The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-09
holds corroborated the evidence given
 yesterday by MT. Neill. s

| holds corroborated the evidence given | yesterday by MT. Neill A MT. Reynolds was taken over his re- port by members of the Committee and
 reiterated It in detail
 The criticisms, he said, had reference
 in particular to the process of preserv- | Ing and canning meat He saw .rnen whom he believed had tuberculosis. H saw them spit on the floor. He saw meat on the floor.
 Switched again to the dressed meats, MT. Reynolds stated that generally speaking fresh meats left Chicago in good condition. They were well wash ed and cleanly.
 Representative Brooks fCoI.) brought out that according to the census the | fresh beef was substantially. 92 per cent. of the product of the packers. It covers practically all the mutton and | 50 per cent of the hog product. In view of these statistics, MT. Brooks got | the assent of the witness to this, but Mir Reynolds seriously objected. He was not willing to give 92 per cent. of the | not investigated other cities where beef | is dressed and understood the census
 report applied to them also.
 Modifying his acceptance of Mir {. 1 Brooks's statistics, MT. Reynolds want ed it noted that their report found | InGir unsanitary conditions. These buildings were old, of wood and easily absorb l ent.
 Representative Haugen (Ia ) endeav- ored by series of questions to bring out how 1t is that the fresh meat can be all right and not affected by the l unsanitary buildings and the canned | goods contaminated Mr. Reynolds pre- ferred not to amnlify on his report Representative wharton, who repre-
 sents the 'Packingtown" district in I Chicago, was given an opportunity to be heard, and declared he wanted to
 resent as islander the statement by | MT Neill yesterday regarding the moral | condition of the employees. the state 1 ment In the report being that these conditions tender to produce moral degradation
 Representative Adams twis , called attention to the words tended to pro- duce and said they did not say these | employees were actually immoral. MT Wharton declared that the con
 ditionsy set forth in the report were only
 Isolated cases and did not prevail gen. erally. He said he had lived adfacent
 to the Chicago stock yards since he was years old had worked in the yards and was familiar with all their operations. He wanted to asert that
 there was as much cleanliness in nut
 ting up meats as there was in any hotel kitchen.
 Representative wharton, who gave a detailed account of meat packing, was based on the fact that he had bean a
 guide in the packing housee. Representative Crumpacker of In
 diana. discussed the constitutional
 questions involved in the bill and as serted that the Beveridge measure un questionably Is invalid and already had
 been declared so by decisions of the courts. He referred to the case Of fine
 United States versus Boyer in which
 the defendant in 1898 was charged with
 having tried to bribe Federal inspec- tor at Kansas City to pass bad meats The opinion of Justice Phillips, said MT Crumpacker, was to the effect that
 the government had no right to inspect | the packing plants, and that it's pro- visions were confined to the inspec- ton of meat for Interstate business.
 Continuing MT. Crumpacker said States urnst do the inspecting of meats in preparation for commerce to make it enectfve. for the government can ex- ercise no Jurisdiction over the business unless 1t fs for Interstate commerce. There Is no question, he said, but that | the packers could drive every Federal inspector out of their plants if they de- sired.
 If I were given the time I could convince every member of the commit tee of this and my argument would be based on court decisions" said he. Take the, time" was the reply Of several members of the committee in unison.
 To give him a chance to prepare him. self, the committee took a recess until 2:30 o'clock.
 At the afternoon hearing, Represent
 tative Crumpacker of Indiana, over
 barricade of law books, discussed the
 legal questions in all their phases but
 said the question before Congress was
 whether 1t has authority to take con
 trol of a product intended for inter-
 state commerce. He said the intention
 of the packer was of no consequence
 even If he. admits he is manufacturing
 for interstate commerce. The pro-
 duet cannot be interfered with by the
 Federal authorities until 1t is actually offered for interstate transportation.
 His deductions after reading numer-
 ous opinions were that the Federal
 government can have nothing to do with the manufacture of commodity,
 "as Congress is limited to commerce
 and commerce succeeds manufacture"
 Until a commodity enters the chan nels of commerce, he said. Congress can
 exercise no supervision whatever.
 Several members of the committee
 asked why the packers had not object
 GU IO bhO AAoPSNS@S-% -N- ~-~ -~S~
 teen years.
 Because" said Mir. Crumpacker. "the
 law was made for the packers. They
 wanted 1t and perhaps the country wanted 1t. but they could obey such
 portions as they wanted to and ignore
 the balance"
 ''when the States have established q thorough inspection service of packing houses and canneries within their boundaries for the protection of their own people," said he. "the question will have been solved. for then the whole neonIc will have been protected.
 Taking up the Beveridge amendment.
 Mir Crumpacker said 1t would put out of business all butchers of Indiana, Iowa. Michigan and wisconsin who sell their nroduct to commission merchants of Chicago for the Government could not give them inspection. He said this would be true of States surrounding any of the great markets of the coun- try. He said there were about lSO in-
 spectors in Chicago and that either the
 conditions in the packing houses had
 been woefully exaggerated or these
 men had been criminally careless to
 permit conditions so hideous without
 one word of protest.
 Representative Ellis of Missouri spoke
 in the interest of the packing and cat
 tie business He said Government in
 spection seervice was the only kind of