Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-17
SEWAGE TAINTS
VEGETABLES TOO
MEAT EXPOSE CALLS ATTEN-
Tl0N TO OTHER EVILS
Board Of Health Pleads With Council,
but Until New outfaII Is Fin
ished Lawmakers Are
Helpless

And now doth the merry breakfast
food faddist give all his meat and vege-
table friends the grand "hal hal" and
with many a grimace calculate "I told
you So for verify 1t seems that he who
eats rolled and cracked horse feed and
threaded sawdust biscuits is the only
one who Is safe from having his stom-
ach turned by the vigorous muck rake.
Between questionable meat and sew
age-irrigated vegetables the Los An
geles resident who feels that he must
eat Is having a hard time of IL.
While the investigation of the special
committee of the city council with the
members and employees of the board of
health last "Wednesday morning devel-
oped the fact that the meat killed and
dressed within the city limits was
fact that considerable meat was slaugh-
tered outside the city and sold to
butchers and cheap restaurants when 1t
would not even make good fertilizer
and soap grease.
Where Shall He Turn2
Dr. Morrison's statement that
chicken salad and turtle soup that is
sold in cans over the grocery counters
was made chiefly of unborn calves
has put the taboo on these articles and
the careful housewife now buys her
OWIl CIllChe1S 1OT SHldu ana IeelS IfdL
she can get along without turtle soup
somehow.
Dr. Morrison, who is city veterinarian
and in a position to know whereof he
speaks, also told the investigating
committee that in a slaughtering pen
outside the city he had accidentally
come upon sixty hogs, all of which had
died of cholera and which had been
prepared for the Los Angeles market.
mr. hInr.Vicnr, aJY hot .
might be possible that somewhere else
there were some more hogs as unfit for
food as were these that he had failed
to discover and that had been sold in
the local markets.
Another special meeting of the spe-
cial committee with the board of health
and the board of public works will
be held Monday evening. 1t is ex-
pected that the result Will be the
establishment Of a municipal abattoir,
where all meats intended for the Los
Angeles markets must be killed. and
all butchers must sell meat bearing the
municipal stamp or serve term in Jail.
Attack Vegetables, Too
But until such time as the munich
pal abattoir can be put into operation
hungry Los Angeles would like to know
what to eat.
The revelations of the packing indus
try have driven many households to a
purely vegetarian diet, but it is ques-
tionable whether very much in the way
OF cleanliness is gained by this change.
Some of the vegetables that are sold
| in local markets are raised on truck
farms which for the most part are
irrigated by sewage from Los Angeles.
The outfall sewer passes close to
Inglewood. 1t is entirely too small to
care for all the city's sewage, and as
a result of a heavy strain on the sewer
there is big break.
AS long as the pressure is maintained
On the sewer pipe it is impossible to
keep this break repaired, and the city
has given up all efforts to repair it and
makes virtue of necessity by selling
the escaped sewage for irrigation pur-
poses.
This sewage is found especially bene-
fetal for tomatoes, cucumbers and
other vegetables that are eaten un-
cooked, and the tomato plants flourish
at Inglewood as they do at no other
place.
Council Is Helpless
The board of health has pleaded with
the council, almost with tears in it's
eyes, to stop the sale of this sewage,
for so long as 1t is sold the board must
wage incessant war against these germ
laden vegetables. But until the new
outfall sewer is completed and put into
commission the council is practically
helpless to do anything. 1t must either
sell the sewage or give it away, for the
sewage will escape in spite of every
thing, and as the irrigating bitches are
there and ready to receive it, it natu-
rally flows in.
The Inglewood Land and Water
company recently asked the board of
public works to do something quick to
nrevent the sale and use of this sewage
Inglewood claims that some cases of
typhoid fever that developed in that
place were due to the use of this
sewage.
The board agreed to do what it could,
but it is as helpless as the council
OF the two evils, however, Los An
geles eaters seem to have chosen what
they consider the lesser-eating vege-
tables in the hope that they do not come
IL, dist,.i,t