Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-08-24
The Meat Trust is Defiant.

How little has been accomplished
by President Roosevelt in his spec
tacular trust fight is becoming more
and more apparent. The trust of all
others that is detested by the Ameri-
can people is the beef trust, and when
Attorney General Knox commenced
legal proceedings against the beef
barons no action OF the administra-
ton was more applauded. 1t was,
however, pointed out at the time
that the injunction which was asked
for would be useless or fall far short
of stopping the eXtortion of the trust
and the present wholesale and retail
prices of beef proves the futility of
the half measures adopted by the adj
minis tration. If the president had
ordered his attorney general to in
dict the beef barons under the crimi-
nal clause of the antitrust law. the
members of the combine long before
this would have been serving terms of
imprisonment as the law provides. But
President Roosevelt or his attorney
general could not steel their hearts
TO such a strenuous way and bring
the beef trust barons TO time. and
took the long and tedious path of
civil procedure, by the injunction
route, which could but result in fail
ure.
The people are suffering and pray
ling for quick action. the proceedings
are still in the courts, and the eXtor-
ton continues. \ press dispatch
from Omaha, giving the condition of
the market, says: ALREADY the rise
in the price of beef has taken effect in
number of western cities and it is
expected to reach New York and the
east within two weeks or less The
Philadelphia Bulletin. commenting on
| this declares:
IF this statement is true. it indi-
Gates that in spite of the preliminary
reverses which the beef trust has met
in the courts, its hackers believe that
they can safely give the screws an
other turn and squeeze still higher
profits out of the consuming public
| That the raise in the price of beef is
an arbitrary eXtortion by the beef
barons is made clear by the large in-
crease of the supply of beef cattle in
Chicago and other markets. On Aug. 3
the Chicago Chronicle, in its market
report, gave the receipt of cattle for
| the year to date as follows: 1908, l.
9O3025; 1902, 1,579, 1853. showing an in
crease of So. S72 head for the present
year. so that there is no scarcity OF
cattle. The receipts of sheep for the
same period also shows an increase OF
72,2SS head. The prices quoted in the
same newspaper for corn fed western
steers was 81 and 1925 per hundred
pounds, the highest price for prime
beeves being 1886 and the lowest
price quoted for steers being $2.75
The prices at which the beef trust
sells to the butcher is difficult to ar
rive at with eXactness, for neither the
Chicago or New York newspapers
quote them, and the conclusion must
be that the wholesale price of dressed
beef is omitted for a purpose. But
the price of dressed native beef in
New York on the same day as the
above prices of cattle are quoted, was
l6H to 1879 cents per pound and re-
frigerator beef s34 to 8 cents per
pound.
The retail price of beef varies SO
much according to the quality and cut
and the standing of the shop at which
litis sold, that is unnecessary to quote
the price that the butchers charge
The public can fix the price in their
own locality and Judge the price they
are paying accordingly with the mar
let price.
Except in very few localities, the
Ibeef trust controls the wholesale beef