to forbid the use of 
 polished rice in public institutions. It is hoped 
 by this means not only to eradicate the disease 
 from such places, but also that it may serve 
 as an educational factor in disseminating knowl-. 
 edge as to the method by which beri-beri may 
 be avoided." 
 
 The Governor-General issued an executive order 
 on June 3, 1910, to all health officers and presidents 
 throughout the island, forbidding the use of polished 
 rice in all government workshops, prisons, hospitals 
 and other institutions and directing the officials hav- 
 ing control of such institutions to see that the 
 provisions of this edict were complied with at once. 
 Polished rice was bad food in the Philippines but 
 elsewhere people could do with it as they wished, 
 firmed in Manila By the use of rice polishings 
 
POLISHED RICE 7S 
 
 In the meantime China and Japan have both taken 
 action against "robbed" rice by denying it a place 
 in the diet of their soldiers and sailors. 
 
 Under date of October 27, 1910, the ever-vigilant 
 Doctor Harvey W. Wiley, v?riting from the Bureau 
 of Chemistry, Washington, D. C, to the writer, 
 said: 
 
 "While beri-beri is not a disease common to 
 this country, perhaps, due to the fact that our 
 diet is not composed exclusively, or almost ex- 
 clusively, of rice, yet it seems to me we should 
 not even in a small way permit a condition of 
 nutrition which would favor the development of 
 such a disease as beri-beri or some other dis- 
 order due to the debasement of rice from pol- 
 ishing. Rice is becoming a more general diet 
 in this country and the dealer who iirst begins 
 the campaign for a pure, unadulterated rice will 
 surely promote the cause in a commercial way 
 which will do much toward protecting the health 
 of the people." 
 
 Physiologists recognize that organic compounds 
 of phosphorus are absolutely necessary to the health 
 and well being of man. This fact is balanced by 
 another fact of startling importance. Man, unlike 
 the plant, is unable to manufacture his own organic 
 compounds of phosphorus from inorganic phos- 
 phorus. 
 
 Doctor Alexander Bryce of Birmingham, Eng- 
 land, goes as far as to declare that "it is even prob- 
 able that a daily supply of the different compounds 
 of organic phosphorus is necessary in the food, as 
 no proof exists to show that nucleins, lecithins, phos- 
 phatides or phytins are capable of being substituted 
 one for the other." 
 
74 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 We know that beri-beri owes itg origin to a defi- 
 ciency of the organic compounds of phosphorus. 
 
 Schaumann has shown that polished rice which 
 introduces tropical beri-beri or even the ship vari- 
 ety of beri-beri which arises among the European 
 crews of sailing vessels forced to live on food largely 
 deprived of its organic phosphorus, will also produce 
 polyneuritis in fowls. Schaumann proved that bar- 
 ley and white wheat flour can induce the same 
 disease. He also showed that by demineralizing 
 foodstuffs of any kind through the action of sol- 
 vents or by high temperature the same disease can 
 be inducer" 
 
 It has also been shown that physicians cannot 
 supplement the mineral deficiency of food with 
 organic or inorganic phosphates. The patient under 
 such treatment will die just as quickly as he would 
 under no treatment at all. But food products rich 
 in organic compounds of phosphorus such as peas, 
 beans, wheat bran, barley polishings, rice polishings, 
 com phytin (the parts of the grains which are re- 
 moved in milling) when added to the demineralized 
 or defective foodstuffs are capable of preventing the 
 development of the disease and can cure it when 
 present. These organic carriers of phosphorus must 
 be present with the other food in sufficient quantities 
 to supply at least two grams of phosphorus per day, 
 that being the minimum amount required for an 
 adult. 
 
 Remember that beri-beri is simply an extreme 
 state of mineral starvation. Between perfect health 
 and beri-beri there are a hundred mile posts each 
 one representing another by-post into the barren 
 desert of disease or death. 
 
 The necessity of phosphorus in the human or- 
 ganism and the necessity of administering it in such 
 
POLISHED RICE 75 
 
 an organized form that it is capable of being as- 
 similated has been proved. 
 
 Despite the establishment of this fact, terrible 
 and tremendous in its significance, we carelessly 
 destroy the organized minerals for which surgeon 
 and physician even at the uttermost extremity of 
 death can find no substitute. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OTHER NATIONS ALARMED. 
 
 A statement made by Dr. Frederick Gowland 
 Hopkins, Fellow of the Royal Society, Reader in 
 Chemical Physiology, University of Cambridge and 
 an investigator of European fame, was sent to the 
 writer by Miss May Yates, Founder and Honorable 
 Secretary of the Bread and Food Reform League 
 of England, in the month of May, 1912. 
 
 "The superior value," says Doctor Hopkins, 
 "of whole wheat meal lies in the fact that it 
 retains certain, at present, unrecognized food 
 substances, perhaps in very minute quantities 
 whose presence allows our systems to make full 
 use of the tissue-building elements of the grain. 
 These substances of undetermined nature are 
 apparently removed to a great extent from fine 
 white flour in the milling. 
 
 "I began long ago a series of experiments 
 on the relative tissue-building values of fine 
 white flour and of flour which contains a large 
 proportion of the whole grain. These experi- 
 ments were made among others in the endeavor 
 to discover the nature of the unknown sub- 
 stances which I have just mentioned. In their 
 existence I believe greatly because of my experi- 
 mental results." 
 Doctor Hopkins experimented with an eighty per 
 cent whole wheat meal which though not containing 
 
78 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 all of the wheat yet had a much larger proportion of 
 the grain than does white flour. Even with such 
 material his results were remarkable as will be 
 seen. His conclusions are: 
 
 "All my work to date confirms my belief in 
 the superior food value of standard whole wheat 
 bread. After definitely proving that young 
 animals grow with very much greater rapidity 
 on brown flour than on white flour, I have been 
 able to improve the tissue-building rate of the 
 white flour subjects by adding to their white 
 flour an extract made from the brown flour. 
 To make the best use of any food material such 
 as the proteins, etc., certain other food sub- 
 stances, and possibly a variety of them must 
 also be present in definite proportions. 
 
 "If one essential food constituent which 
 ought to make up say even as little as one per 
 cent of the total food is present in only half its 
 normal amount, then when it is a case of build- 
 ing up the tissues, the system will only be able 
 to make use of half of the other food elements, 
 even if these other elements make up the main 
 bulk of the food." 
 
 At this point Dr. Hopkins reaches the most sig- 
 nificant paragraph of his statement. Here are his 
 words : 
 
 "This principle has long been recognized as 
 regards plant life and growth. A plant, in order 
 to attain perfect growth, must find in the soil a 
 certain minimum of each of many elements. 
 Consider, for example, the element potassium. 
 Suppose only half of the necessary amount of 
 potassium be present, then no matter how abun- 
 dant may be all the other soil and air constitu- 
 
OTHER NATIONS ALARMED 79 
 
 ents, their normal utilization is limited to one 
 half. The rate of growth and the ultimate de- 
 velopment of the plant are consequently 
 depressed, 
 
 "The absolute amount of potassium em- 
 ployed in growth is very small compared, say, 
 with the carbon or nitrogen ; but any deficiency 
 in it limits growth as surely as a deficiency in 
 the more important elements. The substance 
 of unknown nature which I just now mentioned 
 may need to be present in very small amount but 
 if the necessary minimum is not available, the 
 utilization, in tissue growth or repair, of all 
 other constituents is infallibly deficient. In 
 the process of converting the wheat grain to the 
 fine white flour these unknown elements are 
 lost or destroyed to a great extent. It follows 
 that no matter how much iron, phosphorus, etc., 
 may be retained in the white flour our systems 
 cannot make the best use of them." 
 
 In addition to Dr. Hopkin's statement. Miss Yates 
 supplied the writer with a statement signed by Dr. 
 E. S. Eddie and Dr. G. C. Simpson, confirmed by 
 Professor Benjamin Moore, professor of bio-chemis- 
 try at the University of Liverpool, offering further 
 irrefutable evidence of the essential health-giving 
 qualities of the bran of the wheat grain discarded 
 in milling white flour. 
 
 Doctors Eddie and Simpson are members of the 
 research staff of the School of Tropical Medicine, 
 University of Liverpool. 
 
 "It has been proved by Braddon and other 
 workers in the East that exclusive use of pol- 
 ished rice as a diet leads to a form of peripher- 
 nal neuritis. This disease does not occur in 
 
80 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 those native races who use whole rice as a diet. 
 Our own experiments have been extended to 
 similar work in relation to the stripping of the 
 outer case from the wheat berry so as to pro- 
 duce a white bread instead of a whole or stan- 
 dard bread and we find that parallel results are 
 often obtained when the outer layers are ex- 
 cluded from the diet with both wheat and rice. 
 These experiments clearly demonstrate that the 
 outer part of the grain contains the essential 
 constituents for the nutrition of the nervous 
 system both in growing animals and in adults." 
 
 (Signed) E. S. EDDIE. 
 
 (Signed) G. C. -SIMPSON. 
 
 The following are some of the details of the re- 
 search work now being carried out with standard 
 and white breads in the bio-chemical department of 
 the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine by Pro- 
 fessor Benjamin Moore, Chief of the Department : 
 
 "Groups of pigeons have been fed on fine 
 white bread made from white flour guaranteed 
 to be unbleached and unadulterated, while sim- 
 ilar groups of pigeons have been given an 
 ordinary quality of standard whole wheat bread 
 bought from a regular baker. The white bread 
 pigeons have all speedily developed marked 
 symptoms of ill-nutrition and serious nerve de- 
 rangements. Besides losing weight they sit 
 listless and shivering, lose power in their legs, 
 suggesting nerve paralysis, while many develop 
 convulsions. 
 
 "The standard bread pigeons on the other 
 hand, keep healthy and up to normal weight. 
 
 "In another series of experiments pigeons 
 which had developed grave nervous symptoms 
 
OTHER NATIONS ALARMED 81 
 
 on such diet recovered completely when after 
 a week of special nursing they were placed on 
 an exclusive standard bread diet during their 
 convalescence, 
 
 "All the recent work done in our bio-chemical 
 laboratories proves beyond question that in all 
 cereals, such as wheat, barley, oats and rice, 
 there are series of important substances incor- 
 porated in the inner layer of the husk which are 
 essential to the nutritive value of the grain. If 
 these elements are eliminated in the milling or 
 preparation of the grain, a diet largely composed 
 of cereals or bread thus denatured will not only 
 fail adequately to nourish the body, but will 
 tend to set up active disease. 
 
 "Certain of the diseases of mal-nutrition 
 among children, notably rickets, scurvy- 
 rickets, tetany and convulsions present symp- 
 toms very similar to those we note in our white 
 bread pigeons. So striking is this similarity 
 that physicians who have followed up our work 
 are already treating certain of their scurvy- 
 ricket patients with a diet of standard bread. 
 
 "Our nerves as a nation are much less stable 
 than in the days prior to white bread diet. All 
 our work suggests that the growing tendency of 
 the age to neurasthenia, 'nerves,' ets., is not 
 unlikely due to removing from our diet those 
 very elements of cereal foods, which nature has 
 hid in the husk of the grain and which man in 
 his ignorance discards." 
 
 (Signed) DR. BENJAMIN MOORE. 
 
 The letter with which Miss May Yates accom- 
 panied the above statement is as follows : 
 
82 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL HEALTH AND FOOD CAMPAIGN 
 INAUGURATED AT 
 
 THE MANSION HOUSE 
 
 UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF H. R. H. THE PRINCESS 
 
 CHRISTIAN, BY 
 THE BREAD AND FOOD REFORM LEAGUE. 
 
 (A purely uncommercial, educational and non- 
 political association.) Supported by The National 
 League for Physical Education and Improvement. 
 The Royal Institute of Public Health, The National 
 Conference on Infantile Mortality, The Social In- 
 stitute's Union, The Children's Protection League, 
 The Mothers' Union, etc. 
 
 "Although an act has been passed dealing with 
 the feeding of school children, it does not touch chil- 
 dren who are WRONGLY FED, and who, through 
 ignorance, are handicapped for life, mentally and 
 physically, by scanty or improper feeding. 
 
 "As prevention is better than cure, a knowledge 
 of the right selection and proper preparation of 
 food is of vital interest to all classes of society, for 
 a deficient supply of materials to form muscles, 
 bones, teeth, brains and nerves is most injurious 
 to the health, stamina and welfare of the rising 
 generation." 
 
 Headquarters: 5, Clements Inn, 
 
 Strand, London, W. C. 
 
 May 3, 1912. 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 As my attention has been directed to a contro- 
 versy that you have held with the American Miller 
 on the subject of Whole Meal Bread, I venture to 
 send you the report of our Bread and Food Reform 
 League, the report of some physiological experiments 
 showing the superiority of brown whole meal and 
 
OTHER NATIONS ALARMED 83 
 
 cream colored bread over the very white bread in 
 general use. 
 
 You w^ill also find a summary of papers on the 
 same subject that I read at the Portsmouth meeting 
 of the British Association and the Health Congress 
 of the Royal Institute of Public Health. 
 
 Hoping these papers will interest you, believe me, 
 Yours truly, 
 (Signed) MAY YATES, Hon. Sec. 
 Alfred W, McCann, Esq. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 PROPER FOOD OR MEDICINE. 
 
 In March, 1912, Dr. Armand Gautier addressed 
 an audience in Paris. He declared that man in the 
 course of his evolution had lost the instinct of nour- 
 ishing himself. Eating has thus become an art which 
 has to be learned by man, while the lower animals 
 when left to themselves have an innate knowledge 
 of the proper food. It is absolutely necessary that 
 mankind possess a certain amount of scientific 
 knowledge in order that we may choose our proper 
 diet. 
 
 Man has indeed lost the instinct that the beast 
 still possesses. That instinct would enable him to 
 select, as the beast selects, the food that would pre- 
 vent disease, but man has been given intelligence 
 and will with which to select his food. The choice 
 should not be turned over to an ignorant kitchen 
 drudge. 
 
 Food underlies all art, all progress, all peace, 
 all happiness ; it underlies the existence and safety of 
 the world. 
 
 "We must curtail our waste of food products 
 in the home, on the farm and in transit, for every 
 pound of food that is produced is needed, as fully 
 one-half of the people in the world go to bed hungry 
 !very night," declared Colonel Henry Exall, presi- 
 Jent of the Texas Industrial Congress of Dallas. 
 "The lofty human thought that suggested the 
 means to bring together the august ambassadors of 
 
86 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 all the nations in conference at The Hague," he 
 continued, "to form compacts for international and 
 perminent peace is worthy of the most exalted praise 
 of this enlightened age, and God forbid that its edicts 
 should not be perpetual and everlasting ; but I warn 
 you that no parchment yet manufactured will be 
 strong enough to make a treaty binding against a 
 cry for bread." 
 
 We know that nature obtains her building ma- 
 terials from food. All food contains some of these 
 building materials. Some food contains all of 
 them, except where man ignorantly removes them. 
 If we for a few months eat food deficient in some of 
 these building materials we quickly feel the effects 
 in our general health. 
 
 When the laws under which nature operates are 
 suspended, she simply does not operate. Man might 
 as well expect a jeweler to make a watch without 
 the materials from which the wheels and springs 
 and screws are made as to expect nature to make a 
 drop of normal blood without the elements that enter 
 into the composition of blood. 
 
 Our food is the most important thing in life be- 
 cause upon it all other things depend. We digest 
 and assimilate that food in obedience to fixed laws. 
 If we keep well without knowing those laws we are 
 fortunate. It is evident that we should make an 
 effort to understand and apply them. We have great 
 need to look well to the sources of our food supply. 
 
 The cow that is fed on the denatured waste 
 product of the cotton-seed oil industry of the south, 
 or the demineralized brewer's grain, or corn-oil- 
 cake and similar debased cattle foods, cannot furnish 
 us a proper supply of milk. 
 
 The cow that is given a normal oxygen supply 
 and fed on natural grains and on the grass of the 
 
PROPER FOOD OR MEDICINE 87 
 
 field is, like the horse, free from tuberculosis. The 
 cow is fed for milk production. The horse is fed for 
 vitality and breeding. 
 
 As a result practically no horse can be found 
 afflicted with tuberculosis, whereas almost half 
 of the cows of the States of New Jersey and New 
 York are so afflicted. This seems to be a sweeping 
 statement yet it is absolutely true. The milkman 
 will not give his new-born calf the milk from its 
 tuberculosis mother, yet he is not always so particu- 
 lar about the new bom babe of the human family. 
 He has no money invested in the latter! 
 
 Not only is there a deficiency of phosphoric acid 
 in the lungs of the tuberculous but there is the same 
 deficiency in the milk of tuberculous cows. 
 
 Milk is produced in the tissues, not from the food 
 direct. The milk of the cow cannot be healthy unless 
 its tissues are healthy. 
 
 Just as tuberculous lungs give a neutral or alka- 
 line reaction with litmas paper, so does the milk of 
 tuberculous cows contain an excess of the alkaline 
 minerals. An alkaline field is necessary for the 
 growth of disease-breeding bacteria. 
 
 The percentage of phosphoric acid in cow's milk 
 is found to vary between ten per cent and fifty per 
 cent of its total mineral content. Some milk is 
 so poor in phosphorus that its caseine can be an- 
 alyzed without showing a trace of this mineral. 
 "^ Let us not forget the difference in the health of 
 human beings, the mineral content of whose blood 
 shows 2.5 per cent of phosphorus and those whose 
 blood shows 9.5 per cent. 
 
 Analysis also shows that some milk is ten times 
 as rich in iron as other milk. One per cent of the 
 minerals of some milk is iron, whereas, but one- 
 
88 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 tenth of one per cent of the minerals of other milk 
 is iron. No wonder infants die! 
 
 A large portion of cow's milk is of poor quality, 
 low in phosphorus, low in iron. , 
 
 You ought to know whether the milk on which 
 your child is fed contains the least possible quantity 
 of phosphorus and iron or the greatest possible 
 quantity. If your infant is fed on milk containing 
 ten per cent of phosphorus and one-tenth of one per 
 cent of iron, and your neighbor's infant is fed on 
 milk containing fifty per cent of phosphorus and one 
 per cent of iron, you can tell which infant is most 
 likely to live. 
 
 In 1910 there were 19,000 children who died 
 in New York City under two years old, and 15,000 
 of them were less than a year old. The Health Com- 
 missioner roused by these facts began looking after 
 the city's milk supply. Among other things he 
 opened fifteen stations where infants' supplies can 
 be had and instruction is given in the care and feed- 
 ing of babies. This work is as yet barely begun, 
 but in 1911 the deaths under two years had dropped 
 from 19,269 to 17,574. 
 
 Love is sometimes a matter of phosphorus and 
 iron. 
 
 When the child leaves the milk stage again it 
 is necessary to see that its iron and phosphorus are 
 not interfered with. Love will be awake and see to 
 that. Ignorance will sleep as before. Love blesses ; 
 ignorance kills. The laws of life are fixed. Why 
 give the child normal milk for the first two years 
 of its life and put it on denatured grains thereafter? 
 Healthy and normal milk for its first two years and 
 after that healthy and normal grains, vegetables and 
 fruits, and above all, honest and nornial bread will 
 save your child. 
 
PROPER FOOD OR MEDICINE 89 
 
 One of the arguments that the defenders of white 
 bread advance is that people do not live on bread 
 alone; they eat other things. 
 
 The children of the poor live largely on bread, 
 and if it is an honest loaf of bread made from honest 
 wheat grown out of honestly nurtured soil, there is 
 no necessity for anxiety with regard to health, even 
 if for a time there is bread alone to eat. 
 
 Such bread will support life and if, for a time, 
 no other article of food were present the child would 
 have a life-sustaining meal. 
 
 But if that bread has been debased and de- 
 natured, there is nothing else for the spirit of justice 
 to do but to cry to heaven for vengeance. 
 
 The well fed business man who eats a great 
 variety of food and whose digestion is good will not 
 fade and die simply because he eats white bread. He 
 runs a good chance through his generous diet of 
 getting most of his body-requirements, but his wife 
 who stays at home and her children with their bread 
 and coffee for breakfast and their "hurry-up" 
 luncheon from the "delicatessen store," they are the 
 first victims. 
 
 Even the vegetables cooked at home are largely 
 denatured, as the soluble mineral salts which they 
 contain are thrown down the waste pipe with the 
 water in which the cooking is done. 
 
 We know that the phosphorus, potassium and 
 iron of the body are at war with the germs of tuber- 
 culosis to say nothing of other disease-breeding 
 germs. Metchnikoff describes the white corpuscles 
 of the blood-stream as defenders of the body against 
 disease through their power to destroy disease-breed- 
 ing bacteria. This power he attributes to the or 
 ganic phosphorus compound of the white corpuscles 
 which the scientist calls nuclein. When these phos- 
 
90 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 phorus compounds are normal in the body invading 
 bacteria are destroyed as fast as they enter. When 
 the defending army of phosphorus is weak, the in- 
 vading bacteria take possession and triumph. 
 
 In the meantime are not we making the defend- 
 ing army as weak as possible by removing the phos- 
 phorus, iron and potassium from the most of the 
 food we eat? 
 
 Every time we boil a potato and throw away the 
 water in which it is boiled we throw away potas- 
 sium. Every time we make a white flour from the 
 grain of wheat or send a bag of polished rice to the 
 market place or a carton of pearled barley to the 
 grocery store or a sack of corn meal to the kitchen 
 or a carton of scoured oats to the pantry or a pack- 
 age of bi-product breakfast food to the morning 
 meal of our children, we are doing our best to starve 
 the defending army of phosphorus and make it 
 possible for the powers of darkness and disease to 
 triumph. 
 
 If phosphorus and iron and potassium and the 
 other minerals which we have been considering are 
 so necessary, why does the physician not give us a 
 bottle containing them and let us put them back 
 into our own bodies after we have taken them from 
 our foods ? 
 
 The physician tries to do just that. He has his 
 iron tonics and his phosphorus tonics and his potas- 
 sium iodides, but they do not get into the body as 
 they ought. Because these minerals must be organ- 
 ized as they are organized in nature before the 
 human body can make proper use of them. 
 
 You will remember that we showed you that a 
 mysterious substance known as chlorophyl enabled 
 the plant to take these non-living or inert minerals 
 from mother earth and transform them into its tis- 
 
PROPER FOOD OR MEDICINE 91 
 
 sues. You then probably asked the question : "What 
 has all this got to do with me or with this subject?" 
 
 We have reached the explanation. 
 
 The human body does not possess the power that 
 the plant possesses through its chlorophyl to appro- 
 priate these minerals to its needs and it must, there- 
 fore, depend upon the plant which has that power 
 in order to obtain in an organized and assimilable 
 form the elements on which it depends. 
 
 If this were not so we could go direct to the stone 
 pile or bed of earth and eat clay, for the clay con- 
 tains the elements of life. 
 
 It is through his food that man must get these 
 minerals, hence iron, phosphorus, potassium, etc., 
 in the form of drugs do not cure tuberculosis or any 
 other disease. 
 
 The physicians who used to study only drugs 
 and symptoms will now study and prescribe foods, 
 foods, foods. The despised Italian fruit-vender at 
 the street corner is a noble American institution. By 
 his display of greens and fruits, he constantly 
 tempts mineral-starved bodies to eat these raw and 
 life-giving carriers of mineral salts. No one knows 
 what a blessing the Italian has brought into this 
 hurried, unthinking, ignorant land through his fruit 
 stand. 
 
 Grains and fruits and vegetables have the power 
 of picking up the various necessary minerals from 
 mother earth and forming them into the complex 
 organic compounds ready for animal life to assim- 
 ilate. 
 
 This book may not oblige people to heed the 
 light. But there are many afflicted people in the 
 world who murmur : "How is it possible that there 
 can be a merciful or a loving God when he so 
 
92 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 scourges the earth with sickness ?" To these in par- 
 ticular is this chapter addressed. 
 
 "As we sow, so shall we reap." As we prepare 
 the way for disease so shall we suffer disease. If we 
 gratify every whim of our palates, if we eat with 
 the eye rather than with the intelligence, we cannot 
 at the same time blame God for sickness. The folly 
 is with ourselves and with our wayward, selfish, un- 
 thinking habits of life. 
 
 The great obstacle in the way of reform is the 
 housewife's desires. She wants unnatural colors and 
 characteristics, not thinking or not knowing that 
 these defeat the purpose for which she buys food. 
 
 She wants yellow butter, artifically colored with 
 a mineral or so-called vegetable dye, though she is 
 satisfied to have a white Swiss cheese which is the 
 natural color of the milk from which butter and 
 cheese are made. 
 
 She wants white bread and white rice but doesn't 
 ask for white oatmeal. 
 
 She asks for bleached apricots, bleached peaches, 
 bleached apples and bleached pears from the dried 
 fruit family, but she is satisfied to have her raisins 
 and prunes and currants unbleached, almost black. 
 
 Her soda biscuits must be the hue of a starched 
 shirt front, but black devil cake and dark brown 
 ginger bread do not frighten her. 
 
 Give nature a beautiful color scheme that satisfies 
 the eye, and take from her the elements necessary 
 to build a healthy body and nature will fail. 
 
 For our two hundred thirty-five thousand two 
 hundred and sixty-two children under ten years of 
 age who died in one year in these United States, we 
 would not give nature her demands, and nature 
 failed! 
 
PROPER FOOD OR MEDICINE 93 
 
 Commercial" rapacity and dishonesty with the 
 wide freedom it now enjoys through the absence 
 of effective laws that would control its lust for gain, 
 is one of the great enemies in the path of reform. 
 
 No sooner had references to the virtues of natural 
 brown rice begun to appear in newspapers and pub- 
 lications, particularly in the editorial columns of 
 Collier's Weekly, than an attempt was made for com- 
 mercial purposes to deceive the people into believing 
 that the long debased white rice of the market place 
 was really after all the "natural, unpolished rice" 
 which had been made the subject of so much dis- 
 cussion in the medical profession of the Philippines. 
 
 Until about a year ago practically all the rice on 
 the market was coated with glucose and talc. Such 
 rice was known as "coated and polished rice," but 
 some of the rice traders conceived the idea, that by 
 omitting the glucose and talc, the rice, even though 
 it had been scoured and brushed and robbed, could 
 legitimately masquerade under the title "unpol- 
 ished." This was assumed evidently on the ground 
 that inasmuch as it had not been polished with fur- 
 niture oil and a chamois skin it could be truthfully 
 said to be "unpolished." 
 
 Accordingly, because the people had never seen 
 the natural brown grain and therefore had no stand- 
 ard by which to make comparison for themselves, 
 a so-called "unpolished rice" appeared and in its 
 advertisements clamored for the faith and favor of 
 the helpless and the weak. 
 
 It was the old rice in everjrthing but the veneer 
 of glucose and talc! What of that? Who would 
 know it? 
 
 The packages in which it was offered for sale 
 bore such phrases as : "Great Natural Health Food." 
 
94 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 "Uncoated and Unpolished." "Recommended by Phy- 
 sicians." "Most Nutritious." 
 
 Inside the package an educational slip of paper 
 was introduced which said: 
 
 "The treatment of rice, called 'polishing,' to meet 
 the American demand that it look white and glossy 
 removes some of its most valuable properties and is 
 the chief reason why ordinary commercial rice lacks 
 in nutriment as compared with the natural unpol- 
 ished product eaten by the principal rice consuming 
 nations." 
 
 Yes, the advertisement actually condemned the 
 polished rice in these words. 
 
 Then followed a chemical analysis of fats, pro- 
 teins, sugar and starch, leaving the mineral sub- 
 stances strangely out of the tabulation. 
 
 To this fraudulent appeal for favor this para- 
 graph was appended : 
 
 "The above comparison shows clearly why the 
 average grocery store rice lacks in flavor and food 
 value." 
 
 The very wording under which this food product 
 was introduced betrayed the fact that its commercial 
 progenitors knew what they were doing and did not 
 hesitate in such a grave matter, affecting the public 
 health, to exploit impoverished foods as life-savers 
 and body-builders. 
 
 For twenty-nine years Doctor Wiley fought the 
 food adulterators, yet in the year of our Lord nine- 
 teen hundred and twelve, nearly six years after the 
 Pure Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906, became 
 a law, we find such avaricious traders dishonestly 
 using the efforts of reformers, appealing to the ig- 
 norance of the public, spragging the wheels of re- 
 form, and brazenly administering an antidote for 
 "trade reasons" to the struggling spirit of truth. 
 
PROPER POOD OR MEDICINE 95 
 
 Are we content to permit the grasping hands of 
 food panderers to reach into the sacredness of our 
 homes to the destruction of our offspring for the 
 unholy profit which is their god? 
 
 Laws are needed, but mightier than laws in 
 bettering the conditions under which humanity lives, 
 is education. 
 
 We needed no law to compel us to use the tele- 
 graph, the telephone or the electric light when elec- 
 tricity was developed for practical use. Most of us 
 need no laws to keep us from buying poisons. Doc- 
 tors used to think it was the right thing to bleed 
 their patients, sometimes to death, but we need no 
 laws now to prevent such bleeding. 
 
 When the average normal mortal knows what is 
 not good for him, he will usually leave it alone with- 
 out the interference of a law. 
 
 This book attempts to turn on the light and show 
 the facts. The knowledge of the truth will result in 
 the demand of the housewife for honest whole wheat 
 meal from which nothing has been subtracted and 
 to which nothing has been added, so that from it a 
 loaf of life-sustaining bread may be made for her 
 child. 
 
 She will demand an honest whole wheat break- 
 fast food ground to the game consistency as the 
 farina and other highly debased breakfast foods with 
 which she is familiar, but unlike such breakfast 
 foods, containing all of the elements that nature 
 put into the wheat. 
 
 If she doesn't make her own bread she will de- 
 mand that the bread of the baker be made from 
 honest whole wheat meal, not a mixture of eighty 
 per cent patent flour and twenty per cent so-called 
 entire wheat flour which is not entire wheat at all. 
 
96 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 When Doctor Sylvester Graham advocated the 
 wheat meal that took its name from him and has 
 since been known as "graham flour" he did not ad- 
 vocate the commercial make-shift of modem times 
 that is made by adding thiily-five pounds of bran to 
 one hundred and sixty-one pounds of white flour, 
 producing a barrel of so-called "graham flour" 
 weighing one hundred and ninety-six pounds. 
 
 He did not advocate an imitation "graham flour" 
 containing 7 per cent bran instead of 10 per cent; 
 10 per cent shorts instead of 16 per cent ; 5 per cent 
 coarse middlings instead of 14 per cent; 6 per cent 
 fine middlings instead of 16 per cent ; 72 per cent of 
 starch instead of the 44 per cent natural to the 
 wheat. 
 
 The natural, honest, "graham flour" sells at 
 $5.00 per barrel ; the imitation can be prepared from 
 by-products for less than $4.00 per barrel. 
 
 The dealer with an extra dollar profit in sight 
 would rather sell the imitation. Everybody is look- 
 ing for profit. So, quality and honesty suffer and 
 food is juggled. 
 
 The housewife will make her biscuits and cakes 
 and crackers from the whole wheat and she will 
 use that meal in making the creams and sauces with 
 which she dresses her intelligently cooked vegetables 
 using the water in which she cooks them. 
 
 The little flecks of brown and gold which the 
 honest wheat meal contains add unusual daintiness 
 of appearance to the sauce and the flavor of such 
 sauce can never be appreciated until it has been 
 tasted. 
 
 She will demand the natural brown rice even 
 though it requires a little longer time to cook it and 
 she will demand unpearled barley and unsoaked, un- 
 scoured, unsteamed, unbleached oatmeal. She will 
 
PROPER FOOD OR MEDICINE 97 
 
 demand the old-fashioned, southern stone-ground, 
 undegerminated com meal made from all of the 
 corn, and when she learns how to make her por- 
 ridges and her corn cake and her oaten cake and 
 when she sees around her happy, healthy, children 
 with sparkling eyes and well-rounded cheeks and 
 sturdy limbs, she will begin to believe that love is 
 indeed sometimes a matter of phosphorus and iron. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MEAT EATING INSUFFICIENT. 
 
 Some of you will think that we have omitted to 
 consider one large item of ordinary food, and the 
 meat eater will ask: "But do not I make up in my 
 steaks and chops for what the food industries take 
 from me, and thus is not my diet well balanced ?" 
 
 No, your meat does not balance your diet. If 
 you did as the meat-eating beast does, and ate the 
 blood and bones of the animal as the dog and tiger 
 and panther do, you would get all the elements of 
 life which tlie flesh and blood and bones contain, all 
 the phosphates and oxides, all the calcium and iron, 
 all the nitrates and sulphates ; but, when we kill our 
 meat-producing animals, we drain them of their 
 blood and throw away their bones, and thus with 
 the exception of nitrogen, potassium and phosphor- 
 us, we get little else in our flesh diet but the waste 
 products which at the moment of its death are being 
 developed in the animal's tissues. 
 
 It is easy to bring about in young dogs a condi- 
 tion resembling "rickets" in children by feeding 
 them on meat and fat alone. If we add pulverized 
 bone or calcium carbonate to their meat and fat, 
 the animals recover. Undue reliance on your beef 
 or lamb or pork or veal, while it may satisfy the 
 appetite, will not satisfy the body-needs. 
 
 We do not agree altogether with those who say 
 that there is no place whatsover for animal flesh in 
 the diet of any man. We know that there are times 
 
100 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 when a meat diet seems valuable provided the meat 
 is taken from a healthy animal and none of its ex- 
 tractive juices are removed in the cooking. 
 
 Yet we should remember that catarrh, rheuma- 
 tism and blood diseases can never be cured where 
 meat is consumed more than two or three times a 
 week and that these diseases are usually associated 
 with flesh-eaters. 
 
 For every pound of beef consumed by man, ten 
 pounds of corn are necessary to produce that pound 
 of beef. A pound of beef will support one man for 
 a given length of time, but the quantity of com nec- 
 essary to make that pound of beef would support 
 more than ten men for the same length of time. 
 
 When we eat the flesh of the animal we eat the 
 end-products of the animal's life processes, urea, 
 uric acid, etc. ; when we eat the grains and legumes, 
 the nitrogen supply is just as great, even greater, 
 and without the urea. 
 
 The meat eater who demands meat every day 
 should eat only such meat as was permitted by the 
 Mosaic law and slaughtered by an orthodox Jew 
 who believes in that law. So safeguarding his appe- 
 tite for flesh, he will eat less of the disease-producing 
 elements found in the animal's blood at the moment 
 of its death under commercial methods 
 
 In his animal chemistry Liebig cites the rest- 
 lessness and incessant movements of meat-eating 
 animals, lions, tigers, panthers, hyenas, wolves, and 
 observes that men who habitually eat meat manifest 
 similar irritability and lack of repose. 
 
