Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1906-06-16
THE BEEF TRUST EXPOSURE.

the men appointed to investigate the
morale of the beef trust and the condi-
lions of the packing houses in Chicago
was received by the president the FIRST
of last week. The president treated
the document in his usual admirable
way by giving it publicity in full in the
daily press Of the country. The Associ-
ated Press was the first news bureau to
receive the report and through this
medium it was given the widest citcula-
ton possible, being read in every hamlet
and city in America. The cables gave
it to the metropolitan papers in Europe,
interpreted in many tongues, and re-
ports have it that it was devoured by
the reading public in those countries
across the seas that buy their beef and
pork in. America, quite as freely as it
was in our own land, .Hi "a
The report is very voluminous doeil-
hent, setting forth in very plain and
understandable language the actual
conditions that exist in the large meat
packing establishments, as seen by two
employees of the government who were
delegated to make the investigation.
The report deals with the methods en-
ployed in the establishments in prepar-
ing the packing house products for con-
sumption by the public, paying particu
lar attention to sanitary conditions and
methods employed that in any way af-
feet the health of the consumer. Incl
dentally the report touches the labor
conditions. pointing out the poorly
ventilated and bad smelling quarters in
which the workmen are employed, and
describing the scenes in small, low-ceil-
ing rooms where girls and women work
at long tables under arbitrary foremen
who permit none to sit while at their
labor. The report is, primarily, to
inform the president and congress on
the conditions that exist that in any
way are injurious to the health of people
who use packing house products. To
this end the report deals with the sub
ject in all its phases, following the meat
from the slaughter to the boxing and
labelling room where it becomes one of
Americas chief products Of export,
ready to be shipped to every cline and
country on earth.
The expose of the beef trust methods
has had an electrical effect. Public
decency and the fine sensibilities of the
people recoiled at the filthy and dirty
practices shown to exist
The conduct of the packing house
magnates would be amusing, if it we're
not so tragic. Pursuing the usual
tactics of their kind, they had touched
up couple of Scientists in one Of
the high institutions of learning in Hi
nois, and when the anticipated investi
cation of their game came they hopeC
by the evidence of these men who have
held high place in public trust anC
confidence, to break down the evidence
of the men the president appointed t.
make the investigation. But the story
of the investigation was told too well tt
give way to the sophistry of the bee
trust hirelings. II was no. counterfeit
it was told without use of technica
terms and with guch simplicity that The
truthfulness' Of it~ authors could not b.
doubted.
The publid has very clear recollec
ton of how these packing house king
poisoned the boys Who followed the fla,
to Cnba and the Philippines to fight TO
Americas honor, by dumping into thei
commissary emLalnacd beef and othe
tailings from their plants.
The arguments OF the scientists