Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-09
FOODS THEY lI.dD BUILD OR
AMAZING BUT RARELY SUSPECTED
TRUTHS ABOUT THE THINGS YOU EAT
Xfrsd 'Wnt " MecaGnno}} eG y BY ALFRED w. McCANN

| to Newark or some other backwoods
slaughter house in the State, where
they could be killed and dressed for
food. Every day we receive hun
| dreds of these wornout creatures"
Going into another pen l saw two
cows that had been seized by the gov
| ernment because the glands in the
neck, swollen and lumpy, clearly in
dicated that they were tubercular.
AN official admitted to me that
there were Il hundred places within
the animals bodies where active tu-
bercular processes could be going on
without disclosing any outward evil
denee of the disease. Simply because
these two suspected cows showed eN-
ternal evidence of the disease in the
neck, where it could be felt by the
hand, they were removed from a herd
| of twenty other cows and held by the
government All the other cows,
which were in the same lamentable
| physical condition, were released for
slaughter solely because they pos
sessed no external marks discoverabie
| to the touch. The cattle buyers of in
spected establishments knew enough
to reject them, but the government
officials did not know enough to con-
denim them.
Congress will have to amend the
law. These wide gaps will have to be
plugged. The health of the nation de-
mands interference. There can be no
explanation of the failure of Congress
thus far to remedy these defects in
the law except ignorance.
1t is strange that cattle dealers
with a conscience have not come to us
to tell us about these abuses, although
| even If they did tell us we could not
: appreciate the gravity of the situation
without seeing for ourselves, as l saw
to-day.
The hideous spectacle makes me
feel that / never want to eat meat
again unless | have an absolute guar
antee of its wholesomeness. Under
present conditions l now see that such
guarantee is impossible"
| Following this statement of Con-
gresham Chandler, DR.. r. c. Newton.
president of the New Jersey State
Board of Health, said over his sigma
/ ture:
The Board of Health of the State
of New Jersey does not know what
becomes of all the tubercular cows
of this State, and has no means of
knowing. The Legislature at Tren-
ton has blocked every important pub
| lie health question which has ever
| been laid before it.
There are 800 slaughterhouses in
New Jersey where diseased animals
are slaughtered for food and where
in some instances carcasses of animals
that have died from disease are
dressed for market. 1t is the business
of the State Board of Health to know
what becomes of these animals, but
it does not possess sufficient men or
means to do the work.
The press is absolutely quiet on
the subject and at this minute there
seems to be no hope for the situation.
The whole State is stepped in lethargy
and indifference on questions of pub
lie health, and it will continue to pay
the price in disease and death until
! somebody succeeds in awakening its
intelligence and its conscience"
These signed statements of Con-
gresham Chandler and DR.. Newton
were made public and within three
days federal officials, as we are about
to see. indicated by their eXtraordi-
nary conduct that they did have the
power, without a special act of con-
gress. to put an end to the abuses
which they had tolerated in silence for
so long a time.