East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-06-12


Investigated by the president, have
degraded their employees, poisoned the
public health and are guilty Of every
crime and indecency charged in the
report OF the experts sent by the
United States government to invests
gate, j
The following chapter from the reA
port Of the experts, Neil and Reynolds.
is devoted to the treatment of en-
ployes in the packing houses and
shows a revolving condition. The
chapter is as follows:
No Regard for Health.
The lack of consideration for the
health and comfort of the laborers in
the Chicago stock yards seems to be
a direct consequence of the system
Of administration that prevails. The
various departments are under the
direct control of superintendent who
claim to use full authority in dealing
with the employees and who seem to
ignore all considerations except those
of the account book
Under the system proper care of
the products and fthe health and
comfort of the employees is impossi-
BILE. and the consumer suffers in con-
sequence. The sanitary conditions In
which the laborers work and the fe-
verish pace which they are forced to
maintain inevitably affect their
health. Physicians state that tuber-
culosis is disproportionately prevalent
in the stock yards, and the victims OF
this disease expectorate on the spongy
from which falling scraps of meat are
later shoveled up to be converted into
food products.
Women Are Slaves.
Even the ordinary decencies of life
are completely ignored. In practical
ly all cases the doors of the toilet
rooms open directly into the working
rooms, the prives of men and women
frequently adjoin. and the entrances
are sometimes no more than a foot
apart. In other cases there are nc
privies for women In the rooms in
which they work, and to reach the
nearest II is necessary to go up OF
down a couple OF flights of stairs.
In one noticeable instance the privy
for the women working in several ad-
joining rooms was in a room in which
men chiefly were employed. and every
girl going to use this had to pass by
the working places OF dozens OF male
operatives and enter the privy, the
door of which was not six feet from
the working place OF one of the mer
operatives.
As previously noted, in the privies
for men and women alike there are
no partitions, but simply long row OF
open seats. Rest rooms where tired
women workers might go for n short
rest. were found as rare exceptions
and in some establishments womer
are even placed in charge Of privie,
chiefly for the purpose. 1t was stated
to see that the girls did not absent
themselves too long from their worl
under the excuse of visiting them.
No Rest Rooms.
In some instances what was callet
a rest room was simply one end of th'
privy partiticned off by a 6-foot parti
tion from the remaining inclosure. 4
few girls were found using this, no
only as rest room, but as the onl,
available place in which to sit to ca
their luncheon.
Much of the work In connection
with the handling of the meat has t.
be carried on in rooms of a low tenn
rterntrre hut even here q callous dis
regard was everywhere seen for thu
comfort Of those who worked In thes
rooms Girls and women were foun'
in rooms registering a temperature o
3s degrees F. without any ventilation
whatever, depending entirely upon ar
tificial light. The floors were wet ant
soggy. and in some cases covered will
water, so that the girls had TO stan'
in boxes of sawdust as a protection 70
their feet.
In a few cases even 'drippings iron
the refrigerator rooms above trickle
through the ceiling upon the heads o
the workers and upon the food pro
ducts being prepared. A very slgh
expense would have furnished drie
floors and protected them against tn
tricklings from the ceiling. 1t was as
serted by the superintendent Of thes
rooms that this low temperature wa
essential to the proper keeping OF tn
meat: but precisely similar work wa