Cites Lester J. Dickinson
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'Washington, April 27 (A.P.)

- An assertion that the Administration has forced thousands of poor persons to a diet of dog food "unfit even for dogs to eat" was made in the Senate today by Senator Dickinson, Rep, of Iowa.

Assailing what he called the Roosevelt "scarcity" program, Dickinson said this and non-enforcement of the pure food laws had caused many to eat poor dog food.

Senator Copeland, Dem., of New York immediately challenged the statement that the Roosevelt regime was at fault, but added that better inspections were needed. He said a "niggardly Congress" failed to provide sufficient appropriations for the Food and Drug Administration.

Senator Byrnes, Dem, of South Carolina, an Administration leader, walked into the chamber some time after Dickinson spoke and poked fun at what he called the "Republican campaign issue of healthy dog food."

He said the speech had been widely distributed by the Republican National Committee's Chicago headquarters.

"The real issue is not canned food - it is canned speeches," he asserted.

Dickinson said the annual production of canned dog food had been estimated at 500,000,000 cans with a retail value of $40,000,000 and investigation disclosed a "heavy demand" existed for it among poor people.

He said L.J. Becker, former secretary of the National Dog Food Manufacturers' Association, had estimated 20 percent of the output or approximately 100,000,000 was eaten by people.

"Through actual tests," Dickinson added, "it has been shown that dogs, fed exclusively on a diet of this stuff, will die of malnutrition after a few months."

"Destroying millions of hogs forced millions of people to go hungry," said Dickinson after quoting President Roosevelt in his Atlanta speech last November as saying the average American was on a "third-class diet" due to lack of purchasing power.

"As the inevitable consequence of this deliberate and wicked waste, for the first time, we have Americans living on food unfit for even dogs to eat! And I mean that statement literally - food unfit for even dogs to eat!"

Dickinson, who has been mentioned for the Republican Presidential nomination, declared that only 15 percent of the 200 plant manufacturing dog foods are under inspection by the Agriculture Department.'