The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-18
THE COURT Of INQUIRY
Armour's Plant at Kansas CITY
Inspected.
A MILLION POUNDS OF BEEF
Furnished the Army From This Point
Bought by General Eagan-An En-
ploye Swore That a Third Of
the Cans Burst Open.

Kansas City, March 1.-THE army
| beef court of inquiry arrived here from
| Omaha at 6 o'clock this morning and
was quartered in the Midland hotel.
During the morning an hour and half
was spent in inspecting the Armour
packing plant. from which more than
1,oU0.0 600 pounds of canned rcast bsef
was sold to the government during the
recent war.
In the afternoon two hours and a half
were spent in examining witness $.
Soon after The courts arrival here this
| morning brief session was held 1t
| was decided that as the Armour COM
| tdiS was tn" cnly local firm that had
supplied meat to the army, its planr
| would be visited. The party was driven
! TO tn" plant in carriages at 10 O'clock
William NJ. Miles, general manager,
ana Superintendent Tourtelot piloted
| the party thrcugh the different depart
| lnehtS. each of which. with the eXcap-
| ton OF the killing room. which was not
VISITED, was Inspected critically They
watched the process Cf canning steril-
! lzfiing and roasting. The foreman de-
ciafed That no preservatives had ever
petn used in canning the roast beef.
me court returned to the hotel at
noon ana began taking testimony at
2:la O'Clock. Eleven witnesses were ex-
anllned. Nothing sensational was di-
Eulsed- Io-mprroW further evidence
Will De taken and later. probably to-
morrow afternoon, the court will so to
Fort LeaV"nWorth, Kas.. and take the
testimony of some of the regulars re-
Gently returned from Cuba.
William NJ. Miles, general manager
OF the Armour plant, was the first wit
ness called. He said that his company
Ia
l,oo0,oOO pounds of canned roast beef
during the war. 1t was sold to Com
mlssary General Eagan at Washing
ton and Commissary Woodruff at New
York. The meat was inspected at Mo-
bile and other points of delivery in the
South. Two carloads We're returned
from Mobile and three carloards
from Jacksonville. On it's return to
Kansas City, the company inspected
the meat and found that less than one
halt OF one per cent was bad That
from Mobile, witness said had never
been inspected there. The returned
meat was put back into stock and
possibly some of it resold to the gov
ernment.' One portion of it was re-
sold to foreign government and ac-
Cepted.
Ex-Congressman Mason S. Peters,
who was formerly in the live stock
commission business in Kansas City.
and Lionel a. Lennon, a commission
man, defined Gamers" as quoted in
the daily market reports. H. L. An
tone, foreman at Armour's canning de-
partment, told of his department work
ing night and day during May and
June, 1898, to fill the governments or
ders. Because of the big demand for
Gamers. it was necessary to kill fresh
cattle of higher grade than usually
used. Notwithstanding the rush, prop
er precautions in packing We're taken
and all cans were inspected four times
before they left the plant. The rejec-
tionS amounted to One-half of one par
cent.
l.. T. RambO sWOre that in June 1898,
he was in the employ of the Armour
company and helped in the canning
department. Cans would often swell up
and burst. In reply to a question: wit
ness said that some days as much as a
third of the cans prepared We're re-
jected for this and other reasons.
Antoine was recalled and denied that
Rambo had worked in the canning de-
partment at the time stated, or that
the number of cans rejected reached
the amount alleged by Rambo. An
tone said that record was kept of
all cans rejected, and the court in
struct him to bring this record before
it tomorrow.
DR.. S. f. Bennett of the bureau OF
animal industry in Kansas city and
Thomas w. Carmichael. q government
inspector said that the proportion of
cattle rejected because cf disease or
for other reasons was from one to nine
a day, rarely as high as eight.
John Spence. foreman of the cutting
department, testified as to the good
quality of cattle used for canning.
Dr. Ernest w. Slusher. hospital stew
ard of the Sd Missouri volunteers. said
that while stationed at Fort Meade,
Pa. he was one morning called to at
tend 30 members Of the regiment who
were vomiting. 1t was his opinion that
they had been made sick by eating
spoiled canned cOrned beef The mat
ter was not investigated. The cans, he
thought, bore the label of Libby, Nc
Neil & Libby
Carl HoltZScheu. a member of Troop
A, 1st United States volunteer cavalry.
said there was no complaint of the
canned roast beef served on the voyage
from Tampa to Cuba. In Cuba up to
June %, each soldier received a can of
roast beef and one pound of bacon with
potatoes and bread as three days ra-
tions and there was no complaint.
Later. at Camp Hamilton, some of the
refrigerated beef was tainted and had
to be thrown away.
At the night session. at the request
Of Major Lee. the court recalled L. T.
Rambo, the witness whose testimony
at the morning session had been dis
puted by employees Of the Armour COM
pany.
The witness testified that he had been
laid off" by the Armour company
about the middle Of January last. Ram
bO stated that two carloads Of canned
beef sold to the government by Ar
mour's were returned some time in May
When the cars We're opened he said
many Of the cans were found to have
burst. Maggots We're crawling every
y.