The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1906-06-07
FRAUD OF THE MEAT PACKERS

MI. ODLOu olDtldlf. 0NShDA
Jungle" requested me on April 2 last
TO start for Chicago the next day,
there meet an investigating commission
sent by President Roosevelt. The Pres
ident had read Mr.. Sinclair's book, ard
had been SO impressed with it's recital
of conditions in the stock yards that
he had determined on getting at the
Jungle, could be a true picture. lie
asked MI. Sinclainr to 90 to Chicago,
and give the members of his commits
sion every facility for seeing for them
selves the conditions he had described.
Because of the pressure of work Mr..
Sinclair could not go to Chicago, and
asked me to go in his place.
/ think the reason Mr.. Sinclair ask
ed me to 90 was that | understood his
careful methods of getting information,
having been associated with him in
securing facts about other industries.
Realizing that we must get the truth
from the men-at their work, in sa-
looms and other places as well as in
their homes-my husband accompanied
me. We arrived in Chicago on April 4
and began that day to see men and
women who had been living and work
ing in Packingtown for years.
We had several interviews with a
butcher who had been working on the
killing beds for seventeen years. This
man told us many things, at mneh RISK
to himself, and his stories were not
told just to excite our surprise. In fact
he was surprised that we were horri-
fed at some of, to him, ordinary con.
ditions on the killing beds. He told of
frequently "killing' cattle that were
already dead-knocking, heading, GO
ing through the usual process of killing.
He told Of killing animals so badly af-
fected with "lumpyv jaw that when
they cut the head off the terribly of
fensive abscess was cut into and the
butchers were splashed all over. Har-
dened as they were to blood and dirt,
this is always dreaded b. 'hcm more
than anything else.
When asked why these animals were
passed by inspectors, he considered
such a question evidence of supreme ig-
a as to the customs of the stock
yards. Inspectors, he said, wouldn't
think of taking the trouble to look in
jaw-and the Jumps are often inside.
SOURCE OF "CANNED TONGUE
l asked him what they did with the
tongues of "lumpy" jawed cattle. sch
they are used for canned tongue he
said. "The meat? 1t goes to the trim
med meat department, for sausages,
head cheese or some other delicacy.'
Even the abscess, he said, is not
wasted; it is thrown into the scraps
on the floor. They are gathered with a
scraper like those used on the streets,
and there are several destinations for
such scraps. Some go to tanks % he
rendered into lard, others to butterinc
tanks, and some for soap.
The testimony Of th'~ '~r and
of many other men who worked in the
yards, of the brutality of foremen ex-
plains mucr of the bitterness and in
difference Of the workers. Men who are
kicked and knocked down by their
bosses, do not care much for the health
of the public, and 50 they spit on the
meat scraps on the floor, and otherwise
defle the canals that are filed with
such refuse.
1t is a well known fact that one of
the city ~inspcctc-~ - 4a:~ t'll'ng floor,
in one of the largest houses in the
lla.aaI ;, had q hell mar his statian