142 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



house. All meat must be slaughtered in the public 

 abattoir. There are no private packing monopolies. 

 Private slaughtering is not permitted. All anhnals in- 

 tended for food purposes are slaughtered under the 

 strictest police and veterinary surveillance. The 

 whole subject is covered by a special code of rules 

 which went into effect in 1903. The farmers bring 

 in their cattle to the nearest town; they are there 

 examined by skilled veterinaries who are specially 

 trained and examined for that calling. The most 

 humane methods of killing have been adopted, while 

 the sanitary rules are very stringent. And instead 

 of the slaughtering of meat being concentrated in 

 a few cities, as it is in this country, and under the 

 control of five or six great companies organized as 

 a trust, there were in 1914 over 1,000 public slaugh- 

 ter-houses of which at least 100 had stock-yards in 

 connection with them. This was in a country about 

 the size of Texas and with two-thirds of our popula- 

 tion. These abattoirs are elaborate and costly in- 

 stitutions. Many new ones have been built in 

 recent years. They are constructed of concrete or 

 brick, are designed with great care, and some of 

 them are almost as artistically planned as a garden 

 village. They are as clean and wholesome as con- 

 stant flushings can make them. The cities take 

 pride in their slaughter-houses as they do in their 

 schools or other public structures. In a report on 

 the municipal markets and slaughter-houses in Eu- 



