Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-21
ROUND.UPS.
live Stock Reflections Growing Out Of
the Fort Worth Convention.
Few Figures Showing the Profits in the
nrsssed Peef Business-PossibiIiries Of
stock Yards-Waifs From the Range

The Denver News is one of the few
daily papers in the West that takes 8
--oner view of the present condition OF
.bo livestock industry, and in comment
,,,, on the work of the cattle convention
a. Fort Worth, INDUCES in the following
,ons1bIe editorial remarks:
tsThe resolutions adopted by the inter-
s.ote cattle convention at Fort Worth are
y the main sensible and practical. Their
.sser .iol that the present reduced prices
,oid 10 producers is the result Of a skill
fnI manipulation of the market rather
man of over production, may call for
come comment. That the "Big Four
have had almost absolute control of the
market for at least FIVE years Is true;
bnt if is also true that they have
b.en assisted in this by the stock
men themselves. There have been
1,po markets towards which trains loaded
with range cattle have run-Kansas City
and Chicago. OYercrowded as these
markets have been, it has been very easy
for the "Big Four' 10 control them
The cattle growers have aided them by
rushing all their cattle to these points
and contributing TO the surplus, instead
of holding back their steers, and seeking
new outlets for their stock. A case in
Doipt was Instanced in these columns
the other day, when Utah and Mon
taua cattle growers shipped their cattle
IN Kansas City, and the beef which they
made was shipped back in dressed form
+, be sold and eaten in Salt Lake. The
growers who thus shipped cattle 140C
miles to find q market and to be slaugh-
tered were doubtless growing at the des-
potism of the "Big Four while the
local consumers were told as a reason
why their beefsteaks and loin roasts
were so high that the dressed quarters
had 10 be brought all the way from Kan
cas- City.
Now, in this instance, what was the
remedy? Plainly, the cattle growers OF
the Utah and Montana ranges could have
kept out of the clutches of the Big
Four to the extent of local consumption
BY combining among themselves, estab-
fishing a slaughter house and refTigera-
tors, and selling beef dressed TO the re-
tailers at the same or a trifle less rate
than they get it for from Kansas City
In so dong they would have saved the
transportation charges of $500 miles
shriukage, commissions and all attend
ant expensesio long and tlresome jour
ney. This in itself would have consti-
tuted handsome profit for themselves
TO say nothing of the beneficial effects ii
would have had on the overcrowded mar
kets of Kansas City and Chicago.
This is the principle at the bottom OF
the resolution which commends the new
refrigerator system of Texas by which it
is proposed to ship dressed beef direct by
way of New Orleans and Galveston to
Europe. Every steer thus slaughtered
and shipped relieves the general market,
AMI when there are enough such enter
prlses in Texas, and Colorado, and Utah
and Montana, not all engaged in the
foreign trade, but ali intent on widening
the market and reducing the surplus al
Chicago and Kansas City-then and not
till then will the power of the "Big
Four'' be broken and prices dictated, to
q larger extent, by the producer rather
than by the middle man, who robs both
producer and consumer and fattens of
their misfoTtules.
1t is by such action on the part Of cattle
growers that prices will be redeemed
Acts of congress will not accomplish it.
Range men must not put themselves in
the hands of the "BIg Four for 90
long as they do they sumpplY the means
by which that combination will con-
tinue to thrive -