Did meatpacking companies publicly fight back against Chicago's 1906 Beef Trust accusation, and how?
Research question: Did the meatpacking industry or its trade associations publicly rebut Chicago Health Commissioner Whalen's Beef Trust accusation in the 1906 press, and how did those rebuttals compare in tone and evidence with the health-department claims?
The records show that on June 4, 1906, eight Chicago meatpacking establishments issued a joint statement rejecting the Neill and Reynolds report and President Roosevelt's message 2. In it, the packers asserted their plants were kept clean and their manufacturing methods sanitary, while conceding they would adopt practical suggestions for improvement 34. A secondary account adds that meatpackers argued the criticism and destruction of their trade was not their doing and was unjust, and that they had incurred enormous expenses 7. On the health-department side, Whalen responded to the President's message by ordering a sanitary inspection of the stockyards 5, and on May 31, 1906, he had recommended allowing sale of meat from infected cattle if the infected portions were cut out 6. The facts do not include the wording of Whalen's Beef Trust accusation or the evidence behind it, so the comparison of tone and evidence is only partial 56.
Sources
"Mayer led the defense of the "Beef Trust" in Swift and Company v. United States in the Supreme Court of the United States ."Levy Mayer
"Eight meat packing estab establishments - lishments establishments of Chicago issued to-night a joint statement, replying to the charges made in the Neill and Reynolds report"Image 1 of New-York tribune (New York [N.Y.]), June 5, 1906
"the packers declare that their plants are kept clean, their methods. of manufacture are sanitary."Image 1 of New-York tribune (New York [N.Y.]), June 5, 1906
"We know our methods are good, but we stand ready to adopt any practical suggestion in the line of improvement."Image 1 of New-York tribune (New York [N.Y.]), June 5, 1906
"Commissioner Whalen, of the Health Department, announced to-day that he would order at once a sanitary ingnection of the stockvards."Image 1 of New-York tribune (New York [N.Y.]), June 5, 1906
"Whalen recommended recently that the city allow the sale of meat from cattle pro provided - vided provided that Infected portions were cut out."Image 1 of The Spokane press (Spokane, Wash.), May 31, 1906
"The present criticism and the present destruction of our trade is not of our doing, and it is unjust and unfair.The packers have gone to an enormous expense."Jungle Redux: Meat Industry Reform in the Progressive Era and Contemporary Applications (2010)
"For years, reformers and consumers had resented the meat industry's high prices and illegal collusion, and some were concerned with potentially unhealthy ingredients."Jungle Redux: Meat Industry Reform in the Progressive Era and Contemporary Applications (2010)