The Marshall Tribune. (Marshall, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, June 8, 1906 Page: 7 of 12
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EXPOSE PACKERS
UPTON SINCLAIR DISCUSSES
PLANS OF CARING FOR
SPOILED MEATS
DEMAND IS BEING MADE FOR REPORT
"I can't tell about It in detail," as-
serted this senator, 'but as a whole It
is the best argument in favor of a veg-
etarian diet I have ever seen."
Publication of Report of Reynolds and
Neill Is Being Urged Upon—Presi-
dent Roosevelt Is Holding the Find-
ings of Commission
WASHINGTON: Enraged by the
drastic provisions of the meat inspec-
tion bill, which was added as a rider to
the agricultural appropriation bill by
the senate, and harassed by the fear
that congress will force the president
to make public the findings of his con-
fidental commissioners who investigat-
ed the conditions in the packing busi-
ness at Chicago, the meat packers have
started a panicky but concerted cam-
paign to modify or defeat the proposed
inspection lasv in the house.
Efforts are being made to induce all
stock-raising organizations to join the
packers in a protest against the legis-
lation in its present form. The packers
expressed themselves in countless tele-
grams to members from the packing
centers, Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha,
Denver and St. Louis.
Congressmen and senators, in sym-
pathy with the packing interests, de-
clare that the bill, if enacted as ap-
proved by the senate, would cost the
cattle producers of the country a bil-
lion dollars, since the cost of inspec-
tion ana the consequent restriction of
business in the end would be assessed
entirely on the producers through the
manipulations of the packers.
The bill went automatically to the
house committee on agriculture. In
the absence of Chairman Wadsworth,
Representative Henry of Connecticut,
a member of the committee, who intro-
duced the inspection bill in the house,
said that the senate amendment would
be considered as new legislation.
President Roosevelt conferred With
Senator Carter of Monfana and C. P.
Neill, commissioner of labor, author of
the report on sanitary conditions in
the Chicago packing houses.
The president still states his posi-
tion to be that Neill report will be
withheld if congress quickly enacts
an inspection law. Rut if the packers
cast obstacles in the way, he threat-
ens to make public the entire report,
let consequences be what they may on
the foreign or domestic meat trade.
There is no disposition among some
members in congress to demand the
publication of the report.
John Sharp Williams, however, prob-
ably will introduce a resolution calling
on the president for the report.
Many members of the house, includ-
ing Speaker Cannon, because of his
affiliations in Illinois, are unquestion-
ably inclined to take up the packers'
side of the contest. But the presi-
dent's stand, and the fact that the
popular verdict is certain to be in fa-
vor of a stringent inspection law,
forces them to be wary.
The principal bone of contention is
whether the government or the pack-
ers shall pay for the inspection. The
bill provides that the packers Hhall
stand the expense.
Several senators and representa-
tives have been permitted confiden-
tially to see the Neil report. From
them it is learned that the document is
fully as sensational as its suppression
would indicate.
One senator frankly said that for his
part, after learning how it is made in
the packing house, he will eat no more
sausage as long as he lives. The re-
port declares that sausage is manu-
factured in unventilated rooms by un
clean men and women whose perspir-
ation pours into the meat.
NEW YORK: Intimations that taint-
ed meats are served throughout the
country has brought forth a strong
protest from the press. The Times
and American demand the Commis-
sioner Neill's report now in the presi-
dent's hands be published immediate-
ly. The World says it should be given
out unless the president is certain that
federal inspection will remedy the
evils. The- Herald calls the clamor
'hysterical."
' bacteriological sctenece. Meat, he said,
was treated as if it were not a perish-
able article, but like dry goods, on the
theory that once good, always good.
"One of the greatest evils of the
present inspection system is that in-
spectors have no authority to enter
those parts of the packing houses
where the by-products are prepared—
I mean where the canning, packing,
sausage making and preserving are
done.
DEEDS RETURNED
WASHINGTON: Upton Sinclair,
whose expose of the conditions of the
Chicago stock yards in his book, "The
Jungle," caused President Roosevelt
to have made an official investigation,
discovering conditions, the publicaton
of wlich he now holds as a club over
the packers, furnished the president
more material.