 Prof. James Rollins Stonaker of Stanford Uni- 
 versity, put some rats in rotary cages containing 
 speedometers that registered the number of miles 
 traveled by each rat. Some were fed meat and others 
 only vegetable food. The meat-eating female rat ran 
 
MEAT EATING INSUFFICIENT 101 
 
 5,447 miles, while in the same time her vegetable- 
 eating sister ran 447. The meat-eating male rat ran 
 1,447 miles, while the vegetarian ran only 200 miles. 
 But this condition of high pressure in the vital pro- 
 cesses is functional excitement not true invigoration. 
 To be stimulated is not to be strengthened and re- 
 created. Look at the larger animals. The panther 
 paces wildly, while the elephant, camel and horse in 
 reposeful strength plod along unexcitedly and when 
 put to work endure as no other animal endures. 
 
 An editorial in one of the New York papers 
 commented with mild sarcasm on this rat incident as 
 follows : 
 
 "While we have not made such striking experi- 
 ments, we have noticed these facts ourselves in our 
 observation of the animal kingdom. Take the case 
 of the poor elephant. He does not taste meat in his 
 whole life, being reduced to such miserable fare as 
 shrubs, the tops of bushes and little trees, and other 
 such food lacking in nutrition. As a result the ele- 
 phant seldom attains a weight of more than 10,000 
 pounds, and the hardiest specimens do not often live 
 longer than 200 years. 
 
 "The rhinoceros, which also has a thin diet much 
 like the elephant's, is notably of poor physique. He 
 is perhaps not more than twenty times as heavy as 
 the meat-eating leopard. His brother the hippo- 
 potamus, which grubs around the edges of rivers, 
 is noted for his slim and delicate figure. There, too, 
 is the feeble camel which does not have meat on its 
 bill of fare. It is so lacking in endurance that it 
 cannot pass more than a couple of weeks in the 
 desert without water. No specimen of our Alaskan 
 moose weighing more than 2,500 pounds has yet 
 been found. 
 
102 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 "We might cite many other instances, but we 
 do not think that Professor Stonacker's theory needs 
 any more." 
 
 A word as to the digestion of meats, which begun 
 in the stomach is completed in the intestines. One- 
 fourth of all the blood in the human organism is 
 in the liver performing its works day and night. 
 One of the duties of the liver is to elaborate the 
 bile. Between two and three pounds of this fluid are 
 secreted by the liver every twenty-four hours. This 
 vital fluid aids in the absorption of fats and checks 
 putrid fermentation. It acts as a natural stimulant 
 of the intestinal mucous membrane. The biliary 
 acids are powerful antiseptics. When the bile, 
 through digestive disorders, passes into the stomach 
 it interferes with gastric digestion. When the or- 
 gans are in normal action it assists in preparing the 
 partially digested food that passes from the stomach 
 into the action of the intestinal juices, thereby fitting 
 it for assimilation into the living organism. 
 
 It excretes many of the poisonous decomposition 
 products from the body and if interfered with, these 
 decomposition products accumulate and by auto-in- 
 toxication sicken or kill. 
 
 Too much meat or too much nitrogenous food of 
 any kind, peas, beans, lentils, cheese, eggs, nuts, re- 
 quire the liver to produce a great quantity of bile 
 in order to work them out of the system. 
 
 Most people consume as much energy in getting 
 rid of worthless food as they do in a hard day's 
 labor. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WHAT WE SHOULD EAT — REAL FOOD. 
 
 Millions do not know the taste of meat and when 
 it is known that the vital salts, potassium and phos- 
 phorus with negligible traces of iron and calcium, 
 constitute the meagre contribution of meat to the 
 twelve indispensable salts which the body needs, 
 there is abundant reason for not overestimating the 
 value of meat. Many of the races of the world 
 scarcely ever eat meat. 
 
 The chief food of the Japanese consists of rice, 
 pulse, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, squashes, egg 
 plants, peas, beans, radishes, oranges, peaches, pears, 
 apricots, plums, persimmons, raspberries, bulberries, 
 currants and herbs which they dress in so many dif- 
 ferent ways. 
 
 Are not the Japanese robust, well made, active, 
 healthy, long lived, intelligent? Compare the mor- 
 tality records of their army with the records of the 
 Russians whom they defeated. 
 
 The Greeks eat black bread made of unbolted rye 
 or unbolted wheat meal. With a bunch of grapes, 
 a handful of raisins or figs, this diet keeps the Greek 
 laborers astonishingly athletic and powerful. 
 
 The Turks and the people of Malta eat black 
 bread and coarse macaroni supplemented with gar- 
 den stuff and Sicilian wine, goat's milk, cheese, fish, 
 raisins, ripe olives and other fruits, thistle broth, 
 boiled thistle stalks, dandelion and vegetables. 
 
104 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 The diet of the Chinese is practically without 
 meat. 
 
 The Russian laborers, millions of them, eat black 
 bread with a bunch of garlic, supplemented with 
 cabbages, mushrooms, vegetables and milk. Those 
 who can afford it have boiled millet pudding, goat's 
 cheese, onions, cake made of unbolted Indian com, 
 vegetable soup, "black broth" and weak tea. 
 
 The Norwegians eat rice, bread, milk, cheese, 
 hasty-pudding, porridge of oat meal or rice meal 
 seasoned with herrings or mackerel. 
 
 The Spanish peasant eats unpolished rice, brown 
 bread, grapes, raw onions and drinks light wine. 
 
 The French peasant eats dried beans and peas, 
 potatoes, boiled rice, milk, greens, pancake made of 
 wheat meal and eggs, salads, curded milk and little 
 wine or meat is consumed except during the time 
 of hay making and harvest. 
 
 The Swiss workman rarely tastes flesh. His 
 food is principally brown bread, cheese, potatoes, 
 vegetables and fruit with large quantities of milk. 
 
 The Scotch eat oatmeal, oatmeal cakes, potatoes, 
 milk, butter, bacon, but little other meat. 
 
 So let the American race possessing the largest 
 and most varied supply of food of any race on the 
 earth, take that food in its original nutritious state, 
 as furnished by the all-wise Creator. 
 
 Let us have unbolted wheat meal containing all 
 of the wheat, nothing added, nothing removed, and 
 natural brown rice, unbrushed, unscoured, unpol- 
 ished, containing all of the rice, nothing added, 
 nothing removed. 
 
 Let us have old-fashioned oat meal with the hull 
 removed by the old dry process, without steam or 
 steam heat. When the oat or any other grain is 
 steamed, some of the soluble mineral salts which it 
 
WHAT WE SHOULD EAT 105 
 
 contains are washed out and carried off. When the 
 steam condenses on the surface of the grain and 
 trickles off, it carries with it the vital elements which 
 it holds in solution. 
 
 Let us have unpearled barley, a beautiful golden 
 grain, containing all of the barley, nothing added, 
 nothing removed. 
 
 Let us have maize meal and corn meal unbolted, 
 ground from the undegerminated com. 
 
 Let us have wheat food or mixtures of wheat and 
 rice or wheat, rice and barley granulated to the same 
 degree in which we usually find the demineralized, 
 denatured, debased farine and similar so-called 
 "breakfast foods." 
 
 Let us have the barley loaves of Biblical tradi- 
 tion, the maize loaves of history and the wheaten 
 loaves, the rice cakes and the delicious oat cakes of 
 centuries ago. 
 
 Let us have wheat muffins of the whole wheat 
 meal, and date cakes and fig cakes and raisin and 
 prune cakes, the very names of which are no longer 
 known to the refined and exhausted dietary of 
 modern times. 
 
 What is true of over-indulgence in nitrogenous 
 food, flesh, peas, beans, lentils, eggs, cheese, nuts, is 
 also true of over-feeding on carbohydrates (sugars 
 and starches) . The importance of carbohydrates as 
 food stuff is secondary. They are totally unable 
 to take the place of nitrogenous foods. A definite 
 amount of these nitrogenous foods is necessary that 
 life may be maintained. Starch and sugar do not 
 replace nitrogen. White bread and potatoes are 
 principally starch. Candy is 95 per cent sugar of 
 glucose. White bread, potatoes and sugar are com- 
 mon types of the carbohydrates. 
 
106 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Potatoes should be alternated with other fresh 
 vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets 
 and a dish of steamed natural brown rice or un- 
 pearled barley should be frequently substituted for 
 them. With the potato let there always be some of 
 the green vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, 
 spinach, brussels sprouts, etc. 
 
 Like all the legumes and grains, the pea, bean 
 and lentil contain the mineral salts in different pro- 
 portions, one being rich in chlorine, another in phos- 
 phorus, another in calcium, etc. 
 
 The lima bean and navy bean and pea and lentil, 
 are like meat, rich in nitrogen, but with the mineral 
 salts that meat lacks. To cook them, soak them in 
 cold water over night for ten hours at least. Use 
 only such quantity of water as they will absorb. 
 Never throw the excess of water away. It contains 
 the tissue salts that are so valuable. The fireless 
 cooker affords an ideal method of cooking them and 
 they should remain under the action of heat for 
 eight or ten hours. 
 
 Beans, peas and lentils contain an average of 
 about twenty-five per cent of proteins, nearly two 
 per cent of fat and about fifty per cent of carbohy- 
 drates, sugar and starch. They are rich in potas- 
 sium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesipm and contain 
 traces of iron, sulphur, silica, chlorine and sodium. 
 Of the total mineral content of these three legumes 
 more than one-third is phosphorus and more than 
 one-third potassium. As a base for the principal 
 meals of the day or as an addition in small quantities 
 to the lesser meals, the legumes are valuable, but 
 should not make up more than one-fifth of the total 
 quantity of food consumed. 
 
 Lentils are nearly three times as rich as peas 
 and beans in chlorine and about ten times as rich 
 
WHAT WE SHOULD EAT 107 
 
 in sodium, but they contain only about one-fourth 
 the quantity of magnesium. They possess four times 
 as much iron as peas and beans, although only 
 traces of sulphur and silica are to be found among 
 them, whereas in peas and beans the sulphur is 
 considerable and the silica quite noticeable. In 
 phosphorus content all three are practically the 
 same. 
 
 Peas and beans contain a large quantity of potas- 
 sium. By having lentils one day, peas the second 
 day and beans the third day, we vary the meals so 
 as to get just what we need in right proportions. 
 Combinations of these legumes can be made flavored 
 with the juice of onions, spinach, cabbage, turnips, 
 parsnips, parsley, celery, etc. 
 
 Of the cereals, the oat is the richest in minerals, 
 barley next and wheat third, closely followed by rye, 
 corn and rice. This means the whole grain. In 
 processing, polishing, pearling, bolting, etc., the 
 grains lose more than 75 per cent of their min- 
 eral value. Like beans, peas and lentils, the various 
 cereals differ widely in potassium, phosphorus, iron, 
 calcium, etc. 
 
 More than half of the mineral content of natural 
 brown rice is phosphorus and nearly half of all the 
 other cereals with the exception of oats is phos- 
 phorus, the latter containing but about one-fourth 
 of this element. Whole wheat meal, natural brown 
 rice and undegerminated corn are rich in potassium, 
 and all about equal in iron. 
 
 Barley contains lime, calcium and only a trace of 
 chlorine. The breakfast foods made of the whole 
 grains should also be varied so as to balance their 
 mineral gifts. 
 
 Among vegetables, spinach is the richest in min- 
 eral matter, with cabbage, horse radish, potatoes 
 
108 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 and lettuce following close behind. After that we 
 find carrots, radishes, onions, cauliflower, cucuni- 
 bers, asparagus, etc. The green vegetables are very 
 low in protein and starch with the exception of po- 
 tatoes; for this reason they should always accom- 
 pany the legumes and cereals. Their chief advan- 
 tage apart from their mineral value is in the neces- 
 sary bulk they afford to the food. Bulk is required 
 in order to stimulate peristaltic action and to prop- 
 erly distribute the digested elements so that the pro- 
 cesses of assimilation may be carried on gently and 
 continuously. 
 
 In cooking the green vegetables, the water in 
 which they are cooked should never be thrown away. 
 With the addition of whole wheat meal and butter a 
 most delicious sauce can be prepared. By saving 
 this sauce for the needs of the body instead of for the 
 waste pipe of the sink, we prevent anemia or mineral 
 starvation. This liquor also makes delicious soup. 
 
 Of the fruits, the dried fig is the richest in min- 
 eral matter containing about three times as much of 
 the organic salts as any of the other fruits. Next 
 to the fig in mineral value is the blueberry and after 
 that in close order the strawberry, prune, cherry, 
 apple, peach, gooseberry, grape, etc. 
 
 TTie potassium content of all fruits, with the ex- 
 ception of strawberries, is high. Figs, strawberries 
 and apples are rich in sodium. The other fruits with 
 the exception of the gooseberry, prune and peach 
 contain little of this element. The apple contains 
 little calcium; all the other fruits contain a large 
 quantity of this element. In magnesium there is lit- 
 tle difference in the fruits, the fig being richest. The 
 strawberry, gooseberry and prune contain most iron, 
 the strawberry, however, being twice as rich in iron 
 as the prune. 
 
WHAT WE SHOULD EAT 109 
 
 In phosphorus content all the fruits are about the 
 same with the exception of the fig, which contains 
 but a trace of this necessary element. In sulphur 
 there is little difference, it making about one-eighth 
 of the total mineral content of the fruits. The 
 strawberry is very rich in silica. Next to it, a close 
 second, is the cherry. The other fruits contain a 
 small quantity of this element. Those who object to 
 whole wheat bread because of its silica content 
 should not eat strawberries. The chlorine value of 
 fruits is low. 
 
 Nuts are extremely rich in minerals, particularly 
 Tn phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium. 
 The cocoanut contains about six times the quantity 
 of chlorine found in any other nut. The chestnut is 
 very starchy but contains little fat. The other nuts 
 are rich in protein and fat, but contain little starch. 
 The cocoanut is also deficient in protein, whereas the 
 other nuts contain a high protein content. 
 
 The egg is rich in sodium, calcium, iron, phos- 
 phorus and chlorine. It contains nearly twice the 
 quantity of mineral matter in cow's milk. 
 
 A man weighing one hundred and sixty pounds, 
 possesses in his body about forty-five pounds of car- 
 bon, fifteen pounds of hydrogen, ninety pounds of 
 oxygen, three and a half pounds of calcium, one and 
 a half pounds of phosphorus, one and a half pounds 
 of chlorine, three and a half ounces of sulphur, three 
 and a half ounces of fluorine, three ounces of potas- 
 sium, two and a half ounces of sodium, two ounces 
 of magnesium, one and a half ounces of iron, one 
 ounce of silica and one half ounce of manganese. If 
 we do not consume sufficient organic phosphorus, 
 potassium, silica, magnesium, iron, sodium, etc., in 
 our food our body draws upon itself to its own de- 
 struction for these necessary elements. 
 
110 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Children must be taught this fundamental truth 
 in order that as they come to maturity they may see 
 the necessity for obeying the laws of life in regard to 
 their food. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 CANDY, ICE CEEAM AND OTHER FOODS. 
 
 In considering molasses, let it be understood with 
 a shudder that as now manufactured this popular 
 sweet is enfeebling the stamina of the race. Its 
 curse rests heavily on the head of the child because 
 it is usually consumed with another cursed product, 
 bread. 
 
 We must realize that starch, gum, gelatine, glue, 
 mucilage, dextrines and sugars, serve as sources of 
 energy and fat but are not building materials for the 
 tissues of the body. 
 
 When starch, sugar, glucose or molasses are not 
 properly combined in the body or are not fully ox- 
 idized to carbonic acid and water, as the tissues are 
 broken down, they are excreted in the urine, thereby 
 manifesting in the system, "diabetes mellitus." 
 
 Cane sugar acts like an acid, corrosively, upon 
 iron and steel. It also acts upon lead, taking this 
 metal into solution. Confectioners recognize this 
 activity of sugar to such an extent that they employ 
 copper and tin-plate kettles. 
 
 Containers and faucets containing lead produce 
 poison where sugar or molasses comes in contact 
 with them. Foil containing lead, used as a wrapper 
 by candy makers, also produces poison. 
 
 Like the juice of the maple, the juice of the cane 
 contains iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, 
 silica, etc. The affinity of sugar for lime is shown 
 
112 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 in the mineral content of the juice, of which nearly 
 one-fifth is calcium oxide. 
 
 We thus see how with any "refined" sugar from 
 which the lime and other minerals are driven out 
 the sugar takes on an insatiable hunger for lime, 
 iron, etc. We are thus able to understand how such 
 demineralized sugar attacks the lime and iron of the 
 tissues which in turn attack the lime and iron of 
 the blood, thereby robbing the body of these indis- 
 pensible substances and preparing it for the invasion 
 of disease. 
 
 Raw brown sugar and honest molasses free from 
 sulphuric acid and sulphurous acid would be a bless- 
 ing, not a curse, because they would give to the body 
 the tissue salts which they possess and thereby save 
 the body from the destructive action of the "refined" 
 product. 
 
 Molasses as now prepared has an ugly history, 
 which grows out of our national worship of com- 
 mercial gods. In the old days the juice of the cane 
 was clarified and evaporated in open kettles set di- 
 rectly over the fire. To-day it is clarified by the 
 use of sulphurous acid which is subsequently 
 neutralized by an alkali. In the process the flavor 
 and aroma are greatly destroyed by the sulphurous 
 taste and odor which remains in the product to in- 
 juriously affect the health of the unsuspecting con- 
 sumer. 
 
 In some sugar factories the sulphurous acid is 
 introduced as gas; in others it is introduced in the 
 form of solid acid sulphite of lime. Part of this 
 sulphurous acid is oxidized to sulphuric acid. The 
 ordinary molasses possesses little of the flavor of the 
 old-fashioned open kettle syrup. Instead of the 
 old product, we now have "Refined Molasses." One 
 method of refinement consists in suspending in 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 113 
 
 water acid sulphite of sodium which is brought into 
 contact with zinc dust. 
 
 The solution that results from this process is 
 then mixed with the crude molasses. 
 
 Molasses is thus bleached or refined and the 
 aroma and flavor which do not escape in the efferve- 
 scence which follows the mixing, are bound up under 
 the effects of free sulphurous acid. 
 
 Sometimes oxalic acid is employed. There is 
 always danger that the resulting "refined molasses" 
 may contain poisonous zinc salts or poisonous oxalic 
 acid salts. 
 
 Other methods of bleaching molasses are pro- 
 duced by the action of chloride of tin. 
 
 The free sulphurous acid of so-called New Or- 
 leans Molasses is liberated when brought into 
 contact with the hydro-chloric acid of the gastric 
 juice. This would be tolerable under a pagan code 
 of morals that gave no value to child-life where the 
 prosperity of great industries was concerned. 
 
 Of 18 samples of molasses examined by the 
 Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in 1912, 14 
 were found to contain the poisonous metal zinc which 
 probably was introduced into the molasses in the 
 form of a zinc chloride used as a flux for soldering 
 the tin cans in which the molasses was sold. 
 
 Of 20 samples analyzed, 18 contained the poison- 
 ous salts of tin. All molasses is rich in soluble and 
 insoluble mineral salts, but the vicious contamination 
 with sulphuric acid and sulphurous acid together 
 with traces of zinc and tin makes the modern com- 
 mercial production of this splendid food product a 
 shameless and unspeakable crime which is justifled 
 only on the ground that the national health is of less 
 importance than the national wealth. 
 
U4 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Mention is made on the label of the molasses in 
 tin cans that it contains sulphur dioxide. However, 
 this does not take the curse oi^ the molasses, the 
 molasses taffy, the molasses ginger bread or cookies 
 containing it. 
 
 We have gone so far astray under the direction 
 of commercial chemistry that nothing but complete 
 revolt will check the evil. 
 
 Not even revolt will bring back to the heart of 
 little Helen's mother the sunshine that has gone for 
 her into the shadows forever. In the meantime the 
 extra profit of a penny per quart consoles the con- 
 science of the molasses-maker. 
 
 When a State like New York provides for its 
 Department of Agriculture only $10,000 a year with 
 which to enforce the Pure Food Law and permits its 
 legislators to distribute hundreds of thousands as 
 additional salary grabs for political henchmen, it 
 would seem to be time for an accounting to the 
 families doped with food frauds. 
 
 New food laws are needed. Funds are needed for 
 their enforcement. Capable chemists and fearless 
 inspectors are needed. A commission, free from com- 
 mercial taint, for the purpose of establishing food 
 standards is needed. An official authority to deter- 
 mine the harmfulness of certain elements now em- 
 ployed by food industries, and an official power to 
 condemn such elements are needed. 
 
 Candy makers in New York State who use shellac 
 in the manufacture of their products, as well as talc 
 and sodium sulphite, can defy the department at 
 Albany to molest them. Under the law as it stands, 
 the candy maker is safe from prosecution. 
 
 The cheap candy factory can be classed as an 
 enemy of the public school's efficiency. By its vin- 
 natural appeal to childhood's most easily misdirected 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 115 
 
 impulse it imposes a heavy handicap upon the work 
 of teaching. 
 
 The gravity of this handicap can be measured 
 by the public's distorted sense of values in estimating 
 the worthiness of this or that foodstuff. Many of 
 the worthless food compounds that enjoy the ques- 
 tionable honor of "popularity" among children, 
 enjoy a deplorably enormous sale. 
 
 One stumbles into cheap candy factories and 
 cheap confectionery stores almost as often as he 
 passes a saloon or soda water fountain. The cheap 
 candy factory helps to keep alive the methods of 
 trickery common to the 15th century when the 
 Spaniards greedily bartered gaudily colored caps, 
 brilliantly tinted glass beads, fantastic hawk's bells 
 and other painted trifles for great quantities of cot- 
 ton yam, cassava and small ornaments of gold. 
 
 European avarice soon learned that with such 
 colored appeals it could trade successfully for any- 
 thing the native possessed. It is the survival of 
 this method of color appeal which has developed the 
 trade of the cheap candy factory with the modem 
 American child to such an alarming magnitude. 
 Everywhere the child is confronted with artificially 
 colored sweetmeats. It is taught in its most impres- 
 sionable years that the greatest appeal is to the eye 
 and it soon forms the pernicious habit of judging 
 from the surface instead of from the substance. 
 Everywhere we hear white-haired wisdom saying: 
 "The American public loves to be fooled." 
 
 The maker of penny candies has discovered that 
 from the same batch of glucose, often sweetened 
 with saccharin, he can produce sixty varieties of 
 colored candy with the aid of permissable coal tar 
 dyes, to catch the fancy of the passing child. 
 
116 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Even when such candies contain nothing less 
 wholesome than glucose or nothing more dangerous 
 than saccharin the added color appeal leads its 
 youthful victim into the vicious excesses against 
 which every family physician so repeatedly cautions 
 in vain. 
 
 The law which protects child life from many 
 other dangers because of some picturesque touch of 
 horror does not consider that this more subtle and 
 consequently less perceived danger falls within its 
 power. No one in sound mind denies the physical 
 menace of the bad, cheap candies containing paraffin, 
 carpenter's glue, sulphites, soap-stone, shellac, 
 radiator lacquer and coal-tar dyes. 
 
 The most innocent of such ingredients is said to 
 be soap-stone, sometimes known as talc, although 
 anyone who has seen the keen, splinter-like spicules 
 of talc under the microscope must know that they 
 have no wholesome function to perform when they 
 become imbedded in the delicate mucous membrane 
 of the child's intestinal tract. 
 
 Our purpose is not so much to denounce such 
 dangerous candy ag to emphasize the influence of 
 so-called "innocent" candy in perverting the child's 
 processes of judgment and to denounce the unfeel- 
 ing industry which lives and prospers through its 
 unchallenged system of exploiting the untrained and 
 too often unrestrained appetities of boyhood and 
 girlhood. 
 
 In the growing years, the penny candy is often 
 a substitute for nutritious food, too often impairing 
 and destroying the taste for such food. 
 
 How many young men of feeble digestion and 
 how many anaemic young women can attribute their 
 physical infirmities to a long continued disregard of 
 the fundamental laws of nutrition brought about 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 117 
 
 through artificially cultivated taste and warped 
 judgment? 
 
 The candy factory with its penny product helps 
 to initiate the great vice of food inebriety. 
 
 To disorder the senses from early childhood is 
 not a fitting preparation for useful manhood or 
 womanhood. Penny candy has much to answer for. 
 
 Glucose at $2.00 per hundred pounds, with the 
 aid of coal-tar dyes, becomes candy worth from 
 $20.00 to $60.00 per hundred pounds. At the time 
 of this writing glucose bleached with sulphurous 
 acid, or unbleached, is worth $1.31 per hundred 
 weight. 
 
 Is it upon the unrestricted freedom of such profit- 
 making trade that we build the soundness of Amer- 
 ican youth? Can it be said that candy of this 
 description contributes in any manner to the welfare 
 of the child? 
 
 It is time, indeed, that the mothers of America 
 should formulate laws of their own designed to dis- 
 courage the tremendous consumption of debased 
 sweets among their children. 
 
 Pineapple, strawberry, raspberry, banana, peach, 
 cherry, plum flavorings for candy, pop and soda 
 water are false. No chemist, prior to the year 1912, 
 has ever succeeded in putting on the market a pure 
 fruit extract made of these flavors. No such flavors 
 have ever appeared on the market. Science has not 
 been able to devise a means of capturing the volatile 
 flavors of such fruits. The whole scheme is false, 
 deceptive, misleading. 
 
 So-called extract of pineapple used by the candy 
 maker and soda fountain is a mixture of chloroform, 
 amyl oxide of butyric, aldehyde, butyric ether, citric 
 acid, oil of lemon, glycerin and alcohol. This mix- 
 ture whose destiny is the human stomach is sold 
 
118 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 under the Pure Food and Drugs Act in the most 
 dignified and thoroughly legal manner. 
 
 The invalid who eats a dish of gelatine or the 
 child that drinks a glass of soda water flavored with 
 these chemical triumphs looks into a very appetizing 
 and apparently very innocent delicacy. 
 
 Strawberry extract is made of nitric ether, acetic 
 ether, formic ether, butyric ether, amyl oxide of 
 butyric, ground rhatany root and some essential oils 
 and alcohol, a legal compound for the child's soft 
 drink, for the icing of the fancy cake and for the 
 beautifully colored ice cream. There are a few com- 
 mercial industries engaged in the manufacture of 
 candy, ice cream, soda water, cake, etc., who class- 
 ify these drugs according to character and will have 
 none of them. Up-to-date, the number is few. 
 
 Raspberry extract is another fascinating cre- 
 ation. It is made of nitric ether, aldehyde, acetic 
 ether, formic ether, oenanthic ether, benzoic ether, 
 etc. Raspberry is popular with the child in sweet 
 meats, sweet drinks, sweet cakes and ice cream. 
 Perhaps some of the derelicts, who dope themselves 
 in later years with morphine, cocaine and similar 
 consoling agents have cultivated their abnormal ap- 
 petites in their childhood from some of these foreign 
 substances which they have been able to secure so 
 easily. 
 
 Banana extract, cherry extract, plum extract, 
 peach extract, extract of apple and extract of pear 
 are made in the same way with the addition of valer- 
 ianate ether, valerianate oxide of amyl and acetic 
 oxide of amyl. Is it not remarkable that a form of 
 government so delicately paternal in its functions 
 as to define poisons and prohibit their sales and use, 
 should limit its interest to certain chemicals whose 
 actions are sudden and radical? Poisons are poisons 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 119 
 
 whether they kill in a night or in a thousand nights. 
 The least dangerous poison is the hurry-up kind 
 marked with skull and cross-bones. Such a poison 
 warns us and we can keep away frpm it. 
 
 The most dangerous poisons are the subtler and 
 the slower poisons which in time, undermine the 
 health and by lowering the vitality permit the in- 
 vasion of disease. Disease constantly waits for the 
 bars of resistance to be dropped in order that it 
 may pounce upon the human body and destroy it. 
 
 The government exercises its functions with re- 
 gard to carbolic acid, strychnine, cocaine, opium, etc., 
 because they are speedy in their action, but cer- 
 tainly the speed of their destructive powers should 
 not determine their use or their sale. 
 
 Judge Landis at Freeport, 111., tried a case of 
 interstate shipment of misbranded goods. The 
 offense had occurred more than a year before and 
 the Judge being "satisfied" that the violation of the 
 law was "not deliberate," imposed a "nominal" fine 
 of "one cent." 
 
 The Solicitor of the Department of Agriculture 
 can possibly tell us why the United States Govern- 
 ment, which controls the sale of chloroform and 
 ether, does not control the sale of flavoring extracts 
 made of chloroform and ether. 
 
 Perhaps the best legislators and the best public 
 officials are men who are more interested in human- 
 ity than in political success. In the meantme the 
 question is: "Are we going to do anything about 
 
 it?" 
 
 The Commissioner at Albany and his New York 
 assistants have accomplished wonderful results, with 
 their limited means, in prosecuting butter frauds 
 and olive oil adulterations. But rotten eggs, dirty 
 milk, villainous compounds that masquerade as jams 
 
120 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 and jellies and catsups and fruit syrups, adulterated 
 spices, coffee coated with lead chromoate and Vene- 
 tian red, cream thickened with calcium sucrate, 
 oysters and fish preserved with borax, baker's cakes 
 colored with "egg color," a coal-tar dye; chocolate 
 icing colored with another aniline preparation, egg 
 puffs made with gelatine and saponin, old canned 
 goods relabeled on the outside and tainted with the 
 irritant salts of tin on the inside, synthetic flavoring 
 extracts, pickles and mince meat and chow-chow pre- 
 served with alum and many other vicious practices 
 still flourish because, as a State, New York has not 
 opened its eyes to the danger. 
 
 We cannot inform our readers why the Stilwell 
 pure food bill of 1911 was "buried in committee" 
 because we do not know. That question remains 
 for the Food and Drugs Commission, appointed by 
 Governor Dix, to answer. In due time we may know 
 who among New York State's representatives at 
 Albany are representing the people and who are 
 representing the food corrupters. In the meantime 
 we know that one official in a high place openly de- 
 fended benzoate of soda because when he eats catsup 
 preserved with that drug he finds that "gases which 
 have collected in his stomach are released." This 
 proves to him, as he declares, that benzoate is harm- 
 less, and "in conscience he must spread the truth 
 for the benefit of others similarly afflicted!" 
 
 Ice cream has been the subject of some serious 
 prosecutions by the Government. To interfere with 
 the adulterators the bad ice cream has had to be 
 caught on its way from one State into another. The 
 products so shipped on which prosecution was based 
 were declared to have "consisted in whole or in part 
 of a filthy decomposed and putrid animal substance 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 121 
 
 which renders the articles unfit for food." The 
 Government proved in these cases that as many as 
 500,000,000 bacteria were found in a cubic centi- 
 meter, approximately a half teaspoonful of the ice 
 cream. The bacteria consisted largely of colon bacilli, 
 which abound in human and animal refuse. The 
 evidence showed that the ice cream was manufac- 
 tured in low, poorly ventilated rooms, that in some 
 places the workmen worked in slimy water, and 
 that at one plant horses were stabled on the same 
 floor on which the ingredients for the ice cream 
 were mixed. The formula for the seized ice cream 
 called for a chemically treated product of renovated 
 butter, skimmed and condensed milk, desiccated or 
 broken and frozen eggs, cornstarch, gelatine, syn- 
 thetic flavorings and coloring matter. 
 
 The St. Louis, Cincinnati and Chicago seizures 
 were particularly filthy, and in their making a ma- 
 chine known as a "homogenizer" was( employed. 
 This machine extracts the fat from rancid butter 
 and mixes the material from which the ice cream is 
 made. With the aid of gelatine such a machine 
 will produce a "fluffy" product. There are about 
 sixty commercial formulas used in New York by 
 ice cream makers. The Government cannot touch 
 them. Their adulterations fall under the control 
 of the State Department of Agriculture and the 
 Health Department. The State does not profess to 
 be able to meet the situation and the health authori- 
 ties are busy with other things. 
 
 The extensive use of ice cream by children makes 
 regulation of this product as imperative as the 
 regulation of the milk supply. There is no better 
 culture medium than milk and gelatine for the devel- 
 opment of pathogenic bacteria, and the importance 
 
122 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 of crusading against low grade ice cream is a sum- 
 mer issue. Much of the bowel trouble reported by 
 the local Health Department among children under 
 five years of age may have its origin in infected 
 frozen dainties. There should be no speculation 
 about this matter. What the city demands is safety 
 and certainty. 
 
 Dr. Wiley has established standards for ice 
 cream. To what extent are these standards followed 
 in New York City, where, as far as Dr. Wiley is 
 concerned, it is not necessary to follow any stand- 
 ards? Who is safeguarding New York's ice cream 
 supply? 
 
 If you suppose that sodium benzoate and sodium 
 sulphite have no effect on digestion, you can per- 
 form a simple experiment at home that will change 
 your attitude toward the question of food preserv- 
 atives. 
 
 Sodium benzoate needs no description. Its his- 
 tory has been written in the most shameless phrases 
 ever coined by political and commercial corruption. 
 Few, however, know what it is and how it acts as 
 a preservative of food products. It is prepared by 
 the action of benzoic acid on the metal sodium which 
 yields salt, pure white in color and slightly acrid 
 to the taste. 
 
 Sodium sulphite, not so well known and usually 
 employed by the butcher under the name of "pre- 
 servaline," is prepared by the action of sulphurous 
 acid on the metal sodium. The resultant salt re- 
 sembles the benzoate salt in color, but has a 
 nauseating taste, and, when placed upon the tongue, 
 produces a strangling sensation in the throat. 
 
 Grind one pound of lean beef in a meat chopper. 
 Divide it into three equal parts. Mix with each part 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 123 
 
 about 20 per cent of finely chopped pineapple. The 
 juice of the pineapple is a solvent of flesh and in 
 the quantity mentioned will perfectly digest beef 
 at ordinary atmospheric temperature. Place each 
 of the three parts of chopped beef and pineapple in 
 three separate vessels. Mark No. 1 as the "control" 
 mixture. Set it aside. 
 
 Into mixture No. 2 carefully distribute one-half 
 of 1 per cent sodium benzoate. Set it aside. 
 
 To mixture No. 3 add in the same intimate man- 
 ner one-half of one per cent sodium sulphite. Set 
 it aside. 
 
 At the end of twenty-four hours the beef in vessel 
 No. 1, containing no preservative, will be mottled 
 brown and gray in color and perfectly digested. The 
 living enzymes of digestion have done their work. 
 In fact, only a pulp will remain. This pulp, digested 
 with pineapple juice, is the predigested meat pre- 
 pared for the physician's prescription. 
 
 The beef in vessel No. 2 will be salmon pink in 
 color. The sodium benzoate has arrested the action 
 of the pineapple juice. It is an enemy of digestion. 
 It suspends the laws of nature. It kills the digestive 
 enzymes. It keeps the tomb sweet. The Egyptians 
 knew this. Their mummies were preserved with 
 benzoic acid. 
 
