El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-12-07
KANSAS CITY IS
FIGHTING SMELLS
People on Kansas Side of
Kaw Trying to Rid Cities
Of Bad Odors.


! One of the effects Of the fight being
| made by the Cattlemen of Ell Paso to
! prevent the defiling of the air and de-
| probation of property in this city has
! been the reopening of the fight of the
/ people of Kansas City, Kan, against
/ the obnoxious smells and dangerous
! gases emanating from the stockyards
I district of that city.
! For rs years or more, Kansas City, both
! the Missouri town and the Kansas town
! of that name, have been fighting to
| have the stockyards nuisance in that
/ great cattle center abated. Up to this
| time the packers have been powerful
/ enough to render abortive any action
| taken by the citizens of either city.
| This time, however, the health depart
ment of Kansas City, Kan, has opened
! a fight which DR.. c. W. Mclaughlin,
chairman of the board Of health, de-
clares win be to finish and in this
| he is backed up by city attorney r.
| J. Higgins the members OF the city
council and the voters and property
/ holders whom they represent
Packers Seeking Delay.
Pursuing their usual tactics, the
| packers are praying for delay. This
I surmise is based upon a letter sent by
Swift & Co. to J. r. Cation. commission
| er of finance of Kansas City, Kan, in
which the big packing concern takes
| the ground that the federal govern
ment is attempting to discover means
whereby the gases arising from pack
ing house and stockyards plants may
| be consumed in furnaces and their OBJ
noxious qualities rendered less apDar-
eut to the general public, and that,
therefore, the city government should
] not make any attempt at this time to
abate the oldtime nuisance for fear of
! interfering with the work Of the gen.
Commissioners Are Active.
According to an article in the Kansas
7 IL
| commissioner Martin can see nothing
| in the position taken by the packers
| except an effort to do what they have
/ often done before, namely save them
! selves expense while the public con-
tinues to breathe the offensive gases
and vapOrs from the decaying animal
matter in their plants, which have pol
Iuted the atmosphere Of both Kansas
{ City, Kan, and Kansas City, No, since
/ the establishment Of the stockyards
! in the valley of the Kaw. ~ years ago.
! To Prevent Food Pollution.
| DR.. James Fleming, chief Of the
! Kansas City branch Of the National
| Bureau of Animal Industry, in an in
/ tervieW in the Kansas City Star of
I Dec 4 admitted that the federal gov
! ernment was bringing pressure to bear
/ upon the packers to install some sys-
! TEN whereby the gases arising from the
| blood soaked floors, from the render
i ing watts, from the tanks in which Offal
! is converted into fertilizer, glue soap
] ana OLQer aTLlClGS OF ueIEuduulSes anu
/ from the canneries, can be conducted
/ to the furnaces in the boiler room and
/ there consumed.
'"The governments interest. of
| course" said DR.. Fleming, lis to OBJ
/ tain the best sanitary conditions sur
4 rounding food products, but so far as
( the evil of offensive odors affects the
! interest of the city. it is q matter that
I may be dealt with locally.
/ win Cooperate with City.
/ THE Bureau of Animal Industry
/ will gladly cooperate with the city and
/ will also welcome the cooperation Of
! the packers Meats and other articles
! of food prepared in a. modern packing
| plant absorb the gases arising from de-
[ caying animal matter and 1t is in or
! der to prevent this absorption of Of
I fensive doors and gases by meats and
! other articles of food prepared in tie
/ packing plants that the government IS
/ interesting itself in compelling the
| packers to provide means whereby the
gases may be destroyed before food
/ is contaminated"
Eats Holes in Boiler Tubes.
J One of the objections raised by the
| packers to having the gases consumed
: n their furnaces IS that the gases
generated in a packing house, when
! consumed in furnaces or boilers, eat
l out the boiler flues It is also con-
tended that any specially constructed
! furnaces for the purpose of consuming
| gases can last for but a very short
| time because of the corrosive erect OF
I the gases upon the ueLdA par l. 4AleL
/ say that this has been demonstrated
/ in the city of London, where the health
| commissioners compelled the abattoirs
/ to burn the gases arising from the
| llCod soaked floors.
! Nothing VIII Withstand II.
| No method of construction mas as yet
| been devised and no material mas Deeh
| found which will withstand the cor
/ rosfve effects of the animal gases when
/ subjected to heat This argument,
/ when advanced at a meeting OF the
/ commissioners of Kansas CITY hans;
! caused the chairman to remark tnal II
| packing house gases would eat holes
| in boiler flues and cause fire brick
! furnaces to disintegrate the ERECT upon
| the lungs and other tissues or the hu-
| man body must be equally oad ana
! made it all the more necessary, mere
! fore that the packers be competed 70
dispose of them in some way, regard
/ less of cost.
In an editorial on the subject the
| Kansas City Times says; IT..
| TT is natural ana reasonable Lnat
| the commissioners of Kansas CITY.
| Kans should endeavOr to get rid OF
the odors of the packing plants. While
1 those plants have been or great oene,
1 fit to the city. il must be recognized
! that the doors from the plants nave
proved a serious detriment TO business
| interests and to real estate values.
FL PasO Can Save Itself.
The people of FL PasO have II IN
| their power, through their city gov
| eminent, to make it impossible that II
| shall ever be confronted with the prob
| lem which now cOnfronts Kansas CITY
BY compelling all stOckyards and pack
ing plants to be erected outside tn IS,
! city limits and far enough away III
Paso will be saved the annoyance OF
1 the stenches which cannot be disas-
ISOLATED from the livestock INDUSTRY
and will avoid the serious detriment
| to business interests and to real estate
| values" which the Kansas City Times,
| above quoted, says are traceable 10 the
| stenches arising from the stockyards
1 of that city Advertisement)