The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-06-15
CHICAGO PACKING HOUSES
Conditions Call for Rigid State Or City
Inspection-Government Control OPP
posed.

do not know hat it deserves any. It's
methods have been greedy and oppres-
sive. Using its great power stupidity, as
Is the wont Of monopolies, il has given
people a sense OF wrong, and aroused
their anger, right and left. Stock-ra;s-
are hate It; consumers suspect it; the
small concerns which il has forced out
Of business cherish a vengeful spirit
against il. Next TO the Standard Oil, it
is probably the most cordially disliked
monopoly, nd the one safest TO attack
politically, in this country.
The fact, however, that the packers
are sc justly held in disrepute should
not De used as a warrant for doing them
injustice, or, in order t punish them,
for establishing a pernicious principle
of government. The report Of the Presi-
dents investigators must be accepted
as ~uncOvering bad conditions in some
Of the packing-houses. Il does not, 70
be sure include the more ScandalOuS
charges which have been bruited about.
To those, MessrS. Neill and Reynolds
did not choose to put their names
They were apparently willing to leave
that field to imaginative writers. But
what the ydO certify | is repllent
enough. The lack Of sanitary appliances
in the packing houses, the disregard of
he health and comfort Of the m
plOyeeS, the careless and confused and
dirty ways of handling fOOd-products.
with the i~nadequacy Of the present
methods of inspection are shown which
shocking concreteness and detail The
President truly describes the picture as
revolving.
But to jump from that TO putting the
United States in charge Of the parking
houses, IS to cover a tremendous dis
lance with ar agaile non seqUitur. The
beef report makes out an excellent case
for rigid inspection and control by the
State of Illinois or the city Of Chicago,
but What has the national government
to do with local exercise of the police
power? Uther States n municipalities
are all the while attacking as grave
abuses in factories and sweat-shOps.
The list of laws for the State inspection
of workshops and manufactures is
growing every year. Consumers Lea
CUES are pressing this fight for health
of workers and s~Oundness Of product
in a thousand localities. In cities all
over the land the Health Departments
are exerting themselves to remedy the
very sort Of hygienic and moral outrage
detailed in the beef report. Why
should the President propose to make
an exception of Illinois and Chicago,
telling them, in effect, that they need
not clean up their own filthy premises
since he mean to step in Il to do IL
for them?
The natural remedy, the time-honcr-
ed American remedy, is to stir up The
local authorities. If necessary to shame
them into doing a work which they
have neglected, to let the shameful
facts be published, as they now have
been, but let the people on the spot
be told that they must do their W
s%crubbing and disinfecting. Already we
see the Health officer Of Chicago spur
red to belated activity. He declares
that he knew nothing Of the disgrace
full conditions in Pa%ckingtOwn, and as
serts that he will bestir himself Wig
orously TO correct them. Scarcely ons
of the abuse enumerated. in fact,
could not be struck at by municipal
ordinance or the exercise Of the IN
herent powers of the health officers
of Chicago. Yet congress is asked to
supersede the city in doing the city's
job. If municipal regulation would
not suffice, there is the power Of the
State of Illinois to appeal to. 1t has
its official Factory Inspectors, its body
of legislation against such ~iniquities as
have been disclosed in the packing
houses. We do not know what the Let
est Illinois states provide, but in the
report Of the Inspector or Factions
and Workshops for 1902 attention was
called to evils such as have just come
to light dramatically, and the passage
of acts to set them right was strongly
urged. No one can doubt, in short, that
ample owe to remedy every a con-
dition set forth is lodged IN the local
authorities, without any need Of calling
upon the Hercules at Washington.
All, but the f~OOd-prOducts of Chicago
enter into interstate commerce widely
throughout the nation. So does cloth
ing made in New York, but is the Fed
eral Government to come in n take
charge Of the inspection of our shops?
Products of the Southern cotton mills
go all over the country, and there IS
much complaint of labor conditions in
them; shall we take the work of tut
ting these factories to rights out Of
the hands of the communities where
they are situated? 1t would be easy,
in fine, to name a hundred industries,
and a hundred cities or towns, where
as plausible an argument could be
made out for interference by the Gov
eminent at Washington as in the case
of the meat industry Of Chicago.
The Constitutional point against the
legislation which the President urges
would seemingly be conclusive il the
packers were to raise it. There are SUI
preme Court decisions against the
validity Of such laws. But apparently,
this issue will not be raised. The chief
packing firms state this morning that
they will submit without protest 10
regulation by Congress. So matter
need not be pressed. But the break
with American tradition is one less
49, L. 1872, GI &@~-1~~- - s