unfit for importation under clauses 1, 2, and 3 of section 2 of this Act, he shall issue to persons making application therefor permits to ship milk and/or cream into the United States, provided that in lieu of the inspections to be made by or under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture he may, in his discretion, accept a duly certified statement signed by a duly accredited official of an authorized department of any foreign government that the provisions in clauses 1, 2, and 3 of section 2 of this Act have been complied with. Such certificate of the accredited official of an authorized department of any foreign government shall be in the form prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture, who is hereby authorized and directed to prescribe such form, as well as rules and regulations regulating the issuance of permits to import milk or cream into the United States.

The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to suspend or revoke any permit for the shipment of milk or cream into the United States when he shall find that the holder thereof has violated this Act or any of the regulations made hereunder, or that the milk and/or cream brought by the holder of such permit into the United States is not produced and handled in conformity with or that the quality thereof does not conform to all of the provisions of section 2 of this Act.

SEC. 4. It shall be unlawful for any person in the United States to receive milk or cream imported into the United States from the importer thereof unless the person by whom such milk or cream was imported holds a valid permit from the Secretary of Agriculture.

SEC. 5. Any person who knowingly violates any provision of this Act shall, in addition to all other penalties prescribed by law, be punished by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SEC. 6. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $50,000 per annum, to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the provisions of this Act. SEC. 7. Any laws or parts of laws inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. SEC. 8. Nothing in this Act is intended nor shall be construed to affect the powers of any State, or any political subdivision thereof, to regulate the shipment of milk or cream into, or the handling, sale, or other disposition of milk or cream in, such State or political subdivision.

SEC. 9. When used in this Act

(a) The term " person means an individual, partnership, association, or

corporation.

(b) The term "United States means continental United States.

SEC. 10. This act shall take effect upon the expiration of ninety days from the date of its enactment.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, I thought we would be able to con clude the hearings on this bill to-day, and it would not take very long, but the department wants to be heard, and they are not ready We will go on and hear everybody we can to-day, who is here. I understand there are some gentlemen from Canada who wanted to be heard.

now.

Mr. SCOTT. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I did not know until just now that you were here. What is your name?

Mr. SCOTT. Scott is my name. I am general counsel for the National Dairy Council of Canada.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there anyone else with you?

Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Stephan, the vice president of the Dairy Council of Canada.

The CHAIRMAN. Suppose we go ahead. Senator Lenroot, and you can call such witnesses as you want to who are here to-day, then we will hear Mr. Scott and Mr. Stephan after you have concluded, and then we will adjourn the hearing subject to call, with the idea of letting the department be heard. I do not know yet what their attitude is going to be on the bill.

STATEMENT OF HON. IRVINE L. LENROOT, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM WISCONSIN

Senator LENROOT. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, right on that subject, this bill has been prepared in cooperation of the National Cooperative Milk Producers' Association, the Department of Agriculture, and the other dairy interests of the country. The bill has been partially framed in the department.

The purpose of this bill is to provide an inspection law for the importation of milk and cream into the United States from foreign countries. Its purpose is two-fold: one with relation to the public health and one to require the same standard with regard to the production and distribution of milk and cream that is required of dairy farmers in the United States. They are to-day under a very great handicap because, as the committee knows, the standards required in the United States are very stringent, and in many of our larger cities, for instance, they prohibit the sale of any raw milk within the city that is not certified to have been produced from tuberculin-tested herds.

I want to say in the beginning that the bill is not introduced with any spirit of hostility to any other country, but because it seems very unfair to allow competition from other countries of milk that is produced under insanitary conditions, that is not subject to the same test that is required for milk produced in the United States.

With reference to the bill itself, in its major features, I think all except one are taken from the standards required by the Board of Health of the State of New York, and I would like at the very outset to place in the record excerpts from the sanitary code published by the Public Health Council of the State of New York.

I would like also to place in the record excerpts from the sanitary code, department of health, of New York City.

Next, I would like to submit a memorandum showing the importations of milk and cream in this country during the years 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1925, and at this point I would like to say that England is now proposing almost identically the same kind of an inspection law that this bill provides, and I would like to put into the record an article from The Milk Industry, volume 6, No. 10, 1926, page 83, head office, Temple Avenue, London, which shows what England is proposing to do in this same matter.

