Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1906 — CONDITIONS IN BIG STOCKYARDS [ARTICLE]

CONDITIONS IN BIG STOCKYARDS

President Transmits Rey-poMs-Neill Report to Congress. ACCOMPANIED BY A MESSAGE Urges Enactment of Law for Inspection of Meats by Fed* eral Government. HARD BLOW AT CANNED GOODS Treatment of Employee and Sanitary Arrangements Criticised in the Report Health la Menaced. Washington, June s.—The points In President Roosevelt’s message to congress on stockyards conditions in Chicago, accompanied by the ReynoldsNeill report, are as follows: “The conditions shown by even this short Inspection to exist in the Chicago stockyards are revolting. The method of handling and preparing food products is uncleanly and dangerous to health. The evil seems to be mr.Cb. less in the sale of dressed carcasses than in, the sale- of canned and other prepared products. “A law is needed which will enable the general government to inspect and supervise from the hoof to the can the preparation of the meat-food product. In my judgment the expense of the inspection should be paid by a fee levied on each animal slaughtered. I urge the enactment of substantially the provisions of the senate emendment • • • commonly known as the Beveridge amendment.” Reynolds-Neill Report. Following is a synopsis of the charges made in the Reynolds-Neill report as to conditions in the Chicago stockyards: “Potted ham is made with the help of meat scraps *llOlll to be eaten,’ bits of rope and other rubbish. There are no restrooms and women are stationed in the washrooms to prevent the girls from resting there. There are no lavatories or sinks where employes may wash their hands before plunging them into meat products. Even the ordinary decencies of life are ignored in the sanitary arrangements made for the men and women employes: The phraseology of the labels alleging government inspection is wholly unwarranted and tends to deceive the purchaser. “Canned'meats moldy with age are •livened up’ by being heated, relabeled and placed on the market. Workers climb over heaps of meat with their dirty shoes and cut up sides of beef holding them against ‘indescribably filthy aprons.’ Girls and women are forced to work in a room at a temper ature 38 degrees, with a water-cover-ed floor and a leaky ceiling, although all these conditions apparently are unnecessary. “No conveniences exist for laborers to wash tlielr hands after returning from toilets before plunging them again into sausage and other foods. An absence for cleanliness is to found everywhere in the handling of meat being prepareel for food products. Physicians state that tuberculosis is disproportionately prevalent in the stockyards, and the victims of this disease work on the spongy wooden floors. The whole situation in these huge establishments tends necessarily and inevitably to the moral degradation of thousands of workers.” Reply of tne Packers. Chicago. June 5.—A reply to the president’s message and the charges In the Reynolds-Neill report has been made by eight of the big packers. Its main points are: “Every pound of meat In our pack Ing houses come from animals which are inspected and passed by trained veterinary agents of the dejmrtment of agriculture. This is the absolute fact. “We are not interested in animals condemned before slaughter. We do not buy them. Every animal bought by us is inspected lx>th before and after slaughter, in accordance with the strictest inspection regulations ever devised in any country, not even excepting Germany. “Every animal of carcass that does not pass this rigid lns|’ctlon is condemned and disposed of under the personal supervision of the agents of the United States department of agriculture.” Probers at Packingtown. Chicago, June 7.—-City Inspectors stormed Packingtown. Led by Building Commissioner Bartaen and Chief Sanitary Inspector Hedrick, they explored many buildings in search of violations of the building or sanitary laws. With the building commissioner were Assistant Deputy Commissioner Edward Kelling, Fire Escape Inspector Peter McGinnis and Inspectors Knight, Moran. Mahoney, Dalton, Murphy, Gleason. Fox, Cowdry, Anderson and Miniter. Besides these the buildings swarmed wnu visitors, come in reply to a full page “ad” in the morning papers, inviting them. In Defense of the Packers. Washington, June 7,—Thomas E. Wilson of Nelson Morris A Co,, took issue with Commissioner Neill before the house committee on agriculture, declared several of the statements In

his report are false, impugned the motives behind the inquiry and Invited the congressmen to Chicago to see conditions for themselves.