The Springfield herald., 1906-06-15


a request from the house committee
on agriculture, President Roosevelt
Friday forwarded to Representative
Wadsworth. the chairman of that com
mittee, the report made to him by. q
committee of the department OF agri-
culture regarding conditions In the
Chicago meat packing houses. Accom-
panyirg the report was letter from
the president in which he points out
| that there is no conflict in substance
between the Neill- Reynolds report and
that of the agricultural department
experts.
Following is the text of the letter
of the president to Chairman Wads-
worth:
MY Dear Mr. Wadsworth: In ac-
cordance with your request send you
herewith the two reports of insper-
ton by the committee appointed by the
department of agriculture on April
and 18th. This committe had already
been appointed when | notified the
| secretary that | desired that such a
commission should be appointed in
order to make the investigation. Sub
sequent complaints to me and the cor
sideration of complaints already made
showed that the charges were not
only against the packing houses but
also to certain extent reflected up
on the action of the government in
| spectors and | came to the conclu-
| sion that it was best to have an in
vestigation by outside individuals who
| could not be charged with being in
| any way interested in the matter.
Accordingly before the completion of
the investigation by the department
of agriculture | directed Mr.. Neill and
Mr.. Reynolds to make an investiga-
ton, the first report of which has
been laid before congress. Much
testimony has been offered to us which
has not been considered in this report,
for Mr.. Neill and Reynolds in this re-
port confine themselves to stating in
more or less summary way the facts
as to which they had been eye-wit-
nesses: and what they have said can
not be successfully controverted.
Some of the ground traversed by
Messrs. Neill and Reynolds Is not
touched upon in the report of the COM
mittee of the agricultural department.
JAS to the ground covered in common
by the reports of the two investigat
| ing committees there is no conflict in
substance as to the important matters,
although there is a marked difference
in emphasis. this being partially due
to the greater length and detail OF
the report of the committee of the de-
partment of agriculture. In my judg-
ment the emphasis of the report of
Messrs Neill and Reynolds is abund-
antly justified by the facts.
To show the immediate and extra
ordinary change for the better which
the mere fact of their investigation
is already bringing about in the con-
dition of the packing houses in Chi
cago. it is only necessary to instance
the following portions of a letter re-
ceived from a most competent and
trustworthy witness in Chicago whose
name | will give the committee if it
| so desires:
"On Monday began tour of all
the great packing houses, going first
to Libby's, then Swift's.
Tuesday all the morning discussed
changes that ought to be made and
caught glimpse of the awakening at
Armour's. In the afternoon visited
the plant with the superintendent.
Wednesday I rested and contem-
plated the awakening of packing
town. 1t is miraculous. Thursday
did Nelson Morris. with the superin-
tendent. Nelson Morris has done
much to make things better. BY the
time the next inspector arrives they
will have still more new lavatories,
toilet rooms, dressing rooms, etc.
Cuspidors everywhere. and signs pro-
hibiting splitting In most, the awa>-
ening seemed to come by force from
without.
'At Armour's, at my suggestion,
made no pretense of making an in
vestigation, but frankly announced
my desire to see things for myself
and to get a fresh impression of con-
ditions as I had not seen the plants
since before the strike. On every
hand there was indications of an. al
most humorous haste to clean up, re-
pave and even to plan for future
changes New toilet rooms, new
dressing rooms, new towels, etc. etc.
Swift's and Armour's were both so
cleaned up that | was compelled to
cheer them on their way by express
ing my pleasure at the changes. The
sausage girls were moved upstairs
where they could get sun and light,
they too have dressing rooms. etc,
| l asked for showers and lockers for
the casing workers at Armour's and
got a promise that they would put
them in. The canning and stuffing
An Ironmountnin Collision.
st. Louis, June "a collision be
tween passenger trains occurred on
the Iron Mountain road near Mengo,
115 miles south of here, early Friday