Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-21
Few York Times, November Is.

From the New York Times, November Is.
The rise of the dressed beef business has dis
turbed some important ''vested interest" Mr..
Van has cars and railroads which the live
stock shippers have hitherto freely used to his
great profit. Mr.. Eastman has at great expense
equipped himself with stock yards where he is
accustomed to receive cattle from the west
for distribution among the local slaughterers.
These latter have the necessary slaughter
houses sledge hammers, butcher knives and
other 'plant" for transforming a live steer
into dressed beef These receivers. distributors
and slaughterers here have their correlative
buyers and shippers in Chicago. Until the
dressed Fl, beef specter rose these gen.
tlemeh were, so to speak, "well fixed" They
took their:ample toll of the abundant grist that
came to, their mill and the world looked fair
and bright to them. They were fat and COM
Portable. Some months ago certain Inbred
Chicago persons began to annoy them by an i'm
pertinent interference with their business
These upstairs were familiar with the nature
and composition Of fat oxen. They had OBJ
served that the hide, horns hoOfs and viscera
make up nearly One-half the weight of the live
animal. 1t occurred to them that if these inedi-
bic parts were left behind, the roasts and
steaks might be sent to the east at such a say
ing in freight money as would enable them to
| undersell all New York butchers to whom beef
was sent on the hoof. Putting their ideas in
correctly. They did undersell the New York
men.
This was discovery of such moment that we
may be pardoned for dwelling upon it for
moment on the attempt to trace out some of its
consequences. The idle man Of theories at once
declares the dressed beef business to be one of
the great reforms of the age, so clearly does It
commend itself to his Judgment. It's import
ance consists in the even distribution of its
benefits A man who invents steamship that
10 In al rlo 6ov ic Of
a benefactor Of his kind as he who takes three
cents pound off the price of beef for every
body eats beef, and not more than one-twentieth
of one per cent OF everybody crosses the ocean.
There Is really no reason on earth why the
beef-eaters of New York should be taxed for
| bringing hides and horns over Mr.. Vanderbt's
| roads all the way from Chicago. This is what
the musty professor OF political economy says
of the reform. But practical men also give it
their approval. To bring cattle here on the
hOOf makes bad beef The .wretched creatures
are bruised. starved, scared, heated in summer
and chilled in winter, until every tissue and
fluid of their system undergoes degenerative
change. and when they are slaughtered and
cut up here their flesh is not in proper condition
for the table Meat is kept in refrigerators
here. and it may just as well be Kept in refrig
orator cars.
That bad dressed beef has been sent from Chi
cagO to New York is no valid objection to the
plan, for it was bad when it started. The stock
yards there receive fever-stricken cattle indis-
criminately with others, and we may be certain
| that we have received very much more of it on
| the hoOf than we ever shall in the dressed FORM
The remedy for the evil is rigid inspection,
! and that is an entirely separate problem. What
ever effect the practice of shipping beef dressed
instead Of on the hOof may have upon the
quality Of the meat will unquestionably be on
the right side. There will thus be double
| gain. The consumer will be relieved of need
| less charges and he will get better beef.
| An incidental but important advantage
will be the removal of abattoirs from
| our river fronts and the abolition of rendering
establishments and bone boiling works. Neither
statutes nor swearing have ever given US any
relief from these abominable nuisances. They
will now go to Chicago, where they rather like
such things. We run no risk in saying that
they will go, for we assume that this question
is already settled. The laws Of trade, though
against some temporary opposition, will give
us the beef and Chicago the bones. The finest
grades of beef, notably the corn-fed steers Of
Illinois, Kentucky, Southern Ohio, and Western
Virginia, will still come to us on the hoof for
customers able and willing to pay the extra
expense Of careful transportation and of q few
days keeping here to allow recovery from
travel-fever. The beef Of the million win come
dressed.