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Show - A NEW BESP SCANDAIi. If JBcprescntative Fowler of Illinois can prove his charges, we are in for another packing scandal. Tho reveJa-tions reveJa-tions of lflOG, which reaultod from the publication of Upton Sinclair's novel 4 'The Junglo," are still nauseating to recall. Federal laws woro quickly passed to suppress tho evils which fr. Sinclair laid bare. Tho accusations of Mr. Fowler, therefore, will cause con-sidcrablo con-sidcrablo surprise and doubt. The American peoplo have felt that the federal laws were working very well and naturally they will bo aston-ishod aston-ishod to hear the grave charges made by Representative Fowler. According to tho story told by Mr. Fowler, he has had three disastrous ex-poriences ex-poriences with meat purchased in the last year. lie says: All my life I have- avoided meat H except that which was home slaugh- tcred and homo cured. Consequently, H unlike the average- American, my H system was not accustomed to tho H meat prepared by tho packcm and H was not Immune to the poisonous H preparations with which they are H treated. About a year ago after I B had brought my family here. (Wash- lngton) we decided to havo a nice cured ham for dinner. I bought the best one I could find In the market. After eating It. every member of my H family was taken 111. - At another l time I bought an alleged fresh Joint of meat, and again w were tnkan H ! , Still later I bought a tongue H Bandwlch In tho restaurant In tho House of Representatives, and it B made me ver 111. I attributed theao attneks to the fact that my system waa not used to dope. The one consolation the reader can have after reading these words is that ' his constitution has become inured to B the poisons that mado Mr. Fowler so von' ill. Fow of us are so fortunate that we can havo home-slanghtored and home-cured meat3. It is necessary. tJiorafora. that we innorulato ourselves with tho poisons and thereafter got along as well as wo can. Reprosontativo Fowler makes other charges. Ho adds: A long tlmo ago I was In the meat business and It was my exporlonco that tho longer meat Is kept, tho darker It gets. It Is different now. I nover know tho reason until I became acquainted with a man who had been in tho meat business In Indianapolis for covcrnl years. I asked him how he could explain the perfect appearance appear-ance of the meat which I saw hanging hang-ing In the windows and which 1 know could not bo fresh. He tald, "That'a easy; they treat It with chemicals." Ho explnlncd to mc how a man took a syringe filled with chemicals, tabbed It through the meat to the bono and squirted that hellish fluid Into it. That explains to me perfectly per-fectly why in every city I see hundreds hun-dreds and hundreds of children, growing grow-ing up with colorless faces and with arms nnd legs as thin as straws. It Is my opinion that nil tho meat that the American peoplo eat Is poisoned pois-oned with benzoato of soda or sulphites sul-phites and that tho peoplo who aro responsible for this are slowly taking tak-ing tho lives of millions. It is not cloar from Mr. Fowler's ro-marks ro-marks whether he is accusing the retail re-tail butchers or tho packers. If he is accusing the packers, tho public will bo constrained to inquiro whether tho numerous inspectors provided for by tho federal law nre doing their duty. If employees in the packing houses are injecting in-jecting poisonous preservatives into fresh beef wo Bhould hear of it from the government inspectors. If the "doping" takoB placo after the meat haa come into the hands of brokers or retailers, then it is not surprising that tho public has been kept in ignorance of this vicious practico. Tho accusations mado by Representative Representa-tive Fowler will revive the famous controversy con-troversy that ragod around bonzoate of soda. In the last fow years this controversy con-troversy has declined from a roar to a whisper, but evidently the last word haa not been said. It will bo recalled that the Romsen board, which was appointed ap-pointed by Prosidont Roosevelt, declared de-clared that benzoato of soda was harmless. harm-less. Dr. Wiloy, howovor, denounced the findings of tho Romsen board, and whilo ho was in the Agricultural department de-partment continued to insist that bonzoate bon-zoate of soda was a poison. The easy plea of the packers or of the retail butchers will be that benzoato of soda is not deleterious, but we may expect a lively fight on this issue. To what Mr. Fowler refers when he mentions sulphites as preservatives is not made clear in the dispatches. The principal chemical preservatives used in the curing of moats aro borax, borla acid and sulphite of soda. Br. "Wiley ,in his book entitled, "Foods and Their Adulteration," declares that "there are many other chemical preservatives which havo been employed, but those (borax, boric acid and sulphite of soda) are by far tho mo6t usoful, tho most certain and tho most widely employed. em-ployed. ' ' An investigation of the beef trust is probably on the cards. For about sevon years tho packers havo been immune im-mune from investigation, and tho public pub-lic will feel better satisfied if Representative Repre-sentative Fowler's charges are probed without delay. Investigation, however, should bo extended to tho brokers and retailers. It is ' not unlikely that tho laws which were aimed at tho packers aro inadequate to prevent abuses by those who haudlo tho moats after they have left tho hands of the packers. State laws are supposed to supply this deficiency, but whether they do or not is a question for which tho public probably will demand an answer. |