Dr. Harvey Wiley, who is very well-know to every member of the committee, the other day wrote me and asked for a copy of the bill, and I yesterday received a reply which I would like to put in the record at this point, which reads as follows:

I thank you very cordially for sending me a copy of S. 4126. I have looked over it with some care, and I think upon the whole it is an excellent measure. I should like to call your attention, however, to one word in line 6, page 4, which reads:

"Any person who knowingly violates," etc.

The word "knowingly has wrecked many food laws in which it has been found. An earnest effort was made by the adulterators to have the word "knowingly" in our food and drugs act, but they never succeeded in getting it in. It is almost impossible to prove knowledge, that is, guilty knowledge. Your bill will be immensely improved if you will have the word "knowingly eliminated.

I did not happen to see it if it be present in any part of the bill

except the part to which I referred. If it is, however, in any other part of the bill, I hope that you will see that it does not stay there long when the bill is considered in committee or is reported to the Senate.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I am not going to take the time of the committee. This bill is indorsed by the dairy interests of the country generally.

I will first introduce Senator Copeland, who will speak from the standpoint of the city of New York, and particularly from the standpoint of the public health.

(Senator Lenroot submitted the following documents:)

[Excerpts from the sanitary code established by the public health council of the State of New York]

MILK AND CREAM

(Including amendments to April 1, 1925)

REGULATION 1. Permit required for sale of milk in municipalities. No corporation, association, firm, or individual shall sell or offer for sale at retail milk or cream in any municipality without a permit from the health officer thereof, which shall be issued subject to such conditions as may be imposed by this code or by the local health officer, except that the local health officer may exempt from the provisions of this regulation persons selling milk from not more than one cow. Such permit shall expire on the 30th day of April, unless another date is designated by the local health board, and shall be renewable on or before such date in each year, and may be revoked at any time for cause by the State commissioner of health or the local health officer after a hearing on due notice. (Amended October 1, 1914, and December 7, 1920.)

REG. 13. Designations of milk and cream restricted. All milk sold and offered for sale at retail, except milk sold or offered for sale as sour milk under its various designations, shall bear one of the designations provided in this regulation, which constitute the minimum requirements permitted in this State.

No term shall be used to designate the grade or quality of milk or cream which is sold or offered for sale, except:

Certified.

Grade A raw.

Grade A pasteurized.

Grade B raw.

Grade B pasteurized.

Grade C raw.

Grade C pasteurized.

Grade A raw. No milk or cream shall be sold or offered for sale as Grade A raw unless it conforms to the following requirements:

The dealer selling or delivering such milk or cream must hold a permit from the local health officer.

All cows producing such milk or cream must have been tested at least once during the previous year with tuberculin, and any cow reacting thereto must have been promptly excluded from the herd.

Such milk must not at any time previously to delivery to the consumer contain more than 60,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter, and such cream not more than 300,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter.

Such milk and cream must be produced on farms which are duly scored on the score card prescribed by the State commissioner of health not less than 25 per cent for equipment and not less than 50 per cent for methods.

Such milk and cream must be delivered within 36 hours from the time of milking, unless a shorter time shall be prescribed by the local health authorities.

Such milk and cream must be delivered to consumers only in containers sealed at the dairy or a bottling plant. The caps or tags must be white and contain the term "Grade A raw in large black type, and the name and address of the dealer.

Grade B pasteurized. No milk or cream shall be sold or offered for sale as Grade B pasteurized unless it conforms to the following requirements:

The dealer selling or delivering such milk or cream must hold a permit from the local health officer.

All cows producing such milk or cream must be healthy, as disclosed by an annual physical examination.

Such milk or cream before pasteurization must not contain more than 1,500,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter.

Such milk must not at any time after pasteurization and previous to delivery to the consumer contain more than 100,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter, and such cream not more than 500,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter. Such milk and cream must be produced on farms which are duly scored on the score card prescribed by the State commissioner of health not less than 20 per cent for equipment and not less than 35 per cent for methods.

Such milk must be delivered within 36 hours after pasteurization between April 1 and November 1, and within 48 hours after pasteurization between November 1 and April 1, and such cream within 48 hours after pasteurization, unless a shorter time is prescribed by the local health authorities.

