The sun. (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1906-06-09
Whats Agitating the People These Days

Observation-Disclosures Germs Minge with Filth
Dirt and Crime and Grease from the Floors Are
Made into Product Labeled Government Inspected"
packers Furnish Powder to Color Tainted Meat"
packers Force Dealers to Dope Diseased Meat"
etc. Under these headings related stories of the
conditions in the packing houses that show the utter
disregard for common decency by the mighty "beef
barons" and much of the information gained by
agents sent to the plants for the purpose is so bad
as to be unsuitable for public prints The Louisville
CourierJOurnal Says
"A man who accompanied Mr.. James B. Reynolds
during his examination of the Chicago packing houses
tells this story to correspondent OF the New York
Tribune:
"Eary in the morning, unknown to the employees
of the plant Mr.. Reynolds examined the cattle in the
pens. Signs of hasty attempt to clean up were
apparent. All the inspectors in the city, State and
Federal were present in their best clothes, but Mr.
Reynolds who had been forewarned, was attired like
a stranger.
"When he visited the pens there were thirty-one
diseased cattle there all showing evidence of lump
jaw He watched these cattle until they were
slaughtered. Afterward he asked o city inspector
how many had been condemned on post-mortem in
spection and was told that had been held up
twenty-four had been passed healthy
"When Mr.. Reynolds asked what was done with
the product of the watts, manager of the slaugh
erhouse said the fats went to the butterine and
the solids to the fertilizer factory
"Mr. Reynolds was informed that two firms in
Chicago made business of buying the diseased meat
and hotels. Mr. Reynolds declared that in the bunch
of thirtyone cattle there were not dozen that
should have been passed.
ut is not very wonderful that the packers should
desire this sort of thing to be suppressed. Some
how, it is getting published anyway, and it must be
interesting to the patrons of the restaurants that
buy this meat"
And the Memphis Commercial Appeal having
noted that the charges of dirt and filth brought
against the product intended for home consumption
while that for export is handled in fairly sanitary
manner, says:
although the Government is supposed to have
the meat packers on the hip, nevertheless find the
following in the Kansas City Post of three days ago:
Worst OF all, perhaps, we force rigid inspec-
ton of the meats packing houses dress for sale
abroad, and at the same time permit the packing
houses to palm off on us, has been charged hun
dreds of times, meats which have decayed and have
been 'doped with acids until they presentable.
Dr. W. F. Cutler, city food inspector, in an inter
view in the Kansas City Post yesterday, declared
that Government inspection of meats intended for
domestic consumption is a farce. In another column
appeared declaration from Mrs. Richard Bloor,
special agent who made inspection of Chicago
packing houses, that when chickens came in large
quantities many of them would be dead and spoiled
When they were so far decomposed that they could
4 nTt De handled without dropping apart, they were
taken to the refrigerating plant and frozen solid
linen they were deodorzed and turned out as canned
cnicKen-not potted chicken, but chicken in pieces
formaidyhde and other stuff was used to take the
And the American people say and really think
they are smart. They believe themselves to be sharp
IN bargain and not to be taken in when they are
swapping horses or dollars with anybody on earth.
rsnaw' there are only few of us who up to
snuff after all. The great bulk of the people, as
demonstrated by the foregoing clipping and the daily
robbery OF the tariff law, are in street vernacular
among W the noblest suckers of this green globe.
. why, europeans are overreaching us and laughing
at us while tickling ancied business capacity by
calling us those cute Americans but the quality of
astuteness II we ever had any, certainly does not
appear characteristic of the nation today Our best
meats are purchasable by aliens in foreign markets
ior less than we give for the tainted stuff described
oy the specialists in Kensas City.
!, Nor is food the only medium of fraud against
the American people, Their clothing, their building
materai, their implements, in fact nearly everything
tnat Is turned out by the American manufacturer,
n,; oneLed IN Its best quality to the foreigner at
price less than the home man is forced to paw for
the inferior grade ~ p"' 'oO'
suoh we possessing the power to put an end to