Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1898 — CANNOT INSPECT MEAT. [ARTICLE]

CANNOT INSPECT MEAT.

Federal Officers Deprived of Their Power by a Decision in Court. By a decision handed down by the United States District Court at Kansas City, Mo., by Judge John P. Rogers at Fort Smith, Ark., the entire system of Government inspection of meat was declared unconstitutional. The opinion of the jurist is to the effect that Congress has no authority to create the office of meat inspector and to place such an official in the packing houses in the United States to examine the product before it is packet! and shipped or delivered for consumption. The opinion was handed down in the case of a man named Harry Boyer, who was indicted by the Federal grand jury on the charge of attempting to bribe a Government meat inspector. Boyer is foreman in the fresh meat department of the Jacob Dold Packing Company. The court holds that Congress exceeded its power in creating the office of meat inspector and that even if Boyer had attempted to bribe such an official he could not be held as an offender. His act, the court decided, was not a crime against the Government. Under this decision the packers of this country may disregard the meat inspection statutes with impunity.