The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-26
OPINIONS ON THE WAR MEAT.
COL. DARLINGTON HAS THEM FRONs
MANY OFFICERS AND MEN.

Report which the Meat Court Threw
Out Contains Views of Many who
Had to Eat It-Canned Meat n New
Thing in the Army-First Conn
plant Was From "a Commissary
Observation-Disclosures Meat More
FavOrnbly Thought of.
Washington, April 25.--The report Of Col.
Darlington of the inspector generals de-
partment of the army. which was yester-
day presented to the Wade court of in<
quiry. but not accepted as a part of the
record, was made public to-day. II covers
about a hundred typewriter pages and is
careful review of the subject.
Col. Darlington claims to have collected
the opinions of S76 officers and 1863 enlist-
ed men concerning the canned roast beet
which he classihes as follows:
Twenty-three officers ana one man pro-
nounced It good or excellent;" twenty-fva
officers and two men. fair or good with
EXCEPTIONS" twenty-six officers and eleven
men, mostly bad or unfit" SO2 officers ana
1i9 men, "entirely bad or unfit"
He comments at some length upon this.
the feeling of officers and men with re-
gard to 1t, but says that where cooking
was possible and vegetables and condi.
ments available and the beef prepared. seas
soned and mixed with vegetables. CONS
plants were lessened or modified and soma
even praised 1t as a substitute for fresh
beef"
IL Was a New Feature.
Col Darlington refers to the fact thas
the issue of canned beef was authorized as
a part of the army ration as early as 1883.
but Gays that the use of the canned roast
or boiled article appears to have been very
limited before the beginning Of the Spanish
war
"Out OF about 300 officers reporting on the
subject 9S per cent. state that they had
never seen canned roast beef used In the
army before the war, and only per cent.
remember previous issue"
Referring TO the Chicago purchases OF
canned roast beef for the Spanish war;
Col Darlington says:
There was no inspection of II other
than that OF the samples selected by the
various packing houses and delivered to
the commissary officer from time to time"
Col Darlington directs attention TO the
fact that none of the cans bore any label
giving the date Of canning and he COM
ments thus
"IIow long the beef that was sold to the
government had been ia storage ls mat
ter OF conjecture as the question OF age
does not seem 10 have entered in making
contracts"
First Complaint of the War.
Col Darlington mentions the fact that
the first complaint of the war concern
ing the qualify Of the canned beef was
made by Col. Weston of the commssary
department. This was formulated in a
telegram dated at Tampa, June 3, and di-
rected to Col. O. M. Smith at Chicago.
In II he said: Some of the beef Is OBJ
jectionabie and cans here and there are
fermented"
The record shows that this complaint
received prompt attention.; that Col. Smith
asked that the name of the packer be-
given. and that Col. Davis. assistant COM
missary OF subsistence at Washington,
gave immediate Instructions to investigate
the complaint and mot to send more un-
til further orders"
Col Darlington found II impossible to
definitely determine the amount OF can
ned roast beef destroyed. but he collected
considerable data on this subject. show
ing that "at least 104,s1s pounds were
acted upon by boards of survey or inspec-
TOTS, ana tIldl u tHtH dluouUl OJfufV were
destroyed as worthless and 35,748 pounds
sold"
He refers to the fact that che soldiers
threw away much of the meat saying
they had the alternative of eating this
beef or going hungry
The Refrigerated Meat.
Col. Darlington groups the opinions OF
officers and men on the refrigerated beee
as follows:
GOOD or excellent 7s officers and eight
men.
''FaIr or good, If trimmed" 1893 officers
aud IS men.
Most bad" 30 officers and 26 men.
bad or UNFIT" nine officers and IA men.
From this summary ne concludes that
about Is per cent. of the opinion was fa-
vorable to the refrigerated meat. and 25
per cent. unfavorable.
Col. Darlington also devotes considerable
space TO processes for preserving beef, giv-
ing the detaHS concerning the experiment
with the Powell process. He also gives all
the facts going 10 show that the commis-
sary officers in Florida manifested dispo-
sition TO assist in this experiment by hav-
ing the meat tried by the troops.
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