WEBVTT

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[ Music ]

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[Fraud Fighters]

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[Produced by Jay Bonafield, Directed and Photographed by Larry O'Reilly, Supervised by Phil Reisman, Jr.]

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[...]

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[Narrator:] Buried here is a man who died before his time,

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his grave a monument to ignorance and fraud.

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There was little to be done about John Martin's stupidity,

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but ultimately there was an answer to another man's deceit.

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John Martin, who clipped an ad and sent away for a bottle of medicine,

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died of a common disease.

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And yet you might also say he was murdered.

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Murdered as surely as though the deed had been done by bullet or knife.

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But, John Martin, deceased, was not the only one who had seen that ad.

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It also came to the attention of some interested people in Food and Drug Administration,

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operating under the Federal Security Agency.

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Its aims: to combat filth and fraud in our food products

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and to guarantee, as best it can, that medicines and cosmetics not only contain

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what the makers say they contain, but do what the makers claim they'll do.

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[ Music ]

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And so, to a bureau official comes an ad clipped from a newspaper.

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Relief at last, a remedy for diabetes, arthritis, kidney disorders,

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and well, it was a suspiciously long list of guarantees, and a matter for the nearest regional office to check into.

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A network of 16 district stations covers the country,

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and from the New York office inspector Kennedy, starting out with only a small advertisement,

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launches the chain of events which will determine how much validity, if any, there is in the claims of a preparation called Elixirex.

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[ Music ]

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In a small industrial city, Inspector Kennedy locates the manufacturer

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but his wife says he is out of town.

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Be gone two weeks, perhaps, maybe a month.

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[ Music ]

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Sure, she'll show him where the Elixirex is made.

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It's right back in the garage.

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The Food and Drug Administration, FDA, is constantly ferreting out products

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manufactured under filthy and unsanitary conditions.

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But at the moment, this is not Kennedy's primary objective.

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He subsequently asks the woman for a list of her husband's customers,

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but she insists that she knows nothing about any such list. Wouldn't even know where to look for one.

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[ Music ]

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But Inspector Kennedy doesn't wait for his man to return.

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Like skinning a cat, there is more than one way to run down evidence,

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so Kennedy sets out on some tedious legwork.

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Starting with a local trucking company, he tries to uncover shipping orders to distributors, or even individual orders,

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which, to avoid possible involvement, often are sent a bottle or two at a time by express.

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[ Music ]

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After going through mountains of records his patience is finally rewarded.

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He finds half a dozen orders, three of which are in his own district.

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[ Music ]

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Now, begins the second phase of Inspector Kennedy's task:

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the gathering of evidence that will stand up in court if necessary, proof that Elixirex

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was bought and used.

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Yes, she has used it regularly, this lady told him in another town.

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Best thing she'd found, yet, for her arthritis.

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Matter-of-fact, she just finished a bottle and has to send away for another.

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[ Music ]

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Two days later, Kennedy makes a real strike.

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Her husband had been using Elixirex regularly,

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said Mrs. John Martin.

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But Mr. Martin had died three weeks ago.

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He'd been taking Elixirex for diabetes,

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had given up his insulin injections for this simplified sure shot cure-all.

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Hadn't consulted his doctor, of course.

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Kennedy, sealing the remnants as evidence,

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assigns a sample number and identifies the seal with his initials.

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But the word of the wife of the deceased is not enough.

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The chain of evidence must then be linked to include a photostatic copy of the death certificate.

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The official cause of death, diabetes.

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[ Music ]

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And now, the Food and Drug people want to know...what is Elixirex?

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What's in it? In every district station is a battery of crack chemists and microanalysts who fight the battle against filth and fraud.

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To one of these comes Elixirex.

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The magic formula to relieve sickness and pain turns out to be nothing more

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than a mixture of water and an alcoholic extract of certain herbaceous weeds that grow in profusion in the maker's back yard.

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It is instantly clear to the district chief that Elixiex is a flagrant violation of the law.

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But it must be decided officially.

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Before he can issue a citation against the manufacturer, the evidence must be weighed by medical officers in Washington.

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Here, food and drug physicians consider the matter from a purely medical view.

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What, according to a consensus of the group, will this mixture do for any of the following;

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diabetes, arthritis, or any of the aches and pains it guarantees to cure?

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The answer is a flat, unequivocable, nothing.

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The law moves swiftly. The maker has a chance to show cause why he should not be prosecuted,

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but there is little he can do to refute the evidence.

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The maker receives a year in jail and a stiff fine.

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Too late to help John Martin, but not too late to protect the lives and health of others.

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And so, another result of bureau vigilance rests among the Rogue's Gallery of typical frauds

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brought to book.

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To look at this display, you would think the nation is susceptible to anything.

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Unfortunately, there is opportunity to prey on the ignorant and unsuspecting.

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People who cannot afford or who spurn a doctor's advice

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are easy marks for extravagant claims or weird devices that have as much effect as a spell cast by a witch doctor.

