Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-07
GIANT AMONG GIANTS
Cannot Help Using Meat Pack
ing Products Every Hour.
CITIES OF THE EMPLOYEES
Forty-Two Per Cent of Farms Given
Over to Live Stock.
CINCINNATI FIRST PORKOPOLIs
Industry Has Reached Incredible
Proportions Within Less Than
Two Generations


| Written fer The Star.
You know, in a general way, that this
| business of slaughtering and packing meats
now much in the news, is vast one. But
| have you any concrete idea Of It's vastness?
Did you know for example, that. though
we should try our level best not to do So
we could not help using the by-products of
| the packing house every hour of the day
| and night?
| The very wines we drink are clarified
| with the dried blood of slaughtered cattle
| Our purchases are wrapped In paper made
| of undigested hay taken from the paunches
| of slaughtered cattle. The chairs we sit on
are held together with glue made of horn
piths, slnews, bones and hide trimmings; as
far back as fifteen years ago one great
Chicago firm manufactured 100000
| pounds of glue year.
When our doctors prescribe pepsfn for
| our stomachs we again pay tribute to the
| packer. The coats we wear are, many Of
them, made from wool clipped In the pack
Ing house, and there washed, dried and put
up In bales for sale to cloth mills. Our mat
tresses are of hairs that once were switches
and tails of steers. and of felt manufac-
tured from other hairs too short to be dried
and curled. Our pillows are stuffed with
feathers plucked from the backs of millions
of geese and other fowl
Meats foot oil. obtained by boiling the
feet of neat cattle. renders pliable the hides
that cut UP into boots and Shoes for
our daily consumption. Packing house lard
daily sizzles in our skillets. and from our
butter dishes frequently, in all inno-
cence, help ourselves to butterine, scien-
ttfcally treated fat.
Tribute to the Packer.
The candles we carry to the cellar TO
light our feet to the gas meters are of
tallow-cattle fat The soaps on our wash
stands are of grease obtained from cruder
fats. The combs on our bureaus once were
horns of cattle; the handles of our pocket
knives as we'll as our carving utensils are
fashioned by cutlery makers from the
larger bones Of steers from Texas and
other great cattle states. The very castings
IN which our sausages are served to US
piping hot on a cold winters morning are
the entrails of swine, and hog brstles are
made up into stif hair brushes, of the mill
tary sort, among other things.
But not only by consuming beef and
pork canned and uncanned, and these by
products, do we pay ceaseless tribute to the
packer. His refrig orator cars bring to our
breakfast tables the fruits of California and
Florida and eggs gathered from the poul-
try farms of @ score OF states, and to
our dinner tables vegetables from the great
garden regions. The turkeys we eat on
Thanksgiving come, in all likelihood, from
the refrigerating rooms of packing houses,
and the mince meat for the Christmas pie
from cans bearing packing house labels.
The poultry industry is passing more and
more under the control of the packing
kings, and hence, our Sunday dinner, ira
ditionally the proper time for serving up
a tender, fat-breasted barnyard bird.
Extent of Industry.
Do you know, again, that the last census
brought out the fact that slaughtering and
meat packing is the most important manu-
| featuring industry in three great states?
| These are Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska.
In Illinois. In 1900. the value of the prod
ucts of the various meat packing establish
| ments was almost % per cent of the total
| value of the products of all the states
| manufacturing industries. In Nebraska the
| percentage was over 40, while nearly one
| fourth of that states wage earners engaged
| In manufacture were at the beck and call
| of the packers.
| The capital of Illinois packing houses
1 was over seventy and three-fourths mil
| lions. Their employees made an army about
! twenty eight thousand strong. They paid
| out close on to fourteen millions in wages.
| Miscellaneous expenses reached the enor-
nous total OF over fourteen millions. The
| cost of materials used was close on to
| $240,0 600. The value of the products was
| 100000 00 greater.
| Compare these figures with the same ltema
| for 1890: Capital, forty and one-quarter
| millions; employees, seventeen thousand;
500. 414. 600.
| In the three states the combined capital
OF the various houses was about S103. $50 600
| The value of the products was S42S.O9o. ooo
| The employees numbered over 1900.
Largest Packing Plant.
Did you know that South Omaha, Neh.
| is almost wholly populated by packing
house employees and their familes7 Before
the Union Stockyards Company, in 1884. To-
Gated its plant on farming land, south o.
4 Omaha. South Omaha, which had popu
iation Of 10000 In 1900, was not. Kansas
city, Kan, has largely resulted from tn,
packers putting up large plants there.
Il boasts the largest packing plant in thu
nnour and other far-sishted butchers az be