St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-03-15
BAD BEEF TRUSTS
Aired by Gordon E. Cole in
the House Chamber Yes
terday.
Meat Inspection Bills Come in
for a Large Share Of At
tention.
The Sanitary Ends Sought,
and the Legal Status of
the Measure.
Shall Minnesota Foster a
Home or a Foreign
Monopoly?

The interest taken in the Scheffer and
Forbes meat inspection bills was well
evidenced yesterday by the attendance
of fully 200 interested parties in the
chamber of the house to hear arguments
before senators and representatives for
and against the bills. In short, the bills
provide that 10 cattle sh all be slaugh-
tered in this state that has not been in
Spected twenty-four hours before kill
ing, and that no dressed beef, etc., shall
be sold in the state that was not in-
spected by the state force provided
tWenty-tOur hours before slaughtering.
An elaborate system of state in-
spection through local boards of health
is provided for. The opponents of
the bill are few in number comprising
representatives of the Big Four beef
trust (Armour ct al }, and few legislat-
Ors, who for reasons unknown, have to
support them. They claim that the
bills are designed to exclude all foreign
meat from the state; to breed home
monopoly, and eventually to make the
consumer pay more for meat than he
does now. They also assert that the
bills were no more drafted for sanitary
protection than the moon was evolved
from nebule for heating purposes.
The supporters of the measures include
nearly ever prominent stock dealer
IN the state, from South st. Paul into
the backWoods. Their assertions are
that the first object sought Is to exclude
diseased meat from the state, and Incl
dentally to build up home Industries
now flaggi ng, and to revive the raising
of cattle in the state, now dying be-
cause of the alleged malign influences
of the Big -Four. President Sprague,
of the Farmers alliance, says:
1.-The beef trust now forces us to de-
duct from the price paid for our cattle
sold on foot the price of the freight to
Chicago, where they are killed, and the
freight back here as dressed beef. This
double freight charge is also added to
the beef when sold to the consumer.
The result is that our farmers can no
longer raise stock at any. profit and the
industry is languishing."
The contest over the bills is one largely
between two lobbies-local market
against foreign. The consumer of st.
Paul is paying less for beef to-day than
he has in years past, so that no conf
plants are heard from that quarter. But
in the country the consumer is pay
ing 1873 cents per pound for
beef selling in St. Paul for cents.
The country is therefore antitrust.
When the meeting opened yesterday
Senator Scheffer called Mr.. Morgan to
the chair, and the discussion of the
Forbes meat inspection bill began.
Gordon E. Cole was the first called upon
to speak. The attendance was very
large, including large number of
house and senate members. Butchers
from all parts of the state, and others
terests. Gen. Cole began his remarks
by saying:
"There are questions involved in the
bill-conStItutiOnality and public policy.
Two domains of power lie side
by Side-the states and the national
government. The government exer-
eises its interstate commerce powers
and the state those rights of police
which are necessary for the protection
of its people. Then, no matter how much
the interstate power may assume it must
give way to the superior power of the
state sanitary police. We have no pro-
lection now from diseased meats
shipped into the state, and by recent
decisions have no hesitation in saying
that the state has the power to legislate
against it. Such an act the judiciary
would not attempt to interfere with.''
Gen. Cole then cited recent court de-
ciSiOns which sustained the right of the
state to legislate in the interests of
higher sanitary powers.
"a lot of cattle suffering from pleuro-
pneumonia may be shipped to st. Paul
was prohibited. They were at once
shipped to Chicago, killed and their
meat put upon the market. There is no
power at present to prevent the diseased
meat being shipped right back to st.
Paul and served upon the dinner tables
of the members of this legislature.
[ [Applause.] If this legislature desires
to protect itself and its constituencies
it can legislate against this impure
meat and no court will ever interfere
with it. The state may legiSlate against
human contagious diseases and establish
quarantine against them. There is
no reason, for the case is
parallel, why it cannot establish the
same acts against diseased cattle. This
bill for the first time interposes for the
lection from the consumption of dis
eased meat. The supreme court of the
United States has held that if state
believed Oleomargarine to be deleteri-
Gus to the public health, the legislature
of the state could absolutely prevent
pound of that substance coming into the
state. Our own supreme court has held
under our prOhibitory oleomargarine
law that it is perfectly constitutional
and proper exertiOn of the power of
eminent domain.
1--WE don't attempt to say in this law
that dressed beef Shan't pass over our
borders nor to interfere with the inter
state commerce law, but we do pre-
scribe that all such matter coming into
this state shall come under certain state
regulations devised to protect the pub
lie health.
''If such measures are necessary for
the public health no court will ever go
behind the face of it. The courts have
only to see that the aim of the law is
that, to sustain it. 1t is no objection,
the courts say, that indirectly by the
passage of such law a legitimate in
dustry is benefited. do stand here and
say that If this present free commerce
in cattle is to continue, our people must
abandon stOck-raising. [Applause.l
[ do not believe law has been intro
duced at this session SO impregnable to
objections as this one."
He denied that it was the intention of
the measures to bulld up large sal
aried list of inspectors; scored the Big
Four as trust sapping the life-bloOd of |
this country, and gave the old Mime
apolis MillerS' association slap for
certain past monopolistic tendencies.
Drs. Hewitt and KilvingtOn, for the
sanitary provisions of the bill, and cited