CHAPTER VII 



"the embalmed beef scandal" 



I OFTEN wonder, when I pick up a newspaper 

 and see glaring headlines featuring some new 

 investigation of the "big five packers," whether the 

 public realizes that It forms its opinions from the 

 accusations, and loses sight of any vindication which 

 may come later. "The embalmed beef" and "canned 

 roast beef" scandal which followed the close of the 

 Spanish-American War turned the industry upside 

 down as few things have done. Its long investiga- 

 tion filled columns of the daily press for months, 

 and yet few know that canned roast beef was re- 

 stored as one of the great staples in the United States 

 Army Commissary, and has been for twenty years. 

 Nor did the public gather from the investigation 

 that "embalmed" fresh beef was a myth in army 

 rations. 



For ten years before going with the Kansas City 

 Armours I was with a wholesale grocery house in 

 Leavenworth, Kans. The purchasing commissary for 

 furnishing supplies to frontier posts, at which the 

 bulk of United States troops were rationed, was at 

 Fort Leavenworth. The grocery firm was a large 

 contractor in commissary supplies. From my earliest 



[56] 



