The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-01-01
The Cause of high-Priced Butter

Editor The Tribune: The price OF
butter Is now higher than it has been for
twenty-five years, This necessary prod
uct has almost become luxury, and ii
is natural that the public and the press
are seeking TO discover the cause OF
these high prices Having followed this
business for twenty years, and medo a
study OF same. ! can perhaps give you the
main causes. and will cndcavor To do 80.
For many years there has been con-
stant warfare between the producer and
dealers In pure butter and the imitation
product called olcomargarinc or but
tcrine. Oleomargarlnc is manufactured.
principally, from tallow. lard cotton
seed oil and certain percentage OF but-
ter. The best and expensive grades OF
oleomargarnc contain so per cent OF but
ter and the cheaper grades contain very
little butter OlcomarGarine Is perhaps
pure product. but the public must re-
member that 1t is not an easily digestcd
food The melting point OF butter is
ninetyeight degrees, which is the tenn
ter very easily dlgcsted food, and same
can he fed to babies. II / remember cor
rectly, the melting point Of tailow Is one
hundred nineteen degrees and thus oleo-
Perhaps 90 per cent OF the oleomargarlne
is manufactured by Armour & Co. the
Swift Packing company, Cudahy. Nell
son Morris and other large meat packers.
The meat packers have also become the
largest buyers and distributors OF but
ter in this country. II Is we'll known
among butter dealers that they are to-
day large owners Of storage butter, so
they are in q position TO boost the price
OF butter and thus open up a market
for olcomargarlnc. which is the product
they desire TO SELL and perhaps through
their publishing bureau they expect TO
influence legislation, so as 10 open wide
the sale OF olcomargarino for and III
the stead OF butter. This winter the
publishing bureau OF the olcomarGarine
interests, through the press of the coun-
try Is trying TO establish in the public
mind that there is n butter trust, and
that the public is imposed upon by said
butter trust Aside from the Influence
the olcomarearinc interests can bring to
bear in advancing butter prices, there are
perhaps no food manufacturers In the
United States that arc less under the
control OF special interest. I know OF no
man in this country that has made much
money from dealing i'm butter, and the
history is repletc with failures. There
Is perhaps no industry in which COM
petition Is so keen. and the farmer. the
producer Of dairy products, is tho man
who is getting the money. In all OF the
lntermountan country tnc mix producer
Is today receiving from sc to IL cents per
pound butter fat.
Another cause OF high prices is the
fact that the American public Is more
and more demanding the best Of every
thing. and that is true of butter. There
Is practically no sale for the grade OF
butter that does not possess the best
qualities. The inspection Of cows for
found infected with this disease Is
necessary reform, but cannot close
our eyes 10 the fact that IL has intro |
luCcd a risk among the cow owners, and |
Is keeping many OF them back and dis |
'ouraging them, ! believe law should |
be enacted. and that the state should |
the owners OF tubcrcular
'ows when same are killed for the public
good
With corn at 60 cents a busheI wheat
81 a buShel, hay Sl5 TO 500 per ton all |
over the Missouri and Mississippi val |
cSs. there is not much encouragement |
'or milking cows. The farmers are be- |
coming rich without milking COWS, and |
All reports that we receive from the east |
20 to show that the great middle west |
s now producing 40 10 30 per cent less |
outter than has been produced in the last
our years at this time of the year. The |
middle west, by which j mean Illinois, |
Iowa. Wisconsin, Minnesota, |
he Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Ok |
ehoma, is the only section in this Coun- |
ry where more butter Is produced than |
he states themselves can use for home |
and this middle west is |
n greater or lesser quantities: and when |
he production in these middle western |
states falls off or decreases 80 TO 90 |
Der cent. producing less butter than they |
nave produced I'm twenty-five years, then |
We must expect an increase in prices |
md II becomes easier for the special in |
crests, such as the meat packers. who |
;ance the price OF butter beyond what |
s reasonable and fair. The late spring |
" 1909. when COWS were more or less |
starved in all parts OF the country on |
recount of shortage OF feed. has also |
,een factor in a small butter produC- |