The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-04-28
MONTANA AS A FIELD
Anaconda'S Mammoth Enterprises Lib
orally Patronizsd by Outsiders.
MEAT THAT IS GOOD TO EAT
Helena Jobbers Profit by Dealing
With Concerns Here-The M. D.
M. Company and T. M. g. s.
Co. Among the Pushers.

Anaconda has long made herself felt
IN the Northwestern world as a con-
sumers' market but as her chief pro-
duct, copper. has been sent to eastern
factories for manufacture, the city has
cut little figure as a producer. This Is
gradually changing and those who are
looking into the future to see a time
coming when Anaconda will be man.
ufacturing and business center of an
importance the extent OF which time
alone can reveal.
Indications of this have not been
lacking during the past year and are
made still more apparent by develop
ments Of the past few weeks.
All last summer a commission house
nearby towns, even into entering Butte
and taking orders in the territory of
their strongest competitors. By a
stroke of enterprise this same house
supplied several Idaho cities. sending
loads of provision by wagon train into
that country and returning laden with
the products of the ranches there which
found ready market in the city.
Several wholesale liquor establish
ments are doing good business and
three cigar factories are working con-
stantly, daily extending the bounds of
their trade. Only last week the Tuttle
Manufacturing and Supply company
facturers of mining machinery in the
United States and secured a most i'm
portant contract The amount involved
will be thousands of dollars and the
greatest part of the expense in labor
which will be of direct benefit to the
citizens of this city.
The latest evidence of the reaching
out of Anaconda comes from the meat
5obbers of Helena, who make a pitt
ful appeal for protection from the Mon
tana Dressed Meat company of this
city. which 1t seems has captured a
good business over there. The NJ. d.
M. Co. has two refrigerator cars built
expressly for them for the handling of
meat and are able to lay beef, pork |
mutton and veal in Helena at such |
prices that have opened the eyes of the |
retail butchers of that city. These |
rates are about IS cents per hundred |
less than they had been paying, so that |
they quickly took advantage of the |
quotations and are now buying in the |
cheapest market.
The Helena jobbers have raised the |
cry that the prices quoted are only |
temporary, and are made to establish /
q clientage. That when this is done |
and the Helena jobber driven from the |
field, the prices will be raised
Manager Gehrman of the local COM
pany, denies this statement and said
yesterday:
I'VE are not selling meat for less
than cost, that is, less than the cost |
to US; on the contrary, we are making
a profit on every pound sold that is
entirely satisfactory and remunerative
to us. That our quotations are less
than the cost to Helena jobbers I do
not doubt, because they are not so well
equipped for handling the cattle or the
meat. Their slaughter houses are of
the primitive old-fashioned sort, while
ours Is of the latest design and we
handle the beeves and pork in such a
way that nothing is lost. 1t is a tri-
umph of enterprise and later day meth
DDS simply and we do not expect to
raise our prices In Helena.
we snail extend our trade there as |
fast as possible and expect to go even
farther from home in establishing a
business that will have its headquart-
ers in Anaconda.
In the light of facts, the howl of the
Helena 5obber and the effort to brand
the competition of the Anaconda Meat
as unfair and illegitimate is
ridiculous In the extreme. We are not
In business for our health but to sell
meat at a profit, and that we can do
over any dealer in Helena and shall
continue to do, even in the face of a
heavy freight rate, which is the worst
obstacle that We have to overcome.
Is our home, but Montana is
our field, and no one has a better right
to claim a market IN Helena or else
where than We. so long as we meet the
conditions of trade"
BY way of further explanation, the
following Is reproduced from the Hele-
ma Herald of April %:
"A new rival in the Helena market
cooking for business is the Montana
Dressed Meat company OF Anaconda
Within the past few days the West Side
corporation has put in an appearance .
here and, at cut rates, bids for orders
rom the retail butchers. Helena has a
number of meat jobbers, the aggregate
II whose business is very considerable.
Is the 40 or more men employed is evil 4
ience. The margins of the Helena Job
,ers are narrow, the average being [
rom one-fourth cent to one-half cent
m all carcass sales of beef mutton and
'ther meats. The actual cost to local 4
wholesalers OF meats is only from 25 to
. cents a hundred less than the dress
a product Is sold and delivered to the :
etail dealers. Any fair and legitimate
ompetition is not objected to by Hell Z
ma Jobbers. Several of these were seen
" Herald representative to-day and {
ne and all answered that any square. .
onest rivalry was not Objectionable to =
hem. Their complaint is that fairness 4
) not practiced by the would-be COM
the Anaconda Meat COM :
any in trying to establish a clientage | -
ere is offering meats at cut rates from e
to SIS cents per hundred less than =
ost. OF course. IL this is the case, and
here is no reason to doubt the state
lent of the Helena jobbers-the pur-
ose would appear to be to uproot the
ocal dealers and, having once estab-
shed that, the Anaconda purveyors
rould so occupy the field as would
nable them TO reestablish prices and
i've them an opportunity TO recoup
heir losses and start in for profit-earn-
1g.
1T is learned that several of the Hell
ma retail butchers are now receiving
heir meat supplies from the Montana
Dmpany, and are getting the benefit of
oncessions which do not extend TO con-