The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-03-01
The Cheap Food Problem.

The export of American meats to
England has been decided success.
Shops have been opened for the sale OF
American beef and mutton in London,
Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow,
where it is offered from twopence to
threepence pound less than the aver
| age prices of English meat The cattle
are killed here the night before the
steamer sails. The meat is artifcially
cooled, and then placed in Theoretically
sealed compartments of the vessel,
where the temperature is kept at 38 de-
grees by ice in adjoining rooms, be-
tween which the air is kept in circula-
ton through tubes by an engine. Thus
the meat reaches England in excellent
condition, and is rather improved by
the keeping. The good quality of the
meats and the lower prices at which
they are sold have already created some
thing of an enthusiasm, and arrange
ments are making to increase the ship
ment, Glasgow alone having bargained
for 200 carcasses week. There seems
every prospect that the export of meat
will become a large and profitable bust
ness. But the second act in the drama
has already begun. The English butch
er has no idea of sitting quietly by and
seeing American beef sold at eightpence
a pound when he is obliged to ask ten
pence and sometimes shilling for the
home-raised article that is no better.
The middleman is ON the stage, and ev-
cry body is familiar with the part he
inv a~io h1 nj
as well make the most of their advan-
tage, for it is short-lived.
Enterprising Engishman have been
here to ascertain by actual examination
whether this meat business can be con-
tinuously carried on and increased to
the maximum demand of the English
market. They have reported, through
the London Times and other journals,
that the pasturage in Canada and the
great States of the West is so extensive
and rich that the supply is literally
inexhaustible, and at a cost that
should reduce the English prices at
least % per cent. This is the natural
side of the picture. But the American
economist naturally inquiries why, if
cattle can be raised in Illinois and
Minnesota, brought to New Jersey,
slaughtered, and the meat shipped to
England so as to be sold at eightpence,
or threepence pound cheaper than
English beef, besides paying a profit
to the shippers, New York consumers
are obliged to pay from 20 to SO cents
pound for good beef to roast and
broil? This is the vital question in our
daily economy. Cheap production
does not help us particle. The best
butter can be bought in Vermont and
Northern New York for from 25 to 80
cents and here it is sold for As. Penn
sylvania farmers think themselves
fortunate to sell potatoes at so cents
barrel, but the New York laborer
pays 80 cents peck. The New JERSEY
fisherman is glad to sell his catch of
blue-fsh for % cents a pound, and the
New York householder is glad to buy
one of the fish three days after it is
caught for 16 cents pound. The Iowa
farmer gets rich by selling his wheat
and corn at one-fifth the retail price in
our market, and sometimes burns them
because they will not sell for enough to
pay for their transportation. And so
through the whole list of articles that
enter into the daily consumption of our
people; the exhaustless resources of the
country, the fertility of our prairies, the
increasing application of machinery to
agriculture and manufacturing and the
arts, which have so cheapened the cost
OF production that we can send our
meats and grain and fruit and even
cloths and shoes abroad to compete
successfully with foreign labor and CAP
ltal on their own ground, do not heip
the great body Of our people a whit.
And the English papers hint at the
secret of the difficulty in intimating that
their butchers are making an effort to
absorb the American meat business
The question has been asked how it is
that France can stand an annual tax of
S1OO, 100000 more than England.
and yet thrive under the burden. The
Spectator suggests that it is because the
French farmer and mechanic and
trader pay their taxes directly to the
Government, while the English farmers
pay their landlords, and the money
drops through two or three sets of
hands before it reaches the treasury
1t is the middleman again. He is
everywhere. He intercepts every pro-
duct OF the soil on its way to market
and trebles its price. He stops eyerv
article OF manufacture and doubles rs
cost to the consumer. He thrusts his
finger between the hand of the laborer
and the mouths of his children and
steals three-quarters of their food.
The practical question of modern civil
life Is how to get rid of this army of
middlemen which doubles and in some
cases quadruples the cost of the great
StaOles of life m tho oopo,r,a-, a.