 The beef in vessel No. 3 will be a brilliant red, 
 such as you see in the window of a butcher shop, 
 where a platter of hamburger steak or a string of 
 frankfurters is displayed. Like the benzoate it has 
 prevented digestion. Outside the stomach these 
 drugs, in such common use, have an inhibiting effect 
 on digestion. What is their conduct inside? Why 
 are they used? Why are so many of the people ap- 
 parently so indifferent to their action? 
 
124 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 What is the remedy? Politics? No. Chicanery 
 and abuse of a devoted public servant? No. En- 
 forcement of the law and prison for the offender? 
 Yes. 
 
 The custom of "sweating" coffee to give it the 
 appearance of green coffee properly aged is ques- 
 tionable. Green coffee improves with age before it 
 is subjected to the roasting process, on which it de- 
 pends largely for its agreeable flavor and aroma. It 
 is probably true tnat there is nothing in the practice 
 of this coffee trick which might be considered 
 deleterious. 
 
 But to give inferior grades of coffee a coating 
 of lead chromate is only to deceive the trade into 
 mistaking a poor quality of coffee for a superior 
 one. The practice of painting coffee with Venetian 
 red is a pernicious sham which should be punished 
 by law. 
 
 Oil of cinnamon, oil of cloves, oil of mustard, oil 
 of cassia, etc., are extensively employed in the arts. 
 Spices are robbed of their fixed and volatile oils to 
 supply this demand. As a result low grade and 
 exhausted spice, little better than so much wood 
 fibre, is sold to the people. In addition to these 
 spice frauds, "tailing" and "siftings," dirt and waste, 
 are mixed with pepper, cinnamon, cloves, etc., and 
 the public is duped with misleading labels and so- 
 called cheap packages that are practically worthless. 
 The dull gray substance often sold ag white pepper 
 is a bleached product worth about one-fourth the 
 price paid for it. True white pepper is creamy 
 white. It is rare. 
 
 Olives known to the trade as "culls" and "sec- 
 onds" are packed in the same bottle with prime 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 125 
 
 fruit, and the bargain finds its way sometimes to 
 the discriminating table. 
 
 There is no such thing as "full cream cheese." 
 The best types of cheese sold as cream cheese are 
 made of whole milk artificially colored with coal-tar 
 dye. It is said that people will not eat white cheese, 
 the natural product. Skim milk cheese is the rule. 
 It has been robbed of its valuable butter fats and 
 is not so nutritious or digestible or palatable as 
 whole milk cheese, but it is largely manufactured as 
 a substitute for the honest product. Lard is used as 
 a filler, and barium sulphate, a heavy mineral, is 
 employed to give weight. 
 
 Caramels are manufactured from the "swells" 
 of the condensed milk industry. These "swells" are 
 spoiled by the generation of gas-producing bacteria. 
 They are as unfit for food as the tomato pulp, so 
 largely employed in the making of tomato soup, 
 catsup and chili sauce by the unscrupulous manu- 
 facturer. The heat to which these bacteria are sub- 
 jected in the caramel-making kills the bacteria but 
 has no effect on the end-products of the bacteria. 
 Those end-products have no good part to play in 
 the body of a living child. 
 
 In certain quarters there has been bitter criticism 
 of those who expose the secrets of the food industry. 
 Such secrets ought not to exist. They have become 
 part of the permanent records of the Department of 
 Agriculture and have found their way into prac- 
 tically all of the annual reports of the various State 
 chemists. That they have not had larger publicity is 
 due to the fact that the "Notices of Judgment" do 
 not usually find their way into newspaper offices. 
 
 The attack on Dr. Wiley has stimulated interest 
 in the crimes of the food world, and in many quarters 
 
126 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 the overzealous food fakers are now looked upon as 
 commercial suicides who by their own folly have 
 hastened the end of their criminal practices. 
 
 Special Agent Harry P. Cassidy, of the Penn- 
 sylvania State Dairy and Food Department, in the 
 month of Augus't, 1910, began action against a 
 wholesale confectioner of Philadelphia charging him 
 with selling candy containing sulphur dioxide or 
 sulphurous acid. Samples of the wholesaler's candy 
 relishes and other penny specialties had been an- 
 alyzed by Professor Charles H. LaWall, Chemist for 
 the State Dairy and Food Commission, and were 
 found to contain sulphurous acid. 
 
 It must be remembered that all New Orleans 
 molasses contains sulphurous acid and it is impos- 
 sible to make candy free from sulphurous acid from 
 such molasses. 
 
 The case against the wholesaler had hardly got 
 started when the National Candy Manufacturers' 
 Association, represented in almost every large city 
 throughout the United States, obtained a temporary 
 injunction in the United States District Court, re- 
 straining Cassidy from going ahead with the prose- 
 cution. After two months, the court, refusing a 
 permanent injunction, dissolved its prior order. 
 
 Cassidy then brought the candy manufacturer to 
 trial in Common Pleas Court where the jury brought 
 in a verdict of guilty. Judge Martin then upset the 
 verdict and the case was started on its way to the 
 higher courts. Cassidy was being hampered in every 
 way by legal technicalities and delays in establish- 
 ing the right of the State of Pennsylvania to prohibit 
 the sale of poisoned candy, but he did not falter. 
 
 Finally Judge Henderson of the Superior Court, 
 declaring that "no one has a natural or a constitu- 
 
CANDY, ICE CREAM, ETC. 127 
 
 tional right to put poison in confectionery or other 
 foods" imposed a sentence of guilty which was im- 
 mediately appealed. 
 
 The case was then taken to the Supreme Court 
 and in a decision rendered in April, 1912, after al- 
 most two years of fighting against the spirit of 
 darkness, the highest court in the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania upheld the opinion of the Superior Court 
 striking a blow at Pennsylvania candy manufac- 
 turers who use sulphurous acid or any other poison 
 in their products. 
 
 Unscrupulous candy manufacturers in the State 
 of Pennsylvania cannot now take refuge behind the 
 contention that a law which safeguards the health 
 of the public is unconstitutional when it trespasses 
 against property rights or interferes with business. 
 
 Something happens every day to make people 
 realize the gravity of the odds under which they 
 live, but they continue to go along as before, unmind- 
 ful of the evil things around them which by their 
 united and intelligent action they can destroy. 
 
 But in the meantime charges were brought 
 against Cassidy and he was dismissed from the serv- 
 ice of the state. The governor of Pennsylvania was 
 brought into the case, gave Cassidy the hearing de- 
 manded, was forced to vindicate him, just as Dr. 
 Wiley was vindicated, but Cassidy was not restored 
 to office. 
 
 Both Wiley and Cassidy are "out" and now in 
 Pennsylvania, having learned the lesson, no of- 
 ficial will dare go after the big cases. Look for loose 
 enforcement of the law in Pennsylvania. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A RAID ON IMPURE FOODS. 
 
 In the city of Worcester, Mass., on the evening 
 of March 21, 1912, there was a Domestic Science and 
 Pure Food Exposition in Mechanic's Hall, conducted 
 by Retail Grocers' and Provision Dealers' Associa- 
 tion and the Worcester Women's Club with a mem- 
 bership of six hundred. 
 
 There were forty-six exhibits, many of them 
 giving samples to the visitors, and a laboratory in 
 charge of Lewis B. Allyn, Professor of Chemistry 
 and Physics in the Massachusetts State Normal 
 School. 
 
 Three of the young lady students of the West- 
 field School were demonstrating to the housewives 
 methods by which adulteration can be detected in 
 food products. 
 
 Downstairs in Washburn Hall a lecture was given 
 by the writer, telling something of the crimes record- 
 ed in this volume. But the audience listened quietly. 
 They do not believe that such things are going on 
 in Worcester. 
 
 Little impression was made upon the citizens of 
 Worcester. But the next morning, March 22nd, two 
 men planned an excursion through the drug stores, 
 bake shops and grocery shops of the city. 
 
 Easter confectionery is purchased consisting of 
 candy eggs, licorice pellets, "baked beans," Easter 
 rabbits, Easter chicks, candy marbles, chocolate 
 creams, fourteen different varieties of sweet meats. 
 
130 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Strawberry soda water, orangeade, lime juice and 
 Sauterne wine are purchased. 
 
 Next, chili sauce, sour pickleg, canned mush- 
 rooms, dried apples, dried apricots, onion salad, 
 lemon pie, mince pie, raspberry turnovers, egg puffs, 
 orange cake, lemon extract, vanilla extract, prepared 
 mustard, brussels sprouts, maraschino cherries are 
 added to the list. 
 
 Cough syrups, consumption cures, seven different 
 soothing syrups and teething syrups, kidney pills, 
 headache cures are bought. They are all taken to 
 the laboratory and analyzed. 
 
 The Easter eggs are made of stearic acid, car- 
 penter's glue, glucose, coal-tar dye and soap-stone. 
 
 The licorice pellets are made of lamp black, car- 
 penter's glue and glucose. 
 
 The "baked beans" are coated with shellac. 
 
 The Easter rabbits and marshmallows are made 
 of carpenter's glue, glucose, coal-tar dyes and 
 ethereal flavors. 
 
 The Easter chicks are made of carpenter's glue, 
 glucose, coal-tar dyes and ethereal flavorings. 
 
 The candy marbles are made of coal-tar dye, glu- 
 cose, ethereal flavoring and soap stone. 
 
 One-half of one of the little yellow chicks pur- 
 chased for a penny gives up enough carpenter's glue 
 to bind two boards five inches wide and nine inches 
 long together. 
 
 The lime juice contains sulphurous acid. 
 
 The, canned mushrooms contain sulphurous acid. 
 
 The dried apples and dried apricots contain sul- 
 phurous acid. 
 
 The Sauterne wine contains sulphurous acid. 
 
 The strawberry soda water contains coal-tar dye, 
 benzoate of soda and ethereal flavor. 
 
 The orangeade contains coal-tar dye. 
 
A RAID ON IMPURE FOODS 131 
 
 One of the thirst quenchers contains caffeine. 
 
 The onion salad contains one-tenth of one per 
 cent benzoate of soda, two-tenths of one per cent 
 aluminum sulphate and one-tenth of one per cent 
 saccharin. Food drugs get lonely sometimes and 
 travel in battalions. 
 
 The maraschino cherries are bleached with sul- 
 phurous acid, dyed with analine and preserved with 
 benezoate of soda. 
 
 The sour pickles contain aluminum sulphate. 
 
 The lemon pie contains glycerine, glucose, oil of 
 lemon, starch, coal-tar dye and benzoate of soda. 
 The pie filler from which it is made came to the 
 baker in a barrel. The barrel is properly labeled. 
 The pie is not labeled. The mince pie contains ben- 
 zoate of soda. The mince meat from which it is 
 made is properly labeled. The pie is not labeled. 
 The raspberry turnovers contain coal-tar dye and 
 benzoate of soda. 
 
 The cough syrup is labeled "contains no chloro- 
 form, ether or morphine — a purely vegetable com- 
 pound." At the bottom of the label appear the 
 words: "Alcohol 21/2%, Tincture of Poppy 21/8-" 
 That cough syrup says nothing about laudanum. The 
 innocent phrase "vegetable" or "purely vegetable" 
 means nothing. Strychnine, morphine, laudanum 
 are "purely vegetable." 
 
 The soothing syrups and teething syrups are 
 found to contain morphine, morphine sulphate, mor- 
 phine hydrochloride, chloral hydrate, cannabis 
 indica and chloroform. 
 
 The consumption cure is found to contain alcohol 
 and chloroform; headache cures contain acetanilid, 
 antipyrin, acetphenetidin ; the kidney pills contain 
 an illegal coal-tar dye, methylene blue so concen- 
 
132 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 trated that one pill gives a blue tint to one hundred 
 gallons of water. 
 
 These damnable things are going to go ! ! ! 
 
 The lemon extract is found to be misbranded, 
 sold under the name of a chemical laboratory that 
 has no existence. The vanilla extract is a compound 
 made of vanillin and coumarin, not of vanilla beans. 
 
 The molasses contains sulphur dioxide, and the 
 brussels sprouts, sulphate of copper. 
 
 Another day a big bake shop is visited. Its man- 
 ager has read the report of the lecture of the night 
 before in the "Morning Telegram." He is panic- 
 stricken and does not refuse an inspection of his 
 plant. The tubs and barrels in the rear are plainly 
 marked "artificially colored, artificially flavored, 
 preserved with benzoate, etc." He promises that 
 these supplies will be thrown out of his shop. 
 
 Another bake shop is visited; in the rear room 
 where the baking is done dirty workers are seen. 
 A copper kettle is boiling over a coal fire. In the 
 kettle is a sugar sauce. Flecks of dirt are being 
 skimmed from the surface of the mass. The ashes 
 raked out on the floor are piled high around the 
 stove. A coating of grease and filth is found on the 
 woodwork of the room to the depth of one-eighth of 
 an inch. Artificial colors, egg powders, compounds, 
 dyes, fillers, etc., abound. 
 
 The Worcester "Evening Gazette" carries two 
 columns reporting the exposures. The Saturday 
 "Morning Telegram" on its front page carries a 
 three column head line. 
 
 The members of the Worcester Woman's Club 
 and their aroused friends met in Washburn Hall 
 Saturday night, March 24th and present for open 
 discussion resolutions calling upon President Taft 
 to reinstate Doctor Wiley. 
 
A RAID ON IMPURE FOODS 133 
 
 The resentment of the city as expressed through 
 its organized womanhood is white hot. Every man 
 and woman present, with the exception of one, en- 
 dorses the resolution. One man rises to his feet 
 and protests. He is a wealthy citizen of Worcester, 
 the proprietor of a patent medicine. After the 
 meeting he comes upstairs to the laboratory followed 
 by the crowd. He is challenged in the open and 
 asked to explain why he voted against Dr. Wiley. He 
 is informed that the borax industry, the blended 
 whiskey industry, the dried fruit industry, the 
 drugged pickle industry, the rice industry, the white 
 flour industry, the molasses industry, the preserving 
 industry, the mince meat industry, the manufac- 
 turers of saccharin and its users, the manufacturers 
 of sulphites and the users of this drug, the manu- 
 facturers of food dyes and their users, the manu- 
 facturers of alum and its users, the manufacturers 
 of bleached glucose and the leather industries that 
 use glucose as a filler, the importers of opium, mor- 
 phine, cocaine and their users, the users of nostrums, 
 containing habit-forming drugs, the patent medicine 
 industry, the benzoate of soda industry are against 
 Doctor Wiley, against uncompromised purity of food 
 products, against food reform. 
 
 He is informed that 150,000 ounces of cocaine are 
 used in patent medicines in the United States every 
 year; that large quantities of acetanilid, acetphene- 
 tidin, antipyrin, phenacetin, caffeine, chloral hydrate, 
 codein, dionin, heroin are consumed annually; that 
 tons of opium are used every year in preparing 
 patent medicines ; that there are more than a hun- 
 dred sanitariums in the United States advertising 
 treatment for drug-addiction; that many hundreds 
 of cases of drug addiction are treated annually by 
 physicians in private practice and in hospitals ; that 
 
134 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 there are more than thirty so-called mail order drug 
 addiction cures on the market and that the manager 
 of one of these treatments has openly confessed that 
 his company has 100,000 names of drug-addicts upon 
 its books. 
 
 He is informed that in the year 1910 in the 
 United States infants under one year of age to the 
 number of 154,373 died; that the total number of 
 deaths of children under ten years of age in the 
 same year was 235,262; that in the year 1910 there 
 were ofKcially recorded at Washington, D. C, a total 
 of 804,512 deaths. 
 
 He is informed that Doctor Wiley never claimed 
 that he did not make mistakes, but that where there 
 was a question of corporate interests on one hand 
 ^nd human health on the other, Doctor Wiley's atti- 
 tude was always uncompromising, and that, there- 
 fore, Doctor Wiley made enemies; that the things 
 then discovered in Worcester are the things against 
 which Wiley has been devoting twenty-nine years 
 of his active life. 
 
 He is informed that the Bureau of Chemistry 
 with Doctor Wiley at its head spent $1,190,784 in 
 preparing evidence against food frauds, not one of 
 which frauds was permitted by Dr. Wiley's superiors 
 to be reported to the Federal courts for prosecution, 
 and that it cost the government $515 to gather evi- 
 dence in the Bureau of Chemistry for every one of 
 the 6,206 suppressed cages that were kept out of 
 the hands of the public prosecutor through influence 
 higher-up. 
 
 He is told that Doctor Wiley was accused of 
 crimes by his associates in office and that the Attor- 
 ney General of the United States recommended that 
 "condign punishment" should be visited upon him, 
 and that an investigation compelled President 
 
A RAID ON IMPURE FOODS 135 
 
 Taft, in spite of the Doctor's enemies-, to vindicate 
 him sweepingly. 
 
 'He is informed that Doctor Wiley's misdeeds, so 
 deserving of "condign punishment" were not mis- 
 deeds at all, were laudable efforts to preserve the 
 health of the people against the food and drug 
 crimes which are committed in all places just as 
 in the city of Worcester. 
 
 A child's Easter hat is held up, brilliantly trim- 
 med. The straw was bleached with sulphurous acid. 
 The scarlet ribbon bows were colored with the coal- 
 tar dye extracted from the strawberry soda; the 
 blue rosette received its happy hue from the coal- 
 tar dye extracted from a kidney pill; the lavender 
 buds were colored with coal-tar dye extracted from 
 the Easter confectionery, and the Maraschino cher- 
 ries which added a delightful touch of brilliant color 
 to this piece of millinery perfection, contained three 
 drugs, sulphur dioxide, analine and benzoate. It 
 was a pure food hat ! 
 
 A breathless crowd surrounds Doctor Garst to 
 listen to his answer. In a trembling voice he speaks 
 to the crowd. "I admit Doctor Wiley has done a 
 great, good work and ig deserving of all honor. I am 
 in sympathy with everythng that has been revealed 
 here to-night and I have stood in this room for an 
 hour listening to the exposures that have been made. 
 I admire Doctor Wiley because he has been fighting 
 these things and the reason I voted against him 
 downstairs is because there was nobody present to 
 defend the doctor's enemies." 
 
 Worcester is awake at last. Is it to be alone? 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FOOD ADULTERATIONS. 
 
 To show that these conditions exist generally, 
 we quote from a report by John Phillips Street, 
 Chemist of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment 
 Station, of the results secured in his laboratory dur- 
 ng the past four years. All food examinations under 
 the law in Connecticut are made in Mr. Street's 
 laboratory at the State Experiment Station. The 
 station, however, has no power to prosecute and only 
 reports its findings to the proper officials and then, 
 if prosecution follows, furnishes expert testimony in 
 court. 
 
 In Interstate cases when the dealer produces a 
 properly signed guaranty the case is taken out of 
 the hands of the state official and turned over to the 
 Department at Washington. That department sup- 
 pressed many thousand cases that were never again 
 heard of by the public. "Business," not the health 
 of the people, was the motive. 
 
 Mr. Street says: "The following summary 
 shows the results of our examinations in Connecti- 
 cut in the past four years, remembering that these 
 figures apply to foods only, not drugs, and that under 
 the heading, "adulterated" are included misbrand- 
 ing, below standard and other violations of the law. 
 
138 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 
 Not found 
 
 
 
 
 Adulter- 
 
 Adulter- 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 ated. 
 
 ated. Compound. 
 
 Total, 
 
 1908 
 
 639 
 
 228 100 
 
 967 
 
 1909 
 
 682 
 
 262 85 
 
 1,029 
 
 1910 
 
 641 
 
 262 54 
 
 959 
 
 1911 
 
 389 
 
 479 70 
 
 938 
 
 Total 2,351 1,233 309 3,893 
 
 "The above tabulation does not include 24 sam- 
 ples of infant and invalid foods, 37 of ice cream and 
 11 of canned peas, for which we have no standards 
 in this state. The amount of adulteration in the peas 
 was very high, 56 containing glucose, 77 cane sugar, 
 14 copper, 88 tin, and 16 "soaked" peas. The table 
 shows that during the four years 3,893 samples of 
 food were examined, only 60.4 per cent of which 
 were pure. The 51 samples of sausage and the 452 of 
 molasses included in the above were not examined 
 for chemical preservatives. Such an examination 
 would doubtless have still further reduced the purity 
 percentage. 
 
 "The following tabulation gives in detail our 
 findings with the different classes of foods examined 
 during the four years : 
 
 Not found Adulter- Corn- 
 Adulterated, ated. pound. 
 
 Breakfast Foods 36 14 
 
 Butter 86 172 24 
 
 Cider 2 4 * 
 
 Chocolate and Cocoa 43 45 23 
 
 Coffee 29 1 
 
 Condensed Milk 33 4 
 
 Cream 49 6 6 
 
 Cream of Tartar 4 
 
 Dessert Preparations 2 1 14 
 
FOOD ADULTERATIONS 139 
 
 Not found Adulter- Com- 
 
 Adulterated. ated. pound. 
 
 Diabetic Foods 11 10 
 
 Flavoring Extracts 132 161 61 
 
 Fruit Colors and Flavors .... 8 3 1 
 
 Fruit Juices 19 9 17 
 
 Gelatin 10 6 
 
 Ice Cream Cones 22 6 
 
 Ice Cream Powders 1 
 
 Jams, Jellies and Preserves . . 14 8 67 
 
 Ketchup 5 54 19 
 
 Lard 97 12 
 
 Maple Syrup 8 . . 23 
 
 Meat Extracts and Juices .... 13 39 
 
 Milk 295 346 
 
 Mince Meat 17 1 1 
 
 *Molasses 452 2 
 
 Olive Oil 125 10 
 
 Paprika 12 2 1 
 
 Pickles 15 5 15 
 
 Relishes 2 2 8 
 
 Salad Dressings 9 1 2 
 
 Root Beer Extracts 11 1 
 
 Salt 18 . . 3 
 
 Sardines 43 1 
 
 Sauces 23 5 3 
 
 tSausage 26 25 
 
 Soda Water and Soda Water 
 
 Syrups 6 42 2 
 
 Soft Drinks 7 2 
 
 Soups 21 
 
 Starches 29 
 
 Spices 82 13 
 
 Vinegar 534 220 14 
 
 Total 2,351 1,233 309 
 
 Percentage 60.4 31.7 7.9 
 
 *Examined only for glucose. 
 fExamined only for starch. 
 
140 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 '1 have classified the different kinds of adultera- 
 tion detected in my work in this state during the 
 past four years. Many of these are of course harm- 
 less adulterants. This list includes only actual 
 adulterants and does not cover misbranded or sub- 
 standard samples, nor does it include skimmed milk, 
 watered milk, dilute alcohol and deficient oil in flav- 
 oring extracts, sulphites in sausage and molasses, 
 or any vinegar adulterants. 
 
 "The following non-chemical adulterants were 
 found the number of times indicated: 40 apple 
 stock, 1 living beetle, 11 beef stearin, 1 Bombay 
 mace, 1 brown sugar, 126 cane sugar, 3 capsicum, 
 54 caramel, 1 cayenne, 2 coffee hulls, 2 com starch, 
 13 cotton seed oil, 1 exhausted ginger, 117 glucose, 1 
 Iioney, 1 molasses, 178 oleomargarine or renovated 
 butter, 3 olive oil, 1 olive stones, 1 rice product, 4 
 sand, 16 soaked peas, 45 starch, 19 tumeric and 2 
 wheat products, or 644 in all. 
 
 The following chemicals were found the times 
 stated : 
 
 Alcohol 13 
 
 Alum 39 
 
 Benzoic Acid 173 
 
 Boric Acid 4 
 
 Caffeine 1 
 
 Calcium carbonate 1 
 
 Calcium phosphate 1 
 
 Calcium sulphate 1 
 
 Coumarin 40 
 
 Coal-tar colors 189 
 
 Copper sulphate 14 
 
 Formaldehyde 5 
 
 Glycerine 5 
 
 Hydrocyanic acid 2 
 
 Magnesium carbonate 1 
 
FOOD ADULTERATIONS 141 
 
 Nitrobenzol 1 
 
 Phosphoric acid 1 
 
 Potassium nitrate 11 
 
 Saccharin 38 
 
 Salicylic acid 6 
 
 Sodium phosphate 1 
 
 Sucrate of lime 8 
 
 Sulphurous acid 5 
 
 Synthetic flavors 67 
 
 Tartaric acid 3 
 
 Tin 89 
 
 Wood alcohol 2 
 
 Total 721 
 
 "Certainly the above figures do not indicate that 
 chemicals are of rare occurrence in foods. Twenty- 
 seven different chemicals were found 721 times in 
 about 3,900 samples of food. It is also of interest 
 to note the distribution of these chemicals among 
 the different kinds of foods. Alcohol was found in 
 soft drinks, fruit syrups, cider and meat extracts; 
 alum in pickles and relishes; benzoic acid in jams, 
 jellies, preserves, chili sauce, pickles, soft drinks, 
 catsup, mince meat, fruit syrups, lime juice, orange- 
 ade, lemon juice, root beer extracts, relishes and 
 soda water; boric acid in ice cream cones and salad 
 dressing ; caffeine in soft drinks ; calcium carbonate, 
 phosphate and sulphate in salt; coal-tar colors in 
 jams, jellies, preserves, jelly powders, lemon, pepper- 
 mint, orange, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry and 
 wintergreen extracts, catsup, orangeade, fruit 
 syrups, ice cream cones, ice cream powders, salad 
 dressings and soda water ; copper sulphate in canned 
 peas; coumarin in vanilla extract; formaldehyde in 
 milk; glycerine in flavoring extracts; hydrocyanic 
 
142 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 acid in almond extract; magnesium carbonate in 
 salt ; nitrobenzol in almond extract ; phosphoric acid 
 in jams; potassum nitrate in meat extracts; sac- 
 charin in jams, jellies, pickles, soft drinks, catsup, 
 relishes, Worcestershire sauce and soda water; 
 salicylic acid in meat extracts and strawberry syrup ; 
 sodium phosphate in salt; sulphurous acid in mince 
 meat and lime juice; sucrate of lime in cream; syn- 
 thetic flavors in jelly powders; flavoring extracts, 
 ice cream powders and soda water; tartaric acid in 
 jams and jellies; tin in preserves and canned peas; 
 wood alcohol in lemon extract." 
 
 If one state in this Union can present the above 
 unfortunate array of facts, what might not all the 
 States show?" 
 
 But there are still other ways to rob foods of the 
 value which nature intended they should possess. 
 
 Nowhere is man's foolish interference with 
 nature more evident than in his thoughtless destruc- 
 tion of one of nature's oldest gifts to the human 
 race — ^the olive. 
 
 We do not pluck the unripe grape, the green 
 peach, the green strawberry or any other green 
 fruit and then "cure" it by chemical treatment in 
 order to destroy the ferments with which nature 
 endowed it, thereby preventing the glorious trans- 
 formation which the processes of ripening bring 
 about according to nature's fixed law to every im- 
 mature thing of earth. 
 
 But man arrests the development of the olive, 
 stunts its beauty and destroys its virtue. The 
 beautiful purple fruit of the southern hills is not 
 permitted to ripen as nature would have it do. It 
 is plucked green and tossed to chemistry to be made 
 a curse to the race it was destined to serve. 
 
FOOD ADULTERATIONS 143 
 
 To-day the ripe olive is despised and in its lus- 
 cious, nutritious stead, the crisp, green thing of an 
 evil art rolls across the Atlantic in thousands of 
 puncheons to add its part i,o the tragedy of food. 
 
 Man converts thousands of acres of golden corn 
 into glucose, using in the manufacture hydrochloric 
 acid to produce the syrup desired. 
 
 Man converts thousands of acres of barley and 
 rice into beer and millions of pounds of grapes into 
 fermented wine. The natural sugar of the fruit and 
 its precious mineral salts are destroyed by the pro- 
 cess. In their helpful stead, man substitutes thou- 
 sands of gallons of alcohol, the initial cost of which 
 is but a few cents per gallon, but with revenue tax, 
 transportation charges, rectifiers' and blenders' 
 profit, bonded warehouse charge, liquor dealers' 
 profit, advertising expense, this alcohol reaches him 
 at a cost from $4.00 to $8.00 per gallon. 
 
 No, we cannot attempt here to cover the entire 
 field of food adulteration and debasement. This 
 effort to prove that food and food preparation are 
 the most important stones in the foundation of a 
 strong and enduring nation, will rest when it has 
 aroused the boards of trade, health departments and 
 legislators all over the country. 
 
 To show the manner in which the benzoate of soda 
 users misuse the law's permission to employ this 
 chemical in their food products, the following cases 
 are quoted from the report of the State Chemist, 
 Department of Agriculture, Georgia, issued Septem- 
 ber, 1912 : 
 
 "Squire-Dingee Company, Chicago, 111." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1 of 1% ben- 
 zoate of soda," was found to contain .30 of 1% ben- 
 zoate of soda and declared "illegal." 
 
144 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 "S. J. Van Hill Company, Baltimore, Md." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1 of 1% benzoate 
 of soda," was found to contain .36%, nearly four 
 times as much as declared. "Illegal." 
 
 "Gast, Crofts and Company, Louisville, Ky." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1 of 1% benzoate 
 of soda," was found to contain .39%. "Illegal." 
 "Kentucky Canning Company, Owensboro, Ky." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1 of 1% benzoate 
 of soda," was found to contain .38%. "Illegal." 
 "Jobber-Bishop & Company, New York." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .2%. "Illegal." 
 "Jones Brothers & Company, Lousville , Ky." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .35%. "Illegal." 
 "Beach Lake Canning Company, Cuthbert, Ga." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .28%. "Illegal." 
 "Knadler & Lucas, Louisville, Ky." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .22%. "Illegal." 
 "Hort-Catto Manufacturing Co., Detroit, Mich." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .28%. "Illegal." 
 "J. Weller Company, Cincinnati, Ohio." 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .22% benzoate of soda. 
 "Illegal." 
 "Curtiss Brothers Company, Rochester, N. Y." 
 Blue Label Catsup — Was declared illegal, because 
 it was found to contain .2% benzoate of soda. 
 "Libbey-McNeil & Libby." 
 Catsup — Was found illegal, because it contained 
 .26% benzoate of soda. 
 
 "Charles L. Hersch & Co., New York." 
 
FOOD ADULTERATIONS 145 
 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .40% benzoate of soda. 
 "Illegal." 
 
 "Williams Brothers Company, Detroit, Mich." 
 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .22%. "Illegal." 
 "E. G. Daily & Company, Detroit, Mich." 
 
 Catsup — Labelled to contain ".1% benzoate of 
 soda," was found to contain .40%. "Illegal." 
 
 These official findings indicate that the food 
 manufacturer, who avails himself of the law's per- 
 mission to use one-tenth of 1% benzoate of soda, or 
 any other per cent, provided he truthfully declares 
 the per cent on the label of his product, only too 
 frequently disregards the law, and uses benzoate of 
 soda in quantities ranging from twice to four times 
 as much as the label indicates. 
 
 The above facts are taken from serial No. 56, 
 compiled- by J. J. Conner, Commissioner of Agricul- 
 ture of the State of Georgia. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FOOD PRESERVATIVES, 
 
 All the Sauterne wines and sweet white wine, all 
 New Orleans and Porto Rico molasses, all artificial 
 Sultana raisins, all California "silver" prunes, all 
 California dried apricots, dried peaches and dried 
 pears, all dried apples with the exception of sun- 
 dried apples plainly marked as such, most canned 
 mushrooms and considerable canned asparagus are 
 bleached and preserved with sulphurous acid. Other 
 foods such as Maraschino cherries, gelatine, jelly 
 powders and "export" glucose also contain sulphur- 
 ous acid. 
 
 On July 13th, 1907, five years ago, the authorities 
 at Washington declared that pending investigation 
 of the effect of sulphurous acid upon the health of 
 the people, the Department of Agriculture would 
 institute no action against the manufacturers of 
 foods and drinks who employed sulphurous acid as 
 a bleaching agent and preservative. 
 
 ' Sulphurous acid is still legal and is being con- 
 sumed in hundreds of tons of foods and drinks rep- 
 resenting the industries of many states. 
 
 On October 2nd, 1911, Doctor J. C. Olsen, Pro- 
 fessor of Chemistry of the Polytechnic Institute, 
 Brooklyn, said at Madison Square Garden, New York 
 City, that he had introduced sulphurous acid into 
 the food of dogs and watched them closely for six 
 months. At first they actually appeared to fatten on 
 it and it was thought that all the cry against sul- 
 
148 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 phurous acid would be proved to be without founda- 
 tion. 
 
 Then the animals were chloroformed and cut 
 open. Apparently all their organs were sound and 
 healthy and as far as the naked eye was concerned 
 sulphurous acid had not harmed them. Before a 
 jury with only such surface evidence sulphurous acid 
 would be white-washed and the experiments on dogs 
 would be considered conclusive. 
 
 But Dr. Olsen was thorough. He placed the 
 dogs' kidneys under the microscope. In every in- 
 stance the results were the same. The lens revealed 
 the degeneration of the kidney cells. They had 
 broken down. Sulphurous acid was found to be 
 deadly to the kidneys of dogs. 
 
 Scientists do not yet know to what extent sul- 
 phurous acid combines with the organic minerals of 
 the fruits of which it becomes artificially a part, or 
 how far it changes the nature of the mineral salts. 
 
 Yet they find that it produces injurious effects on 
 the human organs. 
 
 Dr. Wiley, after his clinical experiments in the 
 Bureau of Chemistry, denounced the use of sulphur- 
 ous acid as an ingredient of foods and proved by 
 medical and pathological data that it produces 
 serious injury to digestion and health. His findings 
 were reported in Circular No. 37 issued by the De- 
 partment of Agriculture, November 22nd, 1907. 
 That circular stated plainly: 
 
 "The administration of sulphurous acid in 
 the food produces serious disturbances of the 
 metabolic functions. It adds an immense bur- 
 den to the kidneys which cannot result in 
 anything but injury. It impoverishes the blood 
 in respect to the number of red and white cor- 
 
FOOD PRESERVATIVES 149 
 
 puscles therein, and the administration of a 
 substance which diminishes these important 
 component particles of the blood is in every 
 sense highly prejudicial to health." 
 
 The fruit growers of California demand its use. 
 Under its action di'ied fruit takes up as much as 
 twelve or fifteen per cent of moisture and this mois- 
 ture is sold to the fruit packers at fruit prices. The 
 fruit packers then redip the fruit in a solution of hot 
 glucose and water, thereby adding more weight or 
 filler to their products. This necessitates another 
 treatment with sulphurous acid in order to make the 
 fruit marketable. So the people pay for moisture 
 when they buy fruit! And glucose as a filler finds 
 its way into a hundred foods. 
 
 This is why there is opposition between the 
 national health on one hand and the fruit, molasses 
 and wine interests on the other, and hence, govern- 
 ment reluctance to decide between them. 
 
 It is possible to obtain unbleached molasses. The 
 molasses known as "Barbadoes" is free from sul- 
 phurous acid. 
 
 It is possible to obtain sun-dried fruits. Demand 
 them. 
 
 Your demand will accomplish quickly what the 
 law for five years has not accomplished. 
 
