The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-04-18
THE BEEF SUPPLY.

THE BEEF SUPPLY.
We note departure from an earlier
disposition ON the part of some easily
overheated contemporaries to attribute
the rise in the price Of beef to some sort
of trust which was supposed to have
cornered the cattle and to be holding on
to them for speculative purposes and to
skin the public.
We have never been convinced, despite
the argument, that any 'big four" or
other kind of combination, had so COB
bled the beef to make pile of money at
the sacrifice of the public's interest We
have never had much faith in the virtue
of the ready disposition to howl about
trusts and corporate greed and all that
sort of thing, which sentiments are re-
fiected, from the Populist quarter. in so
many worthy people. While we are
ready to admit that trust, syndicate,
pool, or simple corporation may, Oh
occasion, indulge greedy impulse at the
public expense, such schemes
are bound to be only spasmodic
and must inevitably succumb
TO the inexorable laws of supply and
demand. 1t costs more than it can ever
return to undertake to squeeze nation
of sixty millions of people, aud corners
and syndicates that attempt il sooner or
later fail and collapse. Nothing is
more impracticable than imposition of
serious kind in business. The attempt
to impose always involves risk dispro-
portionate to the possible gains, and no
philanthropc or moral motives are
needed to restrain the tendency.
AS to this beef business, beef is un-
doubtedly high. Other meats are not,
however, and if we are not confirmed
beef eaters we can get along very well
without beef. We know that the rise
IL the price of beef has hurt the business
of the retailer for we Americans
want the kind of beef that costs the
most money and If we can't afford to
buy that kind we don't want any. That
is habit. Aud if we fail to bIy, the
retailer is the first sufferer. We have
no doubt that many small marketmen
all over the country are in grave danger
of being driven out of business by the
rise in beef.
But we don't believe that the rise in
price is due to any corner. Cattle can't
be cornered as wheat or corn can be-
The visible supply OF the latter may be
stored up and SO long as it is not kept
long enough to rot or suffers no acciden-
tai injury. as by fire or water, it may be
held on to--with consequent loss to
traders though without much annoy
ance to the consumers The re-
suit of any such attempt
to corner cattle, however, would
likely enough prove disastrous, as it has
in the past. since the cattle would eat
their heads off Live beef is not profit
earning commodity, especially when
corn is as high and scarce as it is now-a-
days.
Besides, why talk about big fours and
combinations and all that sort Of thing
1
about If one is rattle-headed and de-
lights TO bay at the moon--when natural
causes for the rise in beef are so plainly
sufficient? There is no question at all
that cattle are really scarce on the
ranches. The production is short and
there is no help for IL. There has been
little enough profit to the cattle raisers
the past few years aud it is no wonder
that ranches have been abandoned or
plowed. The price of cora is high and
that makes cattle feeding expensive and
invites corn raising instead. Thus far
this year 20 per cent. less cattle
have been received from the West
than in the same period last year.
The shortage in the supply OF cattle at
Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha and st.
Louis. the principal Western markets,
thus far this year, amounts to nearly
270,o0O head compared with one year
ago.
The shortage in pounds of dressed
beef since the first OF the year aggre-
gstes i75.oOO.Ooo pounds. Al 'be same