Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1906-06-08
HORR|FYING
REVELATIONS.
The Special Report on the Chicago
Packing Houses a COrker.
ALL Chicago PLANTS in IT.

PoiNN W NNihu1loolOhNi VI hdDOl
Neill and James REYNOLDS, of New
York, submitted to congress by
the President, with a message in
which Mr.. Roosevelt describes
the state of affairs as revolving, -
and calling for immediate drastic
legislation along the lines OF
the Beverage bill.
The statements in the report are
generally sickening, some of them
being unfit for publication. The
investigators spent only two weeks
in the investigation, but found
enough to corroborate the charges
made by independent investiga-
tors. The report affects all Chi
cago packing houses, and details
only what the investigators saw.
The report begins by saying
the brick pavements in the
yards are covered with manure,
and cannot be properly cleaned
they are Shiny and melodorous
when wet, yielding clouds of
smothering dust when dry. The
interior of the buildings are most
ly wood, the floors soaked and
Shiny. The rooms are poorly
lighted and poorly ventilated.
Many of the inside rooms where
food is prepared are without win.
dows, and the air in the rooms is
rarely changed. Systematic ven
tillation is not found in any of
the establishments visited
Taking up the sanitary con-
veniences, the report says that
nothing shows more strikingly
the Indifference of the packers in
the matter of cleanliness.
The resting rooms, the report
says, frequently adjoin the work
rooms, cut off only by low parti-
lions. This arrangement is des-
cribed as abominable, seriously
and directly affecting the clean
illness of food products. Wash
sinks are small and dirty; neither
towels nor SOAP or other neces-
saries are provided.
The investigators tell of EN-
ployees with shoes filthy from the
dirt on the floors climbing over
piles of meat to select pieces they
want, and climbing upon tables
where the meats are handled.
We saw meat" the report
says, "shoveled from filthy floors
and piled on tables rarely washed,
and pushed from room to room
in rotten box carts, everywhere
gathering dirt. splinters from the
floor, filth and expectations.
Particularly glaring instances of
uncleanliress we're found in the
rooms where the best grades of
sausages are prepared for export.
Employees carted chopped meat
across the rOom.on barrows the
handles of which were filthy with
! grease. This meat was thown up
on a table and an employee climb
ed up and spread it out with un-
washed hands, kneeling with a
dirty apron and still dirtier
trousers in contact with the
meat. After he finished he wiped
his hands on his trousers and
apron and took hold of the barrow
and went after another load.
There was no water in this room,
and no towels"
The report points out that
Federal inspection is by no means
complete; that the labels on the
canned goods indicating that the
contents have been inspected, are
misleading. The conditions of
the ENTHUSIASTICALLY the
women-are gone into in detail.
The inspectors conclude with the
statement that the whole situation
tends to moral degradation and
discourages cleanliness, is un-
pardonable and unnecessary.
The President says if the re-
ouired legislation is not passed he
will order the use of inspect on