The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-06-26
ENGLAND FACES
 A MEAT FAMINE Prices Already Beyond Reach
 of Poorer Classes MANY EAT VEGETABLES Complaint Is Made That American Packers Are Holding Back Sup
 plies Which Helps Force
 Prices Upward
MANY EAT VEGETABLES

| racing meat famine. Already the prices of all kinds of meat have gone so high that it is beyond the reach of the poorer
 classes, and there is no relief in sight.
 Beef Is higher than it has been In more than 30 years, while American beef is 9 shillings hundredweisht higher than the highest price provided In the cable code used by the provision market. When | the code was framed no one dreamed of a price higher than 10 shillings a hun dredweight. American Hong out hams are now 84 shillings and 'short cut'' are | 7S shillings
 l Not only meat, but butter, cheese and eggs have gone out of sight. So serious has the situation become that the Nation al Federated Meat Traders association l has issued a warning that unless a fresh source Of supply Is tapped, meat will be prohibited to the poorer classes. An nouncement says: ''1n view of the great ly increased price of all descriptions of meat, both British-produoed and import ed, to the retailer, owing to the short supplies of cattle with the largely re- duced arrivals of live stock from the | United State sand Canada, the National Federated Meat Traders association dn- corporated) finds 1t necessary to inform the public that retail butchers will be compelled to put up prices all round'' There are no indications that meat will be cheaper for some time to come, the sources of supply having been so seri- ously depleted.
 Summa rized, the position may be put as follows:
 l The crisis has been caused by & short
 age of supplies of live cattle from Canada
 and the United States and of chilled beef from the states.
 During the past F months the whole sale price of beef has risen in some cases by 80 per cent
 In the poorer districts of London the
 butchers have not been able to increa SC the retail prices, because the people would not pay them.
 Butchers in poor neighborhoods have been trading at a heavy loss, and some have had to close their establishments altogether.
 It is believed that further increase up to pence a pound will be decided upon. Many people are taking vegetarian diet rather than pay excessive prices for meat.
 Giving an explanation of the rise, AL derman Lindsey, the president of the Ma tional Federated Meat Traders assecia- ton, said:
 For several weeks past the demand for meat has largely exceeded the sup ply. We arc getting very few bullocks from North America, because they have very few to send. Four years ago we re- ceived 5000 or 9OO0 week; we are scarce
 y getting a thousand now.
 T do not think the price of American bullochs has ever been so high. English supplies are also short and dear
 Tt has long been felt by those who have special means of obtaining informa- ton that unless some fresh sources of supply can be tapped, the prices of meat in this country will be so much higher that as an article of food 1t will become almost prohibitive to the working classes, whose purchasing power is certainly be- coming less.
 The government has been approached, not only by those directly interested in the meat trade, but by most of the cor poratlons of the larger provincial towns, and also by quite a number of metropol- itan boroughs, to receive a deputation in order personally to urge the removal of the existing embargo, which prevents the landing of live cattle from the Argentine at our foreign animal wharves.
 Up to the present the government has not even granted those who are in po- sition to give valuable information an opportunity of expressing their views. To- day we are met with this fact: that the number of live animals imported for food Is reduced almost to vanishing point.
 We rely principally upon the United States for our best supplies of summer cattle. In America they are past masters in the art of keeping back what is want ed until it commands the very best prices, and they are doing something of the kind now. There Is a splendid working ar rangement among the American export ers..
 With regard to the Argentine supplies, the meat has been brought across the equator and therefore has to be frozen SO very hard that its nutritive properties are diminished. Consequently this source of supply does not help so much as it would were the Argentine cattle allowed to come alive as they used to. There has been decrease of over 30000 bullocks up to May 14 of the present year, as com pared with last years supply from North America"
 Mir. William J. Bryan. the noted Ameri- can lecturer and politician. who is in England to visit the worlds missionary conference. delivered a quiet rebuke to his distinguished compatriot. former President Roosevelt, in speech he de- livered at Bradford the other day. MT. Bryan said when he travelled he did not discuss the politics of the country which he visited. because as an outsider he was not sufficiently informed to enable him to discuss those conditions with intelli- gence. In the second place. when he vis- lted foreign land he was the guest of the people of that land, and he would ac- count 1t very poor repayment for hospi- tality to engage in the discussion of con- troversial subjects which those who enter tained him understood better than he did There was. he said. great improvement in political ideals. both in America and in other countries of the world. The con- sciences of the people of the world were becoming more sensitive to wrong and ardent in their demand for purity in pol itics. The nation was greatest which did the most good in the world. and he re- joiced to find that the two nations which were doing most for missionary work were America and Great Britain. No less than six-sevenths of the money contrib uted for missionary enterprise came from those two countries. and they gave equally.
 Cotton spinners in Manchester are very skeptical about the latest scheme from across the Atlantic for combining busi- ness and philanthropy in dealing with speculation in cotton. They are regard
 Ing the suggestion that with a capital of $1o.000.o 900 company can establish a huge chain of warehouses on the cotton belt of the United States in which can be stored cotton sufficient to meet the worlds de- mands for 1 months or more with amuse- l-~ fls~- At-