Quoted by 'Dog Food Diet is Forced on U.S., Says Dickinson: Senator Blames New Deal Scarcity Program', Chicago Daily Tribune (28th Apr. 1936), p. 4.
Description:

'Washington, D.C., April 27. - [Special.] - Senator Lester j. Dickinson [Rep., Ia.] in a speech today charged that human beings, under the "planned scarcity" of the New Deal annually are consuming 100 million pounds of dog food - "food unfit even for dogs to eat!"

Dickinson supported his charges with abstracts from a hearing before the NRA code authority of the dog food industry, held in Washington more than a year ago. He quoted L.J. Becker, former secretary of the National Dog Food Manufacturers' association, as estimating that one fifth of the entire output of dog food in the United States, 500 million pounds, is eaten by human beings.

Quotes Roosevelt on Plan.

"I understand prosperity is here" Senator Dickinson declared at the beginning of his address. Then he quoted President Roosevelt's declaration: "We planned it that way - and don't let anybody tell you different." The senator maintained that is is only when a majority of the people have enough to eat that "prosperity" or "recovery" really is here, and in support of this contention he again quoted President Roosevelt.

The President, speaking at Atlanta last Nov. 29, declared that the average of our citizenship lives on a "third class diet" because "the masses of the American people have not got the purchasing power to eat more and better food."

Byrnes Tries Ridicule.

Senator James F. Byrnes [Dem. S.C.], a New Dealer who is running for re-election this year, attempted to ridicule Senator Dickinson's charges and refused to be interrupted while doing so. Senator Dickinson, however, managed to get in the retort that "you can't laugh away this evidence taken by your own NRA authority.

Senator James F. Byrnes... demanded that Senator Dickinson produce some of the dog food, which the prepared [press] release [relating to his speech] had described as being on his desk when the speech was delivered.

"Its in my office," replied Senator Dickinson.

"Mr. President, I hate to hear that the senator has been storing dog food in his office," Byrnes remarked, "I didn't know he had been eating it. I hope it is fit for human consumption."

The Iowa senator charged the New Deal with double responsibility for the conditions under which human beings eat dog food - the "scarcity economics" of the AAA and failure on the part of the agriculture department to enforce the pure food and drug law. Only 15 of the 200 plants manufacturing dog food are under regular inspection by the department, he said. He called the character of the uninspected product one of the most alarming facts of the present situation.

"It comes from two sources - carrion, made from dead animals, or else from the diseased lungs, livers, and fibrous tissues which make up the refuse from slaughter houses," the senator declared. On the farm and around the stockyards it is known as tankage. Before this bonanza in dog foods began it was used exclusively in the manufacture of fertilizer, and that is all it actually is fit for."

One reason why human beings eat such stuff, Senator Dickinson declared, is because "an administration which boasts of its humanitarian purpose... permits shipment of offal in interstate commerce and permits its flagrant mislabeling as 'fit for human consumption.' Such is the exact wording which some of the labels carry."

Quotes Government Statistics.

Senator Dickinson said that the department of agriculture estimated that the per capita consumption of all meats in 1933 was 142.9 pounds. In 1934 meat from government slaughtered animals, such as was not destroyed, increased the consumption to 152.6 pounds. But, added the senator, "only last year did the true results of the policy of scarcity become apparent.

"Meat consumption went into a tailspin. The department has not yet released its figures for 1935, but, by applying the percentage change in production of federal meats to the total consumption in 1934, which is the identical method the department has used in the past, we find that total per capita consumption dropped to 126.7 pounds. And remember, during 1935 this country imported no less than 346 million pounds of meat in addition."

Declaring that during the past three years the standard of living of the American people has progressively declined to new lows, the senator asserted that "every gangster, every counterfeiter, every dope peddler, now incarcerated in a federal penitentiary, not only lives better, but actually has twice as much to eat as the average of our free citizenship in this year of Roosevelt, 1936. . . And remember that the President spoke only of the general average. Many a good American - too proud to accept government help - is trying to last out the Roosevelt 'prosperity' on a daily ration of potatoes, and the administration did its best to take the potatoes away from them!"

The 15 manufacturers coming under government inspection and who produce a pure food Senator Dickinson named as follows:

Armour & Co., Chicago; Chappel Bros., Rockford, Ill.; Foell Packing company, Chicago; George A. Hormel & Co., Austin. Minn.; Illinois Meat company, Chicago; Loyal packing company, Chicago; Modern Food Products Company, Philadelphia; John Morrell & Co., Ottumwa, In.; Rath Packing company, Waterlool. Ia.; Rich Products corporation, Rockford, Ill.; Republic Food Products, Chicago; Rival Packing company, Chicago; Schlesser Bros., Portland, Ore.; Swift & Co., Chicago; Wilson & Co., Chicago.

Quotes Codes Officer

Senator Dickinson quoted from the record these remarks of Charles Wesley Dunn, executive secretary of the dog food code authority: 'When I first came to this position as investigating the dog food business one of the first things I learned that this phrase 'fit for human consumption' was actually working out to induce, according to reports I received, the consumption of dog food in different parts of the country by human beings, and I was informed that some of the dog food which was being so consumed was not fit for human consumption."

