Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-06-06

message on frightful conditions of filth
existing in some of the great packing
houses has created a panic among the
packers and their allied business in
terests The following telegram was
sent out by one of the stock yards
banks to country banks turnout the
west:
Please wire all congressman and
senators you can reach, and have your
customers and friends engaged in
breeding. feeding or shipping cattle
nouncement by the secretary of agri-
culture and bureau of animal industry
that the government inspection is thor
ough and covers domestic and foreign
meats. All possible should be done at
once to protect American live stock
industry as against South America and
Australia. Foreign agitation for a
boycott has started, and will grow rap
idly unless immediate action is Sc
cured"
Notwithstanding this fact that the
packers export business will suffer
as we'll as their domestic trade, the
public reading the disclosures Of the
government report will stand aghast
at the awful conditions of filth there
depicted. Even should a temporary
panic ensue in the livestock trade, the
president will be upheld in demanding
congressional regulation of this food
production.
Some of the paragraphs in the report
read:
An absence of cleanliness was also
found everywhere in the handling Of
meat being prepared for the various
meat-food products. After killing car
casses are well washed and up to the
time they reach the cooling room are
handled in fairly sanitary and clean
ly manner The parts that leave The
cooling room for treatment in bulk are
also handled with regard to cleanliness,
but the parts that are sent from the
cooling room to those departments Of
the packing houses in which various
forms of meat products are prepared
are handled with no regard whatever
for cleanliness. In some of the larger
establishments sides that are sent to
what is known as the boning room are
thrown in a heap upon the floor. The
workers climb over these heaps of
meat select the pieces they wish and
frequently throw them down upon rhe
dirty floor beside their working bench.
Even in cutting the meat upon the
bench the work is usually held press
ed against their aprons and these aprons
were, as rule, indescribably filthy.
They were made in most cases OF
leather or of rough sacking, and bore
long accumulated grease and dirt. In
only few places We're suitable cloth
aprons worn. Moreover, men were seen
to climb from the floor and stand, with
shoes dirty with the refuse of the
floors, on the tables upon which the
meat was handled. They were seen at
the lunch hour sitting on the tables on
the spot on which the meat product
was handled, and all this under the
very eye of the superintendent Of the
ROOM showing that this was common
practice.
AS an extreme example Of the entire
disregard on the part of employees of
any notion of cleanliness in handling
dressed meat, we saw. a hog that had
just been killed, cleaned, washed and
started on its way to the cooling room
fall from the sliding rail to dirty
wooden floor and slide part way into a
filthy mems privy. 1t was picked up
by two employees, placed upon truck.
carried into the cooling room and hung
with other carcasses, no effort being
made to clean it.
The radical defect in the present
system of inspection is that it does not
go far enough. 1t is confined at pres
ent by law to passing on the healthful-
ness of animals at the time of killing;
but the meat that is used in sausage
and in the various forms of canned
products and other prepared meat
foods goes thru many processes, in all
of which there is possibility of con-
tamination thru unsanitary handling
and further danger thru the use Of
chemicals. During all these processes
of preparation there is no government
inspection and no assurance whatever
that these meat-food products are
and fit for food-despite the
fact that all these products when sent
out bear a label stating that they have
been passed upon by government ill
spectors.
AS to the investigation of the alleged
use of dyes, preservatives or chemicals
in the preparation of cured meats, saul
sages and canned goods, we are not yet
prepared to report. We did look inro
the matter of sanitary handling Of the !
meats being prepared for the various
food products. The result &C our OBJ
servations have already been partly
given. Other instances of how pro-
ducts may be made UP and still secure
the stamp of government inspection
are here given. In one well-known es-
ia blishment we came upon fresh meat
being shoveled into barrels and regu-
lar proportion being added of stale
scraps that had lain on a dirty floor in
the corner of a room for some days
previous. In another establishment,
equally well-known, long table was
noted covered with several hundred
pounds Of cooked scraps of beef and
other meats. Some Of these meat
scraps were dry, leathery and unfit to
De eaten land in the heap were found