Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-07-03
Cold Facts Refute Claims
Of the Beef Trust.
Increase Of Frices to Consumer
Are Not Warranted
BY Price Of Cattle and Conditions
Where They Are Raised.

New York July 2-The World says:
The statements of the Meat Trust in
the East have failed to explain the
connection between the recent advance
of 10 to Is per cent. in the price of cat
tie on the hoOf, and a simultaneous
advance of from 25 to 80 per cent. on
beef to the consumer. From authority
known to be trustworthy. The World
received dispatch yesterday from
Lincoln, Neb., in which an expert sets
forth the following facts as an offset to
the argument of the representatives
of the Beef Trust, that higher prices
are justified:
First. A condition of pasturage,
both on the range and on the farm
which have not been eXcelled for a
dozen years, if ever, and which prom
ises to continue until the fall.
Second. A larger acreage of corn
with prospects for Il normal yield per
acre.
Third. A stacking of cattle quaran-
tine rules which will permit the entry
from the South of plains cattle for
fatteninG.
AT the Nebraska State farm the
declara ton was made that the price Of
fat cattle on the hoof was not high,
hardly high enough considering the
price Of feed and the depleted herds
The tendency, however, it was be-
lieved would be toward slightly lower
prices for live cattle
Lincoln dealers and marketmen put
the blame for the increased prices paid
by consumers to the packing houses
and in some instances to the middle
men. The retail dealers assert they are
taking no greater profit than year
ago, and with decreased consumption
they are not doing so well. The pack
ers, they say, are taking advantage OF
the known scarcity of cattle and
charging the dealers out of proportion
to that shortage"
The Chicago packers have put for
ward the plea which has been indus
triouSly circulated by the middlemen
that there are fewer cattle on the
range and on the farms than there
We're year ago, that there has been
an increase in the price of corn from
six to nire cents a bushcl. and that as
a result the price of cattle on the hoof
has risen from 40 to 90 cents a hun
dred.
At the same time the Farmers and
Drovers' Journal of Chicago shows in
its last issue in Il conspicuous posi- ion
that the yield Of corn in 1907 eXcelled
in value the value of cotton so far that
cotton il. longer could claim the title
of king
No matter how ingenious the expla-
nations are to account for hutt;nS up
the r''ica Of meat-and beef ilarticu-
larly--the fact remains that the con-
sumner is unable to pay the price AMI
that concerted effort is under way to
strike at the wholesaler through the
small butcher. More shops were closed
yesterday on the lower East Side be-
cause there We're no customers. The
trade in the vicinity of jefferson Mar
let on the West had fallen off almost
one half.
Dealers as a rule are unwilling TO
give any expression of OpiniCn as to
what they believe to be the causes for
the extraordinary increase in prices
Walter Blunenthal. president of the
United Dressed Beef Co., said that he
believed the advance to be due entire
ly to economic reasons which could
not be avoided. The high price Of Germ
he believed was q contributing factor
and an important one.
II do not regard the present prices
as abnormally high" said Mr. Blumen-
thai. 1T is simply 4 question of sup
ply and demand. The handlers Of
dressed meats do not exact an extra
profit. The quotations are regulated
entirely by the value of cattle on the
hoOf and what it costs to send the
finished beef to market"