, 1906-03-13
H BEEF.

Mr., ]. Ogden Armour has been dis
cussing to considerable extent the
charges made by government agents,
magazine writers n others against
the packers. According to his side of
the story, the packers have been great
public benefactors and have not made
that great percentage of profit charged
against them by the people, His latest
article discusses the charge made that
the packers use the condemned ami
mails and tainted meat. His side of
this matter will be read with interest
by the people of wyoming.
Government inspection is another
important feature of the packers bust
ness. To the general public, the meat
eating public, 1t ought to appeal as one
of the most important features of any
and all business in the whole country.
1t is the wall that stands between the
m~eat-eating public and the sale of dis
eased meat, This government inspec-
ton alone, if there were no other bust
ness Oh economic reasons, would be an
all-suthcient reason for the existence
of the packing and dressed meat bust
ness, make the general public a parti-
san supporter of the large packers.
Strangely enough, in view of its vi
tai Importance, this government inspec-
ton has been the subject of almost end
less misrepresentation-of i%gnorantly
or maliciously false statements. The
public has been told that meat animals
and condemned as diseased
are afterward secretly made use of by
the packers and sold to the public for
food in the form Of both dressed meats
and canned meats. Right here l de-
sire to brand such statements as abso-
lutely false as applied to the business
of Armour & Co. l believe they are
equally false as to all establishments
in this country that are classed as
packing-houses.
Every meat animal and every car.
cass slaughtered in the Union stock
yards, or in the stockyards at any of
the markets of the United States, is
carefully inspected by the United
States government. This inspection is
supplemented, in practically all cases,
by state or city inspection, or both.
The live animals are inspected on the
hoof and again when slaughtered.
THE inspection by the United States
government is not compulsory on the
packers III the strict legal sense of the
term; it is more binding than if it were
compulsory. 1t is business. Attempt
to evade it would be, from the purely
commercial viewpoint, suicidal. No
packer can do an interstate or EXPORT
business without government inspec,
ton. S~elfinterest likewise demands
that he shall not receive meats or by.
products from any small packer, either
for export OF other use, unless that
small packer is also Official that is.
under United States government in
spection.
This inspection is carried on under
lhe direction OF the bureau of animal
industry of the department of agricul.
ture. The packer has nothing to say
about the employment of the inspec-
tors. They are assigned by the United
States government. The government
likewise is jude of their qualifications.
1t requires them. first, that they shall
have taken a full three-year course in
veterinary science.
Every meat animal that comes to
the stockyards is first inspected on the
hoof' as stated, by representatives of
the bureau of animal industry. All that
snow signs of disease are segregated
and tagged as rejected by the United
States government inspectors. At reg.
uiar intervals they are slaughtered lin
Chicago, under direction of the state
oficers), and consigned to other than
food uses.
All carcasses-cattle, calves. sheen.