Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-04-18
Looker-On In Iona

Sheffield, April 1S.-The recent adj
vance in the retail price of meat in
many of the small towns in Iowa is
the subject of much comment, and con-
siderable kicking. The laborins man
with wages at 81 a day, and not steady
work by any means, is asked to pay
90 cents pound for the best cuts,
"just twice what such meat cost when
this town was started" The retailer
has an argument to meet all this,
which is unanswerable. These mar
ket men now hang up on the cash reg
lister the price list of the packing
houses. Eleven and a quarter cents
per pound for hind quarters. Nine and
three quarters cents per pound for a
whole dressed beef, is what the kick
ing customers can see for themselves
are the prices the market men have to
pay.
What follows does not refer to this
town. Consumers can understand that
a marketman who pays 9A cents per
pound, must necessarily sell the best
cuts for 20 cents, but observing GUS
toners In some towns claim that the
butcher goes out and buys fat COW
for 31a to cents per pound, and when
that old COW gets on the cutting block
by some mysterious management, 1T
becomes packing house product and
the best cuts of course are 20 cents.
Butchers tell the writer that a COW
shrinks one-half In dressing: that
,1D,, 1t 1r1 in,
an Iowa town costs the dealer to Z
cents pound. Even at the present low
prices of hides, they pay the cost of
butchering. Not only that but the offal
Of the slaughter house fattens many
head of hogs in a year, which are near
ly all profit. thus materially reduc-
ing the cost of running the meat mar
ket. One hears this kind of talk every
where; 1t is nothing new. but 1t is go
ing to end the sale of packing house
products in many Iowa towns the COM
ing winter Shops would be started
in many towns now, but for the prob
lem Of getting ice. Next winter II
present prices continue, butcher shops
will be started in many small towns,
for there is big money in 90 steak cut
lF0f1l IL D cent GOW. hoIc liidh liiut VIC
farmers will butcher their own meat
and sell some of 1t to town customers.
They can kill hog and dress it as
we'll as the butcher, and there is good
money in peddling out a dressed hog
at 10 to 1919 cents pound.
More than that, these high prices
are teaching many men and women
that life is worth living. even II there
is no 20 cent steak In the house. In
conversation with a railroad agent,
earning $50 a month, he said to the
writer: "We've been married twenty
years and are Just beginning to find
out we don't need meat three times
a day. We are just learning that steak
at 20 cents a pound is too rich for our
blood. My wife hunted up cook book
and is now fixing up meat that we buy
for 8 or 10 cents pound. And
1t is better eating than 20
old COW steak We are just learning to
eat fish, and salt meats. Actually make
meal on eggs. We find Goldfish and
canned salmon good eating the way
my wife cooks them now, since she got
the cook book. Home made bread Is
good enough for us once or twice
week. And for breakfast we've cut out
meat entirely. used to think need
ed a breakfast OF meat potatoes cakes,
etc. Now we've got on to the break
fast foods and fruit and think we
are lessening our doctors bills"
To Offset this experience Is that OF
ditch digger, who told us in the depot
that "he'd got to have meat three
times day or couldn't do his work"
When some one asked how about the
Japanese soldier. who seldom eats
fresh meat, of the Welsh miner who
works twelve hours day. with din
ner of bread and cheese, Il don't know
about those fellows" said he. II know
1 cannot dig without fresh meat" And
the meat packer and the market man
who sells fresh home killed cow at 20
cents a pound knows what the ditch
diggers think. Others besides ditch
diggers think the same. When the ma
iority become converted to the railroad
agents theories and practice, old fresh
COW will not sell for 20 cents a pound
in Iowa..
np M11-A