 In the meantime no one may say to what degree 
 sulphurous acid has contributed its part to the mak- 
 ing of those mortality records at Washington which 
 include Death's annual harvest of 235,262 children. 
 
 Five years ago, July 13, 1907, Doctor Frederick 
 L. Dunlap and Solicitor George P. McCabe declared 
 in Food Inspection Decision No. 76: 
 
 "It is the opinion of the Board that copper sul- 
 phate is injurious and should be prohibited event- 
 
150 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 ually, but it would work a great injury to American 
 importers to put this ruling into effect at once. It 
 is believed that the use of copper sulphate or of 
 other salts of copper in restricted quantities for 
 greening vegetables should be permitted for the pack 
 of the present year, but for no longer." 
 
 Five years have past and sulphate of copper re- 
 mains one of the food drugs which are legal. As 
 in the decision which permitted the use of sulphur- 
 ous acid, Dr. Wiley in this case did not sign the 
 circular permitting manufacturers to use the drug. 
 
 In three states — North Carolina, Pennsylvania 
 and Texas — the health authorities have condemned 
 copper salts as an ingredient of canned fruits and 
 vegetables, and those States have responded by enact- 
 ing laws that forbid the sale of any article of food 
 contaminated with copper. 
 
 Does the housewife know that nearly all the 
 string beans, lima beans, brussels sprouts and peas 
 imported into the United States from France are 
 artificially colored — discolored is the correct word — 
 with sulphate of copper ? The American canner does 
 not use this drug at all and to this extent deserves 
 great praise. It is a curious situation. The Federal 
 pure food laws permit the importation of coppered 
 canned goods, though Pennsylvania, North Caro- 
 lina and Texas declare that copper salts are poison- 
 ous and refuse to permit any traffic in them in those 
 States, under penalty of the law. 
 
 The French themselves will not eat the canned 
 vegetables which they treat with copper for our 
 use. The dealers plead that the public demands food 
 made attractive by chemical manipulation. So the 
 manufacturers make their strongest appeal to the 
 eye. Next they consider the sense of smell, then 
 
FOOD PRESERVATIVES 151 
 
 the sense of taste, and last the question of nutritive 
 value. The folly of this practice is obvious. 
 
 The public wants what looks like the greatest and 
 most attractive value for its money. In reality 
 that value is nutritive value. 
 
 Coloring by copper salts is a fraud. It deceives 
 the consumer by influencing him to mistake an arti- 
 ficial and dangerous characteristic as an indication 
 of superior merit. In the "Revue Scientifique," 
 Klopine reports that certain cells of the human or- 
 ganism have a selective action on green, and that this 
 coloring substance is absorbed by the cells until 
 they break down and die. This process goes on con- 
 tinually when an individual habitually uses food that 
 has been artificially colored. 
 
 In New York the admirable Stilwell bill, in the 
 nineteen hundred and eleven session at Albany, pro- 
 vided for the banishment of copper salts and all 
 other forms of chemical treatment, but the bill was 
 killed as the "food industries" must not suffer 
 through such a trifling issue as "pure food!" 
 
 If in the opinion of the Board of Food and Drug 
 Inspection, sulphate of copper is injurious and should 
 be prohibited eventually, why should the Board of 
 Food and Drugs Inspection add that to prohibit it 
 at once would work a great injury to American im- 
 porters ? 
 
 Is the business of American importers of more 
 moment than the health of the American people? 
 
 [Editor's Note: Since the above was written a 
 decision has appeared forbidding the importation 
 after Jan. 1, 1913, of any foods containing this 
 poison, but it does not forbid the sale of the $1,000,- 
 000 worth of these coppered foods which New York 
 importers got into the country during the last three 
 months of 1912.] 
 
152 STAEVING AMERICA 
 
 Alum is an astringent. It hardens vegetable and 
 animal tissue. Pickles so soft that they can be 
 squeezed through the hand like tooth paste from its 
 tube can be made by alum's use firm enough to sell. 
 Piccalilli, chow-chow, condiments, baking powder, 
 baker's "compounds," mince meat, etc., are put into 
 a "healthy" condition by allopathic doses of alum. 
 
 Like all preservatives and drugs of its kind it 
 destroys ferments. We have seen how digestion de- 
 pends upon the activity of ferments. We can easily 
 understand that alum and other food drugs do not 
 assist these ferments to perform their duties. Is 
 alum's effect upon the mucous membrane of the 
 intestines anything like its effect upon the membrane 
 of the pickle? 
 
 Fruits and berries delayed on the railroad, 
 softened and discolored by decay, are not "waste- 
 products" in the estimation of the unscrupulous jam 
 and jelly maker. With the aid of glucose and ben- 
 zoate of soda they make a compound which juvenile 
 taste persists in demanding through its inheritance 
 of the traditions of grandmother's jam closet. 
 
 Such a compound is a dark, syrupy substance, 
 unsightly and uninviting. ^ A legal coal-tar dye can 
 give it the brightness necessary to catch the eye. 
 It pays a handsome profit to the man who makes it 
 and to the grocer who sells it, but it also discourages 
 the honest product on which the profit is smaller. 
 
 Apart from all considerations of health, the 
 tendency of the time is thus hurried toward sub- 
 stitution and fraud. Artificial color and benzoate 
 of soda are symbols of this degradation. 
 
 Cheap tomato catsup and chili sauce also explain 
 the food manufacturer's cherished regard for benzo- 
 ate. Many of these catsups are made from tomato 
 pulp which the government has repeatedly con- 
 
FOOD PRESERVATIVES 153 
 
 demned because it is found to contain millions of 
 bacteria to the cubic centimeter. Ninety million 
 such bacteria have been found in a half teaspoonful. 
 
 Tomato pulp is a waste product prepared from 
 the skins and cores and sweepings of the canning 
 factory. In its partly decomposed state it is scraped 
 from the floor and put into kegs with the food man- 
 ufacturer's pet antiseptic. It then goes into storage 
 to be called upon as needed in the making of our 
 cheap condiments. The government characterizes 
 such tomato pulp as consisting in whole or in part 
 of a filthy and decomposed vegetable substance. It 
 is made fit for food by the introduction of the sacred 
 one-tenth of one per cent of benzoate of soda. 
 
 We need not consider the harmfulness of ben- 
 zoate. We might admit that it is harmless, although 
 the experiments which Floyd W. Robison, Chief 
 Chemist of the State of Michigan performed on 
 kittens with benzoate revealed the fact that kittens 
 that got benzoate in their milk, died. Robison as a 
 result of his findings against benzoate was dimissed 
 from the government service by Secretary Wilson 
 "for the good of the service." There was no other 
 cause, no charge against him. 
 
 Dr. Daniel R. Lucas has prepared a remarkable 
 paper on benzoate. He shows under what conditions 
 it does become a poison. 
 
 Anyway benzoate has a bad history; it encour- 
 ages fraud; it justifies cheapness rather than hon- 
 esty. 
 
 The housewife should read the label on her can 
 or package and then examine the quality of the 
 product. The absence of fine print on the label may 
 be an indication that the food is "pure," but is no 
 indication that it is of good quality. 
 
154 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 For instance, in the cage of canned California 
 fruits, the purity of the fruit is probably unques- 
 tionable, but in some quarters in the trade seven 
 different grades are recognized and in other quarters 
 nine different grades are found. 
 
 The grade may be "double extra," "extra," "extra 
 standard," "standard," "fancy seconds," "seconds," 
 "culls," "watered" or "pie fruit." Each grade is a 
 step downward, but the lowest and most miserable 
 product is just as "pure" as the finest. 
 
 It is the same way with com, tomatoes, peas, etc. 
 The latter may be anything from the finest "Early 
 June Sifted" to "soaked" peas which are simply 
 dried peas soaked soft and canned so that the canner 
 may have the pleasure of selling the ignorant house- 
 wife a metal can containing dried peas and water. 
 
 The question of "quality" is introduced merely 
 to illustrate the necessity of scrutinizing the char- 
 acteristics of our food with as much interest as we 
 inspect the reflection of our faces in the looking 
 glass. What we see there, in the purely physical 
 matter of healthy charm, is a result of the food we 
 eat. Let us not fret over the signs of decay if we 
 are unwilling to trace that decay to its source in our 
 food supply. 
 
 Listen to these phrases on a label on a can in 
 the butcher shop : 
 
 "The ideal preservative for chopped meat, ham- 
 burger steak, ribs, loins, cuts of meat, quarters of 
 beef, veal, mutton, poultry and pork sausage." 
 
 "In use since eighteen hundred eighty-seven." 
 "For curing, corning and pickling; for bolognas, 
 frankfurters, etc." 
 
 "Sprinkle the preservative over the meat before 
 or while being chopped." 
 
FOOD PRESERVATIVES 155 
 
 These are among the phrases with which the can 
 of "Preservaline" is labeled. The lid of the can 
 is perforated like a salt shaker. You will find it 
 under the counter of many a butcher shop. The 
 butcher who uses it will admit without compunction 
 that the "dose of sulphites" is used extensively by 
 handlers of meat and meat products. 
 
 The rich red color which the white powder im- 
 parts to meat is "the most profitable service ever 
 offered to the meat trade." The label declares that 
 it is "used everywhere by the progressive butcher" 
 and is "absolutely indispensable to the sausage 
 maker." 
 
 The factory in Brooklyn that manufactures this 
 stuff is a big factory and it turns out enormous 
 quantities every day. Where does it go? 
 
 The other word for "preservaline" is sulphites. 
 As much as you can lift on the tip of a pen knife 
 will cause you to strangle if placed on the tongue. 
 It is found in marshmallows as well as in sausage 
 and hamburger steaks, for, while it makes ham- 
 burger steaks red, it makes marshmallows white. 
 
 Scientists employed by food industries say that 
 it may form a relatively harmless compound with 
 the sugars, proteins and cellulose which are pres- 
 ent in food. 
 
 The government, in Food Inspection Decision 
 Seventy-Six, stated: "Probably all of these 'com- 
 bined' forms are not equally inert from a physiolog- 
 ical point of view," and in the next paragraph the 
 government adds: "but it is necessary to limit its 
 presence in such cases so as to avoid the presence 
 of excessive quantities of free sulphurous acid, the 
 poisonous effect of which is marked." 
 
 In the same Food Inspection Decision, Number 
 Seventy-Six, the government said: "However, the 
 
156 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 pack of nineteen hundred and seven is now under 
 way, some of it is complete, and sodium benzoate 
 has been used extensively. By another year the 
 manufacturers of these food products will have had 
 ample time to adjust manufacturing conditions in 
 such a manner that the use of sodium benzoate will 
 be unnecessary. The prohibition of the use of so- 
 dium benzoate at this time would, it is thought, work 
 a hardship upon the manufacturers of food products 
 out of all proportion to the benefit which would be 
 derived by the people. The use of sodium benzoate 
 for the time being in limited quantities, which are 
 to be plainly stated upon the label, seems to be a 
 fair solution both for the people and for the man- 
 ufacturer." 
 
 The government used the words "by another 
 year" and also "for the time," but five years have 
 passed and benzoate is still used. And so the people 
 of the country continue to enjoy the blessing of 
 these added "harmless" ingredients in their food. 
 
 On the thirteenth of July, nineteen hundred and 
 seven, the government issued in Section V of Food 
 ^Inspection Decision Seventy-Six a list of dyes per- 
 mitted "pending further investigation." 
 
 "Pending further investigation" sounds well and 
 hopeful but the list of dyes, the use of which is 
 granted in foods and foodstuffs "pending further 
 investigation" is to-day as it was then. 
 
 RED SHADES: 
 107 Amranth. 
 56 Ponceau 3R. 
 517 Erythrosin. 
 
 ORANGE SHADES : 
 85 Orange 1. 
 
 YELLOW SHADES: 
 
 4 Naphthol Yellow S. 
 
FOOD PRESERVATIVES 157 
 
 GREEN SHADES: 
 435 Light Green S. F. Yellowish. 
 
 BLUE SHADES: 
 
 692 Indigo Disulfoacid. 
 
 The decision further states that these coal-tar 
 dyes must be made specifically for use in foods, and 
 must bear a guarantee from the manufacturer that 
 they are free from arsenic and that they represent 
 the actual coal-tar compound whose name they bear. 
 
 The dye may be the same dye used in coloring 
 feathers, wearing apparel, tapestry, rugs, etc., but 
 when used for cakes, ice cream, candy, etc., it must 
 be made "specifically for use in cakes, ice cream, 
 candy, etc." and not for rugs or ribbons. 
 
 Crown Glossine, with chocolate flavor and harm- 
 less color was found by the Bureau of Chemistry to 
 contain arsenic. It is used by the candy maker and 
 its final resting place is the stomach of the child. 
 
 In a Circuit Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York, upon a plea of 
 guilty, the manufacturers of Crown Glossine were 
 fined two hundred dollars. 
 
 "Specially Denatured Grain Alcohol Brown 
 Glaze" is a confectioner's shellac employed in the 
 manufacture of penny candies. Because it contained 
 the poisonous wood alcohol which causes blindness 
 or death, the courts imposed upon its makers a fine 
 of fifty dollars and costs. 
 
 These two cases are recorded under Notices of 
 Judgment, Number Nine Hundred Sixty-Four and 
 Nine Hundred Seventy-two issued at Washington, 
 D. C, July fifteenth, nineteen hundred and eleven. 
 
 When greed impels a criminal to kill and rob his 
 victim the crime is picturesque, and punishment is 
 usually commensurate with the excitement which 
 such a crime inspires. When greed impels a food 
 
158 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 maker to trifle with poisons and preservatives and 
 dyes, and to disregard the laws of life and death 
 in his reach for profit, the picturesque element is 
 not present. The crime is slow in action. The com- 
 mon food does not affright the soul or fill the mind 
 with dread. Debased foods, particularly ice creams, 
 soft drinks, cakes and candy, belong largely to the 
 children's world — and parents think that children 
 are prone to bowel disorders anyhow. 
 
 The sick child suggests no mystery; its upset 
 stomach is to be expected. The illness is taken as 
 a matter of course. Hence, the necessity of caution 
 is not even suggested. Though a particularly heinous 
 food-crime is committed its story rarely gets out of 
 the court room. 
 
 There, fifty dollars settles the affair! 
 
 There are now about Two Thousand Notices of 
 Judgment, but they have not been read by the 
 people. 
 
 The instances just quoted are but a few out of 
 hundreds. 
 
 Many persons do not realize that the "condign 
 punishment" intrigue against Wiley was a blow 
 aimed at pure food and drugs, aimed at the home, 
 aimed at the health and happiness of the people. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BACTERIA IN FOOD. 
 
 Metchnikoflf complained that we know really lit- 
 tle about death and that, although death has a pre- 
 ponderating place in religions, philosophy, literature 
 and folklore, scientific works pay little attention to 
 it. 
 
 When Tolstoi approached the problem and 
 searched for some solution in the writings of scien- 
 tific men, he found the explanations so trivial and 
 inexact that he grew impatient, then enraged. 
 
 Metchnikoff himself did not say that he had 
 found the secret of life or death. He did arouse 
 scientific men. We now realize that in the brilliant 
 achievement of scientists one tremendous field has 
 been unexplored. 
 
 Biologists have learned much with and without 
 the microscope. Astronomers have traced the 
 heavens with the telescope and now at Cambridge, 
 Harvard astronomers have completed a photographic 
 map of the entire sky showing about 1,500,000 stars. 
 
 Chemists have learned much with the test-tube. 
 We have many volumes on radio-activity, X-Rays, 
 violet rays and the scalpel. We have entire libraries 
 devoted to therapeutics. We have probed deep into 
 the secrets of nature, yet, our scientific men have 
 not taught the plain people how to eat and live. 
 
 A plant should apparently die when all its organic 
 forces have been exhausted. In some plants parts of 
 
160 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 the plant, such as the flowers, die periodically, al- 
 though the plant itself is not exhausted. 
 
 Little Helen's father noticed that among the ger- 
 aniums which the child had planted some of the 
 flowers were withering while others were still 
 blooming. The death of those withered flowers 
 could not be attributed to the exhaustion of the 
 plant when that plant continued to produce new 
 flowers, even while the old ones were dying. 
 
 Metchnikoff, studying these geraniums, threw a 
 wonderful light on the ferments and bacteria that 
 abound in life, vegetable or animal, and revealed 
 certain specific truths that now interest us in the 
 loss of good ferments and in the development of bad 
 ferments. 
 
 Bad bacteria in milk and milk products, in eggs 
 and eggs products, in such things as "I'ots and 
 spots" which have received a clean bill of health 
 under the "expert" testimony of scientists before 
 the courts and which the wholesale baker's supply 
 houses can, therefore, continue to sell to the pro- 
 ducer of sponge cake, pound cake, vanilla wafers, 
 ice cream, etc., are not to be ignored. 
 
 Bacteria of the bad .kind in tomato pulp, catsup, 
 chili sauce, fruit products, milk products and gela- 
 tine products have no good work to perform. 
 
 Fifty years ago it was not known that all fer- 
 mentation was due to the action of microscopic 
 plants. 
 
 It had been discovered that under certain con- 
 ditions fermentation ceased much more quickly than 
 under others. In transforming sugar to lactic acid 
 it was found that it was useful to add chalk ; other- 
 wise fermentation stopped before the greater part 
 of the sugar had been acted upon. 
 
BACTERIA IN FOOD 161 
 
 Then in 1857 Pasteur discovered the lactic acid 
 ferment or bacteria. Pasteur showed that that little 
 micro-organism which can produce lactic acid was 
 killed by the very acid it produced. 
 
 In order to help it to live and carry on its work 
 it was necessary to neutralize the excess acid which 
 it produced by adding calcium carbonate to the 
 solution in which it was growing. 
 
 After the lactic bacteria produce a certain quan- 
 tity of lactic acid, they are automatically killed by 
 their own activities. The end-product of fire is 
 ash. In many instances the end-product of bacteria 
 is poison. The bacteria are red lights, not always 
 dangerous in themselves, but by their presence they 
 reveal the presence of other things that are dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 In milk the lactic acid bacteria are killed by auto- 
 intoxication. They poison themselves by their own 
 activity. We know that in milk the death of the 
 bacteria takes place at a time when the milk still 
 contains enough sugar for the nutrition of the bac- 
 teria, and, therefore, we know that the bacteria do 
 not die as the result of exhaustion or as the result 
 of a lack of food. 
 
 We also know that other bacteria act in the same 
 way. The bacteria that produce butyric acid are 
 also destroyed by the acid they produce. 
 
 Yeast bacteria which produce alcohol are de- 
 stroyed by the alcohol they produce, and as soon 
 as a certain limit of alcoholic strength has been 
 reached the yeast dies. When the yeast bacteria are 
 put to work in such a medium as eggs, rich in nitro- 
 gen and poor in sugar, the yeast lives on the nitro- 
 genous materials and produces salts of ammonia. 
 These salts cause the death of the yea§t bacteria, 
 again by auto-intoxication. 
 
162 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 After these facts had been demonstrated, Met- 
 chnikoff asked himself : 
 
 "If the lower plants (ferments and bacteria) die 
 as the result of poisons produced by their own ac- 
 tivity under certain conditions, do not the higher 
 plants, such as the geranium, and higher animals, 
 such as man, also produce poisons which are fatal 
 to them?" 
 
 Our answer is : The animal that lives on normal 
 food has the power within itself to control during 
 its normal span of life the development and disposi- 
 tion of the waste products, or end-products, or 
 poison products, which would sicken it or kill it if 
 not controlled. When the conditions under which 
 the animal lives are made abnormal, its powers of 
 self -protection are correspondingly impaired; it 
 loses its capacity to neutralize the destroying end- 
 products of its own activity; it sickens or dies of 
 auto-intoxication like the geranium. 
 
 One who lives on meat has to neutralize the waste 
 products found in the flesh of the animal at the hour 
 of its slaughter, in addition to neutralizing the waste 
 products continually generating in his own body, 
 thereby imposing upon his organs of elimination a 
 double task while sustaining them with imperfect 
 food. 
 
 When a tomato rots the process of decomposition 
 by which it rots produces an end-product. When an 
 egg rots it produces an end-product. These end- 
 products are fatal to life. Any drug that permits us 
 to make use of them, enables us not only to intro- 
 duce the drug into the food of man but also to intro- 
 duce bacterial poisons into that food. Anything that 
 interferes with the activity of good bacteria or that 
 enables bad bacteria to overdevelop in the body of 
 
BACTERIA IN FOOD 163 
 
 an animal cannot have a good effect upon that 
 animal. 
 
 We believe we have clearly shown that it is dan- 
 gerous to denature or exhaust our food products by 
 removing from them a vast number of vitalizing 
 and controlling substances. 
 
 What scientist will say that nature's supply of 
 mineral salts performs no function in preventing 
 auto-intoxication by the poisonous end-products of 
 life's processes ? What scientist will say we do well 
 when we tamper with our wheat and rice and barley 
 and corn? 
 
 We believe we have shown that it is not only 
 risky business but bad business to introduce into 
 our foods other substances the conduct of which we 
 can not explain to jury or judge. 
 
 Jury or judge can consider the figures tabulated 
 at the beginning of these considerations. 
 
 Human intelligence can draw its own conclusions. 
 
 Shall we continue to gratify our eyes with 
 unnatural color demands? Shall we continue to 
 titillate our palates with artificial food creations and 
 food refinement or — shall we continue to bury our 
 children? 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 LABELS. 
 
 The menace of the food adulterators against the 
 health of the nation will not end as long as money 
 is to be made out of cheap adulterations or as long 
 as people do not read and heed the fine print on food 
 labels. 
 
 Why should honest food require a statement in 
 small type printed along the border of its label 
 where it is not likely to be noticed? 
 
 Foods that have been trifled with and shipped 
 out of one state into another are obliged under the 
 law to be labelled. But they are marked with incon- 
 spicuous phrases that have no meaning for the aver- 
 age consumer. These phrases are : 
 
 "A compound." 
 
 "Contains aluminum sulphate." 
 
 "Contains alum." 
 
 "Contains sulphur dioxide." 
 
 "Contains benzoate of sode." 
 
 "Contains SO'." 
 
 "Artificially flavored." 
 
 "Artificially colored." 
 
 "Contains sulphate of copper." 
 
 Etc., etc. 
 , In Pennsylvania it is not legal to sell mush- 
 rooms bleached with sulphurous acid, and in North 
 Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas it is not legal to 
 sell peas colored with sulphate of copper. 
 
166 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 In all the other states of the union these foods 
 and the hundred other foods containing chemical 
 elements are served every day without argument or 
 objection in the restaurants, hotels, boarding houses 
 and homes of the people. 
 
 The packing case in which they are shipped from 
 the manufacturer to the hotel keeper is plainly 
 marked according to the law, but the individual dish 
 served to the guest of the hotel shows no label. 
 
 The law makes you buy an individual drinking 
 cup for a penny if you drink in the department 
 stores or railway trains, but permits you to drink 
 in the cafes, saloons and theatres from the glass 
 that touches all lips, clean or foul. 
 
 We might take things into our own hands and 
 insist when we go into the restaurant or hotel upon 
 seeing the labels that were on the cans and bottles 
 and cartons in which the foodstuffs were trans- 
 ported. If we made such a clamor we would be con- 
 spicuous, of course, but if we all did it, no one of us 
 would be more conspicuous than the other. Thus 
 by our own action we could discourage this debased 
 food industry. 
 
 We have grasped an idea of the marvelously com- 
 plex character of the organism we call the human 
 body and we want to know henceforth what we are 
 putting into that body. 
 
 Of what use is it for the law to require the candy 
 manufacturer to inform the candy dealer that the 
 penny candies sold to the children of the streets 
 contain coal-tar dyes or artificial flavors made from 
 oenanthic ether, valerianate ether, butyric ether, 
 benzoic ether, acetic ether, formic ether, aldehydes, 
 esters and chloroform? We do not know that the 
 individual penny's worth taken from the legally 
 labeled box contains these things. 
 
LABELS 167 
 
 The baker buys a tub of "process butter" made 
 from reworked rancid butter and the tub is marked 
 "renovated." He buys a tub of "compound" and it 
 is so labeled He buys "chocolate color" for his 
 icings which contains no chocolate. He buys "whip- 
 it-up" for his egg effects and "egg color" for his 
 cakes, and alum for his doughnuts and baking pow- 
 der. He buys ethereal mixtures for his fruit flavors 
 and a "synthetic compound" for his vanilla extract. 
 
 He buys preserved "fillers" for his pies and cakes. 
 
 He buys stiffening agents and substitutes for 
 paraffin that will hold his ice cream firm for forty 
 minutes in a temperature of eighty-five degrees. 
 
 All these things are properly labeled when they 
 reach the baker. But layer cakes, his fancy cakes, 
 his ice creams and his sweet-meats are not labeled. 
 The little girls who make their purchases, and the 
 mothers of these little girls have no means of know- 
 ing the ingredients of the things they buy and not 
 knowing they do not suspect. 
 
 To what extent will egg color, whip-it-up, choc- 
 olate color, binding and stiffening agents, coal-tar 
 dyes, ethereal flavors, fillers, facings, glazes, shellac, 
 lacquer, compounds, bleaching solutions, liquid 
 smoke, preservatives, etc., etc., nourish a nerve, 
 build a bone, make a muscle or contribute to the 
 life-sustaining power of the blood? These things 
 are used by the bakers extensively and legally. 
 
 Wiley for years tried to have such abuses cor- 
 rected but the "label interests" have successfully 
 opposed the idea that we need better label laws. 
 
 The soda fountain serves synthetic fruit flavors, 
 preservatives, artificial colors, stimulants and heart 
 depressors, caffeine and acetanilid. They are all 
 labeled on the original bottle, but the child that 
 stands at the marble counter has no knowledge of 
 
168 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 the facts, although the proprietor of the soda foun- 
 tain buys his materials from the manufacturer 
 properly labeled. 
 
 If the label will tell ug what we want to know 
 let us cultivate a habit of looking at the label. 
 
 Let us find out why it is not politically neces- 
 sary to change it. 
 
 Politics, like the signatures of chemists, cannot 
 change those mortality records at Washington and 
 in the background of our agitation for simple, hon- 
 est, decent label laws, rise the spirits of a million 
 little children gone from our homes. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE "POISON SQUAD." 
 
 "Poison Squads" are organized at regular inter- 
 vals and healthy young men submit themselves to a 
 diet of adulterated food in the interests of science. 
 
 After a period of five or six weeks the usual 
 results are announced, frequently to the effect that 
 the members of the squad "suffered no noticeable 
 inconvenience and experienced no injury." 
 
 This report then appears in thousands of news- 
 papers and quiets the public mind, disarms anxiety 
 and suspicion. Sometimes it causes the cautious 
 housewife to forget the necessity of watchfulness 
 in selecting her kitchen supplies. 
 
 These "poison squads" never fight it out to the 
 finish. The brave youths who are fed with doses 
 of benzoate, borax, copper sulphate, sulphur dioxide, 
 aluminum sulphate and the legal coal-tar dyes never 
 take all of these delectable substances at any one 
 time nor in any one test. 
 
 The "squad" is always confined to one drug, not 
 tasting any other drug during its scientific experi- 
 ment. Then before there is time for the subtle, slow- 
 moving, insidious chemical to affect serious harm, 
 the squad is disbanded and the food adulterator has 
 been given "proof" that the cry against preserva- 
 tives, food chemicals and mineral dyes is a bugaboo. 
 
 Now all the people in the world are not healthy 
 young men, and all of them do not stop eating at the 
 end of a test lasting five or six weeks. Some of them 
 
170 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 are babies, some are school children, some are 
 nursing mothers, some are about to become mothers 
 and some have reached the age when natural vigor 
 is no longer sufficiently active to resist even tem- 
 porary abuse. 
 
 In fact, we have organized "poison squads" 
 among little children and we do not disband those 
 squads until the children die. 
 
 Every time the law makes the use of a food 
 drug legal or every time it winks at an abuse that 
 denatures a food, it makes a permanent "poison 
 squad" of the whole country, not for a few experi- 
 mental weeks, but for the life time of the individual. 
 All the little children of the country, whether their 
 parents realize it or not, are now in that "poison 
 squad." When the food-drugger puts his dose into 
 his product and sends it forth, he does not know 
 into whose hands it will fall nor the physical condi- 
 tion of the individual who will receive his medicated 
 wares. 
 
 We have already turned the whole country into 
 a test-tube with respect to the drugs we have noticed 
 here and though it is not realized it is none the less 
 an abomination. You are now in the national poison 
 squad. Little Helen and her 200,000 companions 
 have been graduated. 
 
 Concerning the national "poison squad" this 
 much is certain. Murders are being committed 
 through ignorance and selfishness in supplying unfit 
 food for the human family. 
 
 As life was given for some good purpose life's 
 efficiency should not be lessened by those who ex- 
 ploit the needs of life, particularly the natural food- 
 stuffs upon which life depends. 
 
 Of the 250 infants that die before they are one 
 year old out of every thousand bom, and of the 
 
THE "POISON SQUAD" 171 
 
 countless score of adults that die before their time, 
 many lives could be saved if the food manufacturer 
 could be made to realize the responsibility he takes 
 upon himself when he assumes that it is his right 
 to feed the nation with no other object before him 
 than the profit to himself. All murders are not pic- 
 turesque. The slow-moving, subtle, insidious, under- 
 mining of the health of man, woman or child is 
 murder. 
 
 Individuals have no right to debase food products, 
 the natural result of which is to bring about de- 
 generation, ill health, and perhaps death, to those 
 who depend upon impoverished foods. 
 
 Self -slaughter is given the widest possible pub- 
 licity. The subtle slaughtering of the race is given 
 no publicity, but is passed by without notice, be- 
 cause the nation neither knows the facts nor realizes 
 their results. 
 
 To hide the truth by refusing it publicity is to be 
 guilty of whatever murder is involved in robbing 
 the people's foodstuffs of the elements necessary to 
 sustain life. 
 
 If life is sacred everything upon which life de- 
 pends is sacred and the juggling, refining or denatur- 
 ing of man's food supply is sacrilege. 
 
 We are asking that the schools and colleges 
 should teach the relative viciousness and baseness of 
 crime so that public opinion may proclaim that mob 
 murders and self-murders are the most cowardly and 
 least defensible of all offenses. Let us also demand 
 that they teach with their anatomy and hygiene the 
 meaning of the presence of proteins, carbohydrates, 
 fats and minerals in the diet, so that any commercial 
 effort to interfere with these elements for the sake 
 of profit may be resented as a crime against the 
 sacredness of life. 
 
172 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 That the destroyers of their own lives are denied 
 church burial by three great branches of the Chris- 
 tion religion indicates that the idea of the sacredness 
 of human life is universal. It adds one more indict- 
 ment against public apathy and private greed where 
 foodstuffs are concerned. 
 
 If the average man, though a stranger, will 
 afford succor to his fellow to prevent a death by 
 violence, would he not endeavor to prevent our 
 modern food crimes if he realized even remotely the 
 enormity of those crimes, as shown in their con- 
 sequences ? 
 
 If, at sea, men of wealth and power surrender 
 their lives calmly and heroically, while their maid 
 servants and the women of the steerage are given 
 place in the lifeboats can we on shore not under- 
 stand the duty of the living? 
 
 Why should we respond with reverence and tears 
 to the acts of brave souls when they serenely yield 
 their lives for the public good, and then refuse to 
 pick up our own little fragment of public duty lying 
 at our feet, because we do not find it gleaming with 
 the gold of romance ? 
 
 If we honor thousands of noble men and women 
 who spend their lives at the hospital bedside to bring 
 the sick back again to health, is it not nobler still 
 to fight beforehand against preventable disease? 
 
 Are we not all active and responsible agents in 
 the great national department of health? 
 
 Who can deny that the hour has come when we 
 must, positively and actively, demand honest food? 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 "KEEPING" FOODS. 
 
 But you say, if we talk to the cereal dealer or 
 the miller about natural breakfast foods and natural 
 whole wheat meal and natural com, etc., he tells us 
 that it is impossible to successfully market break- 
 fast food or whole wheat meal or any of the other 
 grains in their natural state, because they become 
 stale and spoil, or, as in the case of natural brown 
 rice during the hot germinating months, they are 
 subject to weevil infestation. 
 
 The dealer states that when the housekeeper buys 
 a stale package or a package containing weevils, she 
 forthwith condemns the product as a class, and will 
 have nothing more to do with it, henceforth forever. 
 
 But the attitude of the cracker baker, the coffee 
 roaster, the egg dealer, the milk man and the bread 
 baker, is different toward his equally perishable 
 product. These become stale with age, but the dealer 
 does not refuse to put them on the market. The 
 coffee man sees to it that his roasted coffee reaches 
 the housekeeper fresh and fragrant; the cracker 
 baker sees that his crackers reach the housekeeper 
 fresh and crisp, and the bread man makes arrange- 
 ments to have his bread reach the housekeeper while 
 it is fresh 
 
 Coffee, bread, eggs and milk are perishable 
 products and in consequence, they are prepared as 
 needed. 
 
174 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Wheat will keep for years, so will barley and 
 corn and oats. Rice with a little care will keep in 
 the same way. The grains do not spoil until they 
 are ground and then they spoil in the hot, germin- 
 ating months only. 
 
 The Bureau of Etomology, United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture, has gone to some trouble 
 to discover the processes, whereby natural brown 
 rice might be kept free from weevil infestation. 
 It's the old story. Man, in his attempt to improve 
 on the wise provisions of mother nature, usually 
 meets with failure. 
 
 The scientist is puzzled indeed, when he is 
 obliged to begin in the middle, and work both ways 
 at once. Science will probably find no means of 
 preventing the weevil from attacking natural brown 
 rice. Nature has provided the means, and science, 
 up to this writing, spurns nature's device. 
 
 In order to protect the rice for us, until we re- 
 quire it for our food, nature covers it with a hard 
 shell, in which the rice keeps indefinitely. 
 
 Thousands of years ago, Pharaoh took notice of 
 this fact, and for the benefit of his people, he stored 
 rice in the granaries of Egypt, permitting the 
 grain to remain in the shell in which nature had 
 placed it. 
 
 Thus the grains were held unwinnowed for 
 years, to provide against periods of famine. Weevils 
 did not worry the Egyptians, and scientists were not 
 required to devise chemical methods of protecting 
 the grain, because man instead of defying nature, 
 co-operated with her laws. 
 
 Nowadays we winnow the rice in a heap, thereby 
 exposing it to the attacks of insects, against which 
 nature had protected it with that shell. 
 
"KEEPING" FOODS 175 
 
 Man builds a shell in the form of a glass bottle, 
 or jar, or a tin can, around any animal or vegetable 
 product which he wishes to preserve against the 
 attack of living organisms. He knows that if he 
 takes the shell off his product, by removing it from 
 the bottle, jar or can, the laws of nature will operate, 
 and destroy his product. 
 
