The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-05-05
No More Cheap Meat.

Americans never are but are al
WAYS about to be blessed with cheap
er meats. At present there are re-
ports that one of the first results of
the new tariff will be competition in
our markets of foreign meats with
the trust controlled domestic article
Steamers from Australia, we are told
will begin to bring in frozen meat
as soon as the tariff bill becomes
law. and the consumer will be happy.
AS to the consumers happiness, that
depends upon many factors besides
duty-free meats. The quality of the
meat, for instance, is one, and the
experiment of sending frozen or
chilled mutton and beef across the
continent from San Francisco to the
East may be attended with difficulty.
They eat great deal of chilled meat
in England, but English distances
are not to be compared with ours,
and the consequent exposure TO de-
terioration is much less than 1t
would be here. Moreover, the econo
mic conditions in the two countries
are different, and that affects the
comparative expenses of distribu-
ton. Taking one consideration with
another, reckoning freight charges,
the cost of marketing, ETC.. and the
probabilities are against the consum-
er realizing great benefits expressed
in money terms from the Australian
enterprise.
Beef barons have told the world
time and time again that they can
see no signs of the coming of an
era of low meat prices. AS with
them the wish may be father to the
thought the world is incredulous OF
the beef barons dsinterestedness as
prophets. Doubtless trusts take ad-
vantage of every condition that fa'-
ors or can be made to favor them.
Certainly they are the reverse OF al
truistic, but nevertheless ii seems 10
be fact that the world if not short
of beef creatures" is by no means
oyerstocked with them. The people
of the United States are among the
greatest consumers of beef on the
face of the earth, and therefore their
demand stimulates supply. No first
class nation whose government sta
tistics are at all trustworthy has
such herds of horned cattle as are
found in the United States. The
census of 1910 returned the cattle in
the United States as 67,719.410 head.
This aggregate is five times that OF
the United Kingdom, and is more
than threefold the Germand herd.
European Russia is a land we might
expect TO be crowded with herds, but
its cattle at the date of latest re-
port did not much exceed a. 1000
head. Argentina we have been ac'
customed to regard as having cattle
enough to relieve beef-hungry
world, but it falls below Russia, re-
turning but little more than 29,000,-
900 head French cattle number
rather more than 100000. Other
lands in the cattle list fall far below
these. Mexico has not taken a cattle
enumeration for more than 10 years
and then It counted up 5.l42,0O0
head. In Australia, where there are
100000 cattle.
The lesson of these data is that if
Americans are to have much cheap
er meat they must go into cattle
raising on their own account more
than at present With
free meat and dutiable cattle relief
is not likely to come, for the Inter
ests" will be quick to see the advan
tage of setting up great Strengthening
establishments just beyond our boun-
daries. Already the trusts are under
stood to have organized" in Argen-
tina to handle the beef exports to
the United States IL is up to the
farmers of New England to release
New England from its thraldom to
the trusts. They have the land. and
they could have the money. too. il
instead of buying meat for their own
they would raise |
enough for their household supply, |
for IL is a fact that there are far
mers i'm New England who instead of !
keeping pigs purchase pork from |
the West. What is true of pork is |
true of all other meats |
that appear on the majority of New |
tables-Boston Transcript |