The age-herald., 1899-04-09
TESTIMONY OF
 ALEX POWELL. Inventor of the Beef EnbaIn-
 ing Process ARMOUR USED CHEMICALS To Preserve the Meats Sold to
 the Government. EX0NERATED THE OTHER PACKERS Said Swift & Co. Knew Nothing of
 the Scheme. REQUEST OF GENERAL MILES That His Witnesses be Called Will be Refused by the Enquiry Board More Reports from Regu-
 lar Army Officers
Said Swift & Co. Knew Nothing of
 the Scheme.
REQUEST OF GENERAL MILES

Washington, April S.-The army court of Inquiry into the beef supplied to the army decided today to adhere to it's decision not to call the list of witnesses submitted by General Miles.
 The reading of the official report was concluded
 Alex Powell, the owner of the 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 Armor & 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 1t.
 General Shafter will probably testify early next week, and the outlook is for the closing of the testimony by Saturday next.
 Powell said the process was applied to car of six carcasses of beef at Chicago, owned by Armour & Co. He had made the arrangement with MT. Corners, the super intendent of Armour & Co.,, agreeing that they should have the preference in the use of the process for the use of the govern ment.
 Exposed Eighty Hours
 The carcasses were taken to Tampa the latter part of May last, and Colonel Wes- ton secured four of the carcasses, exposing them in the sun for about eighty hours. It was after this exposure that Colonel Weston of the commissary department made his report, which was commendatory. lie said later that not to his knowledge had p. Tto t,. war, nor had it ever been used by any one except himself. There were, however, other beef preservative processes in the market.
 Docs your process resemble the em- balming process at all?'' asked Major Lee.
 Not in the least, replied MT. Powell, "but l see no reason why it could not be so used-why human bodies could not be preserved by its use. However, there is no resemblance to the embalming process
 MT Powell said he had known of hotels in which beef prepared by him had been used for the past five years and in which it gave the best satisfaction. He had been shipping to the Compte Du Barry for ten years and he would have other beef.
 Only a Verbal Contract
 He had only a verbal contract with Ar mour & Co.,, but the understanding was if the firm got the contract they were to have the exclusive control of the process during the continuation of that contract only. He was to have 50 cents per 100 for its use, about 200 per car load. He had not attempted to make any arrangement with Swift & Co.,, the successful bidders at the time, but after the battle of Santiago had written to MT. Swift on the subject, fur nishing him piece of beef that had been treated Nothing, however, had come of it.
 MT. Powell said he made no claim that his process would not discolor beef Any process would cause a change in appear ance. After the use of his process the meat would like 1t had been in cold stor- age 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 fumiga- tion. The witness said that refricerated meat which had not been kept cool enough would look slimy and be dark of grain. He considered it impossible to keep fresh meat for seventy-two hours after leaving re- frgerator without preservative process. and he was of the opinion that any agree ment to keep it so long in the climate of Cuba after taking it out of the refrieer ator must involve some preservatiye pro- cess. He thought if thoroughly frozen if would keep from 12 to 20 hours and not longer.
 Reports of Army Officers
 Lleutenant-ColonelB Bisbee, of the First infantry. forwarded the reports of his com pany officers. saying that he concurred in their express ons of opinion. Lieutenant Campbell King said that all of the beef that had come under observation was bad . Lieutenant Dlgberry said that it had m permanent ill' effects, but that 1t had pro- noted slight nausea; Lieutenant Kilbourna that the beef was unpalatable; Lieutenant ,icCue that the men were unable to subslst ~ lon 1t, but that was all.
 nax of the ss'ternoon session that the court had decided to adhere to its former decision to summon only such of the additional wifi nesses suggested by General Hes as could give testimony upon points not already Covered by the inquiry.
 The reading of the reports of army offi- cers upon the canned roast beef, as an army ration. was then resumed and con cluded. The reports read today included sixty or seventy statements from army officers, among them the following from General Lloyd Wheaton. dated at Fort Leavenworth January 13, last:
 "Canned roast beef is not suitable for