The Meat Inspection Act.— This act was also passed 30 June 1906 and aims to provide special protection against the distribution in interstate commerce of unwholesome meat or meat products. Animals must be inspected by government officials before they are killed, the carcasses must be again inspected afterward, meats which are packed or canned must be further inspected and marked, and the estab lishments in which meat is killed, packed or in any way prepared must also pass close scrutiny. The government pays the cost of these inspec tions. To prevent corruption on the part of the inspectors they are frequently shifted from one part of the country to another on short notice. The administration of the law is in the hands of the Secretary of Agriculture who utilizes for that purpose the Bureau of Animal Industry. The beneficial results of these laws have been enormous. A large number of dis honest and injurious products have been driven from the markets forever to the great advan tage of the pocketbook and health of the con sumer. Manufacturers and producers have come to realize the commercial advantages of purity and cleanliness and have in numerous cases been glad to advertise the fact that they have gone far beyond the requirements of the law in those particulars. The commercial in centive to fraud and adulteration has thus been largely removed.
State Laws.— Since the pure food and drug laws of the national government are limited in their scope to the products which are dis tributed through interstate commerce it is only natural that the separate states should have legislation upon the same subject. Several
facts should be noted about these State enact ments. First, they apply to production, sale or distribution of food and drugs within the State. Second, they are in many cases more compre hensive in scope and more rigorous in the standards set up than the Federal laws. Third, they must be so drawn as not to produce a con flict with the Federal laws in their application or administration. For example, a State, under the guise of passing a law for the protection of the health of its citizens, may not forbid the importation and sale within its borders of food or drugs in their original packages which meet the tests of the Federal law in the matter of purity or labeling. Few conflicts of this kind, however, occurred and the legislation of the Federal government and the States upon this important subject have merely supplemented each other.
Bibliography.— Breed, Abbott and Morgan, 'Digest of National and State Food Laws' (1916) ; Freund, 'Police Power' (1906) ; Hem ingway, 'Public Health' (1914); Parry, 'Food and Drugs' (1911)- Robertson, 'Meat and Food Inspection (1968) •, Thornton, 'On Pure Food and Drugs' (1912) ; United States Bu reau of Animal Industry, Annual Reports; United States Bureau of Chemistry, Reports and Bulletins; Wiley, 'Foods and Their Adul teration' (1907).