New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-15
MANY BUTCHERS CRUMBLE
Uptown Prices No Higher than on
Manhattan East Side.
FISH MAN TALKS SADLY
Dealers Assert That They Can't
Fight Compact Organization
of the Packers.

ore rather expects to lind that all the
butchers along lower Third and Second
avenues grumble about the price of meat.
The wholesale price Is too high for them,
and the highest retail price at which they
dare to sell It to their customers is too
low Dare" il used advisedly. Witness
the riots in Brooklyn and those promised
for New York.
But when one gets up into the section
around 59th street and Sixth avenue. a
region of which dreadful tales are current
regarding the extortion of its butchers
one expects to find something different.
prospective tea and lunch room pro-
prietor steps into a shop that CLEANS with
marble counters and nickel rails No meat
is In sight. II II weren't for the fresh
sawdust on the floor she might think she
had strayed into the wrong place
The owner OF the shop sits in Immaculate
glory behind his shining counters ana
gazes thoughtfully out Of the window
His price for prime roast Is % cents
pound. the same as Third avenue prices
sirloin steak is %. as against the "a to q
of Third avenue: chops are 50. in compari-
son with Third avenues % TO 80. and ms
leg of spring lamb at % cents compares
favorably with the same meat sold on
Third avenue for u cents.
Butcher Isn't Making Money.
But this butcher isn't making money. he
says. In fact he contided to the pseudo
tearoom proprietor that II he had sl.V'
clear he'd shut up shop. buy farm Tor
500 use the other 500 for running en-
vest Of S.Oc0-a Congressman's salar, -
every year. and give his family what they
wanted to eat. which ne says is Impossible
now, as eating beef is like eating eoid.
An equal shade Of gloom pervaded the
shop across the street aid coior"d the
countenance OF its proprietor.
He says there is no money at all In any
kind of food business. IT'S Just Ike try
ing to play the stock market" he explains,
when you don't know what the big men
are planning to do.
I'VE fellows watch the provision markets
and learn that there Is just as much and
maybe more beef on hand than there was
last year. or several years ago. and YOU
might think We could reasonably suppose
that beef would be cheap. Well. II ain I.
as YOU restaurant keepers ought 10 know
as well as us.
Why amt it? Well, YOU don't hho"'
and | don't know but II We was keen VT
might suspect that the packers was making
us pay for a certain lawsuit.
Why don't us butchers do something :
Say a swell chance we'd have bucking up
against those fellers, They've got mill
ions behind them and they all stand to-
Sether.
"if We Attempt to Get Sassy"
If we attempt TO get sassy with one
of them first thing We know they II all
be mean 10 us And they've got their CO.
operation worked out to such an extent
that II |, for instance. owed bill To one
Of them the others would refuse TO sell
to me until that bill was paid.
Eating gold" he exclaimed when his
neighbours remark was repeated to him.
It's more like eating diamonds TO eat
beef these days
The shops on Amsterdam avenue around
the eighties looked bit busier than those
further downtown, and when this fact vas
commented upon to one shopkeeper he
said:
"Oh. yes. We do lots OF business all year
round" This began to seem bit more
cheerful. but still the expected smile was
absent from the shopkeeper's face cause
why? But we don't MAKE the money Wa
used To make" Same old story again.
Just for variety's sake. a fish shop was
visited next II was figured out that the
fshman at least ought TO he happy, since
If people couldn't afford meat they must
cat something. and the Housewives
League had already declared itself for
fish. Wei. the fishman was little happy.
Friday was his busy day. and he looked
scaly and prosperous
"WrlI there has been little more call
for fish these last few weeks he con-
fessed but this here idea OF busting the
beef trust by knocking of meat for
week or ten days looks silly 10 me. ! don't
care meself how much meat they don't
eat The less they eat the better 1t IS Tor
my business. It's the principle Of the
thing I'm talking about
What tho Packers Will Do.