Free press., 1906-06-09


Evening Post Mr.. J. Ogden Armour
makes the assertion that the govern
ment inspection of the beef trust
slaughter-houses is an impregnable
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 ''The Jungle"
{ a terrific statement of packing house
conditions), 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 cond1-
tions. In Everybody'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: 81 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
period as a laborer in the plant Of Ar
mour & Co., and he tells of sights of
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 for
years superintendent at Armour &
Co.'s Chicago plant, Thomas F. Dolan,
OF Boston. Mr.. Sinclair in his article
says:
"At the time of the embalmed-beef
scandal at the conclusion of the Span
ish war, when the whole country was
convulsed with fury over the revela-
tions made by soldiers and officers
(including Gen. Miles and President
Roosevelt) concerning the quality of
meat which Armour & Co. had fur
nished to the troops, and concerning
the death-rate which it had caused,
the enormity of the 'condemned-meat
industry became suddenly clear to
one man who had formerly super
vised it. Mr. Thomas F. Dolan, then
residing in Boston, had, up to a short
time previous, been a superintendent
at Armour G Co.'s, and one of Mr..
Philip D. Armour's most capable and
trusted men. When he read Of the
death-rate in the army, he made an
affidavit concerning the things which
were done in the establishment of Ar
mour & Co., and this affidavit he took
to the New York Journal, which pub
lished it on March 4, 1899. Here are
some extracts from it:
"There were many ways of getting
around the inspectors-so many, in
fact, that not more than two or three
cattle out of 1000 were condemned.
1 know exactly what I am writing
of in this connection, as my particular
instructions from Mr.. w. E. Pierce,
superintendent of the beef houses for
Armour & Co., were very explicit and
definite.
whenever a beef got past the yard
inspectors with a case of lumpy jaw
and came into the slaughterhouse or
the killng-bed,' I was authorized by
Mr.. Pierce to take his head off, thus
removing the evidences of lumpy jaw,
and after casting the smitten portion
into the tank where refuse goes, to
send the rest of the carcass on its
way to market.
81 have seen as much as 40 pounds
of flesh afflicted with gangrene cut
from the carcass of a beef, in order
that the rest of the animal might be
utilized in trade.
'One of the most important regula-
tions of the bureau of animal indus
try is that no cows in calf are to be
placed on the market. Out of a
slaughter of 1000 cows, or a days
killing, perhaps one-half are with
calves. My instructions from Mr.
Pierce were to dispose of the calves
by hiding them until night, or until
the inspectors left off duty. The lit
tie carcasses were then brought from
all over the packing-house and skinned
by boys, who received two cents for
removing each pelt. The pelts were
sold for so cents each to the kid-glove
manufacturers. This occurs every
night at Mr.. Armour's concern at Chi
cago, or after each killing of cows.
"I now propose to state here exact
ly what l myself have. witnessed in
Philip D. Armour's packing house with
cattle that have been condemned by
the government inspectors.
"a workman, one Nicholas Newson
during my time, informs the inspec-
| tor that the tanks are prepared for the
reception of the condemned cattle and
that his presence is required to see
the beef cast into the steam-tank. Mr..
Inspector proceeds at once to the place
indicated. and the condemned cattle,
having been brought up to the tank