Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-11-25
OUR MEAT MARKET.
Interesting Interview on the sub
jet of Meat and Monopoly.


jtct of Meat and Monopoly
"What have you got to say about tn
9 facts elected by the Senate Committe
:. with reference to the great Armour mea
> and cattle monopoly? ?" was the quer
put by a representative of the HERAL
to one of our leading butchers yesterday
"Well, l have this to say" was tn
response. "The HERALD is dead righ
in its comments this morning. Th
Chicago monopoly have raised the pric'
, OF meat to consumers and reduced th'
price of cattle to stockmen, thus feather
have captured all the large cities East
and intend to make bold break for the
trade of Los Angeles
Gas they seem to have captured every
town they have gone after" said the
HERALD man, whats to prevent them
from getting away with Los Angeles ?''
There are two very important factors
here. One is the fact that their frozen
meat, when exposed to our dry atmos.
phere here, soon commences to drip, be-
come flabby and unsaleable. The other
is in the fact that the wholesale
slaughterers and the retail butchers have
a we'll organized Union which works adj
mirably. The wholesalers go on the
principle of live and let live, and sell
their meats reasonable to the retailers,
who in turn deal it out to the consumers
at much lower price than the retailers
in the large cities East can sell it. Here
the wholesalers sell dressed carcass at
the rate of six cents pound. Where
the monopoly is supreme, the Armour
crowd raise the wholesale price to
10 and II cents a pound. What is the
consequence? In Los Angeles you get
choice steaks for Is, Is and 20 cents a
pound in New York, Chicago, st. Louis,
etc., the price for prime cuts ranges from
70 to 30 cents pound"
You say the frozen meats of the COM
bine will not keep here: how do you
know this to be fact?"
swell, the Armour crowd have already
tried to get into this city. A year ago
they opened a stall in the Mott Market,
and they lost great quantities of meat
through dripping and deterioration as
soon as it was exposed to Our dry at
mosphere."
If they make set effort, will your
Union hOld COgeGher!"
81 think it will. They had man here
few days ago who said they were going
to make break for this market, and
sounded some of the retail butchers.
But none OF them would listen to him.
We have one strong point in the fact
that every retailer has to keep in his
stall veal, mutton and pork. The Ar
mour fellows don't and can't furnish all
of these small animal meats, and the
retailer must have them to do business.
Consequently, if he takes the monopoly
fore and hind quarters, the Union will
shut down on him, and he can't help
himself. The retailers must buy all their
meats from the wholesalers or they will
get none."
How do the Armour crowd 60 to work
to capture town."
"Well, they first of all go to the butch
ers and propose to sell them meat at a
lower price than they can buy it for from
the local slaughterers. If they refuse,
then the monopoly starts shops and un-
dersells them. They must either close
or come to terms. At first they will sell
fine stall-fed meats for or 3 cents
pound; then, when they have driven out
competition, they raise the price to 10 or
] 2 cents, and furnish just such meat as
they choose"
"What do you now pay for carcass ?"
GA good carcass will rate at eco
pounds. That will cost us 1886. In retail
ing this out we gather in about $50, as
follows; Say so pounds prime cuts,
averaging Is cents per pound, SO; 100
pounds corned, at cents, So; 100 pounds
ribs and neck, at cents, So; 100 pounds
soup bones, at cents, 81; 200 pounds
ordinary meat, at 10 cents, $40; and so
pounds refuse. waste, ETC., say IS. Now
you will see from these figures that the
retail butchers ale furnishing meat at
nothing more than fair profit. They
pay $36 for beef and they get $51 for it
when cut up and sold. The wholesalers
pay all the way from SIS TO $1S for ca tie
on the hoof at the ranges, and when the
cost OF transportation, the shrinkage and
the feeding up here before they slaughter
them is considered, neither do they
make more than a fair profit. Now, if
we can keep the butchering business in
the condition it now is, the consumers
will be benefited and the business, which
is very important employing bus; ness,
will continue on fair basis"
"How many retail dealers are in busi-
ness in this city?"
"We have eighty-fve shops and stalls,
all doing good, living business. They
employ on an average from three to five
men each. The number of retail shops
seems large for city like this, but you
must remember that Californians con-
sumo more meat per capita than the
people of any other State in the Union,
if we except Texas. The fact is we are
great beef-eaters, and on that score any
Of us would be qualified to position in
that celebrated household corps which
has been the pride of British sovereigns
from the time of William the Con-
queror."
"Beg your PARDON" interjected the
learned pencil-pusher; "you have fallen
into very common error in calling the
royal household troops of England beef.
eaters 1t is corruption of the French
term 'boufetiers, from which comes the
English word buffet and means thai
these guards can stand knocks"
"Well, that's it. It's all the same, fol
those fellows can stand an or. or ir
other words get away with an OK
, when cooked. So you see that beef
eaters is very proper name for them. >
"The explanation is apt, and accep
. your apology. But do you look seriously
, for trouble with the Chicago fellows?"
f, "Of course, l expect we will have 6
fight with the Armour combination, bu
the way things look now, think we will
1 4 4 L