United States Army beef scandal

In the months following the Spanish-American War, during a court of inquiry held to investigate problems in the U.S. Army's food quality, the army’s commanding general, Nelson Miles, made reference to "embalmed beef". Miles, a Civil War Union Army veteran, had had many years of experience with army provisions. During the Spanish-American War he recommended to Secretary of War Russell A. Alger that local cattle be purchased in Cuba and Puerto Rico for the army's use. This would have followed the army's traditional practice of providing fresh beef for itself. Despite his requests, the American government sent hundreds of tons of refrigerated and canned beef to the army from the mainland. In his testimony before the court of inquiry, Nelson referred to the refrigerated product as "embalmed beef", and provided the court with a letter from an army medical officer describing the product. " [M] uch of the beef I examined arriving on the transports from the United States ... [was] apparently preserved by injected chemicals to aid deficient cold storage", the medical officer wrote. "It looked well, but had an odor similar to that of a dead human body after being injected with preservatives, and it tasted when first cooked like decomposed boric acid ..."United States Senate, "Food Furnished to Troops in Cuba and Porto Rico", Pt. 3 Serial # 3872 (GPO 1900) pp. 1913-ff.]

As for the canned product, Miles reported, during the war he had received many complaints about its poor quality. His officers provided many striking descriptions of it. "The meat ... soon became putrid", wrote one colonel, "and in many of the cans was found in course of putrefaction when opened". An infantry major declared that "'Nasty' is the only term that will fitly describe its appearance. Its use produced diarrhea and dysentery." Still another officer noted that "It was often nauseating and unfit for use. It should no longer be issued."

Miles also made public statements, reported in the newspapers, claiming that the canned meat was the after-product of the process for making beef extract. "There was no life or nourishment in the meat", charged Miles. "It had been used to make beef extract, and after the juice was squeezed out of it the pulp was put back in the cans and labeled 'roast beef'." As for the embalmed beef, Miles stated "I have the affidavits of men who have seen the process of embalming beef ... treating it chemically for the purpose of preserving it"."The Army Meat Scandal," "New York Times", Feb. 21, 1899.]

While other officers, notably General Wesley Merritt, who had commanded an army corps in the Philippines during the war, denied having heard of any trouble with the meat supplies,"Merritt's 'Embalmed' Beef," "New York Times", Dec. 28, 1898.] Miles would not be silenced. Although there was no official finding of large-scale trouble with meat supplies, the newspapers stirred up public opinion on the subject. This contributed to the growing criticism of Secretary of War Alger's handling of the army during the war (a phenomenon known as "Algerism") and by the summer of 1899, President William McKinley decided that Alger had to go. On August 1st, Alger resigned at President McKinley's request.

The meat scandal, while resulting in no other immediate changes, may have contributed to later army commissary reform and perhaps, along with Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle", to the passage of the federal Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.

References

* "The Army Meat Scandal," "New York Times", Feb. 21, 1899.
* Laurie Winn Carlson, "Cattle: An Informal Social History" (Ivan R. Dee, 2002) pp.131-33.
* Edward F. Keuchel, "Chemicals and Meat: The Embalmed Beef Scandal of the Spanish-American War." "Bull. Hist. Med." 1974 Summer;48(2):249-64.
* "Merritt's 'Embalmed' Beef," "New York Times", Dec. 28, 1898.
* United States Senate, "Food Furnished to Troops in Cuba and Porto Rico", Pt. 3 Serial # 3872 (GPO 1900) pp. 1913-ff.