Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1906-06-07
MEAT DISCLOSURES
PRESIDENT SENDS SHARP MES.
SAGE ON NELL REPORT.
Says Conditions as Shown by Report
Call for Quick Action by Congress-
Inspectors Say Chicago Concerns
Are Filthy and Unsanitary.

Washington, June president
Roosevelt transmitted to congress the
report of Reynolds and Neill on the
condition of packing houses and the
methods used in the preparation OF
food products at Chicago. In his spe-
cial message the president says:
Il transmit herewith the report of
James Bronson Reynolds and Com.
missioner Charles P. Nein, the special
committee whom l appointed to in.
vestigate the conditions in the stock
yards of Chicago and report thereon
to me. This report is of preliminary
nature. submit it to you now be.
cause it shows the urgent need of i'm
mediate action by the congress in the
direction of providing drastic and
thorough-going inspection by the fed.
eral government of all stock yards
and packing houses and of their prod.
ucts, so far as the latter enter into
interstate OF foreign commerce. The
conditions shown by even this short
inspection to exist in the Chicago
stock yarls are revolving. 1t is i'm
peratively necessary, in the interest
of decency, that they should be rad.
ically changed Under the existing law
it is wholly impossible to secure salts.
factry results"
The report shows that the stock
yards and packing houses are not kept
even reasonably clean, and that the
mo Of inc Nd haN
foods products is uncleanly and dan
gerous to health. Under existing law
the national government has no power
to force inspection of the many forms
of prepared meat foods, products that
are daily going from the packing
house into interstate commerce.
Il call special attention to the fact
that this report is preliminary, and
that the investigation is still unfin
ished. 1t is not yet possible to report
on the alleged abuses in the use OF
deleterious chemical compounds in
connection with canning and preserv
ing meat products, nor on the alleged
doctoring in this fashion of tainted
meat and of products returned to the
packers as having grown unstable
from age or from other reasons,
Grave allegations are made in refer
ence to abuses of this nature.
Il urge the Immediate enactment in.
to law OF provisions which will enable
the department of agriculture ade
quately to inspect the meat and meat
int srto
commerce and supervise the methods
of preparing the same, and to pre-
scribe the sanitary conditions under
which the work shall be performed"
Summary of the Report.
The report says that in many OF
the rooms where water is used freely
the floors ere soaked and Shiny and
the dark and dingy rooms are natur
ally 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 from the
cooling room to these departments
where various forms of meat products
are prepared are handled with no re-
gard whatever for cleanliness.
The workers climb over heaps of
meat, select the pieces they wish and
frequently throw them down upon the
dirty hooor beside their bench.
In Il word" the report adds, we
saw meat snoveled 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. 1t was always
the reply that this meat would after