The Poison Squad Read online

  ALSO BY DEBORAH BLUM

  The Poisoner’s Handbook

  Ghost Hunters

  Love at Goon Park

  Sex on the Brain

  The Monkey Wars

  A Field Guide for Science Writers

  Angel Killer

  PENGUIN PRESS

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street

  New York, New York 10014

  penguin.com

  Copyright © 2018 by Deborah Blum

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  Illustration credits appear on this page.

  ISBN 9781594205149 (hardcover)

  ISBN 9780525560289 (ebook)

  Version_1

  To Peter, who makes all things possible

  CONTENTS

  Also by Deborah Blum

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  “I Wonder What’s in It”

  Cast of Characters

  Introduction

  PART I

  One. A CHEMICAL WILDERNESS

  Two. CHEATED, FOOLED, AND BAMBOOZLED

  Three. THE BEEF COURT

  Four. WHAT’S IN IT?

  Five. ONLY THE BRAVE

  Six. LESSONS IN FOOD POISONING

  Seven. THE YELLOW CHEMIST

  Eight. THE JUNGLE

  PART II

  Nine. THE POISON TRUST

  Ten. OF KETCHUP AND CORN SYRUP

  Eleven. EXCUSES FOR EVERYTHING

  Twelve. OF WHISKEY AND SODA

  Thirteen. THE LOVE MICROBE

  Fourteen. THE ADULTERATION SNAKE

  Fifteen. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME

  Epilogue

  Photographs

  Gratitudes

  Notes

  Photo credits

  Index

  About the Author

  “I WONDER WHAT’S IN IT”

  We sit at a table delightfully spread

  And teeming with good things to eat.

  And daintily finger the cream-tinted bread,

  Just needing to make it complete

  A film of the butter so yellow and sweet,

  Well suited to make every minute

  A dream of delight. And yet while we eat

  We cannot help asking, “What’s in it?”

  Oh, maybe this bread contains alum or chalk

  Or sawdust chopped up very fine

  Or gypsum in powder about which they talk,

  Terra alba just out of the mine.

  And our faith in the butter is apt to be weak,

  For we haven’t a good place to pin it

  Annato’s so yellow and beef fat so sleek

  Oh, I wish I could know what is in it.

  The pepper perhaps contains cocoanut shells,

  And the mustard is cottonseed meal;

  And the coffee, in sooth, of baked chicory smells,

  And the terrapin tastes like roast veal.

  The wine which you drink never heard of a grape,

  But of tannin and coal tar is made;

  And you could not be certain, except for their shape,

  That the eggs by a chicken were laid.

  And the salad which bears such an innocent look

  And whispers of fields that are green

  Is covered with germs, each armed with a hook

  To grapple with liver and spleen.

  The banquet how fine, don’t begin it

  Till you think of the past and the future and sigh,

  “How I wonder, I wonder, what’s in it.”

  HARVEY WASHINGTON WILEY, 1899

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  This account of Harvey Wiley’s life and his battle for the enactment and enforcement of the United States’ first national law regulating food, drink, and drugs includes many people whose lives or careers intersected with or influenced Wiley’s. Among them were all U.S. presidents from Chester A. Arthur to Calvin Coolidge.

  Others included:

  Jane Addams: The Chicago activist and reformer, cofounder of the nation’s first settlement house, also cofounded the National Consumers League.

  Nelson Aldrich: This powerful and wealthy U.S. senator, a Rhode Island Republican so influential in government that the press nicknamed him “General Manager of the Nation,” was a friend to many major corporations and strongly opposed the idea of regulating food and drink for safety.

  Russell A. Alger: As secretary of war, he somewhat reluctantly ordered investigations into the food that had been supplied to army troops during the Spanish-American War.

  Robert M. Allen: The chief food chemist for the state of Kentucky was an outspoken advocate of pure-food legislation and a valuable Wiley ally.

  Carl L. Alsberg: Succeeding Wiley as chief of the USDA Bureau of Chemistry, he continued to pursue many of his predecessor’s key cases, including lawsuits against the Coca-Cola Company and the producers of saccharin.

  Thomas Antisell: This early USDA chief chemist investigated food adulteration during the 1860s and found it a problem but acknowledged that there was no mechanism for regulation.

  J. Ogden Armour: The heir to founder Philip Armour’s Armour and Company meatpacking in Chicago; he, like his father, opposed food safety regulations. The company was the basis for Upton Sinclair’s fictional “Anderson” food-processing company in his best-selling novel The Jungle.

  Ray Stannard Baker: A muckraking McClure’s journalist, he advised his friend Upton Sinclair on proposed revisions to The Jungle.

  Jesse Park Battershall: Author of a leading book, Food Adulteration and Its Detection, the nineteenth-century chemist blasted processors, bemoaned the lack of regulation, and described home purity tests that could be used by anxious family cooks.

  Albert Beveridge: A progressive Republican senator from Indiana, he played a role in pushing pure-food legislation, especially the Meat Inspection Law of 1906.

