The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-24
Weekly Review By Norval For
the Herald.
"QUIET AND STEADY. ]"
THE PRICES IN LONDON SHOW A
GOOD ADVANCE
Kansas City as a Market For Stock
and Feeding Cattle--HoGs in
Light Supply-What the Local
Buyers Are Doing.


I mands both by exporters and local
killers. Prices in London have advanc-
ed to the usual rates over there 100
liz cents net weight. Six weeks ago
the best quotation on prime Ameri-
can beef was 712@S cents. This ad-
vance is very gratifying to cur feeders
and exporters. 1t also shows that the
foreign buyers are paying less atten-
ton to our political fight than we are
here at home and we think much of
this cry of no money to buy cattle with
is the old chestnut used to scare the
grower into turning at a. loss his stuff
at prices dictated by the SPECTATORS
Take any of. the live stock markets now
and the dealers all claim that it is i'm
possible to secure sufficient money to
carry on their business, but whenever
any stock is offered at prices to suit,
the purse string loosens and the neces-
Sary denaro is forthcoming. Apparent
ly as easy as a decision from Billy Rid
when umpiring a baseball game.
We all know that as long as people
live. meat will be eaten and no party
can so demoralize trade in this pros
porous, producing country as to abso-
lutely destroy the commerce and trade
already built up With the rest of the
world. We have quality and quantity
nowhere else under the sun to be
found, with facilities for handling SUI
perior to any nation on earth. We have
| nothing to fear but The fanatical whims
of our own people. Notwithstanding
the contemplated stringent foreign leg
islation against our meat products, July
and August witnessed the heaviest
trading ever known and prices stiffened
all the time. At the recent meeting of
the Recall Butchers union in Denver
the boycott on the Armour Packing
company's products was urged, but
the Old man" continues to buy as
heavily as if nothing had happened. So
large and diversified has his trade
grown that boycott at home cuts but
but little figure in his trade.
Last week he was a heavy exporter
of big hogs to Mexico, a new depar-
ture for him.
The object of the liberal amendment
to the cattle-disease bill in the house
Of lords seems to have been to give
Lord Rosebery an opportunity of fling
ing the "ill-omened' word protection
in the faces of ministers. Lord Rose
berry is so desperately afraid of this
term thai he can not even bear that
it should be mentioned in connection
with measure for guarding our
AOChS anu neTQS n. FRO
lection in such a wicked word that it
must be ruled out of the dictionary.
Lord Rosebery and his friends will
discover in due course that the word
is not so odiouS in the ears of English
men as he imagineS. Why should it
be? Protection is the first duty of
government-to protect our shores
against invaders, to protect our lives
and property against criminals, to pro-
tect our bodies from disease, and our
workmen from unfair and undue COM
petition. What form the process should
take-whether penalty to punish adul-
terators, or a tax to keep out the COM
petition of pauper labor, or a law to
check the importation of infected cat
tle-is a question to be decided in each
case on its merits. But protection
generally is the aim and object of all
good administration. The term is one
to glory in, not to run away from, as
Lord Rosebery sNpposes it must neces-
Sarily be.
The value of Kansas City to western
stock men as a market for stock and
feeding cattle can hardly be overesti-
mated, while to the feeder it offers
the advantages of accessibility and of
giving him the greatest variety of stock
from which to make his selections
Many western people have the impress
sion that in shipping to Kansas City
their stock comes in direct competition
with the cheaper grades of southern
cattle, which is not the fact. Under the
government regulations, no cattle orig
mating below the quarantine line,
which is the southern boundary of Kan
sas, can be transported north during
the spring, summer and fall months
except for immediate slaughter. Buy
ers of southern cattle purchase them
to supply certain lines of trade, which
does not compete with the native and
western beef.
The enormous trade at Kansas City
last year, amounting to nearly 400, 900
head, which went to the feed lot of
Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and
Illinois, is equal to the combined bust
ness of Chicago and Omaha, and places
this market easily at the head of any
stock
The facilities found at Kansas City
to the farmer and feeder in the way of
financial assistance and transportation
is unequalled by either of the other
markets. The business there is done
on a strictly reliable basis, under the
auspices of the live stock exchange in
the country. which affords protection
alike to seller and buyer. Under these
circumstances buyers patronizing this
market can feel assured that they are
! getting stock at its true market value,
and are not liable to suffer from the
receptions praeticed at other points.
FEEDER SHIPMENT IN 1895.
From Chicago .-.................1 lie, 900 head
From Omaha OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 500 head
Total NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. .4OS 500 head
From Kansas City.............. 1892 262 head
From Kansas Cfty....49 per cent of total
HOGS IN LIGHT SUPPLY.
Western packers have killed 10000
hogs the past week, compared with
10000 the preceding week, and $4,000
for the corresponding time last year
making a total of 6,725,000 since March
1, against 5,5S0,000 a year ago-an in
crease of 1,145,00 The supply has
! been ample for the calls of packers,
under the existing position of prices
! Several of the prominent western con-
Germs are now closed. and not likely to
renew operations until there is more
| inducement than now can be found.
The trade continues to be surround
! ed with q variety of elements calculated
to interfere with an important shaping
/ of prices upward. The offerings of hogs
! have somewhat exceeded the expecta-
/ tons, and there being fewer buyers
prices naturally have become weaker
under the lessened competition.
! AS in other channels the speculative
feature of the market is sheld in check
/ by the monetary situation, which IS
4 becoming more and more an element OF
restriction to business operations
/ There is q fair current Distribution Of