United States Army beef scandal

[1] The contract was arranged hurriedly and at the lowest-possible cost by Secretary of War Russell A. Alger from the Chicago "big three" meatpacking corporations, Morris & Co, Swift & Co, and Armour & Co.

In the atmosphere of pre-regulation-era Chicago, the companies took advantage of Alger's inattention and favorable attitude to the industry (as well as the Army's immediate need for large amounts of cheap beef to provision the expeditionary forces) by further cutting corners and reducing quality on the (already heavily adulterated) product they shipped for the US contract.

The meat caused an unrecorded number of illnesses and death from dysentery and food poisoning, having an especially deadly effect on the thousands already weakened by the epidemics of malaria and yellow fever which were ravaging the unprotected American troops and would eventually kill twice as many men as combat with the Spanish.

"[M]uch of the beef I examined arriving on the transports from the United States ... [was] apparently preserved by injected chemicals to aid deficient refrigeration," the medical officer wrote.

"It looked well, but had an odor similar to that of a dead human body after being injected with formaldehyde, and it tasted when first cooked like decomposed boric acid ..."[4] As for the canned product, Miles reported, during the war he had received many complaints about its poor quality.

"[4] 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.

"[5] 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,[6] Miles refused to be silenced.