Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-06-07

In a recent issue of the Saturday
Evening Post Mr.. ]. Ogden Armour
makes the assertion that the govern
ment inspection Of the beef trust
slaughter-houses is an im%pregnable
wall protecting the public from i'm
pure meat, and that not an atom OF
diseased meat finds its way into the
products of the Armours. Mr.. Up
ton Sinclair, author of 1.-THE Jungle
{ a terrific statement Of packing house
co%nditions), studied the meat industry
for two years, including much time
spent in the Chicago stockyards as a
workman; he is the best equipped
outside authority on stockyard condl-
tions. In E~verybody's Magazine for
May Mr.. Sinclair makes a startling
and convincing answer to Mr.. Ar
mour's assertion. Commencing with
the statement that J. Ogden Armour
Is the absolute and not the nominal
head of the great packing house In
dustry which bears his name Mr.. SIN
clair says: IT know that in the state
ments quoted, Mr.. Armour willfully
and deliberately states what he abso-
lutely and positively knows to be
falsehoods."
That he might be properly equipped
to describe conditions in Packing
town" Mr.. Sinclair worked for a
period as a laborer in the plant Of AT
mour & Co., ard he tells Of sights oil
filth and horror such as he hopes
never to see again, but the strongest
coincidence of the truth Of the claim
that meat unfit for human food is put
on the market comes from a man fol
years superintendent at Armour 4
Co.'s Chicago plant, Thomas F. Dolan
Of Boston. Mr.. Sinclair in his article
says:
"At the time of the embalmed-bee1
scandal at the conclusion of the Span
ish war, when the whole country was
~convulsed with fury over the revela
lions made by soldiers and officers
(including Gen. Miles and Presiden
Roosevelt) concerning the quality O
meat which Armour G Co. had fur
nished to the troops, and concernin!
the death-rate which 1t had caused
the enormity of the 'condemned-mea
industry became suddenly clear t
one man who had formerly super
vised it. Mr.. Thomas F. Dolan, thel
residing in Boston, had, up to a shor
time previous, been a superintendent
at Armour & Co.'s, and one Of MI
Philip d. Armour's most capable an
trusted men. When he read of tn
! death-rate in the army, he made a.
affidavit concerning the things whic
were done in the establishment of Al
mour & Co., and this affidavit he too
to the New York Journal, which pull
J lished 1t on March 4, 1899. Here ar
some extracts from 1t:
: "There were many ways of gettin
: around the inspectors-so many, l
fact, that not more than two or thre
: cattle out of 1000 were condemned
I know exactly what l am writin
of in this connection, as my particula
t instructions from Mr.. w. e. Pierre
superintendent of the beef houses fe
: Armour & Co., were very explicit an
definite.
whenever a beef got past the var
inspectors with a case of lumpy ja
and came into the slsughterhouse
: the 'killng-bed,' I was authorized
I Mr.. Pierce to take his head off, thl
removing the evidences of lumpy jay
and after casting the smitten portic
into the tank where refuse goes,
q send the rest of the carcass on
: way to market.
81 have seer as much as 40 pount
= of flesh afflicted with gangrene C,
from the carcass of a beef, in ord
: that the rest of the animal might
utilized in trade.
zone of the most important regul
lions of the bureau Of animal indu
try is that no COWS in calf are to
e placed on the market. Out of
o slaughter Of 1000 cows, or a day
killing, perhaps one-half are wi
It calves. My instructions from N
n Pierce were to dispose of the calv
by hiding them until night, or uni
the inspectors left off duty. The
tie carcasses were then brought fro
all over the clearinghouse and SKIM
by boys, who received two cents +
. removing each pelt. The pelts we
L sold for SO cents eaGh to the kid-glo
IS manufacturers. This occurs eve
night at Mr.. Armour's concern at O.
= cage, or after each killing of cows.
II now propose to state here exa
i ly what l myself have witnessed
y Philip D. Armour's clearinghouse wi
fe cattle that have been condemned
the government inspectors.
~ "a workman, one Nicholas News
: during my time. informs the insp
" tor that the tanks are prepared for
y reception of the condemned cattle a
that his presence is required to s
" the beef cast into the steam-tank. \
~ Inspector proceeds at once to the pls
e indicated, and the condemned catt
~ having been brought up to the tar
I'd