Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-30
WHEN WILL 1T END
The Absorbing of Small Dealers
 By The Trust Octopus.
BALLOT BOX IS THE REMEDY

Or People May Be Obliged to Go Back
 to Old Methods-To Compete With
 the Meat Trust It May Be Necessary
 to Turn New England Farms Into
 Cattle Pastures Will 1t Require al
 Revolution to Bring the Men Who
 Throttle the Will of the People to
 Their Senses?
 The meat trust and other combina- tlOns that threaten to put the price OF
 breadstuffs out of reach of people of
 moderate means is the principal topic heard about town these days and men who never before considered such & question worthy of serious consideras ton are talking about it now and wondering what can be done in the premises. While it is not likely that prices ever will be so high that ordinary mortals will not be able to secure enough to keep body and soul together, still the indications are such that un- less something happens, and pretty soon, too, which will upset the plans ' when working people will be taxed so heavily for what they put on their backs in the shape of wearing appearl and the bread they use to sustain life there will not be any opportunity to make provision for the time when they shall cease, to be sources of revenue. In other words it will take all they can earn to maintain them and they won't stand a ghost of a show of putting a dollar by for the rainy day.
 Almost every other man you meet has his own remedy for the evil, but the great trouble seems to be in the difficulty in getting enough to think alike to put up stiff fight against the system of government that is back of the whole business Some people will tell you that the only difference be- tween republicans and democrats in this respect is that the republicans arc shade worse than the other fellows and that's all. Probably there is some truth in the allegation, but leaving pol itics out of it doesn't it seem that people can do something to help them selves independently of the ballot box. We are assured that inside of q year the western Houses win regulate the price of every pound of meat sold in Waterbury and that those who don'E like their schedule of prices will have to go without meat of any kind. If this is true surely they have us in q bad box. but is it? Whats the matter with leaving the beef belonging to the trusts in their store houses and resort- ing to the system of furnishing meat in Waterbury and other places as was done twenty-five or thirty years ago when butchers bought cattle on the leg and dressed 1t themselves? Some may say this is substantially the same as suggested the relegatin9 to the rear of the steam cars and the bringing into use again of the stage coach. It is nothing of the kind. There are men doing business in Waterbury to-day who could give you as good steak quarter of a century ago as they can at the present time and it didn't come from the west. James Coughlan butchered as good cattle at his slaugh- ter house in Simonsville as ever enter ed the yards of the Swift brothers and had just as good meat in his market. and probably better when some of us were boys as he has at the present time. The same thing might be said of with reference to others who have been in the business for any great length of time. Ask Michael Guilfoile. the Pierpont brothers, simon. BohI ana others what they know about the meat business in Waterbury before we had any Chicago dressed beef and see what they will tell you.
 It is not likely that butchers would care to return to the old plan provided they were used right by the western but we have already seen enough to satisfy us that we arc up against desperate game and unless the people want to become easy vic- tins to these sharks they should be up and doing at the ballot box and in various other ways and see if they cannot give the trust run for it's money, anyway.
 For several years past half the farms in Connecticut have been neglected. simply because those who tried to make living on them found if to dispose of what they are best adapted to produce. while at the same time these sama things were being sent here from the west and put on the market at enor- nous prices. Butchers didn't care to buy live cattle because it was so handy to have it delivered at their places of business from one of the wholesale houses, and as a result it didn't pay farmers to raise cattle sU that after a few years neglect land that produced excellent grass yielded nothing better than brush and the sons and daughters of the sturdy farm CTS fled to the cities and commenced to pay handsomely for meat and oth- CT things, all of which were forced upon them by system which few saw the evil of until it became so op- pressive that everybody began to wilt under it. Now the people have their eyes opened and while it is rather late in the day to have awakened to the gravity of the situation, still it is bet ter to have noticed it now than later and if local butchers will but show M to do business on the old plan probably what looks like a great may turn out to be Blessing. If the farmers of Connecticut could be- assured of a profitable market at home for beef, pork, veal poultry and other things that enter into the cost of liv- ing, it might be the means of giving an impetus to farming which would benefit the tiller of the soil and also help those who look to the stores and factories for living. It would re- Iieye the congested condition in the la- Dor market and assist materially i'm solving the yeyed question now Wag-