 If we wish uncontaminated oat meal, corn meal, 
 wheat meal, barley or rice, we must not prepare a 
 year's supply in advance. We must prepare it at 
 reasonable intervals, and in harmony with nature's 
 laws. 
 
 By grinding more frequently in smaller quanti- 
 ties, we may bring them to the people as nature in- 
 tended them to be used. 
 
 The mere fact that somebody has invested money 
 in a business for profit does not impose upon the 
 world an obligation to eat denatured breakfast foods 
 and lifeless bread in order that some breakfast food 
 concern or miller or baker may declare a larger 
 dividend. 
 
 The world wants more energy and ingenuity ap- 
 plied to the problem of its needs. It wants that 
 problem solved as the coffee man, the cracker man, 
 the bread man, the egg man and the milk man have 
 solved it. 
 
 If more coffee mills were put to the work of 
 grinding wheat and com and barley and oats at 
 home, it would soon become unnecessary to hunt for 
 arguments to induce the miller and the baker to 
 change his present methods ! 
 
 With a coffee mill at home and a bag of wheat 
 or a bag of oats or a bag of corn we could make 
 our own honest meal ; and when we begin to do that 
 
176 STARVING AMERICS 
 
 simple thing, the great American breaa eater, the 
 child of the poor, will have sturdier limbs, rosier 
 cheeks, brighter eyes and a happier heart. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE PROCESSION OF LITTLE WHITE CASKETS. 
 
 More than one hundred and fifty-four thousand 
 little white caskets going out of the homes of this 
 nation in one year ! How might many of those deaths 
 have been prevented? 
 
 From the day of birth, and prior to the day of 
 birth, children's diseases are brought about — with 
 the exception of specific blood poison and the diseases 
 that follow in the trail of parental vice — by errors 
 in feeding. 
 
 If the child is started right, and this means be- 
 ginning before birth, it will possess the vitality 
 necessary to resist disease as well as the power 
 within itself of appropriating normal food for the 
 requirements of its developing body. 
 
 The mother's milk is the ideal food for the child. 
 Every mother should make heroic efforts to nurse 
 her baby. Many mothers who are normally fit, fail 
 to discharge this tremendous obligation to the child 
 because they are ignorant of the fact that upon it 
 depends largely the child's future. 
 
 Euchres, teas, theatres, club life cannot com- 
 pensate for the loss caused by compelling the child 
 to depend on artificial sources for its food. 
 
 Infants nursed by healthy mothers are stronger 
 than infants nursed on the bottle. Bottle-fed babies 
 often look well and normal when compared with 
 breast-fed babies, but the future discloses the dif- 
 ference. Because a child grows fat on an artificial 
 
178 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 diet does not mean that that diet is giving it resis- 
 tance to rickets, swollen glands, predisposition to 
 disease, etc. 
 
 Cow's milk is not the same as mother's milk. 
 
 Certified cow's milk can be modified to resemble 
 physiologically mother's milk but the difl'erence 
 is still a menace to the health of the infant. 
 
 If there is doubt about the cleanliness of the 
 milk, doubt about its freedom from pathogenic bac- 
 teria, it might be pasteurized, but pasteurized milk 
 is justifiable for one reason only and that reason 
 a doubtful one. It is better, perhaps, to give the 
 child tubercle bacilli or other disease-breeding or- 
 ganisms after they have been destroyed by pasteur- 
 ization than to give them these living organisms in 
 raw milk. 
 
 Certified milk costs five cents per quart more 
 than the average raw milk. That investment of 
 five cents imposes no real hardship on the poorest 
 father or mother. In New York City the most 
 wretched and underpaid laborer finds his ten cents 
 for whiskey. If he is a father let him rather put 
 that money into milk protection for his child. 
 
 Raw cow's milk from healthy animals properly 
 certified and fed to the infant at blood heat is essen- 
 tial to the well being of the child that knows no in- 
 timacy with its mother's breast. 
 
 When milk is pasteurized or subjected to a tem- 
 perature above 98^ degrees it undergoes a chemical 
 change. Its albuminoids and mineral constituents so 
 necessary to the construction of the child's bone, 
 tissue and blood become partially disorganized and 
 the casseine is toughened. 
 
 Human caseine acted upon by the gastric juice 
 of the infant's stomach is reduced to tender flecks 
 which readily submit to digestive action. Cow's 
 
THE LITTLE WHITE CASKETS 179 
 
 milk, even when raw, forms large curds. When 
 pasteurized, the curds offer still greater resistance 
 to the feeble digestion of the baby. Still, perhaps 
 it is better to feed the child pasteurized milk than 
 to feed it unclean milk. Pasteurization does not 
 work miracles in dirty milk for the reason that 
 neither pasteurization nor boiling can kill the decom- 
 position products or poisonous end-products of the 
 bacteria, although the bacteria that produce these 
 poisons are themselve destroyed. 
 
 On artificial diets, including condensed milk, 
 containing cane sugar the infant cannot escape con- 
 stipation. For this reason fruit juice should be 
 given to the baby three or four times a day. The 
 freshly pressed, carefully strained juice of oranges 
 is the ideal fruit juice for the infant. A teaspoonful 
 of such orange juice three times a day is the most 
 important addifion to the artificially fed baby's 
 diet. Never give fruit juice immediately after or 
 immediately before feeding. Never use juice from 
 fruit containing bruises or green fruit or over-ripe 
 fruit. See to it that it is scrupulously strained so 
 that none of the fruit pulp is swallowed by the 
 infant. Even the child fed from its mother's breast 
 is benefited by the fruit juice addition to its food. 
 The acid of the fruit almost instantly decomposes 
 in the child's stomach and is converted into alka- 
 line salts of potassium and calcium. Do not fear 
 such "acid" for the child. 
 
 The healthy mother who has not sufficient milk 
 for her baby, provided the milk she has be of good 
 quality, is not justified in refusing the child what 
 little she has. Such human milk is important and 
 when supplemented by properly modified cow's milk, 
 the infant so fed will enjoy advantages over the 
 infant fed entirely on the bottle. If one had a half 
 
180 ' STARVING AMERICA 
 
 loaf of good bread in the bread box would she throw 
 that half loaf away because it was not a whole loaf, 
 and substitute in its stead a whole loaf of poor 
 bread? The doctor's advice is the advice to follow 
 because the responsibility is the doctor's responsi- 
 bility. He will usually agree with the well-dis- 
 posed mother that it is better for her to nurse her 
 baby with the milk she has and to make up the 
 deficiency artificially than not to nurse her baby at 
 all. On a diet of debased food nature will shut off 
 the mother's milk supply. The mother who would 
 nurse her precious babe must eat food acceptable to 
 nature. 
 
 When the child cries he often wants a teaspoonf ul 
 of water. He never needs distilled water. Beware 
 of distilled water, not only for the child, but for 
 the adult. It is mineral-free and mineral-hungry. 
 We must not let it feed upon the child. 
 
 Neither infants nor children should have cane 
 sugar in their diet, as it is now made, although hon- 
 est, old-fashioned cane sugar was a natural and a 
 nutritious food. The sugar-bowl on the table 
 of the twentieth century home is one of the most 
 deadly curses laid by ignorance upon child-life. The 
 child's stomach makes its own sugar. Every ounce 
 of starch he consumes must be converted into sugar 
 before digestion. Mothers of children must be made 
 to realize that artificial sweets sap the child's body 
 of its most indispensable substances and bring about 
 disorder of the bones and teeth. The child's love 
 for sweets is to be satisfied with the sweets organized 
 for him by all-generous nature plus human intelli- 
 gence. He gets these sweets not only in a harmless, 
 but in a beneficial form, in the fruits of the earth and 
 at two and a half years of age there is not one ripe 
 fruit which the child cannot digest and assimilate in 
 
THE LITTLE WHITE CASKETS 181 
 
 moderate quantities. Even the date will impose no 
 tax upon the digestion after the third year unless he 
 over-eats. Honey, sap maple syrup and old-fash- 
 ioned molasses, with unrefined cane sugar, contain 
 the tissue salts of the cane, tree and flower, the iron 
 and calcium, that nature put there. Such forms of 
 sweets are natural and good. Candy prepared from 
 them is good candy for the child. Yes, this advo- 
 cates the use of "impure" sugar for there is no such 
 thing as pure sugar in nature. The sugar found in 
 vegetables, fruits, reeds, trees, etc., is unrefined, 
 just as the starch in these things is unrefined. This 
 is as it should be, and we should not allow any in- 
 dustry, however powerful or privileged, to take any- 
 thing out of our food which nature intended to be 
 there. Chemically pure sugar, C12 H^^ 0", is not 
 found in nature. It is the product of the laboratory, 
 not of God. 
 
 The writer's children eat no artificial sweets. 
 They are happy, very, very happy. There is touch- 
 ing, pathos in their childish efforts to dissuade their 
 little companions not to eat the evil or worthless 
 things that are everywhere offered them in mistaken 
 kindness, or in exchange for their pennies. They 
 call the date, apple, orange, berry, banana, fig, prune, 
 plum and peach, "God's candy." They see that no- 
 body gives "doggie or kitty or bird or horse or 
 chicks" cane sugar. They understand. Their lives 
 are not empty. From the very beginning they grasp 
 the necessity of drawing a line between good and 
 evil, between the essential and the non-essential, 
 between the moment's pleasure and its consequence. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 WHAT TO FEED THE CHILD. 
 
 What should our children eat, if we do as well 
 by them as the farmer does by his prize poultry and 
 cattle? 
 
 The following suggestions are the result of inti- 
 mate study of child life covering a period of many 
 years. 
 
 Some persons believe that the child must have 
 the mumps, measles, croup, etc., and actually go so 
 far as to expose children to such diseases under the 
 mistaken idea that as the child has to get sick in 
 such fashion anyhow, it is better to have it done 
 with and over as soon as possible. Children properly 
 fed need not get sick. They will resist the so-called 
 children's diseases, just as the horse resists tuber- 
 culosis. 
 
 The diet that follows presents the fortification 
 that has withstood for more than six years all the 
 assaults of infant ills in the writer's own family. 
 
 FOR CHILDREN THREE YEARS AND OVER. 
 
 BREAKFAST MONDAY. 
 
 One-half small grape fruit or one-quarter large 
 ^rape fruit, or sliced ripe peaches, ripe raspberries, 
 blackberries, strawberries or ripe cantaloupe. 
 
 Natural brown rice and certified milk. 
 
 Whole wheat bread and butter. 
 
 BREAKFAST TUESDAY. 
 
 Scraped raw apple, baked apple or whole raw 
 
184 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 apple, skin and all, when the child can be trusted 
 to use its teeth properly. 
 
 Whole wheat meal porridge and certified milk. 
 
 Whole wheat bread, sweet butter and honey. 
 
 BREAKFAST WEDNESDAY. 
 
 Juice of whole orange. 
 
 Old-fashioned, unsteamed, unscoured oat meal 
 with certified milk. 
 
 Whole wheat bread and butter, 
 
 BREAKFAST THURSDAY. 
 
 Stewed dates. 
 
 Poached egg on whole wheat toast. 
 
 Certified milk. 
 
 Whole wheat bread and pure maple syrup. 
 
 BREAKFAST FRIDAY. 
 
 Stewed prunes. 
 
 Unpearled barley with certified milk. 
 
 Whole wheat bread. 
 
 BREAKFAST SATURDAY. 
 
 Grape fruit, orange juice, apple or any other 
 fruit. 
 
 Old-fashioned, undegerminated corn meal and 
 certified milk. 
 
 Whole wheat bread. 
 
 BREAKFAST SUNDAY. 
 
 Stewed figs or apple sauce. 
 
 Natural wheat food or breakfast food made of 
 undebased, unimpoverished, unscoured, unpolished, 
 unsoaked, unbleached barley, oats or wheat with 
 certified milk and a sprinkle of old-fashioned, unsul- 
 phured brown sugar if it can be found. 
 
 Whole wheat muffins made with raisins, currants 
 or dates. 
 
WHAT TO FEED THE CHILD 185 
 
 OBSERVATIONS: 
 
 These breakfast combinations are not arbitrary. 
 They are intended as suggestions based on a knowl- 
 edge of the meaning of proteins, carbohydrates, fats 
 and mineral salts. With these combinations, the 
 child will not be tempted to over-eat. The appetite 
 will not be abnormal. To-day he may not eat bread 
 in addition to his cereals. To-morrow he may not 
 be content with less than one slice of bread ; or he 
 may want two. His needs will guide him. Any 
 variations that normal taste demands, or that will 
 relieve monotony, or any breakfast food made from 
 the honest raw grain, containing all of the grain, 
 can be substituted as desired. The fruit may con- 
 sist solely of apples with splendid results. 
 
 The necessary potassium and calcium salts are 
 found in the fruit suggested. Phosphorus, chlorine, 
 iron, sodium, calcium, sulphur, silica, magnesium 
 and manganese are found in the natural grains, 
 milk and bread suggested. 
 
 If the butter is not fresh, the child is better off 
 without it. The less butter he eats the better. 
 
 DINNER MONDAY. 
 
 Soups made of a combination of four or five fresh 
 vegetables and greens, such as onions, parsley, car- 
 rots, spinach, parsnips, celery or celery tops. 
 
 Potato baked in its skin. When the skin is baked 
 crisp the child can eat it with impunity. If soggy, 
 it is better to let not only the skin but the potato 
 alone. 
 
 Poached egg or an egg cooked in its shell for ten 
 minutes in water at 160 degrees Fahrenheit. 
 
 Endives, lettuce, crisp celery or greens of any 
 kind. 
 
 Three or four dates or one or two figs or three 
 or four ripe olives or a bunch of grapes in season. 
 
186 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 DINNER TUESDAY. 
 
 Thick lentil soup (not more than one-half cup- 
 ful). 
 
 Stewed carrots served in the water in which 
 they are cooked, thickened with whole wheat meal. 
 
 Greens. 
 
 Whole wheat bread. 
 
 Stewed fresh rhubarb or apple sauce, or any ripe 
 fruit. 
 
 DINNER WEDNESDAY. 
 Stewed onion juice with the onions. 
 Poached egg or egg cooked ten minutes at 160 
 degrees. 
 
 Stewed parsnips served in own sauce. 
 Creamed fresh peas or tender corn on cob. 
 Fruit or ripe olives. 
 
 A slice of whole wheat bread and honey. 
 DINNER THURSDAY. 
 
 Thick bean soup. 
 
 Stewed fresh spinach served in own sauce. 
 Any vegetable combination such as turnips, 
 fresh beets, parsnips or potatoes. 
 Barley cakes or oat cakes. 
 Apples, apple pudding or apple sauce. 
 
 DINNER FRIDAY. 
 
 Soup made of greens with barley or rice or both. 
 
 Dried peas, dried beans or dried lentils soaked 
 ten hours and cooked ten hours. 
 
 Old-fashioned sun-dried apples or sun-dried apri- 
 cots if the fresh variety is not in season. 
 
 Whole wheat bread. 
 
 DINNER SATURDAY. 
 
 Vegetable soup. 
 
 Natural brown rice with custard sauce. 
 
 Greens. 
 
WHAT TO FEED THE CHILD 187 
 
 Sliced fresh pineapple, sliced fresh peaches, ber- 
 ries or cantaloupe. 
 
 Whole wheat bread and three or four ripe olives. 
 
 DINNER SUNDAY. 
 
 Chicken soup with boiled or roast chicken. 
 
 Creamed onions, cauliflower or Brussels sprouts. 
 
 Greens. 
 
 Baked banana with light cake containing eggs. 
 
 Grape juice. 
 
 Whole wheat bread and maple syrup. 
 
 A thin film of fresh peanut butter on such days 
 as eggs are not served is a good addition to bread. 
 The peanut butter must be fresh. When stale, the 
 fatty acids of which it is composed split up and pro- 
 duce an irritant substance called acrolein, which is 
 a solvent of flesh dangerous to child or adult life. 
 Nuts may be served only when ground or when the 
 child has been taught to thoroughly masticate them. 
 A little grated Parmesan, Roman or whole milk 
 cheese can be sprinkled over potatoes, turnips, car- 
 rots or bread as an occasional addition to this diet. 
 It must be remembered that cheese, like eggs, beans, 
 peas, lentils and milk, is nitrogen (meat). Nitro- 
 gen is indispensable though too much is bad. 
 
 The child may be allowed occasionally fresh fruit 
 jelly or fresh fruit jam, both of which are semi-nat- 
 ural sweets. The living ferments necessary to per- 
 fect digestion are provided through the medium of 
 the raw greens and raw fruits as suggested. 
 
 EVENING LUNCH UP TO SIX YEARS. 
 
 MONDAY. 
 
 Certified milk and whole wheat bread or oaten 
 crackers. 
 
188 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 TUESDAY. 
 
 Certified milk and whole bread or undegermin- 
 ated corn porridge. 
 
 WEDNESDAY. 
 
 Certified milk and whole wheat bread. 
 
 This simple combination should be repeated or 
 intelligently varied at the other evening meals, 
 which should be the lightest of the day. 
 
 OBSERVATION: 
 
 Between six and ten eggs per week depending on 
 the vigor of the child should be consumed between 
 its third and ninth year. At five years six eggs con- 
 stitute the outside limit. Fresh olive oil can be used 
 in moderate quantities, a teaspoonful, for instance, 
 with greens or salads. 
 
 The things which the child should not eat are: 
 artificial sweets (robbed of the cane salts, explained 
 later) artificially colored and artificially flavored; 
 grease gravy, fried foods of any kind; sulphur- 
 bleached apricots, apples, peaches, pears, raisins or 
 prunes; chili sauce, catsup, pickleg, condiments or 
 any other food containing vinegar; vegetables that 
 have lost their soluble salts by boiling or stewing in 
 water subsequently poured down the waste-pipe; 
 boiled meats ; fried meats, liver, kidney, hard boiled 
 eggs unless the latter are pulverized; molassds or 
 other forms of sugar bleached with sulphurous, acid, 
 cookies, ginger bread and taffy made from such 
 molasses; all food artificially colored with any of 
 the coal-tar dyes, all canned foods unless the cans 
 are lacquered, all bake shop or drug store ice cream 
 -made from "loose milk," gelatine, ethereal flavors 
 and artificial colors ; all factory or fancy cakes con- 
 taminated with aluminum sulphate, fillers, ethereal 
 flavors, stearine, artificial jellies, coal-tar color's, etc. 
 
WHAT TO FEED THE CHILD 189 
 
 Ice cream made at home from certified milk or a 
 mixture of certified milk and wholesome cream is 
 permitted in small quantities but it should be eaten 
 slowly and not on top of a full meal. Coffee and tea 
 are not permissable. 
 
 Dr. C. K. Taylor, studying the effect of coffee 
 drinking on 464 school children, found that about 
 29 per cent of those children drank no coffee, while 
 71 per cent drank from one to two or more cups 
 a day. Dr. Taylor found that as regards physical 
 measurements, the children who drank coffee aver- 
 aged from one and one-half to more than four 
 pounds less in weight, and from one-half inch to 
 more than one inch less in height, than the children 
 who abstained from coffee. They were also found 
 to have an average of three pounds less in hand 
 strength, than the children who never drank coffee. 
 
 Dr. Taylor concludes that it seems likely that the 
 regular drinking of coffee by children, has an effect 
 which seems to make the child less "fit" physically 
 as well as mentally, than those who do not use 
 coffee. 
 
 Under the above diet, constipation and other 
 bowel and stomach disorders are impossible unless 
 the child is permitted to stuff. If left to his own 
 inclinations with such food he will manifest no 
 tendency to stuff. His perfectly nourished body 
 asserts no unnatural craving and as a result he 
 will not gorge himself. It is absurd to assume that 
 with such a bill of fare the child is being deprived 
 of the hundred and one "innocent and delightful 
 tidbits" which have been inherited from hundreds 
 of years of grandmotherdom. 
 
 When it can be shown that nourished upon such 
 food the child is perfectly happy and that defective 
 vision, defective teeth, lusterless eyes, pinched 
 
190 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 cheeks, underdeveloped limbs, low resistance to 
 diseases are all avoided, and sturdy, sparkling, 
 buoyant, energetic childhood is produced, intelligent 
 mother-love can have no patience with those who 
 assert that the child should have his share of the 
 world's artificial and ridiculous luxuries. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon to be 
 observed under such a diet, is the utter unwilling- 
 ness of the child to eat between meals. He makes 
 no clamor for food of any kind before dinner or in 
 the afternoon. 
 
 Prior to the age of six the child should go to bed 
 at six o'clock and should sleep in all kinds of weather 
 in a cold room with the windows wide open. The 
 best food in the world will accomplish little if the 
 child is obliged to breathe the same air twice. 
 
 After the sixth year the child may have his 
 evening meal with father and mother, continuing to 
 observe the rules of simplicity regardless of the 
 manner in which the table is set or the character of 
 foods upon it. 
 
 If the one condition under which little Helen's 
 father and mother could have their darling restored 
 to their arms consisted in a promise to feed her 
 properly, could they meet that condition? 
 
 This book is written for those who would answer, 
 yes! 
 
 If the Sunday School picnic or the birthday party 
 or the circus excursion includes factory ice cream 
 made of "loose milk," bacteria-infected gelatine, 
 with coal-tar dye and ethereal flavors the child 
 should not go. 
 
 This book demands revolution. If its demands 
 be not heeded, the alternative is that we can con- 
 tinue to murder our children. We can continue to 
 
WHAT TO FEED THE CHILD 191 
 
 bury those who die before their time. Let us demand 
 imperatively that our representatives and our leg- 
 islators prove that they know the truths written here 
 before they swear fidelity to their trust as servants 
 of the people. 
 
 We must have a legally standardized loaf of 
 whole wheat bread made of certified whole wheat 
 meal. Otherwise, the adulterator will use the 
 creamy color of the honest loaf as a mask to con- 
 ceal inferiority and dirt. The white bread maker 
 will then point to his immaculate loaf free from the 
 faintest speck of color and triumphantly contrast its 
 "chastity" with the possibility of dirt and defilement 
 in the darker loaf. The people will look with sus- 
 picion upon the creamy product, develop anxiety 
 over it, lose faith in it and again abandon it in favor 
 of the "clean" white loaf. We have certified milk, 
 certified drugs, certified checks with which to pay 
 for them. The certified loaf or the home-made loaf 
 Avith love kneaded into its heart will be the standard 
 bread of America when you so resolve. 
 
 There would be no reason for condemning fruits 
 or vegetables in tin cans if the canners would devise 
 some means of preventing erosion in the tins by 
 the action of enzymes or the action of the fruit and 
 vegetable acids. Tin is not one of the benevolent 
 minerals. Neither is lead. These are not found 
 in the human body except as we introduce them into 
 our stomachs with canned food in the shape of salts 
 of tin and lead. Arsenic in cheap tin plate readily 
 passes over into solution with the contents of the 
 can. It is the duty of the canner to safe-guard his 
 canned products from these poisons. 
 
 The canner is now seriously aroused, over this 
 question. His chemists are striving to find a way 
 to prevent the formation of tin salts in vegetables 
 
192 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 and fruits. Until he can guarantee his product free 
 from tin in solution no child should be permitted 
 to eat any food that has been packed in tin. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 INCREASING DEATH RATE. 
 
 Great have been the changes of the past few 
 years. 
 
 People are thinking in terms of the telegraph, 
 the telephone, the "wireless," the aeroplane, the 
 submarine. Men have invented new machines and 
 the new machines have turned upon them and have 
 created new men. Men now live in wider distances 
 and think in larger circles. 
 
 But we have not only the telescope but the micro- 
 scope. Life has not only become more extensive, 
 but more intensive. We see the power of the little 
 things, the hidden forces of- life. 
 
 The poisonous phosphorus match that destroyed 
 by necrosis the bones of the men and women who 
 made it; that, thoughtlessly put into the mouth of 
 a child, mysteriously occasioned its sickness or 
 death, yes, even the phosphorus match has been 
 swept out of the land or, is to be ! 
 
 It was common, insignificant, yet it dealt death 
 subtly and slowly. Other commonplace dangers of 
 the kitchen are no longer regarded as trifles, but are 
 now being investigated and catalogued for just what 
 they are. 
 
 A great life assurance society has established a 
 Department of Conservation through which to teach 
 men, women and children the simple fundamentals 
 of life. 
 
194 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 This is indeed an age of high pressure and of 
 rapid living. Thomas A. Edison has declared that 
 he has already lived 110 years because for thirty 
 or forty years he has been able to work from 
 fifteen to eighteen hours a day. Here and there a 
 human machine can stand the rack and wear of such 
 a heavy strain, but as the Equitable Life Assurance 
 Society tells us, it is useless for a man who is 
 equipped to carry a hundred pounds of steam with 
 safety to try to carry two hundred pounds. This is 
 why so many men from forty to fifty are dying of 
 kidney, heart or arterial troubles. 
 
 Within one week the New York newspapers in 
 the year 1912 reported the unexpected deaths of 
 three prominent men who were living this intense 
 business life in addition to the strain of their social 
 duties. The world calls these tragedies "sudden" 
 deaths. They were not sudden deaths. 
 
 A few years ago a crowded express train broke 
 through a bridge and destroyed a hundred lives. An 
 investigation showed that the strands in the great 
 cable of the bridge had been giving away one by 
 one until the final strain. 
 
 Few deaths are sudden. The daily routine of 
 life, the habits of mind, of work, of worry, of recrea- 
 tion, are the daily jar and strain of the strands in 
 the great cables of the human bridge, which are 
 thus slowly broken until some day under a heavier 
 strain than usual the stnicture falls. It was not a 
 sudden accident ; it was the inevitable end. Physical 
 bankruptcy is quite similar to financial bankruptcy. 
 As, long as the daily and yearly expenditure of 
 strength and vitality exceeds ever so little the in- 
 come of repair and recuperation, just so long will 
 there be certainty that the "run" on the Bank of 
 Health will finally close its doors. 
 
INCREASING DEATH RATE 195 
 
 A man is as old as his arteries. The man of 
 forty, fifty or even sixty years of age should not 
 have arteries lacking in elasticity. When the young 
 man has the arteries of the old man, it is because his 
 habits of eating and working, thinking and drinking 
 have crovF<Jed too many years into his short span of 
 existence, giving him the arteries of the aged. 
 
 Nothing will so soon produce hardening of the 
 arteries as impure food. As the arteries harden, 
 a little extra pressure produces a break like the 
 snapping of a strand in the cable. 
 
 This condition can be prevented by supplying the 
 heart and its electric batteries, or nerve cells, with 
 proper material to repair the waste and continual 
 drain upon them. 
 
 The blood obtains its nourishment from the 
 stomach, and its oxygen from the lungs. It relieves 
 itself of waste products by means of the kidneys and 
 spleen. Steady, rhythmical heart-beats are brought 
 about by pure food in right quantities. 
 
 Right thinking, moderation in eating and drink- 
 ing, regular daily exercise in the open air and proper 
 bathing, with food of a proper kind will long with- 
 stand the attacks of disease and death. 
 
 The Equitable Life Assurance gives us a number 
 of highly significant facts to consider. 
 
 DEATH KATE. 
 
 1909 1910 
 
 Richmond 20.7 22.6 
 
 Portland, Ore 9.8 11.0 
 
 Memphis 20.1 21.4 
 
 Washington 19.0 19.6 
 
 Minnesota 10.7 12.3 
 
 Albany 17.6 19.4 
 
 New York 16.0 16.0 
 
196 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 New Orleans . . , 20.2 21.3 
 
 Chicago 14.6 15.1 
 
 Denver 17.0 16.4 
 
 Los Angeles 13.7 14.0 
 
 Birmingham 18.2 19.5 
 
 The difference in these death rates was due, ac- 
 cording to the Equitable Life Assurance Society's 
 comment to difference in age distribution, local con- 
 ditions and VARYING VALUE OF PUBLIC 
 HEALTH SERVICE. The average death rate for 
 the year 1910 in the cities mentioned was 16.8. 
 
 If we should teach these thirteen cities the mean- 
 ing of food, how to feed their children, how to feed 
 their adults ; if we should teach them the worthless- 
 ness of impoverished and denatured food, if we 
 should point out to them a short cut back to nature, 
 the death rate of 16,8 in one generation would be 
 reduced to less than 6.8. 
 
 Thoughtless people sometimes say to the writer 
 in his public addresses: "Well, if our food is so 
 imperfect, why do people live longer than they did 
 in years gone by ?" There is only one answer to that 
 question: We banished yellow fever and other filth 
 diseases by cleaning house. We no longer drink 
 sewage on a large scale. Federal and state laws 
 are invoked continually to protect us from this evil. 
 Our Health Departments do not permit us to pile 
 the city streets with decaying refuse. If with our 
 advance in sanitation we had given the same atten- 
 tion to our food supply we would have an inspiring 
 story to tell. 
 
 In the meantime we do not know that people 
 live longer now-a-days (the average length of life 
 is 44 years) for there are no statistics with which 
 to make comparison and the Equitable figures, just 
 quoted, show an increase in deaths, not a decrease. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 EFFECTS OF POOD EXPERIMENTS IN SCHOOLS. 
 
 A man might be compared to a steam boiler con- 
 structed of many plates of various metals, differing 
 in strength and thickness. Under low pressure such 
 a boiler might endure for a long time. Inside the 
 boiler some of the plates are slowly attracting de- 
 posits. The aluminum plate resists the action of 
 acids, copper plate resists rust, but the iron plate 
 is corroding and becoming thinner. Finally the 
 pressure in the boiler is raised a little and the boiler 
 gives way — at its weakest spot. 
 
 Man is a victim of diseases known by many dif- 
 ferent names according to the position and char- 
 acter of the weakest spot. 
 
 All disease springs from pollution or impoverish- 
 ment of the blood stream, and manifests itself in 
 the weak spot of the individual. 
 
 In one case we may have locomotor ataxia, in 
 another a sore eye; in one case Bright's disease, in 
 another rheumatism, and so on through thousands 
 of disorders. 
 
 The man who raises pigeons insists on whole 
 red wheat and whole com for their food to prevent 
 diseases of any kind. -His object is to protect the 
 weak spot. 
 
 All the while fixed laws are at work in the human 
 body. Whatever we put into the body will produce 
 results according to the quality and quantity of the 
 elements ingested. Hydrocyanic acid administered 
 
198 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 to a Monogolian in China and hydrocyanic acid ad- 
 ministered to a New Yorker in the Rockefeller In- 
 stitute, 10,000 miles distant, will produce similar 
 results. Morphine, digitalis, cocoaine act in Austria 
 just as they act in Brazil. The proper quantity of 
 certain mineral elements taken in the form of foods 
 organized by nature will produce the same results 
 in Bombay as in London. 
 
 The school girls of to-day are destined to be the 
 mothers of the race ten or twenty years hence. The 
 study of foods and their relationship to health be- 
 longs to the school room. 
 
 The Department of Domestic Economy in all 
 schools could take up this question under three heads 
 — ^honest food, denatured food, adulterated food. 
 
 Professor Lewis B. Allyn of the Department of 
 Chemistry, Massachusetts State Normal School, 
 Westfield, Massachusetts, has shown what wonder- 
 ful benefits the town of Westfield has derived from 
 the study which the school children of that town 
 have given to the subject of adulterated food. 
 
 Food should be studied with regard to the value 
 of the food elements which man removes by his so- 
 called processes of refinement. 
 
 Such lessons taught in all the schools of America 
 would give this great land in one generation a new 
 race of men. 
 
 For a practical demonstration of these things 
 let us put ten cages in the school-yard, or on the 
 roof of the schoolhouse. Into each of five of these 
 cages place four chickens, which the school children 
 may themselves feed. 
 
 The chickens in cage No. 1 will be fed whole 
 com, whole oats, natural rice, whole wheat, un- 
 pearled barley, grass or greens of any kind, 
 and water. The children will note that on this diet 
 
FOOD EXPERIMENTS 199 
 
 the chickens in cage No. 1 will be proud and spirited. 
 Their feathers will be brilliant, their flesh firm and 
 their bodies well developed. 
 
 The same children will feed the chickens in cage 
 No. 2 with equal mixtures of whole grains and de- 
 natured grains, the remainder of the diet being the 
 same. They will note that at the end of a period of 
 six months there will be marked superiority in ap- 
 pearance among the chickens in cage No. 1. 
 
 The same children will feed the chickens in cage 
 No. 3 with pearled barley, polished rice, processed 
 oats, degerminated com meal and doughballs made 
 of white flour and water with the same quantity of 
 greens fed to chickens in cages No. 1 and No. 2. 
 In a few months, the marked physical degeneracy 
 of the health of these chickens will teach the chil- 
 dren its own lesson. 
 
 The same children will feed chickens in cages 
 No. 4 with meat pulp from which the mineral salts 
 have been extracted by leaching in distilled water. 
 In addition to this they shall be fed all the soda 
 crackers, white biscuits, ginger bread, ginger snaps, 
 fancy cakes, white bread and candy they can eat, 
 plus water with the usual quantity of gravel and 
 greens. Their condition in a few months will be 
 eloquently suggestive to the children. 
 
 The same children will feed the chickens in cage 
 No. 5 with white bread, white biscuits, white 
 crackers and cakes, caramels, pickles, ethereal soda 
 water and other fancy drinks, with gravel but with- 
 out greens. As the feathers of these chickens begin 
 to droop and the chickens begin to huddle in the 
 comers of their cage seeking the darkness, miser- 
 able, thin and sick, the lesson of the relationship of 
 food to animal life will be taught. 
 
200 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 At this stage of the experiment the healthy 
 chickens in cage No. 1 will be transferred to cage 
 No. 6 and there they will be fed on the diet of cage 
 No. 5 until they begin to show the same symptoms 
 of dissolution and disease. 
 
 The chickens of cages No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 
 will then be put in cages No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, No. 10 
 and will be fed on the natural, undebased, unim- 
 poverished, undenatured diet of cage No. 1. The 
 children will see the sick chickens recover rapidly 
 and thoroughly, and they will go through life with 
 a thoroughly learned lesson, and when they assume 
 the responsibility of home life they will not abandon 
 the laws of nature in the pursuit of some capricious 
 food-ornament at the expense of the health, happi- 
 ness and welfare of those dependent upon them. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE HUNGRY SOIL. 
 
 The Nile floods raised grain for the Egyptians in 
 such abundance that the land of Egypt became the 
 "granary of the nation." Along the valley of the 
 Nile the staff of life sprang up out of the thin film 
 of mineral silt and clay which the swollen river laid 
 at the feet of the Egyptians. The Nile performed 
 a function, the significance of which was not under- 
 stood, but the results of which were remarkable. 
 The Egyptian bread was made of sound, vigorous, 
 undegerminated, undemineralized grain and the 
 soundness of the grain passed into the bodies of the 
 men who fed upon it. 
 
