Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-03-22

is impossible for the ordinary meat
buyer to know that he is getting meat
which in fact may be Indignantly
POISONOUS Such criminal disregard for
public health is more common in the
larger establishments where personal
responsibility is shared by many en-
ployes and no one person feels the full
enormity of the outrage. Even the reports
of the results of eating the diseased
meat never reach the packers, for they
have no means Of knowing just where
that particular meat goes tot is scat
tered among q hundred meat shops,
perhaps.
This evil is particularly prevalent in
the immense packing houses of Chicago
and Kansas City, not because the BUTCH
ers Of those cities are more depraved
than elsewhere, but because, as ex-
planned above, the burden of personal
responsibility is divided amongst so
many, and the effects of their criminal
consciences are easily appeased.
And it must not be forgotten that
while the Twin Cities consume IS, 0OO,-
600 worth of beef. annually, they
themselves kill less than 500, 900 worth
the other $5,900,OO0 comes from the
Chicago and Kansas City packers.
The meat inspection law, it is be-
lieved, will go long way toward &C
complishing two very desirable results.
The first result it to guard against
the sale of diseased meat in Minneapo-
lis, St. Paul or Duluth-or as the bill
expresses it Gin all cities having a pop
ulation exceeding thirty thousand in
habtants.
The second result is incidentally to
enable the packing industry of Mime
sofa to get upon it's feet and it is this
latter result which directly concerns all
Minnesota stock raisers. The bill pro-
vides that the animals may be inspected
either on the hoof ii. g. alvey or after
slaughter. Some years ago meat in
spection law was passed, requiring all
meat to be inspected on the hoof, but
this proved contrary to the United
States constitution, as it forbade inter-
state commerce. The courts held that
Minnesota could not shut out Chicago
killed meat, but it is unquestionably the
right of all states, as sanitary meas
ure, to require that meat sold within
the state shall not be deleterious to pub
lie health; hence constitutional lawyers
agree that we have a right to demand
board of health inspection, either before
or after Strengthening.
But it il more work to inspect dressed
meat than live animals and the fees are
adjusted accordingly.
These fees are as follows:
For live cattle, 10 cents head; for
hive hogs, cent head; for live sheep,
one-haf cent head.
For dressed beef IS cents carcass or
any part thereof, and as packers ship
dressed beef in quarters it will cost
Chicago or Kansas City packers at least
81 per carcass for beef.
For dressed hogs or sheep, 10 cents
per carcass or any part thereof, and
there are usually Is pieces in dressed
hog or sheep. SO that it will cost the
outside packers $3.50 head where it
will cost our local packers cent or one
half cent q head. This itself would
give Minnesota packers enough advan-
tage to give them control of the Twin
City and Duluth markets for pork and
mutton.
AS stated above, nearly all meat which
is now consumed in the Twin Cities
and Duluth comes from outside of the
state. Conditions are such that it is
impossible at present for a packing in
dustry of any size to exist in the Twin
Cities.
There is comparatively little live stock
raised in Minnesota, and there can not
be much raised here until there is
steady market for home grown cattle,
hogs and sheep in our large cities, and
no market can be established on firm
basis until there is a steady home sup
ply. Hence, although once started
fairly, home demand and home supply,
so dependent upon each other, each
awaits the other. In the meanwhile,
an immense quantity of Montana beef,
hogs and sheep now pass through Mime
apolis and St. Paul during about seven
months in the year, but none during win
ter. This Montana stock would furnish
ample supplies for large packing houses
during the summer but it is necessary
for large establishments to be able to
run the year round to be profitable and
In order to do so, the Twin City pack
ers must in winter get their supplies of
stock from southern sources, and in this
fact, lies the secret of the whole situa-
ton. The Chicago and Kansas City
''Big Four packers, Armour, Swift,
Morris and Cudahy, control the rail-
roads and have so adjusted freight rates
that it is cheaper to ship dressed meat
from Kansas City to Minneapolis than
to ship live animals from Sioux City or
any points between Kansas City and
Sioux City. hence we must eat Kansas
City meat 81 animals raised not on our
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