Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-07-06
MEAT SCANDAL WILL
HURT STOCKHOLDERS
CONSERVATION Rife Among the
nCow Men" of Western
South Dakota.
WILL BE A GREAT LOSS
Packing House Scandal Has Caused
Market to Fall Off and Many of the
Large Dealers Will Go Under
in the Crash.

Deadwood, s. D., June 2S.-Among
the cattlemen and large stockmen OF
this region consternation is rife, as
the brunt of the loss on account OF
the packing house scandal Will fall
upon them. 1t is estimated that a "a
per cent. loss in the cattle trade Tor
this eason Is not an oyerestimate, ano
that the bulk Of his will touch the
cattlemen there Is no question. Against
the proposed Beverage amendment
they felt especially bitter. as they knew
that If the cost of inspection was
charged up to the packing houses II
would really be paid by h stock rails
er. AS conditions now are there Will
be a notable falling off In the demand,
both at home n abroad, for Amer
lean meats. The packing house people
will not feel this so much, as they Will
buy less stock and do business on a
smaller scale, but the cattleman him
self, who has stock hat he must sell
and who is obliged to sell on a poor
market, will shoulder the trouble
AS a consequence of these conditions
stockmen throughout the west are feel
ing distinctly ~antagonistic towards the
administration. When the fccent or
ders for the removal Of fences went
into effect there was considerable an
tagonism to the president then noticed;
when the government agents made ar
rests for these and other infractions
of the law by stockmen the feeling
grew, and when packing house condi-
tons were suddenly made public, with
disastrous results to these same men,
the hitherto repressed feeling among
many of them took the form of active
opposition.
They claim, in the first place, that
they are familiar with conditions in
packing houses, and that affairs have
been much exaggerated in the reports;
further, as this public scandal has re-
acted upon the legitimate business of
an entire country, they are embittered
over what they consider the unneces-
sary publicity Of the matter. II a v
often been through the various packing
houses of u country" said one well
known cattleman, n they are as
clean as any such institution could
possibly be; they are in every way SUI
perior to the small shops throughout
the land" AS the market has already
fallen off about 80 cents, the stock
raisers feel sure that they will be
obliged to market their stock this
coming fall for from SO to 81 less per
head than last year. AS prices nave
been low for W. seasons past, this
will be disastrous to many.
There seems to be no doubt but that
the day Of the large stockman, who
ran thousands Of head Of cattle over
Uncle Sans domain, is about to come
to an end. This packing house inves-
tigation is only the last blow to an
already well shattered system. The in
crease In h number of settlers has cut
up the range so that but a small part
of ii Is available, the order to remove
fences On government land was an
other blow to the industry, and now.
with the fall in prices that is sure to
come, there is nothing left for the
large dealer out to go out OF the BUSH
ness or else to own his land and to
become a stock raiser instead OF a
"cow man" Many large firms that
have been operating for the last quar-
ter of a century in this northwest will
go out of business this fall: some 9TH
ers will contine themselves to sections
where they own land and feed cattle
and still others will have no course left
open to them but to Ego broke"
The cattlemen ave no quarrel com
ing with the matter of inspection. in
deed, they are eager for il. knowing
that it will protect their interests as
we'll DIS those Of the people. Further
there has never been any trouble in
this section with tubercular cattle
They do object, however, TO the nos
sibility of the inspection fee being
charged up to the packers, who will in
turn take it out of the pockets Of the
cattle raiser