Tenth annual convention of the Association of State and National Food and Dairy Departments, held at Hartford, Connecticut, July 17-20, 1906.

  • Association of State and National Food and Dairy Departments 1906 : Hartford, Connecticut)
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tenth annual convention of the Association of State and National Food and Dairy Departments, held at Hartford, Connecticut, July 17-20, 1906. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Mr. Emery: It seems to me that this is a question of great importance. The manufacturer and jobber are continually asking for a uniform label which can be used in interstate com- merce. This conflict between the national and the State laws is a very real thing. The national law is supreme and absolute in its domain, and the State law is just as supreme and absolute in its jurisdiction. The notion that the national law is to super- sede the State law is false, and I think that you should all take up the matter through the newspapers of your State; and the only course for us is to make the State law absolute in our own juris- diction, and the national law absolute in interstate commerce. It may not be a legal duty but it certainly is a moral duty for the Commissioner to do all that he can to create public sentiment. The recent disclosures make it possible for the Commissioners to do more than ever before, and these forces should be exercised to the extreme that what is done may be well done and not as the wards of partisan politics. In the past the Commissioners have not been adequately equipped. The work is monumental. Mr. Flanders: It seems to me that there is just one way to handle this question, and that is to so amend the Constitution as to give police power jurisdiction and by virtue of the rulings of the Commissioners enact law. Mr. Thurber: We have a legislative body to enact laws and an executive body to carry them out, and I do not see wherein the rulings of the Commissioners would enact law. Mr. Bruner: According to a recent decision in the Supreme Court of North Carolina the rulings of the Department in matters of this kind have the force and effect of law. Mr. Flanders: In New York State we try, according to the law given us, and I do not believe that the rulings of the Com- missioners without the force of police power will have the force of law. It is one thing to say that the rulings are to be so and so, and another thing to say that the interpretation of the law is so and so, regardless of what I want it to say. Mr. Allen: It seems to me that we are discussing, here, subjects which were settled half a century ago. I have covered a part of it in my paper. The State is supreme in its police power, and it can exercise it as it deems best. The Supreme Court of South Dakota has taken a position which has been maintained for all time and will be for all time to come as to her engineering, railroad, and food interests, but particular knowledge must be had before you can go into the enforcement. Senator Bailey has illumined this situation more than it has ever been illumined.