The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1906-06-04
PACKING HOUSE CONDITIONS
ARE ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF
Senator A. J. Beveridge, Author Of
Meat BIZ, Writes on the LegisIa-
ton Affecting the Great Packing.
house Scandal.
(Scripps News Association.)

ilSo ASfSiotioho CiiiAOct IVY ouu NC
lief are made in the special report
on the Chicago packing house con-
ditions by Commissioners of Labor
Neill and Reynolds of New York.
1t was submitted to congress to-
day by the president. In mes
sage accompanying the report,
President Roosevelt describes con-
ditions as revolving and urges i'm
mediate drastic legislation accord
ing to the Beveridge amendment.
The report is not nice reading, as
the statements are sickening and
show packers in general have dis
played disregard not only to COM
mon rules Of sanitation but even to
decency. The report says the stock
yard pavements are mostly of brick
filled with manure and refuse not
properly cleaned; Shiny and NAL
odorous when wet and dusty when
dry. Stock which died en- route is
thrown on the platform.
Interior buildings are mostly Of
wood, and the floors usually of
wood are soaked and Shiny, and the
rooms are poorly lighted, lily VEN
tilated and many without windows.
A systematic ventilation was not
found anywhere. But one porce-
lain receptical was found for meats.
The sanitary convenience for en-
ployes shows the employers are in.
different to cleanliness. Retiring
rooms, which adjoin the working
rooms, are usually cut off from the
latter by low partitions; many are
without a side air opening.
Conditions that affect most d.
rectly the cleanliness of food prod
ucts are the frequent absence of
lavatory provisions in the privies.
Washing sinks are either unfur-
nished at all or small and dirty;
neither towels, soap or toilet paper
being provided. Men and women
return directly from these places
to plunge their unwashed hands in
to the meat products and sausages.
I'VE saw meat shoveled from the
filthy floors, piled on tables and
rarely washed, pushed in rotten
box carts always gathering dirt,
splinters, floor filth or expectora-
tons of tuberculosis from diseased
workers.
LAS an example of the disregard
of the employees of cleanliness in
handling dressed meats we saw
killed, a cleaned hog started to
the cooler fell from the sliding rail-
to the dirty wooden floor and slid
part way into the filthy men s
privy, where it was picked up by
two employees. placed on a truck
and carried into the cooling room
with no effort made to clean It..
The radical defect in the present
system of inspection will not go
far enough being confined on the
heathful animals at the time of the
killing. There is no government in
spection in preparing sausages and
other products although they bear
labels stating Government in
spected.'"
The investigators found an alb
sence of cleanliness everywhere in
handling meat and report that
workers climb over heaps of meat
and select the pieces they wish
and frequently throw them upon
the dirty floors beside the bench.
In cutting meat on the bench as
they work 1t Is usually held against
the aprons which, as a rule, are
indescribably filthy. Men were seen
to stand on the meat tables with
their shoes covered with filth. Dur,
ing the lunch hour they are seen
to sit on the spot where the meats
are cut under the superintendent g
eyes.
The phrase on labels, Quality
guaranteed" beneath the inspection
mark was pronounced unwarranted
and unjustifiable, as the state In.
spectors have not known what else
may have been placed in cans ad-
ditional to inspected meat" The
report refers to mistreatment &C
corded employees. especially women,
and closes with a number Of rec
concentrations which are covered in
the presidents message.
Beveridge and the president, in
a message. threatened to destroy
the packers foreign business
should congress fall to provide fed.
eral inspection of meats through oil
processes. Failure to pass this
legislation means, the president
says. that he will be compelled ito
order that inspection labels and
certificates on all canned products
- "a