Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-06
BUTCHERS WAR
REDUCES PRICES
TO A MINIMUM
RATES HERE NOW LOWEST IN
UNITED STATES
BEEF QUOTATIONS SOARING IN
EASTERN CITIES
Trust Alleged to Be Seeking Entire
Control of Local Market-Priees
Expected to Boom in
Reaction

least TO lower THEM, as d ASSuiN "
which criminal prosecutions OF the
beef trust have been threatened, Los
.-ngeles is one of the few cities in the
United States that has experienced the
peculiar sensation of having meat
prices reduced to an almost unheard-of
minimum, according to restaurant ouy-
ers.
Half and quarter beefs, which two
months ago were selling here as hlgh
as 70 cents, in the last few days have
sold at cents, and in number OF IN
stances as low as cents, which Is de-
clared unprecedented.
Mutton, too, in restaurant quantities,
is sold at lower figures than for many
years, and pork, ham and other hesh
edibles also have gone down in the
same proportion that they have peen
leaping upward in the east.
Even fish, it is claimed, is sold here
at prices much below those prevail
ing In other coast and seaport cities.
The cut in Los Angeles, it is said, is
direct result of bitter warfare now
being strenuously waged by the Maler
and Cudahy companies against the
smaller fry" or independent dealers.
Whether or not the Armour COM
pany is in this alleged combine against
the independents is not known, but
that the big eastern beef trust is back
of the fight is conceded as almost posi-
tive by all who are familiar with the
conditions here.
Los Angeles has long had the repu-
tation of having more Independent
butchers and dealers than any other
city of it's size in the United States,
which merely is another way of saying
that the beef trust has gained less OF
foothold here than elsewhere.
1t is equally conceded, however, that
when the smaller dealers have been
Nvs fara n
to the larger companies in the trust"
the latter will Immediately advance
prices and Los Angeles will experience
a belated though none the less severe
compile of what is now going on in
the east.
How Plan Is Worked
In other words, when the trust"
quits it's Standard Oil method of CIV
ing away its product to freeze out the
smaller fry, 1t will make up for It's
losses by advancing the prices to an
exhorbitant degree, and in addition
will command all instead of part or
the Southern California meat trade,
which means the meat trade of South
ern California, except the small
wholesale trade of San ego.
The reaction, If this cynes true, Will
| be keen and far-felt.
| Experts who are well posted in meat
conditions declare the present war of
prices is the last stand of the inde-
pendent dealers, and that many OF
them who are doing their own slaugh-
tering under costly conditions, are even
now almost against the wall; that
there is scarcely an Independent
butcher in town, 1t is said, who is not
willing to sell at an extremely low
figure.
'Los Angeles is going to be controlled
by the beef trust" said one OF the
dealers Saturday, land nothing can
prevent 1t, for the present extreme
and unjustif1able reduction in prices
can mean nothing else.
while retail and wholesale prices
are going below all reason and prot1ts
seem to be thrown to the winds, the
price of beef and other meat on foot
is now below what 1t was year ago.
The independents are forced to buy
I'D local stock at high live rates and
sell the dressed meat at trust reduc-
lions, while the larger dealers stock
up their cold storage plants with meats
purchased at greatly reduced live rates
in ADMINISTRATION districts, such as in
certain parts of the Dakotas, Wyom-
ing, Kansas, Idaho, etc.
"rhese meats, dressed by cheap
eastern labor in the big Omaha, Chi
cago and Kansas City plants, are
shipped in trainload lots at a rate that,
because of inter-trust stock holdings,
is less than one-fourth of what the
independent dealer would have to pay
granting that he could handle more
than a carload lot. The meat arrives
here, is stored and can be sold with
profit at a rate with which the Los
Angeles or Southern California dealer
in local alfalfa-fed meats cannot COM
pete.
Result Inevitable
"The result is inevitable. If the trust
decides to keep up the price-cutting the
independent dealers must go. Prices
that are now raising such a storm or
INDIGNATION in New York Will then pre-
vail in Southern California, and moth
ing will ever reduce them afterWard.
Instead, they will continue to go higher
until they have reached the New York
quotations, which at present seem to
constitute the last straw on the pubic
back"
The New York condition is alarming,
according to authorities there. With
out even the justification that the de-
mand has increased or the supply fallen
short, the advance in the eastern price
of meat by the powerful combination
continues, and it signifies clearly and
unquestionably that the trust Is reach
ing out its tentacles to control the en-
tire retail trade of the United States.
In New York city and elsewhere II mas
now reached a point where hundreds OF
small butchers in New York city must
be driven into bankruptcy because they
are unable to sell at the exorbitant rate
forced upon them, with the added bur-
den of the exactions of the railroads In
freight rates.
In Washington Market, New York,
the most famous mart of its kind In the
country, trade has been cut almost 90
per cent in a year. Butchers VINO
needed six or seven big ice boxes last
year get along now with two or three.
The stalls that handled thirty or forty
carcasses now handle from ten TO
twelve Veterans in the business like
Peter T. Hickey suddenly find them
selves confronted with agents OF the
beef trust as rivals in attempting TO
gain hotel and steamship trade. offer
ing the product at lower price than 1t
is sold to the butchers themselves.
Deaf Ear to Pleas
Pleas and demands for fair play are
futile. No notice Of an advance in
price is given to any retail dealer not
controlled by the meat trust. He must
pay up once a week or go on the black
list, and If unable to meet his obliga-
lions on the dot he locks up his ice box
and goes out of business.
The only explanation that the trust
makes as to why the price of beef
should be increased at a season when
the demand is smaller than at any
other time of the year is that the high
price of corn has made 1t necessary.
1t has been asserted that In the fat