The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1902-09-11
CATTLE DEALERS, FARMERS
AND STOCKRtN
Should Cooperate With the Butchers
Board OF Trade of San Francisco
TO Fight the Meat Trust.

Alive To the dangers of the situa.
tion which present themselves, now
that the Eastern beef trust has de-
signs upon the markets ON the Pacific
Coast, the San Francisco Butchers
Board OF Trade adopt resolutions to
aid the trade by refusing to buy any
of the meats which, after the inaug-
uration of business by the trust here,
will be shipped across the continent
by the carload.
The members of the Butchers
Board of Trade, numbering about 900,
have begun their fight against the
trust. Several years ago when the
trust sent refrigerated meat from the
East the butchers did not appeal to
the people in vain. Every attempt to
undersell meat dealers was frustrated :,
the residents preferring to pay from
. to cents pound more for Califor-
mia beef than for the Eastern article.
The fight was waged bitterly for a
long period, with the result that re-
frigerated meat such as the trust
managers sought to sell at unusually
low figures was withdrawn from the
trade, and local dealers we're privi-
legged to conduct their business with
out opposition from the great monop-
oily. But recently the vast plant of
the Western Meat Company at Baden,
which is owned by the Swift and Ar,
mour interests, the head and front of
the trust, has become active.
Secrecy Is luminous.
The secrecy with which the agents
of the Beef Trust are working is
deemed by dealers and packers to be
ominous. They realize that the sue
eessful termination of the negotia-
tions now pending for the acquisition
of the larger packing concerns and
livestock interests of California by
the larger raisers would place the
monopoly in control of the market
and practically wipe out the business
of hundreds of meat dealers who are
now carrying on a profitable trade.
Captain John II. McMenomy, presi-
dent of the Butchers Board of Trade
of San Francisco, in discussing the
situation yesterday, said:
81 have known for some time past
that the trust was operating with a
view toward securing control of the
local market All dealers know by
experience that If the trust secures
control they are out of it. That is to
say, none of them will be allowed to
do business except as agents for the
monopoly, handling trust beef and
paying such prices as the combine
may demand. 1t would be a public
calamity for the trust to get control
here, and the organization | repre-
sent will fight it tooth and nail. We
will win If we have the support of
the public and press.
Effect of Trust Rule.
IF the designs of the trust as re-
CARDS this market are successfully
carried out, every raiser of stock will
be at its mercy Farmers will be
forced to ship their stock to this mar
ket and accept such prices as the mo-
nopoly is willing to pay for it. The
farmer will be forced to sell at the
prices offered or suffer his stock to
die of old age on his hands. This Is
the case in the East, where the trust
is all powerful, the result being that
stock is sold by farmers for what it
will bring, while the trust sells it in
the form of beef at a stated price,
greatly at. variance with the price
paid the raiser. Owing TO the high
prices demanded the consumption of
meat decreased materially and beef
slaughtered for the trade was canned.
In this way hundreds of thousands of
cattle were needlessly slaughtered
and the meat is now being shipped
abroad in cans. -
The Trust will try to win and
money is no object. Therefore, ii
behooyes all farmers and stockmen to
take notice of the actions of the
Butchers Board of Trade of San
Francisco, and stockmen and Others
should not favor the Trust as
against-themselve