Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-05

All Attacks Against Public Health
Officials Are Met Invariably by a
Show of Statistics Designed to Re
veal the Extent of the Officials
Activities and the Magnitude of
Their Accomplishments These
Statistics Serve to DisarmN Public
Anxiety When the Truth Makes Its
Occasional Appearance on the Sur
face.
tactics employed by corrupt officials
who, ignoring their oath of office,
promote selfish interests at the eX-
pense of public welfare, it seems fit
ing before disposing of the Johnson
avenue disclosure to trace briefly the
trail of the serpent as it glided. in
its effort to escape public attention.
from one quarry of official protection
to another.
Prior to the arrest of the Brook
lyn slaughterers. the Health Depart
engaged in a system of falsifying their
public records and their annual re-
ports to the mayor.
This corrupt system of fooling the
people was designed not only to cover
crimes against public health. but also
to pad the meaningless statistics COM
piled for show purposes to reconcile
the people to the expense of continu-
ing their protectors" in office.
When I first began my public ex-
posures of the corruption of the
Health Department, 1 was instantly
encountered with a spectacular dis
play of statistics which showed that
hundreds of thousands of pounds of
condemned foodstuffs had been dis
posed of by the officials as evidence
of their many activities and achieve
ments.
Notwithstanding the fact that 1 was
able to pile up proof after proof of
the Health Departments rascality,
proofs which defed the skilful ef-
forts of clever attorneys to break
them down, proofs which withstood
the scrutiny of the courts and re-
suited in the conviction of over two
hundred enemies of public health in
New York alone, the deadly signific-
ance of these padded statistics had q
strong tendency TO disarm the entire
community.
At regular intervals the newspa-
pers of New York City and State
published these statistics as silent
witnesses of the Health Department S
untiring energy in protecting the
peoples health.
In May. 1916. these padded sta
tistics were just as active in the
Health Department of New York City
as they had been in January, 1911.
Jan. 81, 1911. Commissioner of Ac-
counts Raymond b. Fosdick, in an Of
fetal report to Mayor William j. Gay
nor, said relative to this subject:
"A close study of the Bureau of
Food Inspection reveals the fact that
more attention has been paid to the
records of the bureau than to effec-
tive inspection. Nearly all the
sla1ghterhouses' in Manhattan are un-
der federal inspection. Yet the
Health Department has maintained a
sort of inspection over these places
for the sole purpose of securing from
the government inspectors the num-
Der of pounds of meat condemned.
These government figures are re-
ported by the Health Department as
its own figures, representing condem-
nations by its own inspectors. The
Health Department report in one in
stance shows the total quality Of
meat condemned in Manhattan to be
2,45S.327 pounds. These condemna-
tions were not made by the Health
Departments inspectors. but were
copied outright from the federal in
spectors' reports
The investigation of Raymond Fos-
dick was conducted by two represen-
tatives of the commissioner of ar
counts. assisted by veterinarian loan
ed to him by the Department of Agri-
culture on special orders from the
chief of the Bureau of Animal IN
dustry, Washington, d. C.
1t covered the horrors of New York
City's sausage factories which, not
withstanding Fosdick's Official de-
scription of them. were permitted to
remain uhdisturbed in all their re-
voting wretchedness until began