New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-05-29
MEAT INSPECTION.

| If there is ANYTHING in the report pack
| ing house methods revealing worse situation
| than that described in current publications
| which everybody reads and nearly everybody
believes, the President might feel bound 10
suppress it in the interest Of common decency.
A certain appetite for sensation will doubt
less be disappointed if the President does not
see fiji to publish the report, but if a salts
| factory remedy for the evils can best be Sc
cured by not publishing it, there is no rea-
son why the demand for horrors should be
satisfied.
Ii is said that new legislation will accom-
| plish nothing unless the people are shocked
by detailed official revelations of disease germs
and filth in their food but we do not think
that argument is a sound one. The people are
already aroused on the subject. The report
might be a new nine days wonder. but If
without it popular interest would be INSULT
cient 10 secure the enforcement of a good law
it would be equally insufficient with it after
a few weeks. The general public however
much it might be shocked by the report would
assume that a law passed because of it met
all requirements and would settle down 10
comfortable consciousness of all being made
right as quickly as if no report had been made
The essential thing therefore, is to secure real
Iy adequate legislation, and the President does
wisely TO the report as best he may to
promote that end
The pending measure seems to go about as
far as the federal government can 90 TO Sc
cure good meat for domestic consumption. 1t
avoids the fatal defect of the present law by
comforting power on the inspectors to destroy
all condemned meat. 1t gives them access at
all hours to all parts of the packing houses
and permits reinspectiOn and condemnation of
meat at any stage of its preparation With
these powers an adequate force of honest in
ord tho Re
which enter into interstate commerce, as well
as those sent abroad. But even such inspec-
ton will not be enough to guarantee the en-
tire cessation Of unSanitary practices Unit
animals may hencefOrth be sifted out from
the herds by the packers before they reach the
government inspectors, but those animals will
reach the meat market and the canned goods
shelf just the same unless local regulation in
ali parts of the country is made more strict
In Chicago there is already distinct class
Of outside slaughterhouses through which
unfit animals are put on the local market DR..
Jacques, the former head of the Chicago meat
inspection. has told about the grotesque made
Quacy Of that service. and of the system by
which Chicago gets the meat which can neither
be exported nor used in interstate commerce.
In other cities the packers have similar re-
sources. They do not ship all their meat in
refrigerator cars. Having killed off grazing in
most Eastern states. they supply the cOnsum-
ers who do not like refrigerated beef with
animals brought here from the West for slaugh-
ter. If the federal inspection excludes the bad
cattle from the interstate trade the packers
will be tempted to ship them alive and slaugh-
ter them where they to be sold, so escap
| ing condemnation.
To meet this situation our city and state in
spections must be made more rigid. 1t is said
that the publication Of all the narrowing de-
tails of 'PackingtOWn' conditions would arouse
the people TO demand this. Perhaps it would,
but such stimulus should be necessary.
The people already know what is needed. All
slaughtering of animals and preparation Of
meats in any form for market should he I'M
der some inspection, and the officers should
have full power 10 destroy all diseased or
tainted articles, and 10 treat them summarily
50 that they could not be renovated and un-
der any disguise converted into human food.
/ If any further revelations prove necessary to
/ secure this, of course they should be made,
but there is no use in wantOnly exploiting evils
merely TO awaken prejudice against American
products. We do not say this out of regard
| for the packers. If half that is already re-
ported is true. they deserve to lose their trade
abroad and at home. But dependent on this
! industry are thousands Of workers in the pack
1 ing houses and thousands of cattle raisers on
/ the prairies They should not be wantonly in
! jured though if thorough reform cannot other
wise be secured they may have TO suffer The
object 10 be gained is not a sensation, but a
reform.