  Willard Bigelow: The lead chemist for the Hygienic Table Trials, also known as the Poison Squad, he was a dedicated ally of Wiley’s and a dedicated chemist, once described as a “man of blue blazes and sulfurous smokes.”

  Charles J. Bonaparte: The U.S. attorney general under Theodore Roosevelt issued a key ruling agreeing with Wiley on whiskey-labeling requirements.

  George Rothwell Brown: A Washington Post reporter, he made the Poison Squad experiments famous but also wrote fake news stories about them.

  Joseph Gurney Cannon: The powerful and corrupt Speaker of the House opposed regulation and battled with Wiley over proposed pure-food legislation.

  Russell Chittenden: As a Yale physiologist, he warned against some additives but on the Remsen Board, established after passage of the 1906 law, he was often a pro-industry defender of preservatives.

  Norman J. Coleman: As commissioner of agriculture in Grover Cleveland’s first term, he was a Wiley ally who initiated investigations into food purity.

  Peter Collier: Wiley’s predecessor as chief chemist clashed with the agriculture commissioner. Angry at being replaced, he orchestrated attacks on Wiley in an attempt to get his job back.

  C. A. Crampton: A chemist on
Wiley’s staff, he authored a report that found potentially dangerous doses of salicylic acid in alcoholic beverages.

  Chauncey Depew: A reporter’s tale of corruption by this senator from New York, a wealthy former railroad lawyer and a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, caused the president to lash out at the “muckraking” press.

  Grenville Dodge: A Civil War veteran and businessman, he headed the Dodge Commission investigation into allegations of adulterated army rations during the Spanish-American War.

  Henry Irving Dodge: The writer worked with Willard Bigelow on “The Truth About Food Adulteration,” a high-profile series for Woman’s Home Companion magazine.

  Frank Nelson Doubleday: The publishing firm founder somewhat reluctantly agreed, at his partner’s urgings, to publish Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle.

  Herbert Henry Dow: The founder of Dow Chemical Company opposed pure-food legislation and complained that Wiley ran a “disinformation campaign” against chemical additives to food.

  Frederick L. Dunlap: An ambitious, politically minded academic, he was appointed “associate chemist” as the agriculture secretary sought to undermine Wiley’s authority.

  Finley Peter Dunne: The humor columnist, through his fictional character Mr. Dooley, poked fun at President Roosevelt’s combative habits—including the president’s reaction to grisly details in The Jungle.

  Charles P. Eagan: Army commissary general during the Spanish-American War, he became enraged at accusations that he fed “embalmed beef” to troops.

  Mark Hanna: A businessman, political operative, and U.S. senator, he became a close ally and adviser to President McKinley.

  Henry J. Heinz: The food processor and founder of H.J. Heinz Company advocated for pure food and decent working conditions, developed a preservative-free commercial ketchup recipe, and actively promoted his products as the safest in the country.

  Albert Heller: A Chicago manufacturer, he vigorously defended food preservatives, especially his product Freezine, which used formaldehyde to slow decomposition of meat and milk.

  William P. Hepburn: An Iowa congressman, he led efforts in the House to pass a pure-food law and cosponsored the Hepburn-McCumber bill, which preceded the 1906 law.

  Weldon Heyburn: The U.S. senator from Idaho chaired the Committee on Manufactures from 1903 to 1913. Although not usually a reformer, he pushed food and drug legislation largely because of his dislike of false advertising by drugmakers.

  August Wilhelm von Hofmann: A leading German chemist of the 1800s, his research laid groundwork for the development of coal-tar dyes, which became the leading coloring agents used in food and drink.

  Harry L. Hollingworth: A Columbia University psychologist, he did precise measurements of caffeine’s effects on human subjects and testified as an expert witness for Coca-Cola in a 1911 trial.

  Warwick Hough: A lawyer and lobbyist for the National Wholesale Liquor Distributors Association and for Monsanto, he fought fiercely against regulation of his clients.

  Burton Howard: The chief of the Chemistry Bureau’s Microchemical Laboratory coauthored a study on home detection of food adulteration.

  John Hurty: The Indiana state health officer crusaded against preservatives in milk and for public-health laws, successfully persuading the state to pass food safety regulations ahead of the federal government. Like Wiley, he had been on the faculty at Purdue University.

  Lyman Kebler: The USDA chemist specializing in pharmaceuticals exposed many patent medicines as worthless and/or harmful. He worked particularly hard to identify the unlabeled use of stimulants in American soft drinks.

  Anna “Nan” Kelton: See Anna Wiley.

  Josephine Kelton: She disapproved when the much-older Wiley courted her daughter but eventually became his mother-in-law.

  Edwin F. Ladd: The outspoken North Dakota food chemist successfully campaigned for a state food safety law and went on to fight for food purity on a national scale, becoming a leading critic of corporate politics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1920.

  Alice Lakey: A progressive activist from New Jersey, this Wiley ally became the influential head of the Pure Food Committee of the National Consumers League.

  George Loring: The commissioner of agriculture under President Arthur, he hired Harvey Wiley as the department’s chief chemist.