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The inventor of this electrical gimmick claimed great healing qualities for colored lights.

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Just bask in the glow your misery calls for and you're as good as new.

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It's almost unbelievable that he sold thousands of these.

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A cheese distributor did a brisk business in imported Swiss,

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or at least the label said it was imported.

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He wound up getting a longer trip than the cheese took.

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Now, curbing violations takes a lot of coordination of department forces.

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The planning division in Washington plots investigations on a geographical and time basis,

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so that representative plants are checked regularly in every area.

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Even, such things as economic trends play a part.

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A crop failure due to weather, for example,

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puts the agency on the alert against inferior products going into canned or bottled goods.

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[ Music ]

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Inspectors are authorized to enter, without advance notice, a food or drug plant doing interstate business.

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Virtually all have college degrees in a science such as chemistry, bacteriology, or biology.

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At fishing ports, a distributor never knows when his frozen fillet line will be tested.

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A single whiff will tell the trained inspector if this is one that should have got away.

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Nothing takes precedence over FDA deciding what shall enter the country from abroad.

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A sample of every shipment is examined. Here, olives are being selected at random.

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[ Music ]

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If there's anything foreign besides the rum in these bottles,

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this candling process will reveal it.

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Expert tea testers, who have devoted a lifetime to their work, set minimum standards for all brands.

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In Washington, meanwhile, is a tremendous laboratory,

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which not only backs up the core of inspectors but constantly pursues projects of its own.

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Here, in the division of microbiology are samples of virtually every growing thing known to man,

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through which analysts can determine, to almost fantastic lengths, what foreign elements may be in a suspected product.

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[ Music ]

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Literally anything can be detected, from a microscopic fragment of a fly's wing,

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down to a wispy minuscule of a dandelion puff.

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Here too, they decide on standards for such things as surgical sutures and adhesive tape.

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How sticky should sticky be?

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Now, one of the marks of our so-called enlightened civilization has been the development and interest in vitamin products.

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But big-time promotion has resulted in possible abuses,

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which the vitamin division seeks to control.

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It is important, therefore, to determine whether a product is what it alleges to be and will do the job it claims.

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[ Music ]

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Constant experiments are made, not only to certified commercial products,

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but to probe theories of the department scientists.

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Here is a test made on white mice from the same litter.

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Those which have been getting a certain vitamin grow large and strong.

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Those deprived of it are weak and puny.

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[ Music ]

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Consider now, the lifesaving drugs that deserve the label of wonder or miracle products.

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Penicillin and the newer streptomycin.

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These must never be allowed to waver from the knife-edged path of purity and potency.

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Every pharmaceutical house that manufactures them must submit for analysis a sample of each batch made before they can be distributed.

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[ Music ]

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And it is almost a full-time concern of the Division of Food Control.

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To what lengths? Well, there's a man who's interested in how tender a top-grade garden pea should be.

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If his teeth won't tell him for sure, he's got a gadget that will.

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If it's too hard, it isn't top grade and may not be sold as such.

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[ Music ]

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Because the war greatly advanced synthetic chemistry,

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new compounds for crop or soil improvement are in wide use.

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Department experts want to know if flavor and nutritional safety are affected.

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With American women spending millions of dollars yearly on cosmetics,

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FDA is intent on preventing the price of beauty from becoming tragically high.

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The files in Washington offer new testimony and painful proof that despite

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their lovely packaging and glowing claims, some of the bland and innocent-looking pastes and powders

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not only are worthless, but health hazards.

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There is no attempt to disclaim that a product will improve upon nature.

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It is just that every beauty preparation in the interstate market must pass a rigid safety test.

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[ Music ]

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As long as their country cousins don't see them, these bunnies have nothing to worry about.

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Seems someone has an idea for a hair curling preparation and FDA wants to study it.

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[ Music ]

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Of great importance is the work done by the Color Certification Division.

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A large percentage of our food, drugs, and cosmetics are colored by dyes and it is vital to know their derivations.

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Coal tar dyes and certain mixtures can be extremely dangerous if not pure or used properly.

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Every manufacturer must submit samples for certifications before using them.

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Here then, is where the real ingredients of satisfaction are determined.

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Where men of science provide fact or fallacy for claims and labels that read ''Best by Test'' or ''Finest Available''.

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Not a day goes by when we do not profit by their zeal and watchfulness,

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our standard of living, waving higher and higher.

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For certainly, it can be said that nowhere in the world can people buy with more confidence,

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or use with greater safety, the thousand and one products which go into their daily lives.

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[ Music ]

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So, let these tireless feet be a symbol.

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A symbol of a nation's concern for its consumers.

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An assurance that all its ramparts of safety are ably defended.

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For this, too, is part of our heritage.

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This, too, is a battle that must be waged and won.

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A battle against deceit and fraud and, sometimes, nature.

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This Is vigilance at its attentive best,

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safeguarding the health and welfare of a nation.

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[ Music ]