Mr. Sinclair wrote the president urg-
ing that no consideration of the busi-
ness outlook of the packers is sufficient
to hide the facts from the public. He
says that the health of the people is
first to be considered, and to further
show that the public health is in dan-
ger from the methods he cites more
instances of conditions.
Among the declarations made to
President Roosevelt, based either on
Sinclair'!.' personal observation or the
affidavits of others, are:
Things that would horrify the public
if known, are done as a matter of regu-
lar routine at the Chicago stock yards.
I saw one of the trust's employes
doctoring spoiled hams in a cellar in
one of the packing houses. The stenc.
that arose from them was overpower-
ing.
Dyes and coloring matter which give
to sausages the "smoke" color of com-
merce and'bring back tainted meat to
its natural hue are openly advertised.
Skinned hams, which are supposed
to be a special product are only the
hams of old hogs with skins so thick
nobody will buy them.
The skins so removed are made into
head cheese.
A car line salesman for eight years
left his employment because he could
not stand what he saw in the packing
houses.
There is no such thing as stopping a
sausage machine when one of the oper-
ators loses a finger or a hand. The
member goes in human flesh and
comes out sausage.
The scope of his appeal to Mr.
Rooosevelt was outlined by Mr. Sin
clair as follows:
"I have written the president, beg-
ging him to not allow any consider-
ations to stand in the way of publish-
ing the findings of his commissioners,"
said Mr. Sinclair. "When the people
of the United States are fully acquaint-
ed with the conditions in the packng
houses public opinion will take care of
any remedial legislation which may be
needed.
"When it is understood that the
situation in the stock yards and every
large packing house is just what it
was in the insurance business a year
or two ago, there will be no trouble
to bring about reform.
"Things that would horrify the pub-
lic if known are done there as a mat-
ter of regular routine and under an es.
tablished system. The standards that
prevail there were best expressed by
Adolph Smith, who has made a lifelong
study of slaughter houses, and besides
being employed by the German and
Belgian governments as an expert in
such matters, he has trave'ed all over
the world for the London Lancet.
Dr. Smith said the Chicago stock
yards were worthy of mediaeval bar-
barism and were a disgrace to Ameri-
can civilization.
He said the methods of the packers
are just as they would have been if
there was UQ sqch tiling as moderm
I saw one of the trust's employees
doctoring spoiled hams in a cellar in
one of the packing houses. He had
. a great number of hams on a big
table. The stench that arose from
them was overpowering.
"The man was working a pump with
one foot. Attached to the pump was a
1 tube, on the end of which was a big
hollow needle. He would jab the
needle into a ham and then pump it
; full of chemical to take away the
dreadful odor. A few days ago I sent
' to the president several advertise-
| ments and circulars in which dealers
j in packers' supplies laud the virtues
! of their wares.
i "One firm guarantees that its patent
preservative will take away the odor
from spoiled meat, no matter how ad-
vanced its stage of moldiness or puri-
fication.
"Dyes and coloring matter which
give to sausages the 'smoke' color of
commerce and bring back tainted meat
to its natural hue are operfy adver-
tised. There is stuff called 'bull meat
powder' and 'zero preservative,' to-
gether with many other patented pre-
parations, accompanied by elaborate
directions for their use. Most of these
are to be ground up with sausage meat
and tinned hamburger steak.
"Every supply houtfe advertises
liquids to be rubbed over the surface
of meat to take away bad odors. Borax,
formaldehyde, salycilic acid and all the
other things found in the undertaker's
outfit are exploited in these advertise-
ments.
Here is an affidavit taken before
Alfred H. Jennings, a notary, who can
furnish the name of the man who
made it. It states that the affiant was
employed for eight months as a car
line salesman. The man left because
he could not stand the sights he wit-
nessed in the packing houses. 'I had
first to learn the products,' he says,
'and had to study all the processes of
manufacture. Previous to this em-
ployment I had been a butcher and
was an expert judge of meat. My at-
tention was at once called to the qual-
ity of cattle killed in the establish-
ment and canned there.
