The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-11
4 Costly Benefit.

The packing house investigation throws
a strong light upon a question OF mo-
mentous Importance. Under that light
il becomes more and more evident that
in the accomplishment Of a good which
might have been effected in other ways
an immeasurable injury has been
wrought. 1t is impossible to estimate
the loss which must fall on thousands Of
cattle raisers and farmers, on trans
p~ortation companies, on foreign COM
merce in an extensive line of business,
and on thousands of merchants and
storekeepers, big and little, on whose
shelves and in whose s~torehouses there
are cases of canned meats now under
public suspicion and therefore unstable.
And there. are scores of thousands of
people who will for a time at least refuse
to eat food which is desirable. if not nee
essary, for their proper nourishment.
The glaring fault Of the whole cam
paign is the utter absence of discrim-
nation. No distinction whatever has
been made between the good and the
bad. Ninety per cent. of all the beef
slaughtered in the country is consumed
as fresh beef, and it now appears, from
his own testimony, that Mr.. NELL found
nothing to o~riticiSe in the handling of
fresh beef and mutton. Yet fresh beef
as well as canned has fallen under the
public ban by reason of the sweep Of the
original allegations. Local investigation
has shown that there are in the country
properly kept and properly conducted
abattoirs, slaughter houses and beef
markets. 1t is in every way probable
that there are also properly conducted
packing houses. But the tar brush
sweeps over all without distinction and
without specification. Chicago is the
focus of the charges, but suspicion falls
upon all wherever they be, whether they
be good or bad, and honest industry is
swept to the muck heap along with that
which is alleged to be dishonest.
No decent man defends such condi-
tions as are reported by Mr.. NELL and
Mr.. REYNOLDS, but the scope Of their
investigations should have been declared
in the first instance, and the evils which
they assert that they have discovered
should have been given in detail with
the name Of the establishment in which
they were found. By the methods pur-
sued thousands have been ~grievously
injured in order to punish an offending
few. The fresh beef business, consti-
tuting 90 per cent. of the entire industry,
has been perhaps irreparably damaged
because of alleged evils in some of the
unspecifed packing and canning houses.
Many of the injurious consequences
could have been avoided by a different
mode of procedure. Mr., NELL admits
that he and his companion went out to
search only for what was bad and not
to point out or even to refer to what was
good. Had the result of their discoveries
been properly laid before the proprietorS
themselves, before the authorities of
the city of Chicago, and before the
authorities of the State of Illinois, undera
threat of complete public exposure if
the evils were not thoroughly corrected,
there can be no doubt that proprietors
and authorities, for their own interest
and protection, would have been COM
PEELED to do all that was needed. Official
pressure, quietly applied, would have
accomplished all that will be done as a
result Of the sounding Of gongs, trum-
pets and tomtoms; and much mental