When the Brewery Trust Told a State Inspector to Bring It On
A dairy commissioner orders dairymen to stop feeding cows wet brewers' grain. The Seattle Brewing and Malting Co. writes back that the National Brewers' Association will fund the fight — and dares him to take it to court.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Dairy Commissioner E. A. McDonald, who has been making a searching investigation and inspection of the dairies that supply the milk of the principal cities of Western Washington, has discovered that a number of dairymen are violating the state law by feeding wet brewers' grain to their cows. Mr. McDonald promptly ordered that they discontinue its use. He received last week the following letter, which, while it is written in rather a bullying tone, will not cause Mr. McDonald to flinch from his duty to the state and the protection of legitimate dairying interests. He intends to immediately commence proceedings against those who are breaking the statute:
Seattle Brewing and Malting Co. Seattle, Wash., April 30, 1897. Hon. E. A. McDonald: We have been informed by the dairymen that you have notified them to discontinue the feeding of malt grain to their cows. Our Mr. Sweeney endeavored to find you and talk personally with you in this matter while you were in Seattle, but was unsuccessful. We know of no state law which forbids the use of malt grains for feeding, and if there is such a law we are very anxious to have it tested. We therefore trust that you will arrange the matter at once. As we are protected by the National Brewers' Association we will be at no expense whatever in the matter. We have on file in our office, open to inspection by you, the official reports of the agricultural experiment stations of New York and New Jersey which determine the nutritive quality of wet brewers' grains and go more particularly into the analysis, which show daily the reports of the directors of said stations. The result of these investigations and experiments show conclusively that it is superior to other feeds for milch cows and is conducive to an increased flow of a good quality of milk.
We have notified our dairymen that we will protect them against any action of yours, and trust that we will hear from you in the near future. Seattle Brewing and Malting Co.
“If there is such a law we are very anxious to have it tested... We have notified our dairymen that we will protect them against any action of yours.”
A state regulator orders a public-health restriction; an industry — bankrolled by a national trade association — refuses and offers to litigate it into oblivion. More than a century later, the same script plays out over food safety, labeling and enforcement, with the trade group always footing the legal bill for its members. The confidence of that 1897 letter could be dictated almost word for word today.
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