The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-04-13
PRESENT RAISE NOT DUE TO
DEAR CATTLE, BUT CHARGED
ON WAREHOUSE MEATS
BOUGHT AT PANIC FIGURES
DURING WINTER.

oOO0HI Al PANIC FIGOHES
DURING WINTER.
Special Correspondence TO The Press.
CHICAGO, April 13-Yes: beef
is up. Pork Is up. Lamb is up.
That isn't all-they1l be even
higher before long, unless some
thing unforeseen happens. And tho
packers are hoping that it won't
happen.
the most prosperous and profitable
the packing industry has ever
known. Where they made a sub
stantial profit this season mthmeht
stantial profit before they are maxi
ing a great profit this season.
Where they cleared many millions
of dollars during other seasons,
when there was no tight money and
no panic and no hard times, this
season they are carrying away the
same number of millions and few
additional
Every wise man around the Chi
cago stock yards knows that for
general profit this season has any
season that preceded it dashed to
the mast.
Why?
Why is meat % per cent higher
today on foot and refrigerated than
1t was six months ago?
Why is 1t going still higher?
You need not go to the packer
himself for this information. The
first duty Of the packer is to sell
meat You are only the buyer. He
fixes the price; you may take it or
leave it.
| But when the newspaper reporter
goes to ]. Ogden Armour and asks
why meat is high, why it has gone
up, he says, Because cattle is
Thigh with a plying look as II you
should be ashamed of yourself not
to know that. And cattle are high
because corn is high, for example.
When the price of meat goes up,
there are always reasons. Good
morning."
1t is true that the supply OF
spring cattle Is short just now. Any
man in the stock yards will tell you
that, too. Two months ago the
stock raiser found that 1t was cost
ing him so much to feed his cattle
that he had little prospect of MAX
ing any decent profit out of them.
He threw them on the market for
what they would bring. He didn't
even wait to fatten them. He sold
them thin.
Today the cattye that should De
1 n
there. They have been sold ahead
of time at low prices.
During last fall and last winter
prices to the packer were low on
account of the general financial de-
preston.
All this would seem to argue that
meat should be low today.
But 1t isn't.
Today you are paying the profits
on the price that same meat and
its by-products would cost il the
packer had to buy 1t at present
shortage figures.
What DO you suppose the pack
er was doing during all those
months of low prices?
He was buying and slaughtering
and preparing his products for mar
ket-and putting them away. He
bought hogs in November at from
1915 to $4.25, and in January at
from $4.25 to IS and $525. He was
quite willing that the market should
stay down-then.
He filed every warehouse in the
country with meat products, and
a ~ ,c1,x lAxx
prices, so that he might sell later
on at high prices.
1t is the game Of Packingtown.
Today cattle show an advance of
s1.z5 to $3.50 since February 26.
Pork loins were selling recently at
IL "a; four weeks before they sod
at &c. Tenderloin sold recently at
21c; month before it was lie.
This doesn't mean that the only
meat the packers can sell you to-
day is meat for which they have
paid these higher prices. though
1t is part of the game to make you
believe that, and that no fresh
meat is refrigerated for any
length of time.
For, just the same, a great deal
of the product that the packers
are selling you at todays high
prices and that they will be glad
to sell you at tomorrow's higher
prices-that is the same product
which they bought at last winters
low prices.
Last winter the low marfiet de-
lighted thtem this spring the high
market delights them even more
because 1t helps to fool you.