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Show ! FEDERAL MtAT INSPECTION APPLIES (MY TO PLANTS WHOSE PRODUCTS CROSS STATES m vz" 4 1 A 1 -h i $ fit A Slaugnterhouse With a Federal Inspector (X) in Charge. (Prepared by the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) John Brown-Jones is queer. Want proof? Well, he planted a fine field of corn, but it was unfenced and all of the neighbors' stock had free access to it. Brown-Jones turned in and built a woven-wire fence around that field, horse high, bull strong and pig tight. But and here is the proof of his queerness he left a ten-foot gap with no sort of fence across it at all. The cows and horses pushed at that fence and the hogs nosed around it without result for t few days. Then, as anybody mig-ht have known, they found the gap and the Brown-Jones Brown-Jones corn "went flooy." Queer isn't the name for it, you say? Certainly not. The fellow was a full-fledged fool only there wasn't any such fellow. That story is a sort of parable written to illustrate what the people of the United States are doing every day with regard to the meat they eat. Against diseased and unwholesome meat they have built the fence, high and strong and close woven, but they have left a hig open gap through which any kind of disease dis-ease or uncleanness may enter the home and play havoc. What FeS eral Inspection Is. Take your own town, for instance. About 75 per cent of the beef eaten in your town has the stamp of purity placed on it by the United States department de-partment of agriculture. You know it is clean and that the animal from tvhieh it was taken was sound and tealthy. When the steer went to the federal meat inspection is concerned, he can do as lie pleases kill diseased cattle if he wants to, and allow his plant to be as filthy as suits his idea of convenieuce. Federal meat inspection inspec-tion applies only to plants whose products prod-ucts cross state linets plants that slaughter in one state and sell some part of their products in other states. Taking it the country over, about 25 per cent of the beef consumed comes from plants that sell wholly within the state where they are located and that, therefore, cannot be reached by the inspectors of the United States department of agriculture. And as long as there is 25 per cent or 1 per cent or uninspected meat offered for sale in your town, you cannot feel certain cer-tain that the meat your children eat is disease-free and wholesome. How About Your Town. What is to be done about it, ou say? Well, go see what is being done about it. The state might correct it by the right sort of meat inspection law, or the town might do it by the right sort of meat inspection ordinance ordi-nance properly enforced. Do you know whether your town does that or not? Among the cities of 5,000 or more population, less than one-third maintain main-tain any kind of meat inspection. Some of that one-third have a service serv-ice called meat inspection that does not amount to inspection at all. Just to illustrate: The United States department of agriculture, not long ago, sent out a questionnaire to mayors concerning municipal meat inspection. Here are two questions and the gist of the answers an-swers received from one city official : Question "Does your city maintain municipal meat inspection?" Answer "You bet your life this city maintains municipal meat inspection." Question "By whom is the inspection inspec-tion performed?" Answer "By the city plumbing Inspector." In-spector." Just for your own satisfaction, you might see what kind of meat inspection, inspec-tion, if any, your town has. Then, if it has none, or if it has not the right kind, it would be to your interest to see what can be done about it. A Mother's Three Reasons. A woman recently appeared before the city council of San Diego, Cal., and asked to be heard on the matter of local meat regulations. She told the council there were three reasons why she wanted to see nothing but government inspected meat in San Diego. Then she introduced her three children to the council. She explained that Uncle Sam demands federal Inspected In-spected meat for his soldiers and sailors, and that her children are just as important to her as Uncle Sam's are to him. If there are not any reasons running run-ning around your house, all you have to do is to look over into your neighbor's neigh-bor's yard. Or he sensibly selfish and think about your own welfare. 1st i w li- '&&T If! A Slaughterhouse Where Inspection Is Not Maintained. pen, ready '"or slaughter, he was thoroughly thor-oughly inspected by a veterinarian of the bureau of animal industry. If there had been anything wrong with him, or even a suspicion of anything wrong with him, slaughtering him for meat purposes would have been prohibited. pro-hibited. But he was sound, apparently, apparent-ly, and was killed for beef. But that did not end the inquiry. After the steer was slaughtered, another inspec for very carefully examined the carcass, car-cass, the lungs, the heart, the liver. Still another department of agriculture agricul-ture inspector watched the canning of such portions of the carcass as went into cans. And other inspectors of the department looked after the packing plant as a whole saw that sanitary rules were observed, that the water supply was pure, that the workmen had facilities for keeping themselves clean, that the tallies and other equipment equip-ment did not become foul, that every process was carried out with due regard to cleanliness. That system of Inspection, you say, ?ught to insure the purity of the meat supply? Not at all. It does insure purity of the meat inspected, but fed-?ral fed-?ral inspection cannot be extended to ill meat; it does not go all the way. Government Cannot Interfere. The United States department of igriculture, being a federal agency tnd operating iftider federal laws, can-ot can-ot interfere in purely state affairs. Suppose there is a packer or butcher n your town as there probably is vbo sells his beef and other products ntirely witlpn your state. So far as |
