The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-12
EVASIVE BEEF CONTRACTORS.

y was to have been expected, the testimony OF
I \ army officers concerning the vile nature OF the
refrigerated beef furnished to the army during
the Cuban campaign has reused all the great meat
packing houses of Chicago, and they now busy in
putting before the country vast amount of evidence
tending to prove that their meat altogether whole
some, and that even when it looks bad it is really
good.
One of these gentlemen, in referring to the report
Of the army inspectors that much of the meat fur
nshed the troops had "a green beard" on it, said that
the wholesalers who supplied the best hotels in Chi
cago received advance price for aged beef after
it had accumulated the BEARD" and that beef was
better in every respect after being aged The state
nent will doubt be something OF surprise to the
patrons of the Chicago hotels, and is calculated to
increase the consumption of bacon and other forms
OF meat that do grow beard before being served
1t is further asserted that the Secretary of Agrcul
ture in order to relieve the strain the trade
poses to make investigation of various brands of
refrigerated beef sold in the American market or pre-
pared for export. The object of his investigation is
- prevent far possible any injury to the meat
trade, honestly conducted, by exposing that which is
bad
That some action of the kind is necessary is not to
be denied for already the disclosures made
ing the embalmed beef have seriously affected the
demand for refrigerated beef and officials connected
with the Department of Agriculture are quoted as
saying: "The attacks made on the beef even if not
sustained will cost the meat interests OF the country
amount equal to the entire war, and furnish ma
teral in the future for the opposition of those coun-
tries which have been all along fighting the admission
Of American beef products
All of these Investigations tending to relieve our
beef trade OF suspicion excellent in their way and
will have the approval of all classes of the American
people 1t must be borne in mind, however that they
do affect the issue raised by the reports from the
beef bad but that the beef furnished for the
was bad and that issue is to be met by evidence
showing that Chicago hotels prefer to have beef with
beard on it. by further evidence that as rule
the beef is good.
The testimony of General Miles and his officers is
that the contractors supplied the troops at Tampa
snd at Santiago with beef that smelled like an en-
balmed body that it tasted bitter and foul that when
boiling it emitted sickening odor, that the troops
could not eat it. and that large quantities of it were
dumped into the because it was worse than no
food at ALL
That outrage against the army is the American
people will not condone merely for the sake of hush
ing up a scandal against the beef trade We are a
commercial people, it is true, but are also pa
triotic people, and not going to permit white
wash OF contractors who in their greed and reckless
willing to poison hundreds of soldiers by
supplying them with vile beef when these same con-
tractors were being paid high prices by the Govern
ment for good meat.
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