By Harvey W. Wiley, MD
Summary: In 1925, Dr. Wiley, the former head of the USDA's Bureau of Chemistry (later to become the FDA), created a public firestorm when he published in Good Housekeeping magazine a letter he'd written to President Calvin Coolidge admonishing the Department of Agriculture for failing to enforce the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which outlawed the misbranding and adulteration of food. Wiley's letter caused Coolidge to call for an explanation from the acting secretary of the USDA, whose letter to the president revealed just how industrial food manufacturers had managed to circumvent the food purity law. In this partial article from 1926, Wiley expresses his disappointment in the conciliatory position of the USDA and questions the failure of the department to enforce the law in spite of the backing of two Supreme Court decisions. Though Wiley's stance against food manufacturers had cost him his job within the government, he continued to speak on behalf of America's public health throughout the remainder of his life. From Good Housekeeping, 1926.
View PDF: No Pure Food Action—Now
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