  Isaac Marcosson: An editor at Doubleday, Page & Company with a strong interest in marketing campaigns, he enthusiastically urged publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

  John Marshall: A professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and a nationally known toxicologist, he tested the effects of borax (with which he dosed himself), a popular early-twentieth-century food preservative, and the stimulant caffeine.

  William Mason: The reformist U.S. senator from Illinois convened, in 1899, an extensive series of hearings investigating the contamination of the nation’s food supply and introduced legislation, ultimately successfully, to regulate for that problem.

  George P. McCabe: The Agriculture Department’s industry-friendly solicitor worked against Wiley’s most aggressive attempts to enforce the pure-food law.

  Porter J. McCumber: A U.S. senator from North Dakota, he sponsored pure-food legislation and scheduled hearings on the issue of adulteration.

  Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès: A chemist, he entered a contest to invent a butter substitute and came up with what he called oléomargarine, made from beef fat.

  Nelson Miles: The army’s commanding general called for an investigation into the quality of the food supplied to his troops in the Spanish-American War, accusing the military of feeding his men “embalmed beef.”

  Julius Sterling Morton: The secretary of agriculture during the second Cleveland administration was an obsessive budget cutter who suppressed Wiley’s work in food safety and refused congressional money to support food safety research.

  Sebastian Mueller: An executive of the H.J. Heinz Company, he defied his peers in the food-processing industry both by developing preservative-free products and advocating for pure-food legislation.

  John Mullaly: The American journalist authored a mid-nineteenth-century book about the sickening practices employed by the dairy industry in New York City, from watering down milk to the use of toxic additives.

  Henry Needham: A muckraking journalist and an activist, he publicly criticized Theodore Roosevelt’s agriculture secretary as too close to industry, supported Wiley in his departmental battles, and helped form a pro-consumer activist group called the People’s Lobby.

  Charles P. Neill: President Roosevelt sent Neill, his commissioner of labor, to investigate the meatpacking industry in Chicago after The Jungle was published.

  Algernon Paddock: A U.S. senator from Nebraska, he sponsored a proposed food-regulation law in 1891. It failed but presaged the 1906 law.

  Walter Hines Page: A partner in Doubleday, Page & Company, he advocated the publication of the shocking novel The Jungle and helped publicize it.

  S. S. Perry: As the initial chef for Wiley’s Hygienic Table Trials, he ran a meticulous kitchen but was talkative and tended to let secrets slip.

  David Graham Phillips: The reformist journalist, author of a book on government corruption titled The Treason of the Senate, and critic of what he saw as a watered-down food law infuriated President Theodore Roosevelt.

  Paul Pierce: An advocate of moderation and pure food and a Wiley ally, he was a writer, editor, and publisher of What to Eat, later National Food Magazine, based in Chicago.

  John F. Queeny: The founder of Monsanto Chemical Company made saccharin and the crystalline form of caffeine used in soft drinks. He steadfastly opposed regulation of industry products.

  Ira Remsen: A codiscoverer of saccharin, the Johns Hopkins University chemist headed a high-priced consulting panel formed to review and often countermand Wiley’s findings.r />
  James B. Reynolds: Roosevelt sent Reynolds, an activist and a settlement house manager, along with Charles P. Neill to investigate Chicago meatpackers.

  Clifford Richardson: A chemist on Wiley’s staff, Richardson investigated the rampant adulteration of spices. His findings revealed revolting practices, including the use of ground shells, dirt, and rock dust.

  Elihu Root: As U.S. secretary of war, he helped modernize the American military after the Spanish-American War. He also backed importation of Cuban sugar in the war’s aftermath. As secretary of state, he tempered some of Roosevelt’s more explosive tendencies.

  Jeremiah Rusk: As secretary of agriculture in the Benjamin Harrison administration, he greatly expanded investigations of food adulteration, which he considered one of his farmer-friendly policies.

  James Shepard: The South Dakota food commissioner investigated nitrates in flour, backed Wiley’s pure-food cause, and opposed Agriculture Secretary James Wilson.

  James S. Sherman: His canning company used saccharin as a sweetener. As a New York congressman, he opposed requiring that labels list ingredients.

  Upton Sinclair: An avowed socialist, he wrote The Jungle to expose brutal work conditions, but its lurid descriptions of meatpacking practices shocked readers far more.

  Lincoln Steffens: The muckraking journalist advised Upton Sinclair on proposed revisions to The Jungle and later scolded Roosevelt over an antipress speech that accused reporters of being doom-and-gloom muckrakers.

  Mark Sullivan: An investigative journalist and author, Sullivan wrote about drug fraud for national magazines and also about Wiley’s public campaign to win support for the pure-food bill. He included that work in his best-selling history of the United States, titled Our Times.

  Louis Swift: The heir to the Swift & Company meatpacking firm, he rebutted all evidence of shoddy production and defended his business as “conducted in a proper and sanitary manner” during the scandal generated by publication of The Jungle.

  Alonzo E. Taylor: A physiological chemist at the University of Pennsylvania, Taylor was a member of the Remsen Board, which reviewed Wiley’s decisions.