The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-07-04

talking with you boys. I'll say some
thing and you'll go to work and twist 1t
all around SO that can't recognize II
when see it in next mornings paper.
IT'S Just the same from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. You're nuisance don't mean
PERSONAL---VERY. you interview
ers generally. There's subject-take
seat and make yourself comfortable
there's subject that I'll give my opinion
on if you want it. This interviewing
business has got to become worse evil
than the pest-the cholera or the small
pox-why they are nowhere. It's the
dread of every public man in Washing
ton" "Then you won't even tell me
about" "No; I'm out of public life
now, and my opinions are worth no
more than anybody else's. 1fyou want
to print an interview, just go and cut out
a few pages out of your catechism and
print them. They'll answer the purpose
Just as we'll as any questions and an
swers between you and me-just exactly
as well-and he good deal more inter-
esting."
Mr.. T. L. Eastman, the cattle king Of
New York, lately made an extended and
highly interesting statement of the rea-
sons why the high price of beef continues
In the first place he says 1t is idle to talk
of combinations in the beef business, for
the reason that competition Is SO active
that no combination could be made to
hold a week. The New York cattle
market is at present supplied chiefly
from Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and
Kansas. Texas cattle are not heavy
enough, and are generally made up into
dressed@nd canned beef in st. Loilis and
Chicago. In answering the question,
Who makes the money? Mr.. Eastman
gives an interesting history of what
might be called The Steers Progress,
from the farm to the shambles. At four
cents pound 1,O0O-pound steer cost
originally SAB, ate $40 worth Of corn, cost
81 80 to get him to market, and fifty cents
commission on his sale when he weighed
800, and brought the price of six cents
per pound. his cost, therefore, was 800,
and he sold for exactly 500 TO the drover
in Chicago By the time the steer is in
New York he has cost S96.4O. If the
drover sells him for 1Oa cents per pound
"York quarters" TO "dress IS, he realizes
5000, or less than the actual cost; or if
he happens to get twelve cents he makes
a profit of $40. The wholesale slaugh-
terer, getting the steer for $50, saves
about $3.50 by the value of unreclaimed
offal and therefore actually pays little
over nine cents a pound for the $40
pounds. He sells to the butcher at from
nine to nine and one-half cents, thus
leaving pretty small margin of rofit.
From this statement it would seem that
the retailers are the only ones who make
anything like profitable margin. The
public would would he interested to know
how and where the numerous wealthy
cattle dealers and "kings" have been able
to pile up such fortunes.
The wooden mills of New England are
shutting down. This is due to general
stagnation in the trade, one of the feat
ures of which is that the manufactured
product is selling for about as much as
the raw material. Foreign importations
have been unusually active, and under
the new tariff will rather increase than
fall off. Thus, with an overstocked
market and no greater supplies of fleeces
the mills must either keep their cards
running. at loss or shut down, A New
England contemporary has direct in
formation from $50 of the 500 wooden
mile in New England, which is to the
effect that they are running on less than
two-thirds of their average capacity, and
759 sets of cards out Of a total number of
2,122 have been shut down. These sets
of idle cards are capable of consuming
100000 pounds Of wool month, which
is about half the total consumption of all
the mills in the United States. The sit
uation seems at first sight to call for a
protection of the American wooden man
ufacturer. But it is question whether
it is possible to protect him. The Eng
fish manufacturer is making cloth in the
face of full market. He, too, must find
relief. No imposition of duty which the
American consumer would submit to
would serve to keep foreign cloths out of
our market. The real case is that there
are not enough people to wear out the
goods the mills are able to make. The
real solution is Just what is happening
the shutting down of the mills.