The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-09
1T IS NEARING AN END
Testimony in the Beef Investiga-
ton Nearly Completed.
MILES is TURNED DOWN
The Court VIII Not Call the Witnesses
He Has Suggested-Powell Elk
plains His Preserving
Process.

Washington, April S.-The army court
OF inquiry into the beef supplied to the
army decided to-day to adhere to it's lie
| cision not to call the list of witnesses
submitted by General Miles The read
ing of the official reports was conclud-
ed. Alexander Powell, the owner of the
beef process, of which so much has been
said, was heard at the forenoon session.
He gave many details concerning his
invention and stated that he made an
agreement with Armour & Co to have
them use the process in case they could
secure the government contract. He
stated. however that Swift &, Co. had
not had the use of it. General Shafter
probably will testify early next week,
and the outlook is for the closing of
testimony by Sunday.
John Rusch of Englewood, N J., cook
for the I'd New Jersey regiment open
ed the testimony to-day. He said the
beef was rotten" and there were fire.
quent complaints that it made men
sick. After frying it, it tasted like
straw and had a peculiar smell
Alexander B. Powell of New York,
the proprietor Of the Powell Beef Pre-
sentative Process, stated that he had
been a dealer in meats in New York
for the past 25 years. He explained at
some length that he was the sole owner
of the Powell process for preserving
fresh meats without the use of ice: that
the formula was a secret and that it
was not patented because so eminently
simple.
He declared emphatically that neither
boracic acid or salicylic acid was used
in y,Sn, l..
any injection or immersion in chenl-
calls. The process is supplied by fumi-
baton"
There would be no smell except that
of sulphur for half hour or so after
the application. Nor would any taste
be noticed. Mr.. Powell gave the par
t1culars of his treatment of a car Of
Armour beef which was sent to camp in
the spring of 1898. When he heard that
the contract was to be given by the
government he had reached the con-
clusion that the government ought to
have the use of the process and he had
written to the president, to General
Miles and to General Eagan, asking
where he should apply to have the pro-
cess used.
General Eagan replied, saying the
government was not engaged in pur-
chasing any process, but that it could
only deal with those who would supply
the meat and guarantee that it should
keep.
He said the process was applied to
car of six carcasses of beef at Chicago,
owned by Armour & Co. He had made
the arrangement with Mr.. Connors the
agent of Armour & Co., agreeing that
they should have the preference in the
use of the process for the use of the
government. The carcasses were talk
en- to Tampa the latter part of May
of the carcasses. exposing them in The
sun for about so hours. II was after
this exposure that Colonel Weston of
the commissary department made his
report. which was commendatory.
He said later that not to his knowledge
mad Armour 4 Co. used the process
during the war; nor mad it been used
by any one except himself. There were,
however. other preventative processes
in the market
Does your process resemble the en-
balm1ng process at all?' asked Major
Lee.
Not in the least" replied Mr.. Powell.
But l see no reason why it could not
be so used-why human bodies could
not be preserved by it's use. However,
there is no resemblance TO the embalm-
ing process
Mr.. Powell said he had known of ho-
tells In which beef prepared by him had
oSSii uscd loI tLe past I'VE years ana IN
which 1T gave the best satisfaction. He
had been shipping to the Compile 1u
Barry for 10 years and he would have
no other beef. He had only a verbal
contract with Armour & Co., but the
understanding was that if that firm got
the contract they were to have the ex-
elusive control of the process during
the continuation of the contract only.
He was to have so cents per hundred
for it's use-about 5000 per carload He
had not attempted to make arrange
ments with Swift & Co., the successful
bidders at the time, but after the bat
tie of Santiago had written to Mr.. Swift
on the subject, furnishing him a piece
of beef that had been treated Moth
ing, however, had come of it.
Mr.. Powell made no claim that his
process would not discolor beef Any
process would cause change in APP
pearance. After the use of his pro-
cess, beef would look like meat that
had been in cold storage for two weeks,
darkening the grain and bleaching the
fat. There would be a smell of sulphur
for an hour, as sulphur was one of the
articles used in the fumigation.
The witness said that refrigerated
meat which had not been kept cool
enough would look Shiny and be dark
of grain. He considered it impossible
to keep fresh meat for 70 hours after
leaving refrigerator without a pre-
servative process, and he was of the
opinion that any agreement to keep it
so long in the climate of Cuba after
taking it out of the refrigerator must
involve some preservative process. He
thought if thoroughly frozen, it would
keep for from u to 20 hours, and not
longer
Colonel Davis announced at the be-
ginning of the afternoon that the court
had decided to adhere to its former de-
cision to summon only such of the ad-
ditional witnesses suggested by General
Miles as to giving testimony upon
points not already covered by the in
quiry. The reading of the reports of
army officers upon the canned roast
beef as an army ration was then re-
sumed and concluded.
The reports read to-day included 60
or 10 statements from army officers
among them the following from Gen.
Lloyd Wheaton, dated at Fort Leav-
enworth, Jan. IS last: