The sun., 1908-06-01
BOYCOTT ON KOSHER STEAKS
EAST SIDE RETAILERS KICK on
INCREASED PRICES.

hetuoo 70 JOIN Tnem ana cause many
sunday Law Arrcsts-Scarcity OF Cat.
tie the Cause. the Wholesalers Say.
Kosher, chuck and flank steak could be
bought only in spots on the lower Fast Side
when the Yiddish butcher shops opened
up Saturday night and yesterday for the
weeks business. After time humber
even OF the open shops were wiped out on
account Of a sudden activity by the police.
Altogether the lockout instituted by the
Hebrew Butchers Protective Association
against the wholesale meat firms appears
to be turning out as well as Elias F1eischer
Of 10 Suffolk street. the president Of the
retailers association says it is goingto TO.
The retailers sSy that an increase Of
from 8 to II cents In the price Of chuck
and flank steak has caused the trouble.
The small retailers do not buy their meat
direct from Sohwartzchild q Sulzberger,
the United Dressed Beef Company. and
the other big dressed beef firms that have
kosher attachments.
To save bothering with little orders the
rig firms sell to middlemen. or -speouiators."
as they are called by the lower East Side
retailers. The midd'emen have an or
ganization called the New York Butcher
Dealers Association. whose members sent
out word to the trade late last week that
the price Of chuck and flank was going up
three cents a pound.
The retailers called a meeting at 344
East Forty-sixth street on Friday after
noon. at which a delegation of the middle
men appeared. President Fleischer said
last night that the middemen assured the
retailers that the boosting had been done
by the wholesalers and that the middlemen
were as sore about the' raise as any one
else. Mfr. Fleischer said the middlemen
promised to cooperate with the retailers In
their plan to quit buying meat until the
wholesalers showed the price down.
There WASH I anything doing. Saturday
because the kosher meat markets were
all closed; but when the shops opened Sat
urday night many of them had no meat.
Others, however, had a big supply, and
the members of the Hebrew Butchers
Protective Association set out to find out
where the meat came from. President
t,ss SAID bs ysstsrdSy that his men
all the butchers who weren't IN the pro-
tectiye association and told them they
could get all the meat they wanted and
advised them also to lay in bigger supply
than usual.
The Hebrew Butchers Protective Associa-
ton was not any more indignant about this
than they were about the arrangements
made for police protection for meat wagons
The middlemen had advised the whole
salers that the beef wagons might have
lively times on the East Side while the row
is on. and the various police captains of the
lower East Side were instructed from Police
Headquarters to have patrolu.en see that
none OF the beef wagons got into trouble.
Then the members Of the protective associa-
tion decided to make things warm yester-
day for all the nof-members who had much
meat to sell.
Early yesterday forenoon pickets sent
out by the association were dropping into
the police stations and tipping on the ieu-
tenant about places where the Sunday law
was neing Violated. The police acted on
the tips, and when the Essex Market court
opened there were between thirty and forty
butchers waiting to be arraignedi Magis-
trate House decided to. expedite matters
by fining each man IS apiece. Then the
rests must be due to some butchers row
and when few more meat market men
straggled in he learned what the row was
and discharged the rest OF the prisoners,
The Butcher Dealers Protective Associa-
ton had meeting yesterday afternoon
and decided that they couldn't do anything
about the boycott. They concluded that
the members OF the protective association
would soon get tired trying to do business
without any meat Norris Abramovitz,
9t lSo Henry street, q member OF th
butcher Dealers Association, said that the
had put the price up because
OF the scarcity Of cattle. He said that the
price for chuck and flank steak 10 usually
ii cents to the retailers, but that 1t had been
put down to cents when the local market
got overstoQked several weeks ago.