The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-17
MEAT TO GO HIGHER,
Beef Trusts Relations with English
Dealers Cut n Figure a..
New York Mail and Express.

New York Mail and Express.
In all probability the steady rise In beef
will. it was announced to-day. keep up
until next fall. BY that time the poor will
have almost forgotten how beef tastes and
1t will be rarely seen on the tables of those
in the middle walk of life.
This, according to Peter J.. Hickey, for
thirty-nine years in Washington market. is
due to the trust. England, he says, is reap
ing the benefit of the present conditions
because dealers there can dictate to the
trust. Mr.. Hickey serves meat to the Wal
dorf-Astoria, the Holland House and the
other big hotels in the city. He also has
served Mr.. Morgan's yacht. we cannot
get good beef said Mr.. Hickey, unless
the stock is fed on corn. When corn is
worth 20 cents per bushel the farmer will
sell it and get the money in his pocket
quick and not feed ii TO stock and wait for
a year or two for returns from his crop.
Another contributory cause to the pres
ent high prices is the shipment of beef to
Europe. The great beef trust cannot regu-
late things across the ocean and are there
subjected to the law of supply and demand.
The trust is compelled to contract for
space i'm the ocean liners a year ahead. and
must pay whether they ship beef or not.
consequently they ship all the time, and
are at the mercy of the dealers on the other
side when the supply of beef from Aus
tralia is plentiful. The result is that Amer
lean beef is now selling at a lower price
in Europe than IL is here. Our beef on the
other side will only keep a day or two, and
the English dealers wait until the Ameri-
cans are almost ready to give it away be-
fore buying.
THE obligation of the trust to ship has
reduced the supply of cattle here, now that
the farmers are not putting their corn into
beef.
1T is also a fact that the packers who
form the beef trust are also ranch own
ers, who are holding their cattle to keep
prices up.
"All kinds Of meat are now bringing from
1 to 2 cents a pound more at wholesale
than a year ago, and retailers have ad-
vanced the price at the same rate.
Dressed beef has not advanced in great
fore the chief cause for the high price Of
dressed beef is the high price of corn.
THE local abattoir owners ask the same
prices as the Western packers, so that the
10000 cattle a week which are butchered in
this city, when. sold as dressed beef, do
not lower the local price.
The prices l mention" continued Mr..
Hickey, "do not apply at the small stalls
and push carts. These dealers catering to
the poorest classes sell such small cuts that
the waste in trimming is much greater,
and they are compelled to advance their
prices 3 and 4 cents a pound to every cent
of rise in the wholesale price. New York is
about the only city in the East where the
trust has been unable to crush competi-
ton. This is because of the large pOpula-
ton of the Polish Jews, whose religion for
bids them to eat meat killed longer than
twelve hours, or which is not in a healthy
condition. Each abattoir has in its employ
and inspect the vital organs, and if found
healthy affiX their seal to rhe carcass. This
meat is sold to push-cart men, who retail it
TO their cOreligiOniStS."