The caps or tags on the containers must be white and contain the term "Grade B pasteurized' in large bright-green type, and the name of the dealer. (Amended March 4, 1915, October 5, 1915, January 9, 1917, and January 10, 1919.)

[Excerpts from the sanitary code, Department of Health of New York City]

GRADE A MILK

Reg. 50. Bacteria standard: Milk or skimmed milk of this grade and designation shall not contain more than 30,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter when delivered to the consumer at or any time after Pasteurization. Cream of this grade and designation shall not contain more than 150,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter when delivered to the consumer or at any time after Pasteurization. No raw milk or raw, skimmed milk produced in or shipped to the city of New York to be Pasteurized, and intended to be Pasteurized, and intended to be sold in said city under this grade and designation, shall contain more than 200,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter before Pasteurization. No raw milk or raw, skimmed milk produced and Pasteurized outside the city of New York and intended to be sold in said city of New York under this grade and designation shall contain more than 100,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter at any time before Pasteurization. Raw cream of this grade and designation must be produced from milk conforming to the bacteria standard prescribed in such milk in this regulation.

GRADE B, PASTUERIZED

Reg. 79. Bacteria standard: Milk or skimmed milk of this grade and designation shall not contain more than 100,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter when delivered to the consumer or at any time after Pasteurization. Cream of this grade and designation shall not contain more than 500,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter when delivered to the consumer or at any time after Pasteurization. No raw milk or raw, skimmed milk produced in or shipped to the city of New York to be Pasteurized and intended to be sold in said city under this grade and designation shall contain more than 1,500,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter before Pasteurization. No raw milk or raw, skimmed milk produced and Pasteurized outside of the city of New York and intended to be sold in said city under this grade and designation shall contain more than 300,000 bacteria (colonies) per cubic centimeter at any time before Pasteurization. Raw cream of this grade and designation must be produced from milk conforming to the bacteria standard prescribed for such milk in this regulation.

In 1925 our total import of milk and cream was from Canada.

The quarter just closed is not representative for 1926 of the rate at which milk and cream came in from Canada, as it comprises the low period of winter production. Last year the heavy imports of milk and cream occurred in the month of July.

One reason for this great increase in imports from Canada may be attributed to the fact that when the Congress passed the tariff act of 1922 the butterfat basis failed to receive proper recognition as between the tariff rate on butter and the tariff rate on cream. For example, the rate on butter was placed at 8 cents a pound, while the rate on cream was placed at 20 cents a gallon up to 45 per cent butter-fat content. At this rate cream at 40 per cent butter-fat content would be paying a tariff of approximately 6 cents a pound in terms of butter. Recently the President, after an investigation by the Tariff Commission, ordered the tariff on butter to be raised to 12 cents a pound. That will have the effect of widening the margin as between butter and cream from 2 cents to 6 cents per pound.

All imports of milk and cream into the United States [Source: Bureau of Economics, United States Department of Agriculture]

Practically all imported from Canada, with a negligible quantity coming in from Denmark, Italy, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

[From The Milk Industry, Vol. VI, No. 10, 1926, p. 83]

The imported milk regulations: Important clauses of a draft of order, dated March 5, proposed to be made by the minister of health.

3. (1) Every sanitary authority shall enforce and execute these regulations and shall keep a register of persons to whom milk imported into their district may be consigned.

(2) Any officer of the sanitary authority duly authorized in that behalf may take a sample of any milk imported into the district.

4. No person shall receive any milk consigned to him from any place outside the British Islands unless he is registered under these regulations by the sanitary authority into whose district the milk is imported.

5. All imported milk shall be in such condition that, on a sample being taken within the district of a sanitary authority, the milk shall be found to contain not more than 100,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter and to be free from tubercle bacilli.

6. (1) If the sanitary authority are satisfied that any milk imported into their district does not comply with the provisions of these regulations, they may serve upon the person to whom the milk was consigned a notice to appear before them not less than seven days after the date of the notice to show cause why they should not, for reasons to be specified in the notice, remove him from the register, either absolutely or in respect of any specified source of supply; and if he fails to show cause to their satisfaction accordingly they may remove him from the register.

(2) Any person aggrieved by any such decision of the sanitary authority as aforesaid may, within 21 days, appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction and that court may require the sanitary authority not to remove him from the register.