Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-07
PACKING HOUSES
ARE Up TO DATE
THIS IS VERDICT OF JOINT
COMMITTEE
chioagoans Who Inspect Stock Yards
and slaughtering Pens Say Prod
uets Are Clean and
Wholesome
Bv Associated Press.

| BY Associated Press.
CHICAGO, July 6.-The report Of the
Joint committee of the Chicago Com
mercal association and Illinois manu-
facturers, appointed to investigate the
packing industries of Chicago, together
with the report of the experts who ac-
companied them, was made public to-
day.
The committee says:
THAT a board of experts of the char
aCtcr employed with professional idea is
and guided and influenced by an es-
thetic sense, which embodes something
of necessity and something more of
luxury should find the product whole
some, the yards generally clean and
the inspection efficient seems to your
Committe to cover the situation.
"As a result of this investigation we
ourselves have no hesitancy in stating
that the products at the yards are
wholesome and proper food. We find
that the companies have been improv-
ing the conditions and products from
year to year; that improvements are
constantly being made and will be
made, and we believe that the condi-
tions and surroundings at the plants
carefully protect the quality of the
product"
Plants Up to Date
IHe experts WIlO accompanied IHe
committee say that part of most of the
plants are up to date, yet in each of
these are some sections that are indif
ferently good and in most of them
something that they can't approve of.
The committee can cite no better
evidence of the truth of this statement
than the very Improvements that are
under way everywhere. These better
ments relate in some places to minor
things, and in others they mean a COM
plete rebuilding of old plants. Gener-
ally speaking, the more recently built
plants are the best
The report then gives the preserva-
tives used, but does not discuss the
question of the harmfulness from the
preservatives employed on the one
hand, nor the supposedly increased
dangers resulting from the use of un-
preserved products or products differ
emily preserved on the other.
Recommends Scientific Inquiry
It especially commends these ques-
tions for further scientific inquiry. The
committee embodied in their report a
letter from Prof. William II. Welch of
Johns Hopkins university, Baltimore,
who said:
I'm view of the absence of any pos
sible danger to health, arising from the
use OF the meat of cattle affected with
only localized tuberculosis, or actf-
Qumpy jaw of slight or
moderate extent, it would, in my opin-
ion, be eXtravagant and indeed absurd
to condemn the carcasses of such cat
tie, provided the animals are well nour-
ished and otherwise in good condi-
ton.
TT is of course, understood that the
diseased parts and organs are COM
pletely removed and destroyed and that
proper precautions are taken to guard
against the accidental contamination
of the meat with tubercle baccilli dur
ing and after slaughtering. AS re-
CARDS tuberculosis, L consider that all
reasonable demands are met by the
condemnation of the carcasses affected
with extensive, active tuberculosis and
with generaized tuberculosis.
THE demands solely of public health
would doubtless be met by less stringent
regulations"
THE committee believes that the ante
mortem inspection is of far less i'm
portance than the inspection of the
dressed carcasses and feel that if either
men or funds could be released in part
from this inspection and expended for
additional post -mortem work an in
creased efficiency might result.