Republican farmer., 1919-09-19
MUST BE CONFIDENT
 OF LIVE STOCK Federal Meat Inspection Guarantees Wholesome
 ness of Food. MEAT PACKERS
 GET ADVICE Told That Government Supervision is Only Worth
 While Kind.

Washington, Sept. 16-The sta dustries of this country depends on public confidence. and until the pub lie has assurance that all of it's meat IS wholesome the work of establish ing public confidence will be incom- plete. At present about two-thirds of the meat supply is federally in- speCted and stamped accordingly by the United States Department of Az riculture, but until something effect i've is done toward insuring proper inspection of the remaining one- third which is slaughtered and sold entirely within state boundaries and over which the national government has no direct authority, the public, as a whole, can never feel certain that the purity and wholesomeness of it's entire meat supply is assured.
 Those statements were emphasized by Dr. John R. Mohler, chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agricul- ture, in an address on Sept. 16, be- fore the American Meat Packers As sociatiOn in session at Atlantic City The Bureau of Animal Industry, he said. has just completed a survey | municipal and state meat inspection.
 Where inspection is maintained it is frequently incomplete. Less than one-fourth of the cities reporting indicated that ante -mortem examina- Hons are made and in many cases
 little assurance was furnished that condemned meats are actually with
 held from distribution.
 If your association has not al- ready taken an active interest in mu-
 nicipal and state inspection" Dr. MOhler continued, my remarks would be incomplete if I did not urge upon you a close study of the condi- tons and problems"
 The days of resisting inspection, he said are past, as is the idea that a
 mere pretense of inspection is ac- ceptable to the public The destruc-
 ton of condemned meat, he insisted,
 is no more wasteful than condemning the use of wooden cars in a train of steel cars
 Any inspection worthy of the name, pr. Mohler stated, must be thorough, including an examination both before and after slaughter and a study of
 the organs as well as the meat itself.
 Such inspection can be given al low cost. The Bureau of Animal Indus- try, maintains its very thorough in- spection service a cost to the peo- pie of less than six cents for every animal slaughtered. That amount
 covers both ante-mortem and post
 mortem inspection and the final ex- animation of the finished products
 Federal inspection applies to all
 slaughter houses and packing plants engaged in interstate or export
 trade Where the products of the es- tablishment are consumed entirely within the state the national govern ment has no authority to inspect the animals it slaughters or the products it sends out. It has been found that federal inspection covered, in 1918,
 75.1 per cent. of cattle slaughtered, an increase of 13.7 per cent. over the corresponding figure in 1914. In the samep eriOd the per capita consump-
 tion of beef increased 13.3 per cent.
 Dr. Mohler thinks that, while the similarity of the figures may be
 largely a coincidence, it is logical that federal inspection of meats has
 had something to do with the amount
 which people eat. In view of such conditions, he said, 1t is obvious from
 the standpoint of public service that
 plans should be made that will in-
 sure the people of the country whole some meat and ample supply. He told of woman who recently appeared | before the city council of San Diego,
 Cal, which was debating changes in local meat regulations. She told the council there were three reasons why she did not want to see anything but government inspected meat in San Diego, and thereupon introduced her
 three children to the council. She explained that Uncle Sam demanded federal inspected meat for his sol- diers and sailors and that her chill dren were just as valuable to her
 Uncle Sam's were to him.