Patrol

Chief Walter Gilbert Campbell of the Food & Drug Administration drew a long face last week as he rounded off his annual report to his chief, Secretary of Agriculture Henry Agard Wallace. Other members of Mr. Wallace's vast staff devise and distribute poisons to kill pests which infest fruits and vegetables. Mr. Campbell's grumps last week were largely due to the fact that his men must spend one-third of their time making sure that food raisers scrub from their harvests the insecticides other branches of the Department of Agriculture lavishly hand out.

Detecting adulterated, filthy or decomposed foods and drugs is the Food & Drug's second big problem. Imported canned tuna caused considerable trouble last year. Every twentieth can contained rotten fish. Mr. Campbell's men rejected 600,000 lb., principally from Japan.

Intoxicating candy containing 5% to 20% of alcohol caused unexpected work. Candymakers in Chicago, Jersey City and New York City, believing that Repeal gave them permission, flooded the country's school yards with such candy. But an unrepealed section of the Food & Drugs Act forbids anything of the sort.

For a few weeks after Repeal the Food & Drug Administration busily sampled whiskeys, found many an instance of short measure, many more instances of faked whiskeys (caramel and alcohol, pomace and raisin brandy, etc.). Grumbled Mr. Campbell last week: "It is self-evident that our present resources are wholly insufficient to patrol the entire interstate and import liquor traffic."

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