Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-01
MEAT IS KEPT FOR
YEARS IN STORAGE
BOUGHT CHEAP, FOOD IS HELD
FOR HIGH PRICES
"They've Seen Their Second Birth.
day Here" Declares an En-
pIoye, Pointing to Barrels
of Turkeys

of Turkeys
NEW YORK, Jan. 31.-The World
says: On condition that the name of
the guide be withheld entrance was
gained by World reporter to one of
the largest cold storage plants in New
York city, and methods employed to
make the public pay fictitious prices
for food were seen at first hand.
All that was revealed by the investi-
cation holds true, an experienced en-
ploye said, in many cold storage
plants in the greater city. Records
sedulously guarded by the plants would
disclose, it was said staple foodstuffs
in sufficient quantities to knock the
bottom out of high prices in New York
Immediately, but which are kept out
of the market in order to force the
public to pay exorbitant prices.
These supplies are canned in the
cold" for from six months to three
years or more, and then released
gradually, during high-priced seasons,
when they are sold as fresh products
Some of the articles viewed by the
reporter were:
$4,000 pounds of halibut placed in
the plant three years ago.
Barrels of turkeys and geese (num-
ber not given), two years old or more.
300 cases of eggs, the remainder of
5000 cases placed in storage beginning
last April, purchased at about Is cents
a dozen and released during the past
two months to be sold at from As to
so cents a dozen as strictly fresh
eggs"
10000 cases of fish (of different
varieties), from one to three years old.
5000 barrels of apples.
200 900 pounds of meat held in storage
for seven months
"There has been a big call for eggs
recently" the employe said, surveying
the spacious room, which is kept at a
temperature of 81 degrees throughout
the year. 1.-THE cases in here reached
to the ceiling until a short time ago
Most of the eggs came from the west
last April and May and cost the buyer
about IS cents a dozen. He's selling
'em now for So cents. You can't lose on
eggs. If they get too old they are
broken UP and sold to the bakers. Come
along and I'll show you how they
do it,
HIS led the way to another room
filled with four gallon and two gallon
cans, and in which the temperature was
only a few degrees above zero. The
larger cans were filled with the egg
yolks and the smaller with the
whites" He said that eggs in some
of the cans were five years old and
the contents came from China.
A man who participated in the tour
of inspection and who formerly worked
in a cold storage plant told of the top
of one of these egg cans being knocked
off I'M handling. The stencil, he said,
was so overpowering that workmen re-
fused to handle the can. Eggs in this
form are known to the trade as 'eggo-
line" and are used extensively in the
making of pound cake and other pas
tries.
Two huge store rooms filled with
meat which hung at tempera-
ture of 6 degrees above zero were next
visited. Beef veal, mutton, lamb and
other meats of a total weight of 100000
pounds had been in storage for seven
months. 1t costs a quarter of cent
q month for storage charges on this
meat, which is purchased during the
spring and summer at the lowest
wholesale prices and distributed when
the public is compelled to buy at
famine figures.
Fish at Four Cents Pound
The rooms reserved for fish were
filled to their capacity. In explanation
of this the emplOye said:
"These fish are picked up when the
market is glutted, about June. They
cost, We'll say about cents a pound
in 10000 pound lots. They are brought
here and dumped down a chute into
watts of water, where the blood is
washed off. Then they are placed in
pans and frozen until a glaze forms.
In this state they are packed in cases
and held in this room at q temperature
only slightly above zero. These fish
will be placed on the market now as
fresh The public don't know that
they were taken from their native
waters a year ago or three years ago.
Housewives will pay about % cents
pound for the blueflsh and up to 40
cents a pound for the sturgeon, and
believe they are getting fresh fish. We
charge three-quarters of cent pound
for freezing and the storage charges
for a year bring the price of Accent
fish up to about cents. This is sold
for about Is cents, and the difference
is what the public pays into the pockets
of the middleman.
Sells SO Apples for Sc
Fishermen, farmers, cattle raisers,
GSS SIONtlS anu lIuCh NlOlI L
get living prices hardly. They are up
against it just the same as the public.
We have in storage here 5000 barrels
of apples. The owner told me today
he was going to pay the daily wages
of one of his men for every barrel of
apples sold. He bought the apples for
about SO a barrel and will sell them for
about Sc. Storages charges are so cents
a barrel, so his profit is $3.50. It's the
same way with those beets, turnips and
other vegetables there"
In one of the coolest of the storage
rooms attention was called to barrels
filled with turkeys.
"Theyre two years old" the guide
said.
"Will they be sold?"
"Sure; good as the day they came
here"
In another room the reporter saw a
barrel filled with geese. While testing
the firmness with which the flesh was
frozen the neck of a goose was snapped
off as If it were a pipestem.
"Those geese have seen their second
birthday here" the employe remarked,
meaning they had been in storage for
at least two years.
One of the party asked If tainted
meat was ever received for storage.
The reply was that such meat was re-
ceiVed and frozen, the process conceal
ing the taint and making it possible for
the owner to dispose of the meat as a
staple grade.