 When the Nile annually overflowed the land of 
 Egypt, it did not bring with it unnatural chemical 
 fertilizer or the putrefactions of manure. The Nile 
 flood brought from the hills into the valleys tons of 
 mineral rock in dust-like particles or held in solution 
 by the waters, which replaced in the soil the vitaliz- 
 ing mineral elements which the vegetation of the 
 preceding year had taken from it. With the unlock- 
 ing of the flood gates of the Nile the bread problem 
 of all ages should have been solved, and as if to 
 emphasize the meaning of stone in the destiny of 
 man, the Egyptians piled stone upon stone in pyra- 
 mids that will not die. 
 
 The Sphinx is no longer silent. She tells the 
 weaklings of the twentieth century that back there 
 in the darkness of humanity's cradle lies the secret 
 
202 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 that will make men free and strong and mighty — the 
 secret of stone. The certainty of honest bread and 
 plenty of it means more to the people who live on 
 the surface of this planet than poet or philosopher 
 has ever taught. Honest bread grown from lava 
 rock, means for the children of men, time, inclina- 
 tion and power through which to express the almost 
 infinite potentialities of the human family. Let us 
 visit our quarries of volcanic stone and our beds of 
 volcanic mud so that we may grasp the meaning they 
 have for the feeble nations of the earth. 
 
 In its precious freight of fertilizing rock the 
 Nile flood poured lavish treasures upon the people 
 of Egypt which might have taught humanity a les- 
 son that would have prevented the bread famines 
 of Ireland, India, Russia and China. There can be 
 no funeral pyres by the roadside or on .the outskirts 
 of the camp, the starved bodies of men will not be 
 burned to the god of ignorance, the vulture will no 
 longer hover over human carrion labeled "offered to 
 lifeless bread and too little of it," when the lesson 
 of the Nile is learned. 
 
 Somebody has said that in England two million 
 people are hungry all the time and that slowly but 
 surely the fibre of the nation is eaten into by a sub- 
 tle and insidious starvation. Another has said that 
 England with her people struggling for bread can- 
 not get sufl[icient young men for her armies physical- 
 ly able to stand the rigors of five years' service in 
 her tropical possessions. 
 
 The hunger of the soil for mineral rock was not 
 known in the valley of the Nile, and the pyramids 
 tell us that the hunger of men for honest bread free 
 from the pollutions of the stable will not be known 
 in the valley of twentieth century enlightenment. 
 
THE HUNGRY SOIL 208 
 
 It has been noted that in volcanic soil and on 
 mountainous lands man harvests wonderful crops. 
 Blindly turning his back upon these phenomena, he 
 takes the by-products of the slaughter house and 
 the dung of the pig pen in the form of ammonia and 
 phosphate fertilizers, and with such so-called plant 
 food, he rots and sours and pollutes the earth, in- 
 oculating the roots of his plants with the fountains 
 of putrefaction. The vigorous plant for a while 
 may resist disease just as the vigorous man for a 
 while may resist typhoid, but soil overfed on decom- 
 posing nitrogenous compounds, uric acid, etc., and 
 underfed on the mineral food which misguided 
 superstition has falsely believed to be abundantly 
 present in all earth, inevitably produces physiolog- 
 ical discord in vegetable life. The ignorant farmer, 
 hidebound by the traditions of his father and in- 
 spired by the desperate teachings of a misguided 
 science, looks up into the diseased leaves instead of 
 down at the starved roots, and believes that by 
 spraying his feeble plants with germicides and fancy 
 serums, he can kill blight and scale and fungi and 
 cut worms and weevils and the other morbid growths 
 and parasites which deprave and destroy the fruits 
 of the earth. 
 
 Along the foothills of Maine and in all land con- 
 tiguous to volcanic formation where the rains carry 
 the digested or broken mineral stone to the soil, 
 nature produces crops so lusty and vigorous that 
 they resist plant-sickness and men fed on the unre- 
 fined or unjuggled crops of such soil resist body- 
 sickness. Mineral rock of volcanic origin abounds 
 all over the earth, rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, 
 potassium, phosphorus, silica, manganese. The 
 rock formations of Washington, Oregon, Colorado 
 and Maine emphasize the secret of the Nile 
 
204 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Why is manure fertilizer impossible on an ex- 
 tended basis ? For the reason that no farmer is able 
 to grow enough forage on poor land to feed enough 
 stock to make enough manure to make that poor 
 land rich. Any farmer, who on any farm in the 
 United States can produce enough feed and forage 
 to feed enough live stock to produce enough manure 
 to turn that farm from a non-productive stale into 
 a high state of cultivation, can raise the dead to life. 
 One farmer may procure enough feed, cotton seed 
 meal, bran and shorts from another farm to feed 
 animals which will produce manure to promote in 
 his particular farm a high state of fertility. What 
 is taken from one farm may produce temporary re- 
 sults in another farm, but in the meantime where 
 are the farms that thus squander their own manure 
 going to get sufficient soil-food to keep their own 
 soil from exhaustion? By the unnatural manure 
 method of fertilizing, one farm may be maintained 
 in a state of fertility at the expense of ten adjacent 
 farms which are required to exhaust themselves in 
 order to lend their strength to the invalid farm. 
 
 Dr, C. G. Hopkins says, "In nearly all sections 
 of the country a farmer can be found here and there 
 — sometimes one in ten, and sometimes only one in 
 a hundred — who feeds all the crops that he raises 
 and also all that he can buy at reasonably low prices 
 from his neighbors, supplementing all this with pur- 
 chased bran, shorts, oil meal, cotton seed meal, etc., 
 and is thus able to produce sufficient manure to 
 maintain or even to increase the fertility of his own 
 farm at the expense of some othel farm." 
 
 If keeping live stock with its continuous per- 
 formance method of eating the fruits of the soil in 
 order to produce manure for the soil, constituted a 
 natural method of bringing up bad soil to good 
 
THE HUNGRY SOIL 205 
 
 condition, we would have no soil problems; but 
 when the products of a number of farms are required 
 to artificially increase the fertility of one farm, 
 where is the nation on an extended basis to get the 
 manure necessary to bring back to life all the farms 
 that exhaust themselves in an effort to help their 
 feeble neighbor? Is he not foolish, who in order to 
 strengthen one piece of land, is obliged to sap the 
 strength of another? By such "farm-foolosophy" an 
 endless chain of degeneracy is maintained not only 
 at the expense of the soil health but also at the ex- 
 pense of the public health; The farmer must learn 
 that in sickening the soil with manure and the para- 
 sites that flourish in corruption, he is contributing to 
 the process of decay which is now eating at the 
 heart of man. 
 
 The Bureau of Soils, United States Department 
 of Agriculture, has done work for the nation of suffi- 
 cient importance to send us back to the pyramids for 
 wisdom. The politicians have not seen to it that 
 the lessons have been applied. 
 
 Why should we talk of over-population or of in- 
 sufficient food when we look at Japan, Germany, 
 Italy, France and Spain ? Japan, including the island 
 of Formosa, embraces less than 150,000 square miles. 
 In 1910 that little stretch of land supported 
 over 51,000,000 people or 350 to the square mile. 
 The United States with an area of more than 3,- 
 600,000 square miles in the same year supported 
 93,000,000 people or 20 to the square mile. A sig- 
 nificant ratio of 17 to 1 ! 
 
 The State of Texas alone contains 262,290 square 
 miles and if populated like Japan could support all 
 the people of the United States leaving all the other 
 states with their abandoned cities and plains as 
 birth places for a new race. If the United States 
 
206 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 were populated as thickly as Japan she could to-day 
 support 1,265,789,400 people. 
 
 Why go to Japan for a contrast? 
 
 Germany with an area of a little more than two 
 hundred thousand square miles supports 64,000,000 
 people, an average of 305 to the square mile. Italy 
 with an area of 110,000 square miles supports a 
 population of 33,500,000 an average of 304 to the 
 square mile, France supports an average of 188 to 
 the square mile; Portugal an average of 155 to the 
 square mile. 
 
 Yet in the United States com is dear because 
 producing but 26 bushels to the acre there is not 
 enough to go round. In Germany with her fertilizer 
 of lava rock the farmer who does not produce 50 
 bushels per acre is ashamed. 
 
 We need not worry about over-population. We 
 need not worry about bread famine. We need only 
 worry about our failure to put our 10,000 little red 
 school houses at the country cross-roads to a good 
 use. We need only worry about the empty "isms" 
 of our colleges and universities. We need only 
 worry about continuous ignorance, denatured soil 
 and denatured food. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 FOOD REFORM IN THE GROCERY STORE — BULLETINS OF 
 THE IDEAL GROCERY. 
 
 A man is as old as his arteries. The arteries 
 harden through bad habits which retard the elimin- 
 ation of the blood, lymph, bone and tissue salts. 
 Lime salts are deposited when by excesses we 
 squander the phosphorus of our body and when by 
 food follies we remove the phosphorus from our diet. 
 
 Right thinking, moderation in eating and drink- 
 ing, proper exercise, honest food will regulate the 
 hardening of the arteries. Excess eating, excess 
 drinking, excess excitement, excess worry (all worry 
 is excess) and excesses of all kinds make themselves 
 felt first of all in the human heart. 
 
 The grocery stores of the future will consider 
 the laws of the body and will do their share in pro- 
 moting the happiness of the human heart. On 
 their walls will appear some such signs as we will 
 now set down. 
 
 CONDENSED MILK. 
 
 Our condensed milk contains the butter fats and 
 other solids that ought to be there. A chain of 
 grocery stores in New York City in 1911 paid a fine 
 of $500.00 and the Department of Health seized and 
 destroyed 40,000 cans of adulterated condensed milk. 
 Condensed milk is a baby food. Draw your own 
 conclusions. 
 
 JUSTICE. 
 
 The grocer who trifles knowingly, or through 
 
208 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 lack of proper care, with the foods on which babies 
 depend for their life should repent in jail. 
 
 LOOSE MILK. 
 
 We don't sell it. When nobody sells it more 
 babies will survive. 
 
 VANILLA. 
 Our vanilla extract contains no tonka beans, 
 coumarin or vanillin. It is made of vanilla beans 
 and is not diluted. It is not sold in short weight 
 decoy bottles. 
 
 SPICES. 
 
 We don't sell exhausted spices because the den- 
 tist needs oil of cloves, oil of cinnamon, etc. Our 
 spices contain all the fixed and volatile oil nature 
 put there. 
 
 FLAVORS. 
 
 We don't sell strawberry, raspberry, peach, 
 banana, pineapple, pistachio, cherry extracts which 
 are made from formic ether, oenanthic ether, valer- 
 ianate ether, ethyl ether, amyl ether, benzoic ether, 
 butyric ether, esters and aldehydes. This is a 
 grocery store, not a drug store. 
 
 SPIRIT VINEGAR. 
 
 We don't sell it. Our cider vinegar comes from 
 apples, not from acetic acid and coal-tar dye. Our 
 wine vinegar comes from grapes. All vinegar is 
 diluted with water. So is ours. 
 
 JAM, 
 
 A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty among 
 Jams should be organized. Glucose, apple stock 
 (skins and cores), apple juice (prepared from apple 
 waste), inorganic phosphoric or tartaric acid, bold 
 mention of "berries" on the neck strip of the jar 
 
FOOD REFORM IN THE GROCERY 209 
 
 with the sacred 1-10 of 1 per cent of benzoate of soda 
 attached, give us the word "compound," also the 
 shivers. 
 
 BLACKBALL. 
 
 If a store cannot OR WILL NOT tell the plain, 
 blunt truth concerning every food product on its 
 shelves, it is your privilege to stay out of that store. 
 
 TEA. 
 
 The Government's new Tea Test shows prussian 
 blue, gypsum or other facing or coloring on doctored 
 teas. NO DOCTORED TEAS HERE. 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 Our butter is not "processed" butter or "reno- 
 vated" butter. It has never seen a homogenizer. 
 If you want a reworked mixture this is not the place. 
 
 OLEO. 
 
 We sell oleomargarine as such. It is all right but 
 it is not butter. We would much rather eat it than 
 a lot of some butter. It is pure. 
 
 FULL CREAM CHEESE. 
 
 We haven't any. Nobody has. There is no such 
 thing. Our cheese is "whole milk" cheese. It con- 
 tains all the cream the cow gave, but no more. 
 "Skim milk" cheese is in the majority. Think it 
 over. 
 
 MOLASSES. 
 
 All New Orleans molasses is bleached with sul- 
 phurous acid. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania 
 condemned sulphurous acid as a poison. Our mo- 
 lasses is darker than the bleached kind because it is 
 not doped. 
 
 DRIED FRUITS. 
 
 We sell pure prunes, raisins, currants and citron. 
 They are free from sulphurous acid. We sell sun- 
 dried apples and apricots, but no other kind. If 
 
210 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 the public is satisfied with brunette raisins why does 
 it want blonde peaches? 
 
 PUEE MEANS NOTHING. 
 
 All eggs are "pure" eggs. The crab apple is 
 just as "pure" as the greening. A piece of beef off 
 the shin bone of an ox is just as pure as a porter- 
 house steak. The word "pure" is overpuffed with 
 pride. It's quality that counts. 
 
 LEGAL. 
 If you want lime juice or any other food pre- 
 served with sulphurous acid it is legal. If you like 
 such foods buy them, but not in the dark. 
 
 ECONOMY. 
 
 Small prunes contain twice as many pits and 
 skins as large prunes. Which is cheaper, prune 
 meat or prune pits? Think it over. 
 
 PURELY VEGETABLE. 
 
 "Purely vegetable" does not mean "harmless." 
 Opium, strychnine, cocaine, laudenum are "purely 
 vegetable." 
 
 AET. 
 
 We have no art department. Coal-tar dyes be- 
 long to the ribbon business, not the food business. 
 "Harmless" color schemes are all right for the label, 
 but not for the food. 
 
 CATSUP. 
 
 Our catsup is made from tomatoes, not from to- 
 mato pulp. It contains no potato starch or any other 
 starch. It contains no coal-tar dye and is not pre- 
 served with benzoate. 
 
 ALUM. 
 
 The law allows alum in pickles, mince meat, re- 
 lishes, baking powder. We don't. If you think alum 
 is good for you just try it on your cat. 
 
FOOD REFORM IN THE GROCERY 211 
 
 CANNED GOODS. 
 We don't buy last year's "jobs" or "overstocks" 
 from the canner or packer to catch you with "bar- 
 gain" prices. We sell no watered products. Add 
 the water from your own spigot. Even if the 
 Bureau of Water Supply does not give trading 
 stamps, it is cheaper to get water from the spigot 
 than the grocer. 
 
 JUGGLING. 
 
 All the jugglers are not in the circus. The same 
 bag of coffee in this store is not dumped into three 
 different bins to come out at three different prices. 
 
 HATS AND MUSHROOMS. 
 Panama hats are bleached with sulphurous acid. 
 So are canned mushrooms and other things. 
 LACQUERED TINS. 
 If salts of tin were a good thing in your food 
 God would have put them there, but he didn't. 
 That's why we want all canned foods packed in 
 lacquered tins or glass. 
 
 MINCE MEAT. 
 
 Our mince meat contains no "rejected" cur- 
 rants and raisins, no skins and cores and no filler 
 of glucose. It contains no antiseptic. It was made 
 for human beings, not for test tubes. 
 
 FRENCH FIZZLES. 
 We don't sell imported French peas, string beans, 
 etc., colored with sulphate of copper. There is a 
 law against them in Pennsylvania and another in 
 this store. 
 
 GELATINE POWDERS. 
 
 Can't buy them here. The story is too miserable 
 to be hung up in public places. Ask some one who 
 knows. It will save us from bad talk. 
 
212 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 CLEAN. 
 
 Our foods are covered. Sanitary protection 
 means a little more to us than it does to some polit- 
 ically infested health departments. 
 
 .^0 FOOD FRAUD. 
 
 This is a pure food store. It won't tolerate any 
 form of food fraud or deception. The drugs, dyes 
 and flavors vs^hich politics have white-washed canni^t 
 get in here though they are legal. Politics and 
 health laws don't go any better together than ice 
 cream and beer. 
 
 BENZOATE. 
 
 If you want foods preserved with benzoate they 
 sell them down the street. We won't sell them be- 
 cause we have no M. D. diploma that entitles us to 
 prescribe medicine in a grocery store. 
 
 ONE DOSE. 
 
 One dose of the things we don't allow in our 
 foods won't kill you. People don't die that way from 
 food frauds. It is the bad history of food drugs and 
 the bad things that food drugs conceal that we ob- 
 ject to. 
 
 POLISHED RICE. 
 Polished rice won't do you as much harm as 
 whiskey, but it won't do you the good that rice was 
 designed to do when God made it his way. If the 
 rice polisher knows more about what rice ought to 
 be than the Almighty, where are his credentials? 
 
 OUR CAKES. 
 Our cakes contain eggs, not "egg color." If egg 
 color was not a fraud intended to represent eggs 
 that are off on a vacation, some other color would 
 be used besides yellow and cakes would be lavender, 
 purple, pink, green. 
 
FOOD REFORM IN THE GROCERY 213 
 
 CORN MEAL. 
 
 We sell corn meal containing all of the com, 
 including the good part usually fed to hogs. 
 
 OAT MEAL. 
 
 Our oat meal contains all of the things that 
 grew up in the oat. We don't believe any more in 
 denaturing oats than we do in denaturing men and 
 women. 
 
 WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. 
 Pale children often need foods, not drugs. 
 Honest bread made from all of the wheat, nothing 
 added and nothing taken away, will put life in the 
 child. 
 
 BROWN RICE. 
 
 All natural rice is brown. That's the way it 
 grows. You can make it white by denaturing it. 
 What chance would a baby have if you denatured 
 its milk? 
 
 WHITE FLOUR. 
 
 GOD put twelve vitalizing mineral salts into 
 the wheat. MAN takes, eight of them out in order 
 to make flour white and then wonders why there are 
 so many false teeth. 
 
 NATURAL LAWS. 
 
 You expect milk, eggs, meat, fish, tomatoes, etc., 
 to spoil. Why? Because you know they will obey 
 nature's laws. Don't expect other foods not to obey 
 the same laws. They will unless you put "dope" in 
 them. 
 
 CANDY. 
 
 Our candy contains no coal-tar dye, no flavoring 
 ethers, no soap stone or radiator lacquer, no car- 
 penter's glue, no paraffin, no shellac, no iron oxides, 
 gum benzoin or substitute for pure chocolate. 
 
214 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 FEESH EGGS. 
 
 Our eggs were not laid in Heaven. Every egg 
 answers for its own career. We sell storage eggs 
 under their right name. We sell near-by eggs for 
 just what they are. AH eggs are eggs. Fresh eggs 
 are fresh eggs. 
 
 OUR BREAD. 
 
 Our bread is wrapped in sanitary wrappers. It 
 is not pawed over by dirty fingers. Flies have to 
 look elsewhere for a meal. Why have bread clean 
 in the first place, if you don't keep it clean? 
 nature's gifts. 
 
 Nature sends us hundreds of things out of life- 
 giving earth. She intends us to eat them. Fresh 
 lettuce, spinach, endives, celery, onions, carrots, par- 
 snips, turnips, cauliflower, cabbage, etc. Nature 
 wants us to eat oranges, lemons, grape fruit, apples, 
 pineapple, figs, dates, bananas, plums, peaches, rasp- 
 berries, strawberries, blackberries, currants, grapes, 
 etc. 
 
 hand-made. 
 
 The body must be built from building material. 
 The body cannot get such material from the food 
 unless it is in the food. Hand-made or artificial 
 concoctions cannot stand beside nature's offerings. 
 Thinks this over when you are hungry. 
 
 NUTS. 
 
 Walnuts, hickory nuts, peanuts, pecans, filberts, 
 Brazils, almonds were made to eat. That's what 
 we have teeth for. 
 
 GRAPE JUICE. 
 
 The juice of the grape comes from nature. It 
 is one of the soft drinks we are glad to sell. Our 
 other soft drinks are all right, too, because we don't 
 have any. Grape juice does not need coal-tar dyes. 
 
FOOD REFORM IN THE GROCERY 215 
 
 ethereal flavors or benzoate. Artificial concoctions 
 do. 
 
 MEAT. 
 
 People forget that pea beans, marrow beans, red 
 kidney beans, white kidney beans, black turtle beans, 
 yellow eye beans, lima beans, green peas, yellow peas, 
 white marrow peas, blackeye peas and lentils con- 
 tain more protein or tissue-building material than 
 roasts, steaks and chops. People forget that the 
 bean is beef, the pea ig lamb, the lentil is pork. 
 
 WISDOM. 
 
 Wise is he who eats ripe fruit, matured greens 
 and well cooked vegetables every day. 
 
 THE CHILD. 
 
 The conservation of the city boy and girl de- 
 pends upon the honesty of its food. We have printed 
 suggestions for the child's breakfast, dinner and 
 supper. Take them home, study them, act upon 
 them. If everybody would do that we would come 
 pretty close to having a nation of perfect men and 
 women in twenty years. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 AN IDEAL RESTAURANT. 
 
 Is the average American destined to perish mis- 
 erably and immediately? He will not. He will 
 travel along just as he travels now. His average of 
 efficiency, buoyancy, good nature, endurance and 
 vitality will be the same indifferent average that he 
 finds everywhere around him. But he can improve 
 his vigor and perhaps lengthen his life by being 
 mindful of two things that he was not mindful of 
 before. 
 
 In the first place, he must eat with an intelligent 
 idea of the purpose of food. Food is not what one 
 eats. Food is what one digests and assimilates. 
 Keeping this idea in mind at meal times, let him 
 make selection of the food he requires. 
 
 In the second place, instead of remaining indif- 
 ferent to the gravity of modem food abuses, let him 
 agitate reform and by slow but steady progress 
 bring about a return to the honest and wholesome 
 conditions under which living is at its best. 
 
 Let us consider a typical business man's 
 luncheon at one of the city clubs or restaurants. It 
 will be something like this : 
 
 Cocktail, oysters on the half shell, roast beef, 
 mashed potatoes, asparagus, white bread, butter, 
 pie, cheese, coffee. 
 
 There are a hundred variations of this luncheon 
 but they are all quite similar in substance. 
 
218 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 After eating the oysterg and while waiting for 
 his portion of beef, he nibbles upon white bread or 
 rolls. He then eats all of the beef, as a rule quite 
 hurriedly, a spoonful of mashed potatoes, the aspar- 
 agus tips, all of the cheese and pie, and then while 
 removing the band from his cigar, swallows his 
 coffee. 
 
 Let us analyze that meal. The oyster while not 
 essentially a food, but rather a condimental sub- 
 stance, contains, nevertheless, six per cent protein; 
 the beef contains eighteen per cent protein; the 
 cheese contains twenty-five per cent protein; the 
 white bread contains nine per cent protein. At a 
 low estimate nearly one-third of the business man's 
 luncheon consists of protein food. He began the 
 day with two eggs and a rasher of bacon. The eggs 
 contain fifteen per cent protein, the bacon nine per 
 cent. At his evening meal he will eat a big steak or 
 its equivalent in chops and on top of this he con- 
 sumes a generous portion of roquefort, camembert 
 or some other similar cheese. Not only does his 
 luncheon consist of excess protein, but the three 
 meals of the day bring him about the same quan- 
 tity. 
 
 He does not work in the ditch. His gentle exer- 
 cise indoors rarely excites perspiration. 'He leads a 
 sedentary life. Why does he eat so much protein? 
 Does he not know that his organs of elimination are 
 whipped to their utmost in order to dispose of the 
 excess of nitrogen which such a diet imposes upon 
 him. 
 
 On a diet of oats the horse travels all day, drag- 
 ging an immense burden behind him. He is in action 
 constantly. None of his organs of digestion have 
 an opportunity to grow sluggish. But nature sees 
 
AN IDEAL RESTAURANT 219 
 
 to it that his food contains only one-eighth or about 
 twelve per cent of protein. The minerals are not 
 removed. 
 
 The horse with its tremendous expenditure of 
 physical energy requires twelve per cent protein. 
 Man thinks he needs thirty-five per cent. As a re- 
 sult, man is a diligent reader of patent medicine 
 advertisements. This does not mean that man should 
 eat oats. It means that man should learn a lesson 
 from the oat-eater. 
 
 He must realize that a diet overloaded with pro- 
 tein and minerally exhausted will not perform the 
 same kind of service for him that a diet properly 
 balanced in fat, protein, carbohydrates and organic 
 mineral salts will render. 
 
 Some day a big hotel or a "Business Man's Lunch 
 on Broadway" will throw its doors open to the pub- 
 lic according to new principles. On the walls of 
 the dining room statements like the following will 
 appear : 
 
 We have prepared a dozen combination luncheons 
 containing the foods to which you are most partial. 
 You will find your favorite dishes represented in 
 some one of these combinations. They have all been 
 arranged on a well-balanced basis. 
 
 If split up and analyzed each of our combinations 
 is approximately as follows: 
 
 Fat, four to eight per cent. 
 
 Protein, ten to fourteen per cent. 
 
 Carbohydrates, forty-five to sixty per cent. 
 
 Organic Mineral Salts, two to three per cent. 
 
 In cooking all our vegetables, legumes, greens, 
 fruits and meats we carefully conserve the soluble 
 salts. According to long recognized methods of 
 cookery these valuable salts went down the waste 
 pipe. The vegetables and greens in each combina- 
 
220 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 tion afford the necessary bulk demanded by the 
 peristaltic action of the digestive organs. 
 Booklets lying on each table will contain: 
 
 OUR STANDARDS. 
 MILK. 
 
 Pure clean milk contains the sixteen elements 
 which the body requires for its growth and sus- 
 tenance. Pure milk in addition to being a perfect 
 food is also a perfect culture for the development 
 of pathogenic (disease-breeding) bacteria. There- 
 fore we use no "loose" milk. We serve "certified 
 milk" only. This milk is produced under the direc- 
 tion of the County Medical Society, guaranteed ab- 
 solutely free from disease-breeding bacteria. 
 
 Such milk is produced in sanitary dairies. The 
 hands of the milkers are sterilized. The milkers 
 themselves are under the supervision of examining 
 physicians. When there is sickness in their homes 
 they are not permitted to work. The cows are tested 
 for tuberculosis. They are fed scientifically on bal- 
 anced rations of whole grains and greens, grasses 
 and the seeds of grasses. They are washed before 
 milking. 
 
 The milk is cooled at once. All animal heat is 
 withdrawn and at no time is the temperature allowed 
 to rise above 45 degrees Fahrenheit. It is kept in 
 sterilized bottles until served. At regular intervals, 
 it undergoes a test for bacteria count. It is not 
 skimmed. It contains all the butter fat produced 
 by healthy cows, no more, no less. 
 
 Under such conditions pure milk of poor quality, 
 milk contaminated with bacteria, milk from which 
 the cream has been separated, milk to which water 
 has been added, dirty milk, milk kept sweet by the 
 action of chemical preservatives is impossible. 
 
AN IDEAL RESTAURANT 221 
 
 CREAM. 
 
 The value of cream is determined by its per- 
 centage of butter fat. Our cream must have the 
 same pedigree as our milk. It must be clean, fresh 
 and free from all micro-organisms except the bene- 
 ficial lactic bacteria. 
 
 The difficulty of securing pure, fresh, wholesome 
 cream with a sweet flavor, is not appreciated by 
 the general public. We are mindful of that difficulty 
 and no cream which falls below the National Stand- 
 «ird for Butter Fat is tolerated by us. 
 
 ICE CREAM. 
 
 Our ice cream is made of a mixture of certified 
 milk and cream and fresh eggs. It is flavored with 
 pure vanilla, pure raspberries, pure strawberries, 
 pure peaches, pure maple sap or pure flltered honey. 
 It contains no commercial "binder" or "bodyfier." It 
 contains no glucose. It contains no corn starch or 
 other form of filler commonly employed in the pro- 
 duction of commercial ice cream. The most delicate 
 child may eat it with absolute freedom. Following 
 is a recipe for making one of our frozen dainties 
 which might be called "Milk and Honey of the Egyp- 
 tians, Iced:" 
 
 One pint certified milk. 
 
 One pint pure cream (one quart certified milk 
 may be used instead with delicious results). 
 
 Beat the yolks of two eggs. 
 
 Add 10 ounces pure filtered honey and beat again. 
 
 Beat the whites of two eggs stiff. 
 
 Add the beaten yolks and honey, mix thoroughly. 
 
 Add the milk, or cream and milk. Freeze. 
 
 For children, the milk, egg and honey mixture 
 is more digestible than the mixture containing added 
 cream. The most delicate child can eat it with im- 
 punity. 
 
222 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 Butter is made of many kinds. Most butter is 
 a mere emulsion of artificially colored butter fat. It 
 is colored with one of the permissible coal-tar dyes, 
 annate or saffron. The peasants of Europe still 
 appreciate the flavor of real butter. In the United 
 States, butter flavor is almost forgotten. Most 
 American butter makers separate the cream from 
 the milk by a machine and the butter is churned at 
 once, thus producing the emulsified mass with which 
 most of us are familiar. 
 
 Butter to be worthy of the name must be pro- 
 duced from ripened cream which has undergone 
 the normal lactic fermentation necessary to the de- 
 velopment of butter flavor, also necessary for the 
 destruction of any other organisms that may be 
 present in the cream. We serve pure butter salted 
 and unsalted. We tolerate no artificial color. The 
 use of color is an imitation of butter made in June 
 from cream which is the product of grass fed cows. 
 
 People do not demand that Swiss cheese shall 
 be yellow, but for some capricious reason they 
 want their butter to reach them under such a mask. 
 Our standard represents a return to nature. 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 Our cheese is uncolored for the same reason that 
 our butter is uncolored. We do not serve "Full 
 cream" cheese. Nobody does. There is no such 
 thing. Cheese is either whole milk cheese contain- 
 ing all the fat the cow gave and no more, or skimmed 
 milk cheese containing none of the fat the cow gave. 
 Our cheese is the properly ripened whole milk 
 product. 
 
 EGGS. 
 
 All eggs served in our Pure Food Restaurant 
 must be not only fresh, but they must be produced 
 
AN IDEAL RESTAURANT 223 
 
 by contented hens, properly fed on grains and 
 greens. Our specifications for the production of 
 eggs are just as rigid as our specifications for the 
 production of milk. Storage eggs do not yield the 
 inimitable flavor of fresh eggs produced by scien- 
 tifically fed hens. 
 
 CHICKEN. 
 
 The ideal chicken, properly fed, develops small 
 bones and a large plump breast. The Department of 
 Agriculture has spent a great deal of time in teach- 
 ing the poultry producer how to feed his chickens 
 for health and vitality. Ground com, wheat, barley, 
 oats, grass, calcium carbonate and calcium phos- 
 phate, in the form of ground bone or oyster shells, 
 together with necessary mineral salts to be found in 
 healthy soil, constitute the food of all chickens 
 served in our dining room. Storage chickens are 
 taboo here. We make a specialty of a tender, meaty 
 bird, roasted. The fine delicate flavor of our pure 
 food chicken tells its own story better than we can. 
 
 TURKEY. 
 The only time to eat turkey is between Thanks- 
 giving and last of March. Storage men will tell you 
 that in spite of the large holiday consumption of 
 turkeys, most turkeys are consumed between March 
 and Thanksgiving, during the very period when they 
 are out of season. Any chef who serves turkey dur- 
 ing the summer is defying the laws of nature. In 
 order to produce turkeys for summer consumption, 
 the bird must be killed during the winter, frozen 
 and kept in storage until called upon. The turkey 
 should be consumed when it is fit. Freezing does 
 not add to its flavor; on the contrary, physiological 
 and chemical changes are set up during its long 
 sleep on ice. The fine natural flavor of the bird is 
 gradually lost and a new flavor sometimes extremely 
 
224 STAEVING AMERICA 
 
 objectionable, takes its place. In our Dining Room 
 we serve turkeys only when they are in season ; that 
 is, when they are fit to eat ; because of that fact we 
 do not have to resort to the storage man for our 
 supplies. 
 
 OYSTERS. 
 
 After taking the oyster from its bed, it is im- 
 mersed in fresh water, under the influence of which 
 it becomes bloated and bleached producing an ap- 
 pearance of plumpness and firmness. The water in 
 which oysters are floated may not always be clean 
 water. Oysters take on whatever contamination 
 may be present in the water in which they are im- 
 mersed. Oysters taken from infected beds are 
 frequently the cause of typhoid fever. The oysters 
 served in our Pure Food Restaurant are certified 
 oysters, procured from inspected beds which means 
 that they are absolutely free from bacteria. 
 
 GUINEA FOWLS. 
 
 September, October, November and December 
 are the only four months during which guinea fowls 
 should be consumed for the reason that during the 
 breeding season their fine flavor is distinctly marred. 
 In spite of this fact people do not ordinarily begin 
 to eat them until New Year day. In order to turn 
 the guinea fowl season topsy turvy, the bird has to 
 be killed, frozen, and put away until the misguided 
 connoisseur calls for it. There is no guinea fowl 
 on our menu only while it is in season and fit to eat. 
 
 SQUAB. 
 
 The common squab ordinarily served in the 
 average hotel or restaurant is known to the hotel 
 man as the "Banquet Squab." They cost from $1.75 
 to $2.50 per dozen. Like most other birds they are 
 educated through a long period of confinement in 
 ice before they are served. Such squabs by the art 
 
AN IDEAL RESTAURANT 225 
 
 of the average chef can be made to look delicious. 
 The brown and crackled parchment of the lately 
 frozen squab, delicately trimmed with fresh green 
 sprigs and served on immaculate china, is a sham. 
 We will have none of it. Squabs in season, fresh, 
 tender, wholesome, delicate, is our rule. No other 
 rule is recognized. 
 
 FISH. 
 The flesh of all fish is much less stable than the 
 flesh of meat-producing animals. It splits up more 
 rapidly than meat because the elements of which it 
 is composed are more loosely associated. Fish is 
 thus subject to the processes of decomposition at a 
 more rapid rate and with less resistance than meat. 
 Many intestinal troubles, including ptomaine pois- 
 oning, result from eating fish which is not strictly 
 fresh. For this reason no fish is served in our Pure 
 Food Restaurant out of season. The storage man's 
 influence is again kept at a distance. We will not 
 serve shad roe in winter. It is necessary to resort 
 tc chemical preservatives or to embalming in ice 
 in order to carry the shad roe from its summer 
 origin into the winter's diet. So with all other fish. 
 Turkey in summer and shad roe in mid-winter are 
 details of a topsy turvy condition which we are 
 striving to set right. 
 
 MEATS. 
 
 We depend upon the Federal Inspection Service 
 of the United States Government for the integrity 
 of our meat supply, but exercise keen scrutiny in 
 selecting cuts of tender fibre. In cooking meats we 
 make a specialty of conserving the extractives con- 
 taining the valuable tissue salts of phosphorus and 
 potassium. Boiled meats unless served in its own 
 juices is not a food, in fact dogs fed on meat which 
 previously has been subjected to the action of dis- 
 
226 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 tilled water, thereby losing its tissue salts, will 
 sicken and die. Roasted, broiled, stewed, curried or 
 minced, we see to it that our meat dishes turn none 
 of their valuable elements over to the soup pot. We 
 have no method of utilizing by-products in our 
 Restaurant. 
 
