Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-01-09
MEAT ECONOMIES.

/ The department OF agriculture IS
Z going to undertake an investigation
bearing upon the meat production OF
| the country with view OF increasing
the production. At present the rails
ing OF cattle for market Is at a stand
/ still while the demand is increasing.
. The result Is increasing high prices
T for meat OF all KINDS. The secretary
OF agriculture thinks this can be rem
edied. and Is planning to TO make a
strenuous effort to introduce the rem
edy in a way that the secretary be
lieyes vii be effective.
One Of the investigators win be
DIR. T. y. Carver. OF Harvard's de
pariment OF economies. a specialist
in rural and agricultural studies. DR..
Carver has some ideas about meat
that are really striking. He deals with
the whole thing at once: Concentra-
ton in the west. meat trust and all.
As quoted recently in Farm and Fire
side. his views were inteIlieentiy out
lined.
DIR. Carver lakes the position that
the whole meat-raising industry has
got into an unnatural and abnormal
status. This may be attributed to the
fact that in this country IS developed
the great contrasting industry of the
middle west. some decades ago. az
rate so rapid that the world could
not absorb the corn crop until II was
transmitted into meat Corn and stock 1
were so easy TO produce in that sec /
ton that II proved economically pos |
sible TO raise meat by feeding IL chief |
~ on grain. That. Dr. Carver declares, |
is an unnatural and uneconomicaI pro !
ceeding. He insists that II could not I
continue long. and that in fact the
end OF that system is now approach
ing. The worlds demand for food 4
and its requirements for grain are
such that the price OF corn may be
expected henceforward to keep so
high that II will generally be unecon-
omic TO turn e into meat before mar
keting IL. Meat cannot 20 much high
er without cutting down the demand. +
But meantime this concentration OF
the meat-raising business in the corn
belt has produced another abnormal
ity. In the centralized control OF the
oHtASiNs lOi hdIhelluR. Siaugnter1nE,
storage and distributing meats. In
short. he esteems the meat trust" a
logical development out of that I'M l.
natural concentration of stock-grow-
ing in the corn belt. Therefore he
concludes that the present centralized
control which is welded by the great
packers will disintegrate about in pro-
portion as the meat-raising business
difuses itself. scatters away from the
corn-belt states. and settles back into
something more like the normal con-
ditions OF one and two generations
ago.
What. then. Is 10 be done about
raising meat IL the corn-beIt cannot
be relied upon TO continue indefinite
y the old methods OF production?
Meat must be made a universal nv.
product or all the farms. instead OF
almost an exclusive product of the
farms OF a particular section. This
Is the department program. II is the
proposition which met the approval
of group OF experts who recently
conferred with the secretary of agri-
culture on the subject.
The government. through the de-
Dartment. must lenc it's influence to
iecen.raiizing the meat-growInE in
industry from the west and develop
ng IL somewhere else.