The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1910-05-14

Ml interest than tho undonbted-
II Is increased cost of living.
Every housewife and housckecper In
this city, aa in every other throughout
tho United States. is exercised all her
waking hours. trying 10 devise
schemes for making the decreased
purchasing power OF the dollar meet
growing demands on lt.
A household page is not the place
for political OF sociological discussion
as TO the reasons for this increase.
Nor Is n proper here To argue about
the rights or wrongs of tho packers or
whether they arc charging too much
for meat. The truth remains that
meat costs moro than IL used to, and
this for the housekeeper whose allow
ance has not grown any larger pre-
sents the grayest problem,
HouSckecpcrS, as matter OF fact,
are, 10 n certain extent, 20 blame for
the eXorbitant prices now charged for
meat Nine out of ten mothers OF
American families are eXtravagant
and wasteful. A thrifty French house
hold can live for n week, and live well,
on tho food that an American cook
will throw away IN two days. This
is not a theory, but an actual condi-
ton.
Furthermore, housewives in this
country do their buying absolutely by
rote. Some years ago whom period
OF abnormal prosperity seemed to pre-
vail everybody started In 10 live on
a very high needlcssly blgh scnlc,
Even clerks and mechanics were eat
Ing their meat three times Il day and
only the most expensive cuts at that.
This extravaganza has become such
habit that most housewives now seem
10 think that tho steak ard rib pieces
OF beef are the only parts Of the AMI
nal that can be bought
Tho result has been inevitable. II
has been mathematically calculated
that eighty per cent. Of the demand
in meat Is for twenty per cont. of the
carcase. Consequently pretty nearly
eighty per cent.-fOur-nfths-of every
animal is totally wasted. thrown
away. Now this would not be quite
so absurd n condition if the choice
pieces contained more nOurishment
than the less expensive ones. They
do not; there is just as much nutri-
ment In the briskct as In the sirloin
and Just as palatable dishes can be
made from il by the woman who VIII
make a study OF cooking, But II
stands to reason that, when butchers
have to throw away so much from
every carcase they buy from the
packer that they have TO charge
correspondlngly high price for the
choice cuts for which there Is nll the
demand Moreover, with such large
proportion wasted, the number OF ami
mails required to supply the tables Of
America Is raised beyond all reason.
Serious as this problem actually is
now, 1t Is threatening 10 become much
more so unless the American house
keeper acquires more common sense.
AS 1t is, tho sheep and cattle ranches
of the country arc barely able TO fur
nish sufficient animals TO meet the
growing demand. The demand, in
deed, is growing much faster than the
supply and presently there Will come
a time when the people OF this coun-
try will simply have TO eat the por-
tons Of the carcase which their fas-
tdiousness now causes to be aoSo-
lutely wasted.
This, then, Is the first thing that
the housewife must do in order to
make her stationary allowance meet
the increasing cost of living. She
must feed her family on the equally
good, but less expensive cuts of meat.
The second thing she must do Is to
study food values and inquire into
the mode of living of other countries.
A tremendous lot OF fustian and vain
glorious brags have been spoken and
written about How fine it is that
Americans live SO much better than