 SOUPS. 
 
 It is not possible to make good soups out of 
 storage meat or fowl. The average hotel soup is a 
 flavorless liquor colored with caramel, in which ar- 
 tistically chiselled vegetables and stars, crescents, 
 circles, squares and letters of the alphabet made of 
 Italian paste languidly float. Beef for the table 
 should be ripened for nearly a month before eating, 
 but beef for soup must be as fresh as possible. Soup 
 properly made, contains the stimulating and vital- 
 izing energy of the soluble salts contained in the 
 vegetables, greens and meats used in its preparation. 
 The French dietitian understands the real value of 
 honest soup. Where we use grains, such as rice and 
 barley, in making soup, we employ only the unde- 
 natured product, such as unpearled barley and un- 
 scoured and unpolished rice. These grains in their 
 natural condition contain the iron, phosphorus, cal- 
 cium manganese and other organic mineral com- 
 pounds which nature elaborates in whole grains for 
 man's benefit. We see to it that such grains reach 
 our kitchens in their natural state. 
 VEGETABLES. 
 
 We serve two kinds of vegetables, fresh and 
 canned, and give preference to such canned vege- 
 tables as are put up in lacquered tins or glass, 
 thereby preventing the formation of salts of tin 
 which are produced by the action of the vegetable 
 acids on the metal base. The conduct of salts 
 of tin in the human body is believed to exercise a 
 
AN IDEAL RESTAURANT 227 
 
 pernicious influence on the kidneys and other or- 
 gans. There are plenty of fresh vegetables to be 
 obtained all the year round, although some people 
 insist on winter vegetables in the summer and sum- 
 mer vegetables in the winter. Our bill of fare con- 
 tains two vegetable headlines "Canned" and 
 "Fresh." We serve no vegetables sweetened with 
 saccharine or colored with sulphate of copper. In 
 brief, our canned vegetables are absolutely free from 
 coloring or any kind of preservative, or any kind of 
 artificial flavoring, with the exception of common 
 table salt. 
 
 FRUITS. 
 
 We serve fresh fruits and fruits preserved in cans 
 and glass jars. The canned fruits mugt be packed 
 in lacquered tins. The only method of preserving 
 tolerated is by sterilizing with heat and by hermeti- 
 cal sealing. Benzoate of soda, fluoride of calcium 
 and sulphurous acid, often employed in preserving 
 fruits and vegetables, are not tolerated in our dining 
 rooms, kitchen or pantry. 
 
 BREAD. 
 
 The elements removed from the natural grains 
 in "refining" them to satisfy the artificial taste- 
 standards of man, include the very substance of 
 which the blood, bones, and tissues are constructed. 
 
 We serve two kinds of bread, the home made 
 bread and honest whole wheat bread, containing all 
 the wheat, nothing added and nothing removed. 
 
 Such bread has the rich, nutty, "wheatty" flavor 
 of the whole grain. 
 
 Our Pure Food Restaurant is doing the city of 
 
 a service of significant importance in restoring 
 
 to its diet the certified loaf of whole wheat bread. 
 
228 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 RICE. 
 Our rice puddings are made of natural, lin- 
 scoured, unpolished rice, which contains all the ele- 
 ments which nature organized in the grain. 
 CORN MEAL. 
 
 Our corn bread, com muffins and com porridge 
 are prepared from the certified whole corn-meal con- 
 taining all of the com. 
 
 EXTRACTS. 
 
 Our vanilla extract contains no Tonka beans, 
 coumarin, vanillin or Tahiti beans. It is made of 
 the Mexican Vanilla bean. Our lemon and orange 
 extracts are prepared according to the United 
 States Pharmacopoea standard. Fruit extracts 
 made from formic ether, oenanthic ether, valerian- 
 ate ether, butyric ether, benzoic ether, esters and 
 aldehydes are barred. There is no law against them 
 except in this restaurant. 
 
 SPICES. 
 
 Our spices contain all the fixed and volatile oil 
 which nature put there. Our white pepper is the 
 creamy white heart of the finest black pepper berry 
 from which the outer shell, or wood fibre, is re- 
 moved by a decorticating machine. You will note 
 its fine creamy color and its splendid flavor. The 
 color is due to nature. The leaden gray color of the 
 average white pepper is the result of a bleaching 
 process with lime. 
 
 CATSUP. 
 
 The law permits the use of coal tar dyes, ben- 
 zoate of soda, tomato pulp, and artificial color in 
 making catsup. We do not. 
 
 MINCE MEAT. 
 
 The law permits the use of the skins and cores 
 of the canning factory and the rejected currants 
 and raisins of the fruit jobber in making commercial 
 
AN IDEAL RESTAURANT 229 
 
 mince meat. It also permits the use of aluminum 
 sulphate, benzoate of soda and sulphurous acid in 
 the mince meat. We do not. The package in which 
 the chef receives the mince meat or any other chem- 
 ically treated food, must be labelled under the law, 
 but the chef is not obliged to label the pies or the 
 dish containing the chemically treated food. This 
 fact should be realized. 
 
 DRIED FRUITS. 
 
 We serve the finest dried prunes, raisins, cur- 
 rants and citron in our various dishes because they 
 are dried by nature's methods. We do not serve 
 dried peaches, pears, apricots or apples, because they 
 are treated with sulphurous acid for a more sightly 
 color, and they also take on 15% moisture which 
 sells at fruit prices. Until these dried fruits go 
 back to the old fashioned method, we will not serve 
 them in our Pure Food Restaurant. 
 
 MOLASSES. 
 
 All New Orleans Molasses is bleached and pre- 
 served with sulphur dioxide. We will not use it. In- 
 stead we go to Barbadoes for our molasses, which is 
 free from chemical treatment. It is darker than the 
 New Orleans product, but it is pure and its flavor is 
 delicious. Wherever we use molasses in cooking or 
 baking we employ the Barbadoes molasses. 
 
 CONSERVES. 
 
 Jams and jellies for tarts, layer cakes, etc., and 
 the jellies served with meats are prepared for res- 
 taurant use from glucose, apple-stock, apple juice, 
 prepared from apple waste, phosphoric acid or tar- 
 taric acid with benzoate of soda. The package when 
 it reaches the chef is always marked "compound," 
 and bears a label indicating the presence of the arti- 
 ficial color and chemical preservative employed. This 
 
230 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 secret knowledge never filters out into the dining 
 room. 
 
 We employ no compound jams or jellies. Our 
 jams are made, pound for pound, of fresh fruit and 
 such sugar as we can get. We use no canned stock 
 or barrel stock. Our jellies are made from the 
 freshly expressed juice of fresh ripe fruit and sugar. 
 
 GELATINE POWDERS. 
 
 We do not employ Jelly Powder in the prepara- 
 tion of our foods. Gelatine is not a food. It is an 
 artificial product prepared by chemical treatment 
 from the bones, sinews and hides of animals. When 
 finished it has no color, no flavor and no odor. All 
 these accidents are conferred upon gelatine by chem- 
 ical processes. We admit that gelatine dishes look 
 nice, but food is not a matter of nicety. Anything 
 bordering on sham is kept out of our dining rooms 
 on principle. 
 
 MARASCHINO CHERRIES. 
 
 Maraschino cherries are first bleached with sul- 
 phurous acid to remove the freckles. They are then 
 dyed with aniline like a feather or a ribbon and 
 then preserved with benzoate. For this reason we 
 do not use maraschino cherries. 
 
 CAKES. 
 
 Our cakes contain no "egg color." 
 
 BAKING POWDER. 
 
 It is legal to use calcium acid phosphate and 
 aluminum sulphate in the manufacture of baking 
 powder. We prefer cream of tartar baking powder 
 and stick to it. 
 
 OLIVE OIL. 
 
 The absence of free fatty acid is the test by which 
 the quality of olive oil is determined. If the oil is 
 pressed from olives gathered from the ground 
 
AN IDEAL RESTAURANT 231 
 
 bruised olives, or if some of the olives are beginning 
 to decay, the oil produced from such olives will con- 
 tain free fatty acid and the presence or absence of 
 free fatty acid is the absolute indicator of the char- 
 acter of olives employed in the production of the oih 
 Fully matured hand-selected olives, properly 
 pressed and properly safe-guarded from contamina- 
 tion will produce oil which emerges from the chemi- 
 cal test with a perfect pedigree. Our olive oil must 
 not only defy the chemical test for free fatty acid, 
 but it must also resist the test for cotton seed oil. 
 
 MAPLE SYRUP. 
 
 We serve no mixture of cane sugar and maple 
 sugar. The so-called pancake syrup used in restaur- 
 ants and hotels, contains 85% cane syrup and 15% 
 maple syrup. Our maple syrup is the pure sap of 
 the maple tree, boiled in open kettles to the con- 
 sistency of syrup; nothing is added in the form of 
 chemical preservatives, filler or dilution of any 
 kind whatsoever. 
 
 These brief outlines indicate the extraordinarily 
 high ideals which we have set out to realize in the 
 conduct of this Pure Food Restaurant 
 
 It will discriminate not only in purity but in 
 quality. 
 
 A food may be pure and still be scarcely fit to eat. 
 A piece of shin meat from the leg of an ox is just as 
 pure as a porterhouse steak. A crab apple is just as 
 pure as a greening or a northern spy. 
 
 Pure and good are two words which in the food 
 world should never be separated. In our Pure Food 
 Restaurant, it is our purpose always to unite them 
 and keep them together. 
 
 Where in the United States or Europe is there 
 another eating house modeled on such lines ? 
 
232 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 COPTRIGST. 191!. BT THB r^'^TT? f^lt.'NnT' 
 
 [MERCIAI, ADVERTISER ASS-W. V-'J-^ XJ V-'J-JJ.l J.. 
 
 CQMMERCIAI, ADVERTISER ASS-W. 
 
 $ECRETS.OF FOOD 
 ADULTERATION BY 
 BAKEBSBEYEALED 
 
 fiow Two "Innocent Grocers" From Carbon- 
 dale, Pa„ Went to the Show at the Garden 
 and Asked a Few Qiiestions — How the An- 
 swers Came Promptly Concerning the Use 
 of Queer Matter in Cooking. 
 
 ANCIENT EGGS AVAILABLE 
 
 IN MOEE WAYS THAN ONE 
 
 Demonstrators at Public Exhibition Explain 
 the Mysteries of What Is Just as Good as 
 Butter— Also Fancy "Icing" for Cakes and 
 the Use of Alcohol— Light on the Meaning 
 of That Label "Guaranteed Under the 
 Pure Food andDru^s Act." 
 
 Heading in the N. Y. Globe of the expose of the 
 Bakers' and Confectioners' methods. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 STARTING A BAKERY. 
 
 New York bakers are selling their customers pies 
 and cakes containing benzoate of soda and artificial 
 colorings. They are using dried eggs — in many in- 
 stances "rots and spots" — artificial flavorings, and 
 their pie and cake fillings are made up of fresh and 
 dried fruits that have become so spoiled that they 
 are unsalable. 
 
 Almost anything is good enough to go into a ba- 
 ker's pie. Spoiled canned goods, called "swell 
 heads," because fermentation bulges out the cans, 
 make excellent fillings for pies, and there is no use 
 in paying regular rates for good raisins when you 
 can wash out mouldy and wormy ones and nobody 
 ever will know the difference. 
 
 All this and more was told in confidence by 
 agents of bakers' supply houses to a reporter for The 
 Globe who visited the Baking and Candy Show at 
 Madison Square Garden, New York, with Alfred W. 
 McCann, a pure food expert and member of the vigi- 
 lance committee both of the national and local adver- 
 tising clubs. 
 
 Mr. McCann and The Globe reporter went as gro- 
 cers from Carbondale, Pa., who knew nothing about 
 the baking business, but thought it would be a good 
 department to add to the grocery business. 
 
 Eagerly the salesmen in the different booths at 
 the Bakers' Show dilated upon the profits of the busi- 
 
234 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 ness. All were agreed that no baker ever used many 
 pure products in his goods. 
 
 "There isn't a baker in the United States," said 
 one man, "who isn't using goods that contain 'ben- 
 zo.' " 
 
 "Benzo" is the popular contraction for benzoate 
 of soda, the preservative against which Dr. Harvey 
 W. Wiley has waged such relentless war. 
 
 "I understand," Mr. McCann said, "that we can 
 use all our spoiled fruits in making pies, that we 
 won't need to throw away unsalable stuff." 
 
 "Certainly," said the salesman. "All you have to 
 do is to wash them out a little and boil them up and 
 they are all right." 
 
 "Do you mean that any kind of spoiled fruit is 
 good enough for pies?" the reporter asked. 
 
 "Almost any kind," the salesman answered. 
 "Most bakers go over the bad fruit and pick out 
 some that is too far gone, of course, but the major- 
 ity of your unsalable stuff will do for pies." 
 
 The salesman showed a bottle of "butter flavor- 
 ing" that looked like partly refined petroleum. "No 
 baker ever uses butter in his cooking," he said. "All 
 you need to do to make twelve pounds of cooking 
 butter is to take a dollar's worth of lard compound, 
 not pure lard, and mix it with half a cent's worth 
 of 'butter flavor.' Then you have twelve pounds of 
 cooking butter." 
 
 He also had a powder out of which cream puff 
 filler was made. If you make your own you have to 
 use eggs which cost, the salesman said, 25 cents a 
 dozen now. These are low grade eggs. The powder 
 is made of dried eggs that cost far less than 25 cents 
 a dozen. 
 
 Then you can buy icing for cakes, all ready to be 
 mixed with sugar and water. There is orange icing 
 
STARTING A BAKERY 235 
 
 of a deep red ; chocolate, nearly black. These colors 
 are made deep so that a little will go a long way. 
 The bakers know that when a person eats a cake that 
 looks like chocolate he will think he is eating a choc- 
 olate cake. Just a touch of flavoring is all that is 
 necessary. Gloss and color are most necessary. 
 
 "What about the pure food laws?" asked Mr. Mc- 
 Cann. "They're pretty strict in Carbondale." 
 
 "No need to worry," said the salesman. "We la- 
 bel everything that is artificially colored or that con- 
 tains preservatives. Everything we have is guaran- 
 teed under the pure food laws." 
 
 "Guaranteed?" 
 
 "That means that it complies with the law — it's 
 labelled imitation, you know." 
 
 "The law doesn't guarantee anything, does it?" 
 
 "Oh, no, but the word sounds good." 
 
 "But will we have to label our pies and cakes 
 when we put benzoate of soda and artificial colorings 
 in them?" 
 
 "Certainly not. You don't need to worry about 
 the pure food law. We label all our stuff." 
 
 "Then you don't have to inform the consumer 
 that you are using benzoate of soda and artificial col- 
 orings ?" Mr. McCann asked. 
 
 "Certainly not. The stuff is marked in the orig- 
 inal packages, that's all that's necessary. You don't 
 have to hang up any sign telling the people what's 
 in your pies. You know what's in them. That's 
 all the law demands." 
 
 The reporter said it certainly was, and inquired 
 whether spoiled pumpkins could be put into pies 
 without fear of detection. 
 
 The salesman admitted it was done often, but 
 the spoiled fruits were generally used. 
 
236 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 The salesman said there was no way in which a 
 10-cent pie could be made to cost more than 3^ 
 cents. 
 
 There were on exhibit buckets of mince meat, 
 imitation eggs, imitation cream, imitation baking 
 powder, cake filling, all kinds of pie filling, and imi- 
 tation flavoring extracts. 
 
 Here you could buy mincemeat at 9 cents a 
 pound, add 100% water or cider, and cut it to 4J4 
 cents a pound, according to a salesman. This is all 
 ready to be put into the pies, so is the pie filling, 
 which comes in all flavors. It never spoils, the sales- 
 man said, and it is labelled with the benzoate of soda 
 label. Of course the customer doesn't know he is 
 eating "benzo." Unless he goes into the back room 
 of the bakery and looks at the kegs, he is likely to 
 think he is buying fresh fruit pies. 
 
 "We had a little scare in New York a year or so 
 ago," said the salesman, "and some of the bakers 
 were scared and began hanging up signs and clean- 
 ing up, but it all blew over. If you are afraid of the 
 inspectors you can hang up a little sign saying that 
 some of your goods are artificially preserved. It 
 doesn't mean anything to your customers and com- 
 plies with the law." 
 
 The salesman admitted that all his goods were 
 preserved with "benzo." "You've got to do it," he 
 said. "I know one fellow who gets around it by doc- 
 toring his stuff with grain alcohol, the stuff they 
 rub on you in a Turkish bath. Think of putting that 
 stuff in your stomach." 
 
 Over in the comer were soda fountain syrups and 
 fruits beautifully colored. You could buy a powder 
 which would keep ice cream from melting unless ex- 
 posed to heat over 72 degrees. 
 
STARTING A BAKERY 237 
 
 Down the aisle were candies, the penny kind, 
 meant for children, painted in all sorts of colors. 
 
 "It would be better for the children to eat the 
 heads of their painted wooden soldiers," said Mr. 
 McCann, "than to eat that stuff." 
 
 THE NEXT DAY. 
 
 The next day after the dealers in bakers' supplies 
 had read the story in the Globe, they were up in 
 arms, denouncing as "malicious lies" the statements 
 in the Globe of how spoiled fruits were used, em- 
 balmed with benzoate of soda and colored with coal 
 tar dyes. So once more the reporter visited the 
 plant. When pinned down to point out exact state- 
 ments that are false, the manufacturers practically 
 admitted their truth, but complained that the "tone" 
 was hostile — and added that there was no use of 
 stirring up things and worrying the public. "Be- 
 sides," they said, "benzoate of soda and coal tar 
 dyes never hurt anybody." 
 
 However, the manufacturers of goods that are 
 not artificially preserved and colored take great care 
 to announce that fact, while the manufacturers 
 who do use benzoate of soda and artificial colors 
 do their best to conceal the fact. Firms using ben- 
 zoate of soda cannot do business in Indiana or Flor- 
 ida, as the use of that drug as a preservative is pro- 
 hibited in those states. The members of one firm 
 objected to the reporter's use of the word "imita- 
 tion." Those things were "compounds," not "imita- 
 tions," they said. The reporter pointed to a can of 
 Creamaline. "That is not imitation cream," said 
 the dealer, "that is a 'bodifier'." The salesmen gen- 
 erally repudiated or denied the statements of the 
 day before. The dealer at last exclaimed, "Nowa- 
 days the bakers are frightened to death if you say 
 benzoate of soda. It is all because such men as you, 
 
238 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 McCann, have stirred them up. You are a public 
 nuisance. I believe the state law is unconstitutional. 
 If you will start in business, as you pretended you 
 were going to do, and get arrested for selling our 
 goods, we will defend you and beat the benzoate 
 question." 
 
 "I'll do it," said Mr. McCann. "If you won, it 
 would be the greatest advertisement you could ask 
 for. If you'll stand by that statement, I'll be the 
 subject for a test case as soon as you like." 
 
 Another member of the firm backed down. "We 
 wouldn't defend you, but we'll defend any of our 
 regular customers who get into trouble by selling our 
 goods." 
 
 The president of the State Association of Master 
 Bakers came forward with a denial that they used 
 spoiled goods or benzoate of soda preservative in 
 their pies. 
 
 Another dealer demanded to be shown the clerk 
 who told how to use spoiled fruits in pies. "If we 
 pointed him out," the reporter asked, "would you 
 discharge him?" 
 
 "I don't know what I would do," was the an- 
 swer. "But your article is a pack of lies." 
 
 Another dealer said hotly, "Why didn't you say 
 you were a reporter instead of sneaking round and 
 posing as a grocer ?" 
 
 "Then," said the reporter, as he turned to go, 
 "you don't make the same statements to newspaper 
 men that you do to prospective customers ?" 
 
 AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. WILEY. 
 
 The greatest of the battlers in the cause of pure 
 food. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, sees victory ahead for 
 the cause. He believes that when Woodrow Wilson 
 becomes president the food adulterators and mis- 
 branders will be, put to rout. 
 
STARTING A BAKERY 239 
 
 "What do you expect the new administration to 
 do in the way of aiding the pure food cause ?" he was 
 asked by a Globe reporter. 
 
 "It is my hope," he answered, "that all the re- 
 strictions and gags that have been in force through- 
 out the last two administrations will be removed, 
 and that the law will be allowed to take its course, 
 as intended by Congress. 
 
 "I hope that violators of the pure food laws will 
 be taken to court and punished, and that there will 
 be no more boards and referees to act as a buffer 
 between the food manufacturer and the law." 
 
 "The Remsen board was dealt a crushing blow 
 by Justice Anderson in the suit against the state of 
 Indiana to force it to permit the sale of products 
 preserved with benzoate of soda. Justice Anderson 
 said the board didn't have one iota of evidence that 
 benzoate of soda was harmless, and the suit was dis- 
 missed. 
 
 "I hope Mr. Wilson will restore the authority 
 taken from the Bureau of Chemistry and give the 
 officials a chance to enforce the law in the way Con- 
 gress intended it should be enforced. 
 
 "The present state of affairs is the greatest dis- 
 grace ever attached to a free people, and the exist- 
 ence of these conditions is due solely to the fact that 
 officials are protecting the criminals who sell mis- 
 branded and adulterated food. This stuff loaded 
 with glucose and benzoate of soda is not fit to feed 
 to fishes." 
 
 "How did the food manufacturers get such 
 power?" Dr. Wiley was asked. 
 
 "The same way all big industries get power." 
 
 "Do you know of any instances of where food 
 manufacturers contributed to campaign funds?" 
 
240 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 "If they didn't contribute they should have, for 
 they have made millions of dollars by feeding these 
 concoctions to the people." 
 
 "Such conditions as were shown by the exposure 
 at the Baking and Candy Show could not exist," Dr. 
 Wiley said, "if the high officials were not corrupt." 
 
 Maah anb Srng 9; partmcnt 
 
 Anatln 
 
 Hot. IB, 1912. 
 
 "r. Alfred H. MoOaim, 
 o/o The Globe, 
 
 Hew Tort, w, 1, 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I wlsli to congratulate you on the 
 eipoBUre of ijideoent nethoda In the bakery l^uBlneae. 
 Prom euoh a euggeation, this department will InTeetigate 
 the whole bakery buelneee in Texae. 
 
 YOUTB 
 
 DRoo omiuissioKEa. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY. 
 
 This chapter presents facts concerning _the prin- 
 cipal sixteen elements found in natural food, and in 
 the body of man, which every physician should 
 know at once. With these facts before him, he will 
 realize that the present food situation is murderous 
 and his medical associations will demand reform, as 
 soon as the individual begins to appreciate the 
 monstrous character of the food manufacturer's de- 
 iiance of the very laws with which the physician is 
 so much concerned. 
 
 While this chapter is not written for the lay- 
 reader, and can be passed over without losing the 
 meaning of any of the other chapters, it would 
 be well for her who is approaching that most sacred 
 experience of womanhood, to read it again and 
 again, for after all, the conditions which these pages 
 uncover, center around this chapter. 
 
 The organized club women of America could do 
 no better thing than to begin a crusade, with this 
 chapter as its foundation. 
 
 Following is a description of the sixteen ele- 
 ments of which the human body is composed. 
 Taken singly, the average man and woman is famil- 
 iar with them all, and sees and understands their 
 use in the commonplace circumstances of life. Ap- 
 parently it is only when they are assembled, that 
 their technical names awe the understanding, and 
 make them appear hopelessly mysterious. They are 
 
242 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 in reality very simple, and when briefly described, 
 all the difficulties usually associated with them 
 quickly melt away. So, we will take them one by 
 one, and learn their offices as familiar and intimate 
 friends, working constantly, day and night, asleep 
 or awake, for our good. The great thing that we 
 must know about them, is how to safeguard them 
 from unfriendly hands. 
 
 POTASSIUM. 
 
 Potassium is found most abundantly in the soft 
 solid tissues, in the corpuscles of the blood, the 
 muscle protoplasm, and in the fluids secreted by some 
 of the glandular organs such as milk. Whereas 
 sodiums occurs chiefly in the form of chloride in 
 the blood and other fluids, potassium occurs chiefly 
 as phosphate in the cells. This indicates that the 
 cells pick and choose in obedience to a fixed law, 
 and select such elements as are necessary to their 
 normal life and functioning. This selective action 
 is inhibited if the cells cannot find the material to 
 be selected. How can they find it when it is largely 
 or totally removed from food? Without the potas- 
 sium and other salts normal osmotic pressure could 
 not be maintained in the tissues, and the body fluids 
 in which the organs are bathed would lack their 
 characteristic influence upon the elasticity and irri- 
 tability of muscle and nerve. Moreover, the acid 
 and alkaline digestive juices and other secretions 
 could not find the bases on which they are formed, 
 and the internal fluids could not maintain the neu- 
 trality or slight alkalescence necessary to body 
 equilibrium. Potassium and sodium antagonize 
 and balance the calcium in tissues and fluids. The 
 alternate contractions and relaxations of the heart 
 movement depend upon the potassium, sodium and 
 calcium in the fluid which bathes the heart muscle. 
 
FOR PHYSICIAN;3 only 243 
 
 What food industry has the right to interfere with 
 the presence of these salts which nature so wonder- 
 fully prepares in the normal food of animal and 
 man? 
 
 If nature does not set the proper standard why 
 is it that man's artificial attempt to change nature's 
 formula always results in disaster to the animal 
 fed upon his juggled product? Every dietetic ex- 
 periment ever undertaken proves this. 
 
 Potassium is a mineral so widely distributed in 
 nature that no animal or edible plant has life or 
 can have life without it. 
 
 Notwithstanding its generous diffusion over the 
 whole earth, it never occurs uncombined, or in a 
 free state. It is found in many combinations with 
 both organic and inorganic acids, but never pure. 
 There is no such thing as pure potassium outside 
 the chemical laboratory, just as there is no such 
 thing as pure sugar or starch in nature. 
 
 When separated by the skill of the chemist from 
 any of its many combined states, it is silvery-white 
 in color, has a decided metallic lustre, and becomes, 
 like pure arsenic, a deadly agent of destruction. 
 
 There is only one metal, lithium, which is lighter 
 in weight. At ordinary temperature, it is soft 
 enough to be cut with ease with a table knife, but 
 at the freezing point of water, it ig quite brittle, 
 and breaks into crystals. 
 
 In perfectly pure dry air, it undergoes no 
 change, but in ordinary air it quickly unites with 
 hydrogen and carbon, and becomes coated with a 
 film of potassium hydrate and carbonate. 
 
 It has such a greedy and insatiable affinity for 
 water, that when the two are brought together a 
 wonderful phenomenon is immediately observed. 
 The potassium undergoes almost instantaneous de- 
 
244 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 composition, and sputters and hisses over the sus- 
 face of the water on which it floats with such liber- 
 ation of energy that great heat evolves. This heat 
 is sufficient to set fire to the escaping hydrogen, 
 which bursts into a beautiful lilac flame. 
 
 With two single exceptions, caesium and rubidi- 
 um, potassium is the most electropositive element in 
 nature. It will doubtless be proved before many 
 years that its electrolytical influence on the human 
 body is one of the most vital processes of life. 
 
 The layman is familiar with potassium in many 
 forms, yet feels that it is too big for him to grapple 
 with, and in consequence makes no effort to appre- 
 ciate its importance in his diet. He knows that 
 chloride of potassium is used in fertilizing the soil ; 
 that chlorate of potassium is used in the manufac- 
 ture of explosives ; that nitrate of potassium is used 
 in medicine; that carbonate of potassium is used in 
 making soap and glass ; that cyanide of potassium, a 
 violent poison, is used in photography. These 
 things present no difficulty to his understanding, 
 but for some strange reason he remains indifferent 
 to the necessity of potassium in his food. 
 
 Potassium in several forms is absolutely neces- 
 sary to life, and yet in its pure state it would de- 
 stroy life. Nature for this reason abhors pure po- 
 tassium, and will not tolerate it, except under arti- 
 ficial circumstances. That food factories have a 
 right to remove the potassium salts from the food 
 of man, is one of the many evidences of our na- 
 tional ignorance in the presence of life and death. 
 
 PHOSPHORUS. 
 
 Without the phosphorus compounds, there would 
 
 be no living cell in the body. Sherman makes this 
 
 statement: "Possibly because the crudity of the 
 
 views formerly held and still sometimes met (espe- 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 245 
 
 cially in fraudulent advertisements of proprietary 
 foods) tended to bring the subject into ridicule, 
 the study of the phosphates, and other phosphorus 
 compounds in food and nutrition was very generally 
 neglected. Recently, hovs^ever, the significance of 
 phsophorus in the growth, development and func- 
 tions of the organism is at last being adequately 
 recognized." 
 
 The investigations of Forbes, Ohio Experiment 
 Station, and Hart, Wisconsin Experimental Station, 
 indicate that much of the mal-nutrition is not due to 
 a low protein diet, but to a deficiency of phosphorus 
 and calcium in the food. 
 
 Phosphorus is found in the body as phosphorized 
 proteins called nucleo-proteins existing in the cells 
 and tissues. True phospho-proteins exist in casein 
 and ovovitellin. In brain and nerve substances 
 and also to some extent in other tissues, the phos- 
 phorus appears as phosphorized fats termed leci- 
 thins. Egg yolk is particularly rich in this form of 
 phosphorus, so are whole grains and legumes. Less 
 highly organized forms of phosphorus are utilized 
 by the body as phytin compounds, or phytates. 
 Wheat, com, rice, barley, and oats, in their natural 
 unrefined state contain phosphorus in this form in 
 abundant quantities. In the fluids and soft tissues 
 of the body, the phosphorus is found in an inor- 
 ganic form as potassium phosphate. In the bone 
 structure, the phosphorus is found as calcium phos- 
 phate. Maxwell, in observing germinating seeds, 
 and developing chic embryos, found that in the con- 
 struction of the tissues of the growing vegetable or 
 animal organism, the phosphorized fats played a 
 most important part. Steinitz, Zadik, and Leip- 
 ziger, discovered that these various phosphorus 
 compounds could not be substituted for each other. 
 
246 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Simple proteins with inorganic phosphates, do not 
 make a substitute for phospho-proteins. Rohmann 
 showed that the phosphorized proteins furnished 
 the material for tissue growth. Gumpert and Ehr- 
 stom found that phosphorus equilibrium was main- 
 tained in experiments upon men, when consumed in 
 the form of phospho-proteins, casein, whereas, 
 when taken as dicalcium phosphate or as the potas- 
 sium phosphate of meat, the same quantity of phos- 
 phorus would not serve the needs of the body. 
 
 The phosphorus of wheat bran occurs chiefly in 
 the form of phytates. These phytates are easily ex- 
 tracted, and readily absorbed in the digestive tract. 
 When bran is leached in distilled water, the phos- 
 phorus is extracted. Such bran fed to cows, pro- 
 duces constipation, exploding the old time theory 
 that the intestines were "scoured" by the coarse 
 particles of bran, thus promoting peristalsis. Not 
 the coarse particles, but the phosphorus contained in 
 them is responsible for the gentle laxative effects 
 produced by the bran. 
 
 The modern wheat miller, who produces refined 
 patent flour, points to the statements of several 
 chemists, indicating that refined patent flour is a 
 more wholesome product for babes and invalids, 
 than the meal made from the whole grain. 
 
 The writer has proved the folly of these state- 
 ments on his own and other children. 
 
 Even when fasting, the phosphorus compounds 
 of the body are broken down, and eliminated, show- 
 ing the absurdity of removing these phosphorus 
 compounds by mechanical processes from our foods. 
 They are needed in the functioning of all the organs, 
 and when not present, the bones and tissues, yes, 
 the blood itself, are called upon to supply the de- 
 ficiency. 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 247 
 
 The wheat, barley and corn mills of the West, the 
 rice and corn mills of the South and Southwest, and 
 the refined sugar and glucose industries producing 
 their degerminated, dephosphorized, refined pro- 
 ducts, go hand in hand with malnutrition to the un- 
 timely graves of America. 
 
 The modern baked bean as usually sold in cans, 
 is devitalized by the absurd processes through which 
 it goes, in a thoughtless effort of the food manufac- 
 turer to rob it of its phosphorus. The beans are 
 soaked over night in cold water. The excess water 
 containing valuable solubles is then thrown off. The 
 beans are then put in copper kettles, and boiled for 
 80 minuteg. The phosphorized proteins rise to the 
 top as a "scum" which is skimmed off, and poured 
 into the sewer. The beans are then drained, and 
 the chef stands idly by, while their rich vitality is 
 poured down the waste pipe. The denatured product 
 is then put into cans, sealed and cooked in a ster- 
 ilizer for two hours, after which the so-called 
 "baked" bean robbed of its phosphorus is put on the 
 market. 
 
 Hart, in feeding hogs, in experiments conducted 
 in the Wisconsin experiment station, found that 
 1.12 grams of phosphorus per day, was just about 
 sufficient for the hogs; until they attained a weight 
 of about 85 pounds, after which this quantity was 
 clearly insufficient for the needs of the animal. 
 
 Sherman makes this statment: "1.12 grams 
 phosphorus, would hardly seem a desirable amount 
 for a growing child of the same size, or for a fully 
 grown man or woman." 
 
 Sherman, Mettler and Sinclair, in bulletin 227, 
 Office of Experiment Stations, United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture, report a comparison of 
 the amount of phosphorus contained in the food of 
 
248 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 typical American families, showing that a freely 
 chosen diet of our denatured food products, does not 
 furnish much more than 1.12 grams of phosphorus 
 estimated as 2.75 grams, PsOg. These investiga- 
 tions were carried out in 20 American dietaries, 
 including a lawyer's family in Pittsburg, a teacher's 
 family in Indiana, a school superintendent's family 
 in Chicago, a teacher's family in New York, a 
 student's club in Tennessee, 115 women students in 
 Ohio, a carpet dyer's family in New York, a sewing 
 woman's family in New York, a house decorator's 
 family in Pittsburg, a glass blower's family in 
 Pittsburg, two mill workers' families in Pittsburg, 
 a mechanic's family in Knoxville, Tenn., 30 lumber 
 men in Maine, a farmer's family in Connecticut, a 
 farmer's and mechanic's family in Tennessee, 13 
 men students, 5 women students, and one child in 
 Knoxville, Tenn., boarding house, two negro farm- 
 ers' families in Alabama. 
 
 The study continued 58 days, and took the aver- 
 age from 12,238 meals taken by men, and 793 meals 
 taken by women. Speaking of these experiments, 
 Sherman declares: "These results indicate that 
 present food habits lead to a deficiency of phosphor- 
 us compounds, and it is not improbable that many 
 cases of malnutrition are really due to an inadequate 
 supply of phosphorus compounds." 
 
 Phosphorus like potassium is not found in nature 
 in a free state, but is always combined with some 
 other substance, such as oxygen, calcium and mag- 
 nesium. No form of animal or vegetable life can be 
 found, in which phosphorus does not play an indis- 
 pensable part. 
 
