The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-01-27
MONDAY. JANUARY 81, 1912.
WASTE SOMEWHERE,

WASTE SOMEWHERE,
M other day a carload Of prime
lambs was shipped to Chicago by a
Grand Forks county farmer. The
lambs have been or will be purchased
by some of the Chicago packers. They
will be slaughtered. and some Of the
dressed %carcasses. or others like them,
will be shipped hack to Grand Forks
and sold by the local dealers to Grand
Forks consumers. The people who eat
the meat will pay the freight. They
will pay freight on the live animals
700 miles from Grand Forks to Chi
cago, and freight on the dressed meat
700 miles back again? The meat will
not be one whit better than it would
have been if the animals had been
slaughtered right here at home.
Every little while a shipment Of
steers or other beef animals is sent
through Grand Forks from one Of the
neighboring counties to Chicago. And
every day in the year we are eating
meat-when We can raise the price
that is dressed in Chicago, some Of 1t,
perhaps from the same animals that
passed through the city a few weeks
before. Again the eater Of meat pays
the freight on the animals TO Chicago
and on the meat back again. The meat
is not at all improved by the trip.
There is a constant search for the
cause Of the high cost Of living. OF
course the prices charged for products
are not due to any single cause. But
among the many causes Of high prices
wasteful methods Of marketing and
distribution Is surely one. We do not
know exactly why moro home grown
meat is not consumed in Grand Forks.
Butchers say, and II is doubtless true,
that there is a shortage Of desirable
animals in the locality that they can
draw from. and that they are obliged
to depend on the eastern packer for
their supply. And yet we see carload
after carload Of fine stock passing
through the city to the very people
from whom we obtain our dressed
meats. And, while the average farm
animal in this section is not q desir.
able meat animal. there are some Of
such animals raised here, and some Of
them sold in competition with the best
from other sections. have topped the
market, or brought prices close to the
top.
Something is wrong. We DO not pre-.
tend to know what It 10. It is occas-
sionally limited that the retail meat
dealers. not merely here. but every
where. live under the constant threat
never made in set terms, but always
understood-that any effort on their
part to develop the local meat indus.
try to a point where 1t would interfere
seriously with the packing house trade
would result in their being put out Of
business by the packers. who would
cut prices to a point which would
mean certain loss to everyone attempt.
ing to compete with them. 1t is a mat
ter Of history that this practice has
been followed in connection with 9TH
er lines, notably in the OIL trade. The
big oil company has often almost given
oil away in a particular territory in
order to drive out on annoying COM
petitor, making up Its losses there by
advances where competition was not
threatened. We do not know that this
situation exists in the meat Industry.
1t is n explanation suggested come.
times by persons who cannot explain
on any other basis the waste that now
prevails in this matter Of shipment and
reshipment. q waste for which the
consumer must always ana inevitably
pay.
The difficulty here 10 the lack Of
proper slaughtering and feeding IA
cilities. All Of our slaughter houses
are shacks. crude ana rough without
conveniences Of any kind. We take It
that II a local butcher should buy a
carload Of prime steers tomorrow he
would not know what to do with them.
He has no proper place to feed them
until the time would come to slaugh.
ter them. He has no conveniences OF
any kind for Strengthening. Everything
about the slaughter house is frozen
up. He has no sewer connections. no
water supply. and no means Of dis.
posing Of offal which is really valua-
BILE. and which. intelligently handled.
can be made a source Of profit.
A change in our present methods
is imperative in the interest Of the
building up of a local market. in what
We believe to be the interest Of the
local dealer, in the interest Of the
public health, and in the interest of
common decency. for the present con-
ditions are nauseatng. II nothing else.
It ought nj to be necessary for the
municipality to go into the slaughter
house business. We do not believe II
is necessary. We believe the thing
can be handled by private capital on
n commercial basis. and handled prof.
itably. The first thing necessary ap-
pears to be the exercise by the city
council of the powers that it now pos
sesses, and an attitude on its part
which will cause all the meat dealers
Of the city to understand that by a
certain fixed date. reasonably close,
every slaughter house in which meat
is dressed for Grand Forks patrons
must be cleaned up. made sanitary,