| Show disease and death lurk in alie meat product sent out from chicago president roosevelt sends a message to congress arg ng the passage of the bever dge amendment to the agricultural appropriation bill washington president roosevelt on monday transmitted to congress the report of reynolds and neill on existing conditions in the cago pack ng houses accompanying the report was a message urging the passage of the beveridge Beverl dge amendment to the agac appropriation bill making inspection of meat products compulsory at the cost of the packers the message follows the senate and house of depre senta tives I 1 transmit herewith the report of mr james bronson rey and commiss oner charles P neill the special committee whom I 1 appointed to invest gate into the con in the stockyards of chicago and report thereon to me this re port is of a prel nature I 1 sub mit it to you now because it shows the urgent need of immediate action by the conifers coni fess in the direct on of pro a dras ana thoroughgoing in by the federal government of 11 and packing houses and of their prod acts so far as the latter enter into interstate or tore agn commerce the cond t ons shown by even this short inspect on to ex st the chicago stockyards are revolting it is imperatively necessary in the n terest of society and decency that they should be radically changed un der the exist ng law it is wholly im possible to secure sat re suits when my attention was first direct ed to this matter an investigation was made under the burea i of animal in austry of the department of agrical ture when the preliminary state ments of tb s mi on were bro to my on they showed such defects in the law and such ly unexpected cond eions that I 1 deemed it best to have a amther im med ate avest gatlon by men not con necked with the bureau and accord ng ly appo anted reynolds and neill it was impossible under the existing law that satisfactory work should be done by the burea i of an imal industry I 1 am now however examining the way in which actually was done before I 1 had received the report of reynolds and ne 11 I 1 had directed that labels placed upon adv package of meat food products shurld state only that the carcass ot the an imal from which the meat was taken had been inspected at the time of elai ahter if inspect on of meat food products at all stages of preparation is not secured by the passage of legis lation recommended I 1 shall feel corn belled to order that inspection labels and certificates on canned products shall not be used hereafter the report shows that the stock yards and packing houses are not kept even reasonably clean and that the method of handling and preparing food products is uncleanly and dan berous to dealta under existing law the national government has no power to enforce inspection of the many forms of prepared meat food products that are daily going from the packing houses into interstate commerce ow ing to an inadequate appropriation the department of agriculture is not even able to place inspectors in all establishments desiring that the present law prohibits the shipment of meat to fore agn coun tries but there is no provision forbid ding the shipment of meats in interstate commerce and thus tb avenues of interstate corn merce are left open to traffic in dis eased or spoiled meats if as has been alleged on seemingly good au further evils exist such as the improper use of chemicals and dyes the government lacks power to rem edy them A law is needed which will enable the inspectors of the general government to inspect and supervise from the hoot to the can the alon of meat food products the evil seems to be much less in the sale of dressed carcasses than in the sale of canned and other prepared products and very much less as regards prod acts sent abroad than as regards those used at home in my judgment the expenses of the inspection should 1 e paid by a fee levied on each animal sla ight ered if this is not done the whole purpose of the law can at any time be defeated through an insufficient appropriation and whenever there was no particular interest in the s abject it would not be only easy but natural thus to make the appropriation insufficient if it were not for this consideration I 1 should favor the government paying for the inspection the alarm expressed in certain quarters concern ng this feature should be allayed by a realization of the fact that in no case under such a law will the cost of inspection exceed 8 cents head I 1 call spec al on to the fact that this report is preliminary and that the investigation is still shed it is not yet poss ble to report en the alleged ab aises n the use of beleter ce leter is cl em cal compounds in connect on with canning and preserve ing meat products nor on the alleged doctoring in th s fashion of tainted meat and of products returned to the packers as having grown or unusable from age or from other rea sons grave allegations are made in reference to abuses of this nature let me repeat that under the pres ent law there practically is no method of stopp ng tl ese ab aises if they should be discovered to exist leg sla t on is needed in order to prevent the poss b 1 ty of all abuses in the future if no leg is passed then the excellent results accomplished by the work of this special committee will en dure only so long as the memory ol 01 the comm atee s work is fresh and re of the abuses is absolute 1 certain I 1 agre the immediate enactment into law of provisions which will en able the department of adequately to inspect the meat ana meat food products entering into in tei state commerce and to supervise the methods of preparing the same and to prescribe the sanitary condl t ons under wl ch the v ork shall be performed I 1 therefore commend to your favorable cons de ration and urge the enactment of substantially the provis ons 1 as senate amend ment no 29 to the act making ampro privations for the department of agn culture for the fiscal year ending june 30 1907 as passed by the senate this enactment being commonly known as he beveridge amendment THEODORE ROOSEVELT the white house anne 4 1906 |
