Message to Congress on Pure Foods and Drugs.

To the Congress:

Every enterprise in the United States should be able to adhere to the simple principle of honesty without fear of penalty on that account. Honesty ought to be the best policy not only for one individual, or one enterprise, but for every individual and every enterprise in the Nation. In one field of endeavor there is an obvious means to this end which has been too long neglected: the setting up and careful enforcement of standards of identity and quality for the food we eat and the drugs we use, together with the strict exclusion from our markets of harmful or adulterated products.

The honor of the producers in a country ought to be the invariable ingredient of the products produced in it. The various qualities of goods require a kind of discrimination which is not at the command of consumers. They are likely to confuse outward appearance with inward integrity. In such a situation as has grown up through our rising level of living and our multiplication of goods, consumers are prevented from choosing intelligently and producers are handicapped in any attempt to maintain higher standards. Only the scientific and disinterested activity of Government can protect this honor of our producers and provide the possibility of discriminating choice to our consumers.

These principles have long been those on which we have founded public policy. But we have fallen behind in their practical application. No comprehensive attempt at reform in the regulation of commerce in food and drugs has been made since 1906. I need not point out to you how much has happened since that time in the invention of new things and their general adoption, as well as in the increase of advertising appeals. Because of these changes loopholes have appeared in the old law which have made abuses easy.

It is time to make practical improvements. A measure is needed which will extend to advertising also the controls formerly applicable only to labels; which will extend protection to the trade in cosmetics; which will provide for a cooperative method of setting standards and for a system of inspection and enforcement to reassure consumers grown hesitant and doubtful; and which will provide for a necessary flexibility in administration as products and conditions change.

I understand this subject has been studied and discussed for the last two years and that full information is in the possession of the Congress.

No honest enterpriser need fear that because of the passage of such a measure he will be unfairly treated. He would be asked to do no more than he now holds himself out to do. It would merely make certain that those who are less scrupulous than I know most of our producers to be, cannot force their more honest competitors into dishonorable ways.

The great majority of those engaged in the trade in food and drugs do not need regulation. They observe the spirit as well as the letter of existing law. Present legislation ought to be directed primarily toward a small minority of evaders and chiselers. At the same time even-handed regulation will not only outlaw the bad practices of the few but will also protect the many from unscrupulous competition. It will, besides, provide a bulwark of consumer confidence throughout the business world.

It is my hope that such legislation may be enacted at this session of the Congress.