New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-27
Charges Involve Health
Inspectors and Will
iamsburg Butchers.
POORER PEOPLE THE
CHIEF SUFFERERS
Danger of Disease Explained
Seven Veterinarians Suspend.
cd Pending Action.

Wholesale bribery OF veterinarians
of the Health Department by twelve
proprietors of large abattoirs in Brook
lyn to pass slaughtered cattle injected
with tuberculosis and other diseases
was charged yesterday as the result of
a recent investigation by the Commits
sioner OF Accounts cooperating with
the Board of Health. Ten of the packers
were arrested yesterday and ned in
$4,000 bail each by Magistrate Dodd in
the Bedford Avenue police court. War
rants arc out for two more. Stimuli
taneously, DR.. Emerson, Commissioner
Of Health. suspended seven veterinari-
an inspectors Of the department pend
ing the fling of charges against them.
The evidence against the packers was
obtained through All elaborate plant
enacted by honest inspectors in the
sbattoirs involved, the plans for which
were laid by the Commissioner Of Ac-
counts and the Health Commissioner
last February. The evidence obtained
showed, according TO Leonard NJ. Wall
stein. Commissioner Of Accounts, that
the packers involved had been paying
graft 70 inspectors for many years, to
the amount Of from $4,000 TO $4,000
a year. The inspectors, whose yearly
salaries are $500, received from $50
TO SIS a week for passing infected meat.
Poor People the Victims.
The slaughter houses affected. m
Johnson Avenue. Williamsburg. arc tho
centre for the distribution of the lower
grade Of beef throughout the city.
Most Of their output goes to the small
retailers in the congested parts Of the
city and is sold TO the poorer people.
The six firms involved do a business
Of several million dollars a year, hand
ling an average OF $1,000 csrcases an.
nually. They have slaughtered $1,000
cattle so far this wear.
DR.. Emerson declared yesterday the
Investigators found that the diseased
parts OF the carcases we're cut out
and made into sausages and bologna,
after they they had passed the abat-
toirs. in order TO divert any possible
suspicion from the packers. The grav-
est danger of spreading tuberculosis
among the poor people came from these
meat products. he said, and from th'
blood which might be squeezed from
raw infected meat and given to in
valids and sick persons. The disease
germs would have been destroyed 4
the meat had been thoroughly cooked.
The Packers Arrested.
The men who were arrested are
Robert Plaut, Robert Hlaut, jr..
and Arthur Plsut, Of Robert Plaut
& Sons, 352 Johnson Avenue; Simon
Plaut, Samuel Plaut ami Henry
Plaut, Of 5. & II. Plant, 307 Johnson
Avenue; Herman Braunschweig, of 321
Johnson Avenue; Aaron Schick, Philip
Strauss and David Feinberg, of Strauss,
Schick e. Feinberg, 800 Johnson Ave
nue.. Warrants are out for II. Bulnick,
who maintains an abattoir IN Dumont
Avenue, East New York, ard Perry
Farmer, a contractor, who does repair
NOIh AZ lit JOHnSOU avenue rlduRnItT
houses, of Dumont, New jersey.
The inspectors suspended by Com
missioner Emerson are: Dr.. Alfred h.
Luks, chief Inspector DR.. John Kent,
DR.. August Johnson. DR.. Peter I. Am
sher, Dr. Morris Melman, Dl. William
+. Braisted Dr. Charles +. Caulfeld
and DR.. Alexander Slawson. The cases
Of the packers will be presented to Dis
trict Attorney Lewis, of Kings County,
to-day. The Health Commissioner re-
voked the permits Of tne hvs Johnson
Avenue plants, and one in Brownsville,
yesterday.
Slaughtered Local Stock.
The Health Commissioner said that the
Johnson Avenue plants slaughtered
what is known as local dairy stock"
an inferior ard cheaper grade of beef
from the high class Western beef
The latter comes under the inspection
Of the Federal authorities and is not
under suspicion, the commissioner said
The cattle supplied to the involved
plants were underfed and in every way
inferior, according 20 DR.. Emerson. and
come from five of the states near New
York. Frequently cows are condemned
en- the hoof at these abattoirs because
Of their apparent diseased condition.
but the veterinarians often cannot de-
tect the tubercular conditions in the
Joints and glands except by post-mor-
TENS.