The Falls City tribune., 1910-02-18
AS TO The COST OF LIVING
SEVERAL PHASES o. TIE RI
CENT MEAT BOYCOTT.
a Fs@ observations Tending 10
Sac3 Foreign Consumers
have .se Bsst O. 1t.


advanced COSTS oil 6emg and slll save
H. bacon. and with the NEE, trust
especially singled out tor# s|eaihug
criticism. the testimony Of q Aeotas-
KAN touching the meal OF the problem
may ne interesting.
il butcher who has followed his
trade Scr nearly thirty years IN a
locality less than d hundred miles
from Lincoln recently spent a few
weeks IN England. Naturally he
PAID particular attention to the in
~tricacies of the meat business while
aDroad. and the result of his obserya-
lions alone furnishes ample jastifica-
ton for the cutlery against the eXhor-
bitant prices, American consumer is
compelled to pay for meat, whether
or not it yindicates the boycott
method.
A Nebraska butcher found beef
bearing the stamp OF Omaha pack
ing louaas selling on the London mar
ket at nine cents per pound, or two
cents less than he could buy beef for
at Omaha on the same date. He was
particular to compare prices and
dates with his books on his return
and could not be mistaken as to the
facts set forth.
Not only was the beef ON the London
market cheaper, but also choicer than
that commonly obtainable in this coun-
Try. In order to compete with Eng
fish beef the exporters in the United
States are compelled to send away
their best selections. The prices on
other meats were found proportion
ately cheaper in London than Omaha,
so far as the market permitted com
parisOn.
1t costs something to prepare meat
for shipment abroad. It is many a
weary mile over prairie, hill and
stream from Omaha TO New York and
a far cry from there across the bound
ing Atlantic to merry England, but
the American meat travels the dis
tance without imDairing its quality,
and the ~beef-eating English public
pays less than the people ut the
precise point it started from. as well
as the rest of the United States.
There is nothing particularly new
in the state of affairs just described,
but with the whole country rapidly
acquiring the meat boycott fever
it may be pertinent to call attention
to the facts which arc so easily cap
able of notification.
Conceding hat they have some
mighty nice folks over in dear old
England, admitting that we all like
our form of government VERY much
better than theirs, is there any par
ticular reason in the wide, wide world
why anybody should stand pat for
a system which permits the lin
terests" to treat Che English meat
buyers so muct better than the home
buyer? Is his money any better?
Is the English citizen by some
sort Of divine right entitled to better
treatment than the man on this side
of the big puddle. that those who
have the sand to protest against that
power in politics which permits the
people of this country TO be gouged
in this manner are to be classified as
cranks, knockers, kickers, squawkers
and everything else in the standpat
vocabulary of invectiye?
If the price of meat were anything
but a very snail phase of the work
ings of the system which compels
those who dwell in this land of the
free and the home of the brave to pay
more for American produced stuff
thar the foreigner, the difference
would scarcely be worth mentioning.
As some high mogul of the pack
ing industry has kindly suggested, the
"housekeeper up to snuff can prepare
truly delicious dainties from the
flank meat aud other cheap portions.
Likewise, the statement of some
other equally distinguished wag makes
clear that it will become an easy mat
ter with practice to eat soup derived
from boiling the succulent hide of
the steer. When it is desirable to
change the flavor the horns or hoofs
can be thrust into the kettle.
But considering the hundreds and
hundreds of equally glazing raids on
the pocketbook, isn't it about time
for the administration to quit fight
ing insurgents and put a crimp in
the tariff fattened combinations now
mulcting the people? Is it going to
be sufficient. under the known con
ditions. to gravely a|sseyerate that
the late tariff bill is the best bill eg-
er passed? II SO, what about the
CRY for naM -mnaenrpe and now mon