Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1899 — BEEF INQUIRY BOARD. [ARTICLE]

BEEF INQUIRY BOARD.

Great Amount of Testimony Has Been Taken by the Commission. The beef inquiry board visited Chicago and held sessions at army headquarters, where the testimony of local officers regarding their experience with canned beef in Cuba is being heard by the commissioners. Commissary officers, Government inspectors and the officers of the animal industry bureau w ere called. Then appeared Messrs. Swift, Nelson and Edward Morris, the representatives of Mr. Armour, the foremen of the different establishments and such skilled officials in the packing industry as were able to throw light on the methods of preparing contract meat. Fifteen hundred typewritten pages of testimony have been taken by the board, and it is said they have come to the conclusion that Gen. Miles was not justified in making the charges he did concerning the conduct of Gen. Eagan and the commissary department. The report of the board, it is said, will exculpate every one from the charge of dishonesty or negligence. The canned roast beef will be condemned as an army ration in tropical climates, but the Chicago packers, who were chiefly concerned in furnishing this ration, will be exonerated from all blame and their processes commended. Dr. Devoe, chief of the bureau of animal industry, says that since the accusations were first made cattle for canning have fallen from three cents a pound to threequarters of a cent, and that the market is almost stagnant. Australian and Argentine canners have profited by the loss of the packers in this country.