CHICAGO: Local newspapers don't
unduly emphasize charges against the
packers by the president's investi-
gators. None ask that report be made
public, excepting the Inter-Ocean and
Record-Herald. The other papers ig-
nore the matter editorially.
Citizens of Pawhuska Can Now Boast
of Good Titles to Lots
PAWHUSKA: All of the deeds to
town lots in Pawhuska, which were
sold at public auction in January, have
now been returned from the interior
department, with the approval of the
secretary, and citizens of the town
are now able to get good titles to their
lots.
Considerable delay has been caused
by the controversy over the lots,
which were improved after March
1905, which other bidders allowed to
be knocked down to the holders at the
appraised valuation. The department
refused to issue deeds to 431 lots of
that sort, but matters have finally
been adjusted and the entire schedule
returned. Al>out 300 of the lots, includ-
ing the cheaper grade, were ordered
deeded at the price at which they
were bid in at the sale. On all of tho
lots which were improved after March
3, together with a few of the choice
vacant lots, the appraisement was
doubled. The people who bid in those
lots and who own the improvements,
can accordingly obtain deeds by pay-
ing twice the original appraised value.
Since it has been possible to obtain
title to real estate in the town, Paw-
huska people are very anxious to ob-
tain incorporation and a regular city
government. Movement looking to
that end has already been set on foot,
and at their next meeting a petition
will be presented to the county com-
missioners of Pawnee county, to
which the Osage reservation is at-
tached for governmental purposes.
PLAN "HOME FOLKS" WEEK
Territories Will Entertain Relatives
During the Coming Fall
OKLAHOMA CITY. An event
planned much after the Kentucky
"Homecoming," to take place in this
city during the latter part of Septem-
ber and the first part of October, has
been taken up by the chamber of com-
merce and put before the commercial
organizations of Oklahoma and Indian
Territory. The purpose is to afford
opportunity for relatives and friends
of Oklahomans to come to Oklahoma
visit their friends and relatives, and
observe the resources of the two ter-
ritories concentrated at a central
point. Secretary McKnead, of the
chamber of commerce, has held con-
ferences with Orville Frantz, secretary
to the governor; with Fred L. Wenner,
secretary of the school land board,
and with Secretary McNabb, of the
territorial agricultural board, who
pledged their support. Oklahoma and
Indian Territory are preparing to
make an exhibit of natural products.
BIG LAND BUSINESS
KANSAS CITY: There is no demand
by the local press for publication of
the Neill report.
LONDON: Newspapers generally
display the news regarding tainted
American meats. They apparently
don't believe the statement that bad
meats are not sent abroad but are con-
sumed in America. An Evening News
interviewer ascertained that London
traders are apprehensive of their abili-
ty to dispose of the present stocks of
American meats. Instances of con-
sumers refusing to take meat not pro-
duced by the British firms are cited.
WASHINGTON: Sulzer of New
York, introduced to the house a resolu-
tion calling upon the president for re-
ports and exhibits of the correspond-
ence concerning investigations of the
packing house.
NEW ORLEANS: Daily States de-
mands publication of the Neill report
and says "if Roosevelt don't do this
he will become the ally of the packers
to this extent."
Land Office at Lawton Has Taken in
Over a Million Dollars
LAWTON: More than one million
one hundred thousand dollars has
been taken in by the receiver of the
Lawton land office since its organiza-
tion on August 6, 1905. This amount
does not include the net $114,700, the
net proceeds of the sale of the Lawton
town lots, which sale was begun on
the same date as the land office was
opened. The million dollar mark was
reached last June. The $100,000 has
been received in the past eleven
months and $65,000 of that sum has
been take- in by A. W. Maxwell, who
took charge of the Lawton office in
February as receiver.
Garrett Snow, a negro from Mus-
kogee, resisted arrest for disturbing
the peace at Oklahoma City. In the
melee Officer Wagner was shot
through the arm. Snow was locked up
in the county jail, where a crowd of
2,000 people assembled and there was
considerable excitement. The crowd
finally dispersed without attempting
any violence.
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The Marshall Tribune. (Marshall, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, June 8, 1906, newspaper, June 8, 1906; Marshall, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metapth350350/m1/7/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.