Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-10-19
THE REVOLUTION IN THE BEEF
BUSINESS.

The new departure in the mode of
shipping beef from the West to the
East, is one of those sudden revolutions
in business which create surprise, first
49, sN---A----Ii-- . A. ----------I
then that the revolution did not come
sooner.
Four of the principal butchers of New
York have jumped abreast of the tidal
wave and determined to transfer their
slaughter-houses to Chicago aud ship
their meat dressed instead of on the
hoof.
But the disturbance in this great bus
iness which the inauguration of the
new plan creates, is by no means insig-
nificant, and the opposition to it may
not be expected to subside without a
struggle. The slsughtering business in
New York is immense, and the number
of cattle killed there every week varies
from ten to fifteen thousand. The value
Of the offal of one weeks slaughter is
about 5000, the material entefing in
to variety. of business, all of which
must suffer if the Strengthening is trans
ferred to the West.
But the indignation of the butchers
and the protests from other trades does
not serve to check the business. When
consumers find that they can get
superior quality of beef at several cents
a pound cheaper than the average home
market price, they won't turn their
backs on it. They keep on buying the
"frozen meat" from the West, the West
continues to send it to them, and the
sales are steadily increasing in all the
eastern cities.
A Chicago paper, the Journal, says:
at looks just now as if the great
trunk lines of railroad aud the butchers
in the Eastern cities would have to
succumb to the inevitable. and allow
the Chicago fresh-beef shippers to go
on supplying the market with cheap
and wholesome meat. There are q good
many reasons why this Chicago enter
prise is bound to win its way to popular
favor. Among these reasons nay be
stated, first, that it supplies the con-
sumers in all the large Eastern cities
with an indispensable article of food at
a much lower cost than formerly; sec
ondly, the animals slaughtered in Chi
cagO escape the bruising, torture. fever
and shrinkage Of thousand miles of
travel by rail, and are cousequ Antly
more fit for food than after they have
made the trip and are butchered in New
York; and, thirdly, the humanitarian
view of the case is ssufflcient argument
to secure the adoption Of the Chicago
plan.
All the reasons will have due weight
in theeourse of time, and the laws of
trade and competition will decide the
rest. The New York consumer will gO
in for free trade Ia good beef. especially
when he remembers that all last winter
and spring he was made to pay his
butcher one half or one-third more for
beef than it could have been afforded to
him at fair profit. Many poor fsmj-
lies were driven to the necessity of
adopting the vegetarian diet because
they could not afford to pay the BUTCH
er's exhorbitant rates.
Fnm the standpoint of humanity, or
ofmercy towards the brute creation,
the new departure has merits which
will not fail to Commend it to the mem
bers Ofthe Humane Society. Next TO
the horrors Of the middle passage of an
African slave ship, plying between the
coast of Guinea and New Orleans fifty
years ago. Is the cruelty practiced 10
transporting live stock by rail, aud il
calls for the loudest oenunciation.
Such transportation Is often carried on
in 8 manner so brutal that its mere re-
ciIal Is enough to shock the feelings and
arouse the indignation Of every sensi-
tive person, and any method that helps
to mitigate its evils ought to meet with