The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-06-04
PRESIDENT SAYS
WHAT ABOUT MEAT
Sends Message to Congress with a
Digest of Chicago
Report.
NELL AND RAYMOND
FOUND THINGS WRONG
Commissioners Reveal Conditions
Of Shocking Nature and Out
line Desirable Remedies.

Washington, June 4. President
Roosevelt today delivered his first pub
lie blow in the fight between the admin,
istration and the packers for federal
regulation of interstate traffic in meats.
He forwarded to the United States sem
ate the report of Special Commissioners
J. B. Reynolds and Charles NELL, who
ditions, and with the report he sent a
message, referring to packinghouse con-
ditions as revolving. and urging lmme-
date action to remedy the conditions.
Reynolds Neill Report.
The report says that two and one
half weeks was spent in the investiga-
went thru the principal packing houses
in the stockyards district, together
with a few of the smaller ones. A day.
was spent by Mr.. Reynolds in New
York city in the investigation of it's
leading slaughter houses.
The. report says that in many of the
rooms where water is used freely the
| floors are soaked and Shiny and the
dark and dingy rooms are naturally
not kept suitably clean.
An absence Of cleanliness was found
everywhere in the handling Of meat
being prepared for the various meat
food products. The parts that are sent
ments, where various forms of meat
products are prepared, are handled with
no regard whatever for cleanliness. The
workers climb over heaps Of meat, Sc
lect the pieces they wish and fire.
quently throw them down upon the
dirty n floor wa beside h their Isnd bench
saw meat shoveled from filthy wooden
floors, piled on tables rarely washed,
pushed from room to room in rotten
box carts, in all Of which processes it
was in the way of gathering dirt,
splinters, floor filth. It was always
the reply that this meat would after
wards be cooked, and that this sterili-
l cation would. prevent any danger from
! it's use. A very considerable portion of
4 the meat so handled is sent out as
smoked products and in the form Of
sausages, which are prepared to be
eaten without being cooked.
! A Glaring Instance.
! A particularly glaring instance Of
uncleanliness was found in room
where the best grade of sausage was
being prepared for export.
| The report says that the radical de-
feet In the inspection system Is that
it is confined at present by law to pass
the time of killing, but that the meat
that is used in sausage and the various
forms of canned products and other
prepared meat foods goes thru many
processes, in all of which there is pos
sibility Of Contamination thru unsani-
tary handling and further danger thru
the use of chemicals. During all these
spection, altho these products, when
sent out, bear label stating they have
been passed upon by government in
spectors.
- Sanitation Arraigned.
: The report arraigns the sanitary pro-
, visions in the buildings as abominable,
and says the men and women plunge
their unwashed hands into the meat to
, be converted into food products. The
, reports says the burden Of protecting
+ the cleanliness and wholesomeness of
workers and improving the conditions
must fall upon the national government.
Department superintendent "seem
to ignore all considerations except the
account book,'' and proper care Of the
: products and of the health and COM
fort Of the employees is impossible. and
: the consumer consequently suffers.
Decencies Ignored.
Tuberculosis victims expectorate on
Z the spongy wooden floors of the dark
workrooms, from which falling scraps
; of meat are later shoveled up to be
later converted into food products.
, Given the ordinary decencies of life
are completely ignored says the re-
port, in discussing the arrangements FOR
! men and women employees. The re-
= port says:
"The whole situation as we saw it
in these huge establishments tends nee
essarily and inevitably to the moral
degradation Of thousands Of workers,
5 hours under conditions that are en-
: tirely unnecessary and objectionable
and which are constant menace not
: only to their own health, but to the
: health Of those who use the food prod,
: ucts prepared by them
Recommendations.
g nation after slaughter, inspection OF
e meats for foreign or interstate com
MERGE, increase Of inspectors for night
3 inspection and special work, legislation
E prohibiting declarations of government
' inspection on food products unless
: subject to government inspection al
! every stage of preparation, prohibiting
q interstate transportation of any meat OF
: meat food products not inspected and
labeled, the inclusion of goats. now ex
empt from inspection, intended fol
foreign and interstate commerce, In the
$ list subject to the inspection of the
s bureau of animal industry, and the
s desirability of the specific labelling Of
$ all carcasses sold as fresh meat which
J, upon examination after slaughterins
Q show signs of disease, but are still
! deemed suitable for food, and recon
e mends study of inspection standards Of
t other countries.
q ".&I HI ~ c,,1-oi${o5 -
t following message from the president
: President 81 Message
: eThe senate and house of represen
e tatives: / transmit herewith the r.
IS