Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-03
ENGLAND FACING
A MEAT FAMINE
Prices of Beef Have Risen 10 to
IS Per Cent During
the Last Year
SUPPLY is GETTING SHORTER
America, Needing All of Its Meat
Now Sending Very Little
of Product Abroad

LONDON, July "A situation of al
most unparalleled seriousness has
arisen In connection with the meat
trade. The shortage of supplies has
reached a stage when an all-round
rise in retail prices has become abso-
lutely inevitable. For some months
past the price Of meat in the London
wholesale market has been rising. Last
Saturday the prices ruling were hlSn-
er than they have been at any time in
recent years since the Importation OF
frozen and "chilled" meat came to
supplement the supply Of the home
product. Only since this time last
wear the rise in wholesale prices, taken
all round, has been between 10 and 20
per cent. 1t is currently reported at
Smithfie1d that for considerable time
the retail butchers have been actually
losing money.
A Wholesale dealer who was ques-
toned on the subject said There Is
no doubt that of late the retailer has
been having a very bad time of 1t. he
has been hoping against hope that the
rise was only temporary and ne mas
continued to charge the old prices 10
his customers. But he cannot DO SO
any longer. 1t is not business. l nap
pen to know that only last Saturday
in one London district six butchers put
up their shutters. 1t is only reason
able that a trader should get a fair
return for his capital outlay, his work
and his enterprise. OF course l know
people will say directly they have to
pay more for their meat that the whole
thing has been engineered by some
mysterious ring or trust. But l chal-
lenge contradiction when 1 say that
there is no ring in Smithfield market
and never has been one. Prices are
regulated here entirely by the ordinary
laws of supply and demand.
"As a matter of fact, the causes that
have led to the present unfortunate
situation are well understood by all
who have given any study to the ques-
ton. In the first place, there has been
an enormous falling off in the supplies
from abroad. America and Canada used
to send over very large numbers of
cattle At Birkenhead thousands used
to arrive weekly from the United
States. Nowadays weeks will pass
without single hoof being consigned
to that port. At Deptford some Amer
lean cattle continue to arrive, but
nothing like the number that We're
consigned there a few years ago. The
reason is that the United States, with
its population increasing by millions,
has no longer any meat to spare. Ihe
worlds consumption of meat has
enormously increased and the supply
has not kept pace with the demand.
But we who are engaged in the trade
put the responsibility for the rise in
the price of meat to a large extent
upon the shoulders of the government.
1t is due in a measure to the embargo
on cattle from the Argentine and some
other countries.
GOVERNMENT BLAMED
There is good evidence that foot and
mouth disease has long since disap-
peared from among the Argentine
herds, but the moment we pro-
pose a removal of the embargo in
terested persons start a scare with
regard to the health of the cattle in
that country. Then, as to pork and of
course bacon. the vexations and har-
RAISING restrictions imposed by the
board of agriculture are a most serious
hindrance to the farmer They have
been the cause of a discontinuance of
the breeding and feeding of pigs in
many parts of England. A department
tai committee is sitting to inquire into
the subject of swine fever, but what
will be the outcome of it's deliberations
I do not know. think it is high time,
however, that the government realized
that 1t is it's business to foster the
home industry and not to hamper 1t
in every possible way. Briefly stated,
the position is this: The government
has thrown us into the arms of the
foreign producer and now the foreigner
fails us, so that the producers and
consumers alike in this country are
made to suffer"