 When artificially purified, it is semi-transparent 
 and colorless. At ordinary temperature it is soft 
 and easily cut. By the aid of heat, it is soluble in 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 249 
 
 fixed and volatile oils, and is exceedingly inflam- 
 able. At ordinary temperature it undergoes slow 
 combustion, emitting a peculiar white vapor, which 
 is luminous in the dark and which possesses an odor 
 quite similar to garlic. The slightest degree of heat 
 is sufficient to set it on fire. In fact, it is so subtle, 
 that gentle pressure between the fingers or slight 
 friction of any kind kindles it readily. 
 
 When set on fire, it burns rapidly, emitting a 
 beautiful white light and intense heat. In pure 
 oxygen its combustion is very rapid, and its light 
 far more vivid. The perfect combustion of phos- 
 phorus forms another substance, which is called 
 phosi)horus pentoxid, a white solid that readily 
 takes up water, thus becoming phosphoric acid. 
 This is a colorless, odorless syrup with an intensely 
 sour taste, and is used by jam and jelly makers with 
 the permission of the law, although it is a deadly 
 poison. It is also used in the manufacture of soft 
 drinks. Phosphorus in this form is not the phos- 
 phorus required by the human or animal body. 
 Its use is criminal and must be stopped. 
 
 The fumes of phosphorus cause necrosis of the 
 bones, and are responsible for the dread disease 
 known as "phossy jaw" among the workers in the 
 phosphorus match factories. 
 
 Mixed with a paste, it is used for the destruc- 
 tion of vermin, rats, mice, cockroaches, etc., which 
 it quickly poisons. In its properly combined and 
 natural states, as found in the food of man, it is 
 one of the most necessary elements. Like the salts 
 of potassium, it is largely removed by the food 
 manufacturer from much of our diet, particularly 
 from our bread, bread stuffs, cereals and patent 
 foods of the refined type. 
 
250 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 CALCIUM. 
 
 The most striking function of the salts of cal- 
 cium in the body is observed in their effect upon 
 the coagulation of the blood, and the contractility 
 of the muscular tissue of the heart. An artificial 
 solution of blood "ash," containing the small but 
 necessary percentage of calcium, potassium and 
 sodium will keep a heart beating normally for a 
 long time, after it has been removed from the body 
 of the animal. If the sodium and potassium are 
 removed from the solution, the calcium will cause 
 a condition of tonic contraction. If the calcium is 
 removed, the sodium and potassium cause the heart 
 muscle to relax. When present together in proper 
 proportions, the muscle relaxes, and contracts in 
 rythmical order. Meltzer states : "Calcium is cap- 
 able of correcting the disturbances of the inorganic 
 equilibrium in the animal body, whatever the devia- 
 tions from the normal may be. Any abnormal effect 
 which sodium, potassium or magnesium may pro- 
 duce in the direction of increased or decreased irri- 
 tability, calcium is capable of re-establishing the 
 normal equilibrim." 
 
 When fasting, calcium salts are lost through the 
 intestinal wall proving that the body must have a 
 constantly renewed supply of the mineral for its 
 normal life processes. 
 
 As the bones and teeth make good the loss of 
 calcium from the soft tissues and blood when no 
 food is taken at all so do they also make good the 
 loss when food deficient in calcium is consumed. 
 
 The injurious results that follow a calcium free 
 diet is more pronounced on growing animals than 
 on those full-grown. Ninety-nine per cent of the 
 calcium appropriated by the growing animal goes to 
 its bones and teeth. An abundance of calcium for 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 251 
 
 the growing bones is thus an evident need. In its 
 mother's womb, the growing child derives its cal- 
 cium from the mother's food, provided the calcium 
 has not been removed from her food. When that 
 happens, as it always does on a diet consisting 
 largely of white bread, polished rice, modem com 
 meal, glucose and sugar, the mother's bones and 
 teeth are called upon to make up the deficiency. 
 This deficiency, with the appalling results on the 
 future health of the mother, is entirely preventable 
 and uncalled for. Natural food makes such defi- 
 ciency impossible. White bread, biscuits, crackers, 
 cakes and all other forms of denatured grains and 
 sugars kill mother and child before their time, or 
 so rob them of normal vitality as to make their 
 lives burdensome, inefficient and miserable. 
 
 Men who serve as subjects of calcium experiments 
 do not need as much calcium as growing children. 
 Any attempt to establish the minimum calcium re- 
 quirement of the growing child from experiments 
 made on adults will result disastrously to the child. 
 Refined sugar and glucose are calcium free and cal- 
 cium-hungry. They not only do not supply calcium 
 to the body, but they take it from the body. Pre- 
 scribe foods robbed of their calcium to the child, 
 and in addition recommend the generous use of 
 refined sugars and candy in the child's diet, and our 
 15,000,000 physically defective school children will 
 become 10,000,000 physically defective men and 
 women, and 5,000,000 of them will never become 
 men and women at all. 
 
 Undenatured grains, parsnips, carrots, turnips, 
 egg yolk and pure milk with plenty of greens, (in 
 their own juice if cooked and the same applies to 
 the vegetables mentioned) provide the richest cal- 
 cium foods. Those who are to become mothers 
 
252 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 should know this if they would escape the disorders 
 now generally looked upon as inevitable with child 
 birth. 
 
 Calcium is a metal having a light yellow color, 
 and a brilliant lustre. It is about as hard as gold. 
 It oxidizes readily in moist air, and at a red heat 
 burns vividly, forming quick lime. In combination 
 with water, the quick lime forms slaked lime. 
 
 Like potassium and phosphorus, it is never found 
 in nature in its pure state, but always in compounds 
 widely distributed. Marble and chalk are simply 
 calcium carbonate. Gypsum is simply calcium sul- 
 phate. The calcium light of the theatre is produced 
 by turning a stream of oxygen and a stream of hy- 
 drogen in a state of ignition upon a lump of cal- 
 cium. 
 
 Most people are perfectly familiar with its uses 
 outside their own bodies, but do not realize that 
 without calcium there can be no vegetable or animal 
 life. "Rickets" is simply deranged or impaired cal- 
 cium metabolism. 
 
 The food manufacturer does not know that he is 
 committing a sin against nature and a crime against 
 the race when he removes the calcium from our 
 food. 
 
 IRON. 
 
 The inorganic iron of some drinking water and 
 the inorganic medicinal iron prescribed to the ane- 
 mic do not replace the complex organic iron com- 
 pounds of greens, egg yolk, whole grains, or vege- 
 tables. 
 
 Socin fed two groups of mice, giving food to one 
 group free from iron, plus medicinal iron in the 
 form of inorganic iron chloride. To the other group, 
 he gave the same iron-free food plus the addition, 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 253 
 
 of egg yolk containing the iron in a highly or- 
 ganized form. 
 
 All of the mice on the artificial iron diet were 
 dead before the thirty-third day of the experiment. 
 
 The other mice fed with iron as prepared by 
 nature, not only lived, but gained in weight. 
 
 Lelensky fed dogs upon polished rice, from 
 which the iron compounds are removed, in order 
 to determine the effect of such iron-free diet upon 
 the hemoglobin content of the blood. In one dog, 
 the percentage of hemoglobin fell in nine days from 
 18.5 to 13.1 ; in another from 14.8 to 11.3 in six 
 days. The anemia became more pronounced as the 
 polished rice diet was continued, and on the eigh- 
 teenth day, the dog died, yet the rice millers of the 
 United States are now circulating literature among 
 the grocers of the country denouncing thd "fanatic- 
 ism" of those who urge the use of rice as nature 
 prepares it. These millers say in their circular: 
 "The people of the United States, in eating rice, by 
 the addition of a little gravy or butter more than 
 replace the protein and fat removed from the grain 
 by milling." 
 
 They persist in fogging the situation by refer- 
 ring to "protein" and "fat" as the missing links, and 
 do not show that "gravy" or "butter" supplies the 
 organic iron, phosphorus and other priceless miner- 
 al compounds of the whole grain. Dogs and chil- 
 dren will die just as quickly on a diet of polished 
 rice with butter and gravy as on a diet of plain 
 polished rice. On a diet of natural rice they will 
 thrive. 
 
 It has been established that the iron demanded 
 by the body-processes of oxydation, secretion,, re- 
 production and growth must be obtained from food- 
 iron, not from medicine or mineral salts. The wan- 
 
254 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 ton removal of this food-iron from our cereals, 
 wheat, corn, rice, barley, sugar and glucose, by re- 
 fining processes, and the loss of much of our vege- 
 table iron by ignorant home cooking cannot be justi- 
 fied by any food industry, however great its invest- 
 ments in dollars and cents. The national health is 
 of greater value than all the gold of the world. 
 
 Henry C. Sherman, Columbia University, shows 
 the iron content estimated in milligrams per 100 
 grams of whole wheat as 5.2. The same figures for 
 white, denatured, patent flour are 1.5, a tragic loss 
 that no ""gravy" or "butter" can ever replace in 
 the bodies of our anemic women and children. 
 
 Because fruits and vegetables contain a high 
 water content, and low proportions of protein and 
 fat, some dietitians hold them in low regard, for- 
 getting that they are important sources of food- 
 iron. Because the small traces of iron in meat have 
 a distinctly lower value than the iron compounds 
 of eggs, whole grains, vegetables and fruits, Van 
 Norden points the folly of relying upon meat as a 
 source of iron for young children. He advocates a 
 liberal use of meat in the diet of the adult, but no 
 meat for the child. He says: "As far as our 
 children are concerned, we believe we could do bet- 
 ter by following the diet of the most rigid vege- 
 tarians than by feeding the children as though they 
 were carnivora, according to the bad custom which 
 still prevails. If we limit the child's supply of fruit 
 and vegetable iron we cause a certain sluggishness 
 of blood formation and an entire lack of reserve 
 iron, such as is normally found in the liver, spleen 
 and bone marrow of healthy, well-nourished in- 
 dividuals." 
 
 Sherman reports an experimental dietary study 
 made in New York City In which it was found that 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 255 
 
 a free use of fresh vegetables, whole wheat bread, 
 and the cheaper sorts of fruits, with milk but with- 
 out meat, resulted in a gain of 30 per cent In the 
 iron content of the diet, while the protein fuel 
 value, and cost remained practically the same as ia 
 the ordinary mixed diet obtained under the same 
 market conditions. The writer's children, with the 
 exception of chicken once a month, have never eaten 
 meat or asked for it, although the adult members 
 of his family eat it twice a week. 
 
 Herbivorous animals get more iron in their diet 
 than meat-eating animals, and not only live longer, 
 but according to Sherman, are also less liable to 
 anemia. It must be noted that these grass and 
 grain eating animals get all the iron of their diet, 
 whereas the human animal not only loses the greater 
 part of it in his refined wheat, rice and corn, but 
 by throwing the water in which his vegetables are 
 cooked down the waste pipe, he loses another large 
 percentage of it. The animal fed on such refined 
 grains and badly cooked vegetables, dies like the 
 human animal of any disease which happens to take 
 possession of its enfeebled tissues or impoverished 
 blood. 
 
 Iron fs found nearly chemically pure in a few 
 places, but chemically pure iron is obtained only by 
 artifice. It was described by Berzelious in that 
 state, as very nearly as white as silver, and much 
 softer than ordinary bar-iron. Its uses are too com- 
 mon to receive any attention here, although its ap- 
 pearance in the human body is usually overlooked, 
 when we think of it in horse shoes, nails, hinges, 
 guns and bridges, etc. 
 
 Vegetable or animal life is not possible without 
 iron, and yet, notwithstanding the fact that iron is 
 introduced only through the medium of food, the 
 
256 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 food manufacturer assumes that he has a right to 
 remove it from his product. 
 
 MANGANESE. 
 
 Manganese has a remarkable affinity for iron, 
 and in some respects bears a close resemblance to 
 iron, with which it is frequently associated. It 
 differs from iron in that while its ores are widely 
 distributed, they are only rarely found in great 
 quantity in any one locality, whereas iron ore exists 
 in abundance in many regions. 
 
 It is employed as an oxidizing agent, and its 
 function in the human body is probably very sim- 
 ilar to that performed by iron. The physician rec- 
 ognizes its necessity, and frequently endeavors to 
 introduce it into the body as a tonic. He has diffi- 
 culy in doing this, because his manganese does not 
 appear in the form in which it is found in natural 
 food, and in which it is acceptable to the body. 
 
 The food manufacturer does not understand its 
 relationship to normal health, and in consequence 
 is not disturbed over its removal from his product, 
 notwithstanding the fact that it is one of the prin- 
 cipal mineral salts always found in the body of a 
 normal animal. 
 
 MAGNESIUM. 
 
 Loew found that magnesium and phosphorus are 
 intimately associated in the body, and that the meta- 
 bolism of these two elements in plants is closely con- 
 nected, magnesium apparently serving as a phos- 
 phate carrier in vegetable metabolism just as iron 
 serves as an oxygen carrier in animal metabolism. 
 
 Compounds of magnesium are widely distributed 
 in nature, and it is estimated that from 5 to 6 per 
 cent of the solid material held in solution by the 
 water of the ocean is magnesium sulphate, and from 
 8 to 11 per cent magnesium chloride. 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 257 
 
 It is a metal of brilliant silver white color, and 
 melts at a red heat. Held in the flame of a candle, 
 it burns with a dazzlingly white light, and for this 
 reason is much employed in the manufacture of 
 flash lights for photography in dark places. 
 
 The bones of all animals, and the. seeds of vari- 
 ous cereals, contain magnesium in the form of a 
 phosphate. Physicians employ magnesium sulphate 
 (epsom salts) in medicine. That magnesium in 
 spite of the important role it plays in the normal 
 functioning of the human body is removed by our 
 artificial processes of refining food does not seem 
 to disturb the food manufacturer unduly. 
 
 SULPHUR. 
 
 Sulphur occurs in all protein food, associated 
 with nitrogen, but in different proportions. In 
 beans, peas and lentils, the relation is about 50 nit- 
 rogen to 1 sulphur; in cheese about 20 nitrogen to 
 1 sulphur; in egg albumen about 10 nitrogen to 1 
 sulphur. As protein foods, legumes, meat, cheese, 
 eggs are broken up in the body and oxidized, the 
 sulphur is transformed into sulphuric acid. If this 
 sulphuric acid is not instantly neutralized as rapidly 
 as it is formed, it destroys the tissues. Under an 
 unrefined and natural diet, the body automatically 
 controls this formation of sulphuric acid converting 
 it into inorganic sulphates, which are thrown off 
 for the greater part in the urine. To what extent 
 the kidney cells are broken down by modern artifi- 
 cial foods, robbed of their natural basic elements, or 
 treated with sulphurous acid will never be known. 
 California, Louisiana, and all other states using 
 SO2 and SO3 in preparing their dried fruits, sweet 
 wines and molasses do not know the effects of their 
 deadly practices, but our untimely harvest of kid- 
 ney diseases is on record. 
 
258 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 We all know sulphur too well to require its de- 
 scription. Our grandmothers gave it to us in the 
 form of sulphur and molasses. For this reason, the 
 food manufacturer who employs sulphurous acid 
 in bleaching and preserving molasses, dried fruits, 
 glucose and white wines, tells us that we can have 
 no logical objection to it. He does not know that 
 sulphurous acid has none of the properties of sul- 
 phur, nor that it is a deadly poison, whereas sulphur 
 even in its pure state cannot be said to be a poison. 
 It is widely distributed in nature in the form of 
 sulphates and sulphides, and is found in all animal 
 and vegetable tissues, but whereas all living bodies, 
 vegetable or animal, require the organized sulphur 
 compounds elaborated by nature they recoil from 
 sulphur dioxide, sulphurous acid and sulphuric 
 acid as actual destroyers of life. 
 
 Sulphuric acid, HzSO*, is known as oil of vitriol. 
 It is exceedingly corrosive, decomposing all animal 
 and vegetable substances. Sulphurous acid esti- 
 mated as SO3, when thrown into water rapidly com- 
 bines with it to form sulphuric acid. Sulphur dioxide 
 estimated as SO2, is the colorless, pungent, suffocat- 
 ing gas formed by the combustion of sulphur in air. 
 It is in this state that it is employed in the bleaching 
 of food products, such as all dried apricots, peaches, 
 apples, molasses, etc. It is fatal to life. 
 
 Oats or other grains which are treated like dried 
 fruits with sulphur dioxide will not germinate. The 
 so-called "harmless" sulphur processes of the food 
 manufacturer are not in any manner to be con- 
 founded with the normal needs of animal or plant 
 life for sulphur in its proper form. 
 
 SILICA. 
 
 Silica is the commonest of minerals. It is ex- 
 tremely hard, and offers great resistance, even to 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 259 
 
 the oxyhydrogen flame in which it is finally fused 
 to a colorless gas. It is found in the rock crystal 
 amethyst, agate, onyx, jasper, flint, etc. 
 
 In the form of quartz, we find it in the sand of 
 the seashore. It occurs in solution in the waters 
 of many mineral springs. It is taken up readily 
 by plant life, and enters the body of the animal 
 through its food, to perform an indispensable func- 
 tion. 
 
 Those who for their own purposes tell us that 
 we should not eat silica in the form of the bran of 
 the wheat, on a theory that by so doing we eat 
 "ground glass," do not realize that silica is one of 
 man's mineral needs, and must be appropriated by 
 him in the form in which it appears in his food, in 
 order that his body may be normal. We can't eat 
 the yolk of an egg without eating silica in which it 
 occurs as silicic acid. 
 
 SODIUM. 
 
 Sodium is another silver white metal with a high 
 lustre. It oxidizes rapidly on exposure to moist air. 
 When heated in ordinary air, it burns rapidly with 
 a bright yellow flame. When thrown into cold 
 water, it oxidizes like potassium, but does not be- 
 come hot enough to set the liberated hydrogen on 
 fire. At ordinary temperature, it has the consist- 
 ency of wax, and when melted at less than the boil- 
 ing point of water, it forms a liquid resembling 
 mercury in appearance. It is next to potassium as 
 the fourth most electropositive metal. In its chem- 
 ical relations, it is closely allied to potassium, and 
 as a conductor of heat and electricity, it is next to 
 silver, copper and gold. 
 
 Two of its compounds are very widely diffused 
 in nature; these are common salt, and sodium car- 
 
2«0 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 bonate, or ordinary soda. Without sodium in its 
 proper form animal life would not exist. 
 
 CHLORINE. 
 
 Chlorine is an elementary gaseous substance 
 found in ordinary table salt, and in many forms of 
 vegetable life. It has a yellowish green color, and 
 when inhaled, violently irritates the air passages. 
 It acts as a corrosive agent upon all organic tissues, 
 although in its proper forms, usually as chloride, it 
 is so indispensable to the life of man, that he could 
 not live without it. 
 
 FLUORINE. 
 
 Fluorine, like chlorine is another gaseous ele- 
 ment, which has never been collected in a free 
 state. It forms many compounds with other ele- 
 ments. They are called fluorides, and appear in the 
 teeth and bones of the animal. 
 
 As calcium fluoride, it is used in preserving beer, 
 asparagus in glass jars, and also in other foods, al- 
 though it is one of the most deadly preservatives. 
 Forbidden by law, it is nevertheless used in many 
 places throughout the United States, and in one well 
 known brand of asparagus in glass, its appearance 
 was lately discovered in New York City, and the 
 proper authorities notified, although to date no 
 action has been taken. Brewers use it freely. 
 
 Like the other elements entering into the com- 
 position of the human body, fluorine appears in its 
 natural state in natural unrefined foods, and in this 
 state is appropriated by the body. 
 
 IODINE. 
 
 Hunt has found that the resistance of animals 
 to certain poisons differed greatly according to the 
 character of their diet. Bulletin 69, Hygienic Lab- 
 oratory, U. S. Treasury Department, states: "In 
 extreme cases mice after having been fed upon cer- 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 261 
 
 tain diets may recover from forty times the dose 
 of acetonitrile fatal to mice kept on other diets. It 
 is moreover, possible to alter the resistance of these 
 animals at will, and to overcome the effects of one 
 diet by combining it with another. 
 
 The experiments with oats and oatmeal and eggs 
 are of special interest. A diet of oats or oatmeal 
 usually leads to a marked resistance of mice to 
 acetonitrile. The administration of certain iodine 
 compounds with such a diet further increases the 
 resistance. The experiments showed that as far as 
 resistance to acetonitrile is concerned iodine exerts 
 its action through the thyroid gland, and the re- 
 sistance caused by an oat diet is in part an effect 
 exerted upon the thyroid." All through nature, we 
 find subtle and significant hints that nature knows 
 what she is about in preparing foods that will serve 
 the needs of man in an ideal manner, if man will 
 only co-operate with her, and accept the proposition 
 that her dispensations are not the result of accident, 
 but beautifully ordered, rhythmical processes pro- 
 found in their operations and benevolent in their 
 results. 
 
 Resistance to disease is no new principle in med- 
 icine. How do errors of diet, refinement of food, 
 denaturing of the juice of the sugar cane, chemical 
 transformation of starch into glucose, degermin- 
 ating of com, wheat, rice, barley, etc., lower that 
 resistance? Yet, unable to answer that question, 
 we go on in our defiance of nature, and refuse to 
 eat the noble foods which she offers and which on 
 animal and man prove their virtue, when here and 
 there some little band of experimenters show the 
 awful results that follow every attempt to refine 
 or process them. 
 
262 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 Iodine exists in the water of the ocean, in min- 
 eral springs, in marine mollusks, in sea weeds, and 
 in the nitrate deposits of South America. 
 
 At ordinary temperature, it is a solid crystaline 
 body, with a bluish black color, and a metallic lustre. 
 It is a non-conductor of electricity, and like oxygen 
 and chlorine, is electro-negative. It combines read- 
 ily with many other substances, and in these states 
 is known as iodides. 
 
 It is an irritant poison, but in its proper form 
 is required by the human body, in which it is chief- 
 ly found in the thyroid gland. If one drop of iodine 
 is added to a million drops of water, and a solution 
 of starch dropped into the water, the small quantity 
 of iodine present will give a blue tinge to the mix- 
 ture. 
 
 CARBON. 
 
 Carbon is found in nature in two distinctive 
 forms, as the diamond, and as the graphite ; the one 
 very hard, the other very soft. It is combustible, 
 and burns to carbonic gas outside the body, or in- 
 side the body. Without it, we would have no food. 
 It is the principal constituent of sugar, glucose, 
 starch and fat, although on a diet of pure carbo- 
 hydrates, man could only live a very short time. 
 Even when fats and proteins are added to pure 
 starch or sugar, the animal fed on such food dies 
 quickly. 
 
 No food will support life adequately, unless the 
 minerals described above are present in their proper 
 proportions. Because the food manufacturer does 
 not know this, and because the dietitian has given 
 it so little attention, low resistance is established in 
 tissues nourished on food from which these minerals 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 263 
 
 have been removed by refining processes, and the 
 germs of disease take root and flourish in those 
 tissues. 
 
 NITROGEN. 
 
 Nitrogen exists in nature as a colorless, odorless, 
 tasteless gas. It is not combustible, nor does it 
 support combustion. It does not enter readily into 
 combination with any other element. It forms 
 about 77 per cent of the weight of the atmosphere, 
 and it is an indispensable constituent in all animal 
 and vegetable tissues. 
 
 When introduced into the body in excess quanti- 
 ties, in the form of protein foods, such as meat, 
 cheese and eggs, it induces many serious disorders. 
 OXYGEN. 
 
 Like nitrogen, oxygen is a colorless, odorless, 
 tasteless gas. It combines readily with most of the 
 elements, except fluorine. It is so energetic in its 
 act of combining with these substances that in 
 many instances it evolves light and heat, and bursts 
 into flame. In other instances combination takes 
 place so slowly, that while the result is the same, 
 the heat evolved at one time is not sufficient to pro- 
 duce a flame, or even to be noticed. 
 
 The tarnishing or rusting of metals, and the 
 decay of animal or vegetable substances, are in- 
 stances of this slow combustion. Without free oxy- 
 gen there would be no animal or vegetable life. The 
 heat of the body, and the energy of the muscles are 
 the results of slow combustion produced in all parts 
 of the body, by oxygen carried into the system from 
 the lungs, by the iron in the blood. 
 HYDROGEN. 
 
 Like oxygen and nitrogen, hydrogen is a color- 
 less, tasteless, odorless gas. It is the lightest sub- 
 stance known in nature. It burns in air with a very 
 
264 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 pale blue flame and intense heat, the only product 
 of its combustion being pure water. It is usually- 
 found only in combination with other substances, 
 although it occurs free in the gases of volcanoes, 
 and of some oil wells. No animal or vegetable 
 structure can exist without it. It is a component of 
 all acids. When driven out of acids by bases, the 
 acids are transformed into salts, and it is thus that 
 we get the mineral salts of the earth into our 
 bodies. Its function in 'the processes of life are as 
 important as that of any of the substances we have 
 considered, but no more so. 
 
 It is the combination of all these substances in 
 proper and orderly proportion that sustains life. 
 We can thus see why those who prepare our food, 
 have no right to artificially treat that food; to de- 
 nature, debase, degerminate, demineralize, refine or 
 chemically change the character of that food. 
 
 When this naked truth is learned by our legis- 
 lators, we will have a new and wholesome food sit- 
 uation in the United States, and a newer, whole- 
 somer, sturdier and better race of men. 
 STARVING THE POOR. 
 The yolk of the hen's egg, analyzed by Gautier, 
 provides in the food of the child : 
 
 Water 47.19—51.49 
 
 Solids 48.51—42.81 
 
 Fats 21.30—22.84 
 
 Vitellin 15.63—15.76 
 
 Lecithins 8.43—10.72 
 
 Cholesterin 0.44— 1.75 
 
 Mineral Salts 3.33— 0.36 
 
 Poleck and Weber, analyzing 100 parts yolk ash, 
 give the following as the yolk's contribution through 
 its mineral salts to the diet of the child : 
 
 Sodium (Na.0) 5.12— 6.57 
 
FOR PHYSICIANS ONLY 265 
 
 Potassium (K^O) 8.05— 8.93 
 
 Calcium (CaO) 12.21—13.28 
 
 Magnesium (MgO) 2.07 2.11 
 
 Iron (Fe^Oj) 1.19— 1.45 
 
 Phosphoric acid, free (P^O^) . 5.72 — 5.72 
 Phosphoric acid, combined . . 63.81 — 66.70 
 
 Silicic acid (SiO,) 0.55 — 1.40 
 
 Chlorine traces 
 
 Cold storage provides a noble means of carrying 
 this precious food-material from abundant periods 
 to lean months, at a legitimate profit to the egg in- 
 dustry, thus giving to the child a food without which 
 under our modem standards of debased supplies, 
 there is no hope that the necessary body-building 
 materials may be found in adequate quantity. 
 
 In spite of the warm weather that prevailed dur- 
 ing October and November, 1912, during which time 
 millions of eggs were shipped from all parts of the 
 country to the already well supplied storage houses 
 of New York and Philadelphia, an artificial famine 
 was created by the holders of supplies. 
 
 At this writing (November 28, 1912) "fresh" 
 eggs are selling in New York at 60 to 65 cents a 
 dozen and storage eggs are selling at 40 cents and 
 45 cents a dozen. They cost less than 20 cents a 
 dozen when they went into storage. The dealers 
 predict $1.00 eggs during January. This condition, 
 under a knowledge of the meaning of the egg to 
 child-life, is so monstrous, inhuman, unnatural and 
 intolerable that those who speculate in the indis- 
 pensable staples of life, controlling as they do the 
 very health and happiness of the weak and defense- 
 less, should be treated as any other menace of so- 
 ciety is treated. They are murderers in fact, though 
 
266 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 by judge and jury, under our present dispensation, 
 they will never be held so. 
 
 It is the duty of our medical associations to go on 
 record concerning issues so indissolubly bound with 
 the problems of life and death. 
 
 This chapter was the subject of the author's ad- 
 dress before the Eastern Medical Association at 
 Hotel Astor, New York, Dec. 3, 1912. 
 
 SALTS OF TIN. 
 
 Corn, peas, tomatoes, hominy, kraut, and sweet 
 potatoes, cause the least re-action upon the tin in 
 which they are packed and are the safest of the 
 canned vegetables. 
 
 Plums, peaches, apricots, white cherries, lima 
 beans, apples, pork and beans in tomato sauce, to- 
 mato soup, and cider act on the tin, and produce tin 
 salts, which the trade believes not to be in excess, 
 and any interference with which is resented. 
 
 Apparently enamel-lined tins prevent the forma- 
 tion of tin salts. The public should be in possession 
 of the plain facts, and the physician should know the 
 physiological action of tin, not only on the body, but 
 on the other chemical agents which his prescription 
 calls for. 
 
 Apple butter, blackberries, blueberries, pumpkin, 
 black raspberries, red raspberries, red cherries, 
 beets, squash, string beans^ wax beans and straw- 
 berries become actually dangerous, unless packed in 
 glass or tins that are enamel-lined. The canners 
 know this. In fact this information reaches the pub- 
 lic through the canner's own laboratories, but not 
 with their knowledge or approval. The Bureau of 
 Chemistry has not instructed the public in this re- 
 gard. Its apparent duty is not to interfere with 
 "business." 
 
 Spinach, unless packed solid, is not safe in any 
 style tin. Rhubarb should not be packed in tin of 
 any kind. 
 
A GRAIN OF WHEAT 
 
 ANALYSIS OP A GRAIN OF WHEAT. 
 
 267 
 
 Following is an analysis which varies slightly, 
 depending on character of wheat : 
 
 Water 12% 
 
 Protein 13% 
 
 Fat 2% 
 
 Carbohydrates . 1 aiaj, 
 (Sugar, starch) J 
 
 Mineral salts 2% 
 
 100% 
 
 Mineral Analysis: 
 Potassium . . . 30.50 
 
 K3O 
 Sodium 2.20 
 
 Na^O 
 Calcium 8.20 
 
 CaO 
 Magnesium . . 12.00 
 
 MgO 
 Iron 1.50 
 
 FejOg 
 Phosphorus . . 46.00 
 
 P2O, 
 Sulphur 50 
 
 SO3 
 Silicon 2.00 
 
 SiOj 
 Chlorine 33 
 
 CI 
 
 Fluorine traces 
 
 Iodine traces 
 
 Manganese . .traces 
 
 This mineral content of the whole wheat is 2%. 
 
 The mineral content of white flour is reduced to 
 one-half of one per cent. 
 
 Glucose makers put all the mineral content of the 
 corn back into their cattle feed, admitting that if 
 they do not the cattle will die. 
 
268 
 
 STARVING AMERICA 
 
 The parts of the wheat berry marked a, skin 
 and testa; b, membrane; c, embryo; e, cereal or 
 aleurone layer ; f , scutulum, contain three-fourths of 
 the mineral salts of the grain. These parts when 
 removed, are known as bran, shorts, coarse mid- 
 dlings, fine middlings, and tailings. 
 
 KiG. I — Diagrammatic seclion of 
 Eiain of wheat; a, skin and testa; 
 b, membrane; c, embryo; d, flour 
 cells; e. cereal or aleurone layer. 
 /, scutulum 
 
 This year's wheat crop, 695,443,000 bushels, will 
 reach the human family in a minerally robbed con- 
 dition, because the fine white flour has thrown all 
 these elements out in the milling process. Hardly a 
 bushel of that wheat will be consumed by man, as 
 mother nature prepared it. 
 
 The illustration of the wheat berry, of which 
 section d represents the fine white flour, 72% purs 
 
A GRAIN OF WHEAT 
 
 269 
 
 starch, will also serve to give you an understanding 
 of the formation of barley, rice, oats, and com, all 
 of which are robbed, just as wheat is robbed, with 
 the exception of the small proportion of cut oats, or 
 whole oat meal, which reaches the consumer in a 
 natural state. 
 
 The com crop of 1912 is estimated at 3,125,713,- 
 000 bushels. Few bushels of that grain will reach 
 
 
 •a 
 
 Pic 2 — CrlJular strucliire of a gram of wheal 
 (Aflei Wintoii ana Moellcr ) 
 
 the needs of man as mother nature furnishes it for 
 those needs. 
 
 It is de-germinated and de-mineralized just as 
 wheat is debased. The tragedy of our ignorant and 
 wanton destruction of the corn crop of America can 
 only be appreciated by those who understand the 
 full significance of our 15 million physically de- 
 fective school children. 
 
270 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 
 
 The author is indebted to the following, many of 
 them without their knowledge, for physiological 
 data, enthusiasm for the cause or for personal sym- 
 pathy and encouragement. 
 Dr. G. C. Simpson, Liverpool School of Tropical 
 
 Medicine, University of Liverpool. 
 
 Professor Benjamin Moore, Professor of Bio-Chem- 
 istry, University of Liverpool. 
 
 Dr. Frederick Gowland Hopkins, F. R. S., Reader in 
 Chemical Physiology at the University of Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 Dr. Franklin Armstrong, British Association. 
 
 James R. Mitchell, M. D., Lecturer in Chemistry, 
 Fort Worth University Medical College. 
 
 Dr. E. S. Edie 
 
 Dr. F. M. Anderson 
 
 Dr. Leonard Hill 
 
 Dr. Fletcher, Burma 
 
 Dr. W. B. Carpenter 
 
 Dr. Pavy, F. R. S. 
 
 Dr. Beddoe, F. R. S. 
 
 Professor Rae Lankes- 
 ter, F. R. S. 
 
 Sir B. W. W. Richard- 
 son, F. R. S. 
 
 Dr. Frankland Arm- 
 strong 
 
 Sir James Crichton 
 Browne, M. D., LL. D. 
 
 Dr. Marcet, F. R. S. 
 
 Sir Lauder Brunton 
 
 Dr. G. A. Heron 
 
 Mr. A. P. Gould 
 
 Dr. J. S. Sykes 
 
 Dr. W. R. Smith 
 
 Dr. David Walsh 
 
 Mr. A. M. Robeson 
 
 Dr. Dyce Brown 
 
 Miss May Yates 
 
 Sir W. B. Richmond 
 
 Dr. R. Bevan 
 
 Sir Wm. Collins, M. D. 
 
 Dr. Stanford Read 
 
 Sir Robert Matheson 
 
 Dr. Nathan Raw 
 
 Dr. Alice Kerr 
 
 Dr. Robert Kaye 
 
 Dr. Lena Fox, Bermond- 
 
 I sey Medical Mission 
 
 Dr. Garrow Grant 
 
 Dr. V. G. Heiser, Manila 
 
 Dr. Highet, Siam 
 
 Dr. Aaron, Philippine 
 
 Medical School 
 Dr. De Haan, Java 
 Dr. Fraser, Singapore 
 Frederick C. Johnson 
 J. W. Kjelgaard 
 E. F. Wright 
 Harvey W. Wiley 
 Lewis B. AUyn 
 Otto Carque 
 Floyd W. Robison