The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-02-03

q
1t is claimed that the worlds high
water mark in the cost of living has
been reached. The price OF everything,
from the nanneis in which the new
horn babe is wrapped TO the coffin in
which the aged man is laid to rest, has
climbed It, an unprecedented height
The whole world is trying to ascertain
the cause, but every man denies re-
sponsibiIity. There are SO many twists
and turns In the path that leads from
production to consumption that 1t is
difficult to fix responsibility, but every
American consumer has turned detec~
tive and the search fer the guilty ones
Is on.
Fortunately there are a number of
Slues which suggest where TO look for
the trouble First of all it liz found
that the income of the average Amert-
can family is $500 a year, of which
about s2a0 goes for food and drink. AS
there are some 10000, 900 families in the
United States, this means that the ma
tons food bill Is about $4,000, 900, 900 a
year. OF this one third goes for the
purchase OF meats. The American peo-
pie are now eating about twenty
Billions Of meat year. and for every
cert Hast is added ia the pound cost
that meat the consumer has 10 bear an
additional burden Of two hundred mil
flor dollars. a similar raise in the
price OF other fondstuffs would mean
a total increase of about 100000 900
d year In the burdens of the consumer
fes f+sSa alone Therefore, II Is plain
that the INCREASE in prices is case of
grand larceny and not Of petit larceny.
Beet Question Old.
ant gf
beer claims FIRST attention. IL is not
a new sub5ect- More than fifty years
ago people were asking why there was
such q erest margin between live cat
lie and "a steak or roast. To settle the
matter the American Agriculturalist, of
New York, followed an average sized
bullock through the shamhles and on
70 the man who bought steak and the
roast. Ii was found that the dressed
beef cost upward Of 10 cents a pound
which is at least 20 per cent more than
the average retailer pays to-day. Yet
when The man with the market basket
came In he got his cut of porterhouse
for IL cents a pound and his round
steak for less than IL cents. Many
retailers who pay cents for a carcass
to-day SELL the porterhouse at IS cents
and the round steak at is.
Following a Beef.
In this year Of grace 1910 another
bullock was followed through the
Eharlhies TO the price fixing Of the re-
tail cutter. Cattle quotations show
that IN the Chicago market for the
week eudIkR January ID the average
price Oh the hoof was 6.55 cents IA
rotr.ris 4 ST. touts butcher bought the
carcass Of an average steer for cents
pound, and IN order to disprove the
conclusions of Secretary Wilson pub
-llahed d detailed account of how he
cut Ii up and sold IL. II weighed geo
pounds and cost him $40. He sold the
porterhouse steaks at "a cents, stripins
and prime rib at ILL., cents round
steak at IL IL cents. and other cuts
'proportionateiy. He received ISL SO
for IL Ut retail.
The only trouble seems 10 be that he
placed his prices at retail too low.
Most people pay % cents for porter
house. 20 cents for sirloiu and rib, and
Ii cents fer round, with the-other- cuts
In proportion. On this basis he would
sell $6224 worth of beef from the car
cass--a gross profit of over SIS per cent
Mark you, this with no change in his
figures other than to increase his re-
thai quotations 10 what the average
American is now paying at the butcher
shop.
Retailers Profit.
One Is not entirely dependent on
Secretary 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 confederation, one Of
these is THE Modern Butcher" and
the author a meat cutter of thirty
years experience shows how a car
cass must be cut up and priced at re-
tail in order 20 yield this profit of 20
per cent. In an Scent carcass, to yield
this profit, the portcrhouse and sirlosn
must be retailed at II cents and the
round steak al IS cents. In a s-cent
carcass the former must he sold at
Is cents and the latter at Is, with the
other cuts in proportion. Let the read =
er- eGtnpare- these prices with those he
pays and figure out his percentages
What obtains in beef prices is true
of other meats. Chickens that sell
for twelve cents a pound $50 miles
from Washington. bring twenty two
cents when they reach there. A young
cents when they reach there. A young
man residing In Washington is part
owner of farm In Virginia, within
$50 miles Of the National Capital He
relates that when the corner grocer
sells indifferent eggs at forty cents
a dozen. those on his farm are bring
Ing thirty cents. When apples sell at
a dollar bushei on the farm, the