Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1902-04-26
HIGH NEAT PRICES,
COUNTRY AT LARGE is MAKING
VIGOROUS PROTESTS.
Charges Made that Com bine Is Fore
ing Extraordinary Rates-Big Pack
ers Deny This, and Give Scant Sup
plies as Cause of High Values.

The people throughout the country at
large are protesting against the high
price Of meats. Not only are packing
house products quoted at unprecedented
figures, but values continue to soar in
way that threatens to sweep the roast,
the steak and the chop from the dinner
tables of the majority Of Americans.
Beef, pork and mutton have been ad-
vancing almost daily at from Is to ii of
cent per pound each jump. Retailers
and consumers have been caught in the
slide % the upward price scale and their
complaints are loud and deep.
Many consumers have turned to a
vegetable diet; others have cut their daily
meat supply in two; small butchers and
retailers claim to have had their trade
reduced IS per cent.
good roast is costing the consumer
in Chicago II to 20 cents steaks average
from Is to % cents; hind quarter Of
lamb is quoted at Is cents; legs of NUT
ton, 1212 and 13 cents; leg Of veal 10
cents and pork loins II cents. Live
poultry is selling at 1912 cents, and live
turkeys at 8 to II cents. Eggs, alleged
to be controlled by the big packing
houses, are 15 to 16 cents per dozen; po-
tatoes, said to be under the same intlu-
ence, 73 to SS cents per bushel and APP
pies $3.50 per barrel. Even lard has
felt the general sharp advance in pro-
vision prices and is said to be trust dom
mated
While the country is undeniably in IN
extraordinarily prosperous condition so
far as employment of labor, skilled or un-
skilled, is concerned, wage advances have
not been SO high or so rapid proportion
ately as the jump in provision prices.
Explanations Doubted.
The explanations Of the packers that
the advances are legitimate and due to a
drought in the West and scarcity Of cat
tie have not received general credence,
and the charge is made, from New York
to San Francisco, that the provision
market is in the control of packers who
have interests at Chicago Omaha and
Kansas City.
While this is strenuously denied by the
packers and by the railroads accused Of
being in collision with them in the price
advances, a government investigation Of
the alleged beef trust is in progress, and
States district attorneys in the ten cat
tie raising States of the Union and at
the three great packing house centers.
This evidence is to be furnished to At
torney General Knox with view to pro-
ceeding against all the big packing COM
panies if the facts justify legal action.
Summarized into an understandable
form the charges now being heavily
pressed are these:
That a natural shortage in cattle does
not exist on western ranges; that in fact
the visible supply for the next twelve
months is little less than that Of one
year ago. That while the cattle market
near to home Gin Wisconsin, Illinois and
Iowa. has been fairly we'll bought out,
the far West ranges are we'll stocked,
and, as in the case of the Rapid City
region, shipments will be heavier this
year than in previous years. That 50
per cent of the cattle on the western
ranges are either directly owned or are
under contract to the packing houses ac-
cused, and that their shipment is being
held back for the express purpose of JUS
tifying the present price advances.