Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-04
Some Things You Want to Know
The Cost of Living.

II is claimed that the worlds high
water mark In the cost of living has
been reached. The price OF everything,
from the nannels in which the newborn
babe is wrapped, to the coffin in which
the aged man Is laid to rest, has climbed
to an unprecedented height. The whole
world is trying to ascertain the cause. but
every man denies responsibility. There
are so many twists and turns in the path
that leads from production to consumption.
that II Is difficult TO fix responsibility,
but every American consumer has turned
detective and the search for the guilty
ones Is on.
Fortunately there are a humber Of clues
which suggest where TO look for the
trouble. First OF all, it Is found that
the income Of the average American fam
lily is $500 a year, Of which about $40
goes for food and drink AS there are
some 1g,O0O,OO0 families in the United
States. this means that the nations food
bill is about $4,000, 100000 a year. OF this
one-third goes TOR the purchase Of meats.
The American people are now eating
something like twenty billion pounds Of
meat a year, and for every cent that is
added to the pound-cost Of that meat the
consumer has to bear an additional bur
den Of two hundred million dollars. a
similar raise in the price of other food
stuffs would mean a total increase OF
about 5000, 0OO, 900 a year In the burdens of
the consumer for food alone. Therefore
1t is plain that the increase in prices is
a case Of grand larceny and not of petit
larceny.
In following out clues the price Of beef
claims first attention. 1t is not a new
subject. More han fifty years ago people
were asking why there vas such a great
margin between live cattle and a steak
or roast. To settle the matter the Ameri-
can Agriculturist Of New York followed
an average sized bullock through the
hambles and on to the man who bought
the steak and the roast. 1t was found
that the dressed beef cost upward OF
10 cents a p~ound-which is at least 30
per cent more than the average retailer
pays today. Yet when the man with the
market basket came n. he Sot his cot
of porterhouse for II gents a pound, and
has round steak for less than II cents.
Many retailers who pay s cents a pound
for a carcass today sell the porterhouse
at Is cents and the round steak at IS.
In this year of grace 1910 another bull
lock was followed through the shambles
to the prioe-fixing of the retail cutter.
Cattle quotations show that in the Chi
cago market for the week ending jan
uary Is, the average price on the hoof
was 500 cents a pound. A st. Louis but
cher bought the carcass of an average
steer for s cents a pound, and in order
to dlsprove the conclusions of Secretary
Wilson, published a detailed account of
how he cut it up and sold 1t. 1t weighed
500 pounds and cost him $40. He sold
the porterhouse steaks at 20 cents, sirloin
and prime rib at 17h cents. round steak at
12k cents, and other cuts proportionately.
He received $51.S5 for 1t at retail.
The only trouble seems to be that he
placed his prices at retail too low. Most
people pay rs cents for porterhouse. 20
cents for sirloin and rib, and IS cents for
round, with the other cuts in proportion.
On this basis he would sell $G2. "a worth of
beef from the carcass-a gross profit of
over As per cent. Mark you, this with no
change in his figures other than to in
crease his retail quotations to what the
average American is now paying at the
butcher shop.
One is not entirely dependent on Secre-
tary's Wilson'S figures or upon those OF the
st. Louis butcher to show the gross profits
OF the retailer. The butchers have text
books and they offer further corroboration
One of these Is THE Modern Butcher" and
the author, a meat cutter of thirty years
experience, shows how a carcass must be
cut up and priced at retail in order to yield
a profit of 20 per cent. In an Scent car
cass, to yield profit. the porterhouse and
sirloin must be retailed at II cents, and the
round steak at 13 cents. In a Scent car
cass the former must be sold at is cents
and the latter at Is. with the other cuts
in proportion. Let the reader compare
these prices with those he pays and figure
out his percentages.
h obtains in beef prices is true of
others meats. Chickens that sell for u
cents a pound 15O miles from washington
bring % cents when they reach there. A
young man residing in Washington is
part owner of a farm in Virginia. within
l5O miles OF the national capital. He re-
lates that when the corner grocer sells
Indifferent eggs at 40 cents a dozen, those
on his farm are bringing 30 cents. When
apples sell at a dollar a bushel on the
farm, the r~eigning price at the corner