Edwin Fremont Ladd

Background

Edwin Fremont Ladd was born at Starks, Maine, the son of John and Rosilla (Locke) Ladd. He traced his ancestry to Daniel Ladd of Ipswich, Massachussets, who came from England in 1634.

Education

He was educated in Somerset Academy, in Maine, and graduated from the University of Maine in 1884.

Career

Having majored in chemistry, upon his graduation Ladd was employed by the New York Experiment Station and soon became chief chemist of the institution, continuing in the position until called in 1890 to the department of chemistry of the North Dakota Agricultural College at Fargo, N. D. There he almost immediately came into public notice for his campaign against the adulteration of food. At that period foods were adulterated with coal-tar products, sulphites, copper, alum, and other harmful matter; glucose was substituted for sugars, cheap vegetable matter for coffee, inferior meats and waste tissue for potted ham and chicken; meats were embalmed with chemicals. Dyspepsia and stomach disorders were alarmingly frequent and directly attributable to these adulterated foods.

Ladd's fight for pure food came into conflict with the interests of extensive organizations supplying national food products but he combated them successfully and helped to drive them from North Dakota. He was made the administrator of the pure-food law and by his courageous enforcement of it attained wide recognition. He became the chief ally of Harvey W. Wiley, chief chemist of the federal Department of Agriculture, and they worked together in their efforts to provide the American people with pure food products. When Ladd died Wiley wrote a comprehensive and touching tribute to the man and his work (Congressional Record, 69 Cong. , 1 Sess. , pp. 9016-17).

For a quarter of a century (1899 - 1925), Ladd was editor of the North Dakota Farmer. During Ladd's years as pure-food administrator, North Dakota farmers enjoyed a special market for white wheat which made a superior brand of flour. In time a bleaching process was devised and came into general use by which equally white flour could be made from inferior grain, but the bleaching agent was a poison unfit for human consumption. Ladd, turning his attention to this evil, secured laws requiring that all sacks and containers for flour made from bleached wheat be plainly marked, giving the name of the bleaching agent employed. He made a less successful fight for the better grading of storm-damaged wheat which his investigations informed him had greater flour-producing value than the milling trade admitted. His efforts in this direction added to his popularity.

In recognition of his work and ability, in 1916 he was made president of the North Dakota Agricultural College, and four years later he was elected to the United States Senate. Although he was a Republican candidate for the senatorship, he was supported by the Non-Partisan League. In 1924 he supported La Follette and as a result was deprived of party rank for committee assignments.

In 1923 he visited Russia for the purpose of obtaining firsthand information regarding social and economic conditions and proved himself a painstaking and unprejudiced investigator. Some of the agricultural and food bulletins which he published attained the dignity of scientific treatises and his Manual of Quantitative Chemical Analysis (1898) was an authority in its field. He was a member of many scientific societies.

Achievements

• Ladd was known as an ardent opponent of the adulteration of food. He was the one who enforced the state a pure-food law, a strong drug and patent medicine law, a cold storage law, an honest advertising law and an effective sanitary inspection law. During his years in Senate he was best known for his advocacy of various measures for farm relief.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Paints And Their Composition

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Analysis of Mixed Paints, Color Pigments, and Varnishes: By Clifford Dyer ...

    (Trieste Publishing has a massive catalogue of classic boo...)

  • Some Ready Mixed Paints, Volumes 84-95

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Foods And Food Products...

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • Sugar Beets, Volumes 1-21...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Practical Paint Tests In 1907...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • A Manual of Quantitative Chemical Analysis: -1898

    (Originally published in 1898. This volume from the Cornel...)

Connections

Ladd was married on August 16, 1893, to Rizpah Sprogle of Annapolis, Maryland.

Father:

John Ladd

Mother:

Rosilla (Locke) Ladd

Spouse:

Rizpah Sprogle

References

• Pure Food Crusader Edwin Fremont Ladd, Chemist, 1859-1925: The Pure Food Crusade for Sanitation and Health of the Nation and Its People