The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1906-06-06
REYNOLDS-NE!L REPORT
Of Their Investigation of Pack.
ing Houses.
Unsanitary Conditions Revealed Ir
Chicago Slaughter Houses - Presh
dent Recommends Passage of Bev
erldge Amendment Providing For
Inspection of Domestic Meats.

Washington, June 5. - President
Roosevelt yesterday sent to congress
with an accompanying message the
report of James Bronson Reynolds
and Charles P. Neill of their investiga.
ton of the conditions of the slaughter
houses and meat packing plants at the
Chicago stockyards.
The presidents message in part is as
follows:
The report shows that the stock
yards and packing houses are not kept
even reasonably clean, and that the
method of handling and preparing food
products is uncleanly and dangerous
to health.
Under existing law the national gov
eminent has no power to enforce in
spection of the many forms of pre-
pared meat food products that are
daily going from the packing houses
into interstate commerce. Owing to
an inadequate appropriation the de-
partment of agriculture is not even
able to place inspectors in all estab-
lishments desiring them.
The present law prohibits the ship
ment of uninspected meat to foreign
countries but there is no provision
forbidding the shipment of uninspect-
ed meats in interstate commerce, and
thus the avenues of interstate COM
merce are left open to traffic in dis
eased or spoiled meats.
If, as has been alleged on seemingly
good authority further evils exist, such
as the improper use of chemicals and
dyes, the government lacks power to
remedy them. A law Is needed which
will enable the inspectors of the gen.
eral government to inspect and super
wise from the hoof to the can the
preparation of the meat food product.
Greatest Evil In Prepared Products.
The evil seems to be much less in
the sale of dressed carcasses than in
the sale of canned and other prepared
products; and very much less as re-
CARDS products sent aboard than as
regard those used at home.
| call special attention to the fact
that this report is preliminary, and
that the investigation is still unfinish-
ed. 1t is not yet possible to report on
the alleged abuses in the use of delet-
erious chemical compounds In connec-
tion with canning and preserving meat
products, nor on the alleged doctoring
in this fashion of tainted meat and of
products returned to the packers as
having grown unstable or unusable
from age or from other reasons. Grave
allegations are made in reference to
abuses of this nature.
Let me repeat that under the pres
ent law there is practically no method
of stopping these abuses if they should
be discovered to exist. Legislation
is needed in order to prevent the pos
sibility of all abuses in the future. If
no legislation is passed, then the ex-
cellent results accomplished by the
work of this special committee will en-
dure only so long as the memory of
the committees work is fresh, and
recrudesence of the abuses is abso-
lutely certain.
The report of the investigators is in
part as follows:
AS directed by you, we Investigated
the conditions in the principal estab-
lishments in Chicago engaged in the
slaughter of cattle, sheep and hogs
and in the preparation of dressed
meat and meat food products. Two
and half weeks were spent in the
investigation in Chicago, and during
this time we went through the princi-
pal packing houses in the stockyards
district together with a few of the
smaller ones. A day was spent by Mr..
Reynolds in New York city in the in
vestigaton of several of the leading
slaughtering houses.
Indifference to Cleanliness.
Nothing shows more strikingly the
general Indifference to matters of
cleanliness and sanitation than do the
privies for both men and women. The
prevailing type is made by cutting off
a section of the workroom by a thin
wooden partition rising to within
few feet of the ceiling. These privies
usually ventilate into the workroom,
though few are found with window
opening into the outer air. Many are
located in the inside corners of the
workrooms, and thus have no out
side opening whatever.
The condition that affects the most
directly and seriously the cleanliness
of the food products is the frequent
absence of any lavatory provisions in
the privies. Washing sinks are either
not furnished at all or are small and
dirty. Neither are towels, soap or
toilet paper provided. Men and wo-
men return directly from these places
to plunge their unwashed hands into
the meat to be converted into such
food products as sausages, dried beef
and other compounds.
Some of the privies are situated at
long distance from the worRrooms,
and men relieve themselves on the
killing floors or in a corner of the
worlrooms. Hence nsome cases the
fumes of the urine swell the sum of
nauseating odors arising from the
dirtyblood-soaked rotting wooden
floors, fruitful culture beds for the
disease germs of men and animals.
A particularly glaring instance of
uncleanliness was found in a room