The Red Cloud chief., 1906-06-08
MEAT DISCLOSURES.
PRESIDENT SENDS SHARP MES.
SAGE ON NELL REPORT.
Gays Conditions as Shown by Report
Call for Quick Action by Congress.
inspectors Say chica~o Concerns
Are Filthy and U~nsanitary.

inspectors Say chica~o Concerns
Are Filthy and Unsanitary.
Washington, June 5.-President
Roosevelt transmitted to congress the
report of Reynolds and NELL on the
condition of packing houses and the
methods used in the preparation OF
food products at Chicago. In his spe'
cial message the president says:
81 transmit herewith the report OF
James Bronson Reynolds and Com.
missioner Charles +. NELL, the special
committee whom | appointed TO in
vestigate the conditions in the stock
yards of Chicago and report thereon
TO me. This report is of a preliminary
nature. | submit II to you now be-
cause 1t shows the urgent need OF i'm
mediate action by the congress in the
direction of providing drastic and
thorough.going inspection by the fed
eral government OF all stock yards
and packing houses and of their prod
ucts, so far as the latter enter into
interstate or foreign commerce. The
conditions shown by even this short
inspection t exist in the Chicago
stock yards are revolving. 1t is i'm.
peratively necessary, in the interest
of decency, that they should be rad
ically changed. Under the existing law
1t Is wholly impossible to secure salts
factry results"
"The report shows that the stock
yards and packing houses are not kept
even reasonably clean, and that tho
method of preparing and handling
foods products is uncleanly and dan.
gerous to health. Under existing law
the national government has no power
to force inspection of the many forms
of prepared meat foods, products that
are daily going from the packing
house into interstate commerce.
81 call special attention to the fact
that this report is preliminary, and
that the investigation is still unfin-
ished. 1t Is not yet possible to report
on the alleged abuses in the use OF
deleterious chemical compounds in
connection with canning and preserv.
A"6 "uN hoi vi Nv ~
%doctoring in this fashion Of tainted
meat and of products returned to the
packers as having grown unstable
from & or from other reaso~9.
Grave allegations are made in reicr.
ence to abuses of this nature.
IL urge the immediate enactment in,
to law of provisions which will enable
the department OF agriculture ade,
quately to inspect the meat and meat
food products entering into interstate
commerce and supervise the methods
of preparing the same, and to pre-
scribe the sanitary conditions under
which the work shall be performed"
Summary of the Report.
The report says that in many Of
the rooms where water Is used freely
the floors ere soaked and Shiny and
the dark and dingy rooms are natur-
ally not kept suitably clean.
An absence Of cleanliness was
found everywhere in the handling OF
meat being prepared for the various
meat food products.
thN Bdllo lhul are Stht HUH tIt
cooling to these departments
where various forms of meat products
are prepared are handled with no re-
gard whatever for cleanliness.
The workers climb over heaps of
meat, select the pieces they wish and
frequently throw them down upon the
dirty flooor beside their bench.
In a word" the report adds. I'VE
saw meat shoveled from filthy wooden
floors, piled on tables rarely washed,
pushed from room to room in rotten
box carts, in all OF which processes il
was in the way of gathering dirt
splinters. floor filth. 1t was always
the reply that this meat would after
wards be cooked and that this steril!
cation would prevent any danger from
its use. A very considerable portion
of the meat so handled is sent out as
smoked products and in the form o.
sausages, which are prepared to be-
eaten without being cooked"
The report arraigns the s~anitar!
provisions in buildings as abominabl,
and says men and women plunge thei
unwashed hands into the meat to b,
converted into food products. Thu
report says the burden of protecting
the cleanliness and wholesomeness o
the products and the health of tn
workers and improving the condition
must fall upon the national govern
ment.
tuberculosis victims e~xpectorate o.
the spongy wooden floors Of the dar'
workrooms from which falling scrap
of meat are later shoveled up to b