C.P. Rich of the Rich Products corporation, Rockford, Ill. testified: "I believe the government department of agriculture has evidence that a great deal of canned dog food is being used for human consumption. From our own experiences, we are sure that canned dog food is being used for human consumption."

P.M. Chappel, of Chappel Brothers, also of Rockford, testified: "I think that the department of agriculture has some figures on this. I do not know if these gentlemen have been familiar with this or not, but there have been some tests made of districts and I was notified that in one ally there were 68 cans and there was not a dog on the block. I wanted to check up on some of them and I made some tests of our own in Chicago, and I was quite astonished at the number of people that were canning dog food."'

 

Quoted by 'Program for Improving Canned Dog Food', Veterinary Medicine 32 (1) (Jan. 1937), pp. 31-2.
Description:

'Veterinary Medicine has warned its readers so often against the use of uninspected canned dog foods that further comment seems unnecessary. It may be mentioned, however, that those active in the "American Dog Food Institute" are in the main those who were active in attempting (unsuccessfully) to put over a nefarious canned dog food code two or three years ago and later formed a canned dog food manufacturers' association (short-lived), the object of which was fully exposed in Veterinary Medicine at the time. It was the operators of non-inspected plants whose products Senator Dickinson described last spring as "a product of filth and putrefaction."' (32)

Quoted by 'The Dog Food Racket in the Lime-Light Again', Veterinary Medicine 31 (6) (1936), pp. 238-240.
Description:

'Since the foregoing was put in type, Senator Dickinson of Iowa has made his much-publicized "dog food speech" on the floor of the United States Senate (Congressional Record, April 27, 1936). Senator Dickinson designated the manufacturers making inspected canned dog food as follows:

Armour & Co., Chicago; Chappel Bros., Rockford, Ill.; Foell Packing Company, Chicago; George A. Hormel & Co., Austin. Minn.; Illinois Meat company, Chicago; Loyal Packing Company, Chicago; Modern Food Products Company, Philadelphia; John Morrell & Co., Ottumwa, Ia.; Rath Packing company, Waterlool. Ia.; Rich Products Corporation, Rockford, Ill.; Republic Food Products, Chicago; Rival Packing company, Chicago; Schlesser Bros., Portland, Ore.; Swift & Co., Chicago; Wilson & Co., Chicago.

He stated their products are "clean and wholesome."

Unfortunately, but probably inevitably, Senator Dickinson gave his speech a strong political slant, generally arraigning officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for permitting "sewage labeled as fit for human food" to enter into interstate commerce. However, he excepted Doctor Mohler from this general arraignment and paid him a high tribute.

The Senator urged that the meat inspection law be extended to include all canned dog food entering into interstate commerce, and clear up a situation worse than that described in Sinclair's "Jungle".

The Senator's interest in the matter was not the welfare of dogs, but grew out of the testimony at the Dog Food Code hearing in February, 1935 (Veterinary Medicine, Feb., 1935, pp. 54-6 and May, 1935, pp. 188-91), that a hundred million cans of dog food are consumed annually by the public, because of misleading statements on [239-240] the labels, to-wit: "Contains U.S. Inspected and Passed Meat" and "Fit for Human Food." Our opinion is that this phase of the matter has been exaggerated and that canned food is not used for human consumption to this extent. However, after the cans are opened, it is commonly kept in the family refrigerator with the family's food supply and is eaten by mistake occasionally. Further, it is, of course, known that it is intentionally eaten to some extent. Either circumstance makes the use of carrion in its manufacture simply unthinkable.

The following telegram from the editor of this magazine, sent in response to a request for an opinion, was read into the record by Senator Dickinson:

I am intimately acquainted with the canned dog food industry and have known it for years. At present it is in a deplorable condition due to unconscionable practices of racketeers who infest it in large numbers. Its products are to a large extent filthy, unwholesome, innutritious, unfit for a dog to eat or for its owner to take into his home. Sales are made through fraud and deception in labeling and advertising. I and most other veterinarians maintain that unwholesome canned dog food is responsible for a vast amount of illness and mortality amongst dogs and cheats dog owners out of millions of dollars annually. The protection of honest dog food manufacturers no less than of the public demands official regulation of this industry. Such regulation has already been delayed much too long. The industry as a result of abuses is in a chaotic state. It is unprofitable to those engaged in it and a calamity to the dog owning public. Proper regulation will benefit every worthy manufacturer, give the public something of vlue for its money and eliminate incalculable cruelty to man's best friend: the dog.

The day following the speech by Senator Dickinson, Senator Burke of Nebraska introduced a bill to place the manufacture of all canned dog food entering into interstate commerce under the control of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; in effect, to provide for inspection of canned dog food and the premises where it is prepared by the Bureau of Animal Industry as is done for meat and meat products for human consumption. Although adjournment of the Congress is near, it is expected by its sponsors that this bill will reach a vote and be passed practically without opposition during the present session.' (239-240)