Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-06-05
REPORT ON BEEF
CONTINUED from Page ID

uOOfb, where lley We're ieTt TO lie until
again shOveled into barrels or into ma
chimes for ~chopping. These floors. 1t
must be noted, were In most cases
damp and soggy, In dark, Ill ventilated
rooms and the employees In utter igno-
rance of cleanliness or danger to health
expectorated at will upon them. In a
word, we saw meat shoveled from
filthy wooden floors, piled on tables
rarely washed and pushed from room
to room In rotten box carts.
San absence of cleanliness was found
everywhere in the handling of meat
being prepared for the various meat
food products. After killing. carcasses
are well washed and up to the time
they reach the cooling room are han
died In a fairly sanitary and clearly
manner.
SIN one well known establishment
we came upon fresh meat being shov-
eled into barrels and a regular proper
tion being added Of stale scraps that
had lain on a dirty floor In the corner
of a room for some days previous. In
another establishment, equally well
known, a long table was noted covered
with several hundred pounds of cooked
scraps of beef and other meats. Some
of these meat scraps were dry, leath-
cry and unht to be eaten, and in the
heap were found pieces of pigskin and
vel some bits of o strands and
other rubbish. Inquiry evoked the
frank admission from the man in
charge that this was to be ground up
and used In making 'potted ham,,
"All of these canned products bear
labels of which the following is a sam
pie:
"'Abattoir No. =. The contents of
this package have been inspected ac-
cording to act of congress Of March 8,
1891. Quality guaranteed
"The ~phraseology of these labels Is
wholly unwarranted. The government
inspectors pass only upon the health
fulness of the animal at the time OF
killing. They know nothing of the
processes through which the meat has
passed since this inspection.
I'm another establishment piles O.
sausages aud dry, moldy canned meats.
admittedly several years old, wern
found, which the superintendent state,
to us would be tanked and converted
into grease. The disposition to be
made of this was wholly optional with
the superintendent or representatives
of the packers. as the government does
not concern itself with the disposition
of meats after they have passed in.
spection IN the killing floor.
1.-THE radical defect in the present
system of inspection is that 1t does
not go far enough. 1t is confined at
present by law to passing on the use
fulness of animals at the time of kill
ing, but the meat that is used IN sau-
sage and in the various forms of can
ned products goes through many proc
esses, in all of which there Is POSSIBLE,
ity of contamination through lnsani-
tary handling and further danger
through the use of chemicals. During
all these processes of preparation there
Is no government inspection and no
assurance whatever that these meat
food products are wholesome and ft
for food despite the fact that all these
products when sent out bear a label
stating they have been passed upon by
government inspectors.
'The %insanitary conditions in which
the laborers work and the feverish
pace which they are forced to maintain
inevitably affect their health. Physk
clans state that tuberculosis is disprc.
p%ortionately prevalent In the stock,
yards, and the victims of this disease
expectorate on the spongy wooden
floors of the dark workrooms, from
which falling scraps of meat are later
shoveled up to be converted into food
products.
Even the ordinary decencies of life
are completely ignored.
'The neglect on the part of their EN-.
ployers to recognize or provide for the
requirements of cleanliness and decen-
cy of the employees must have an in
iuence that cannot be exaggerated in
lowering the morals and discouraging
cleanliness OF the part of the workers
employed in the packing houses.
1.-The whole situation as we saw 1t in
these huge establishments tends neces-
sarlly and inevitably TO the moral deg
radiation of thousands of workers, who
are forced to spend their working
hours under conditions that are entire
ly unnecessary and objectionable and
which are a constant menace not only
to their own health, but to the health
Of those who use the food products pre-
pared by them"
KILLED OUR SOLDIERS