Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-05
FISH PRICES SOAR;
FOLLOWING MEAT
CONTINUED from First Page.)

probe to force the conspirators into
! the light"
I AS was stated at the beginning of
/ this article, Secretary of Agriculture
| Houston Is worried over the beef
situation, which was a blot on the
nation before he came into the official
government family, and for which he
cannot be blamed If he can't solve 1t,
| and for which he will receive the
blessings lof millions of people IL he
| is successful But with food fish 1t is
entirely different Here we have food
| fish in abundance, but the question to
decide Immediately Is how shall we
conserve the supply and not get into
the predicament that now confronts
the government.
Similar somewhat are both cases,
beef and fish, but, oh, so different,
as the saying goes. 1t takes 10000
head of cattle to supply the daily de-
mand in this country and every pound
of If must be raised, fed and cared
for. The fish supply comes to our
coast unsolicited without a penny of
cost to anybody, where 1t is gathered
for market. Here is where the first
item of expense occurs, and that can
only be nominal when it is shipped
from the fisheries for 21a cents a
pound. That part of the New Jersey
I1SnGTlpS lHdL HES dH ItpOtt
with the State Game and Fish Com
mission (and it is only part of the
vast industry that is called upon to
file a report) caught 34,S06,06S pounds
of fish in 1912, valued at $773, 1858
Here we have a concrete example
of a necessity of life, abundant today
as beef on the hoof was few short
years ago, and everybody asking,
what are you going to do about 1t,
let. 1t become cornered as was beef. or
will the government start now and
conserve it before it Is too late?
With beef rising every day in price
so that the average man finds 1t a
luxury, while it is necessity, would
it not be wise to prevent the fish trust
from securing absolute control of the
next best substitute, the food fish of
the sea?
The Star has been asked many per
tinent questions since taking up this
subject, and one of them most fire.
quently asked is:
What can be done with the surplus
catch that is frequently made at
every fishery?
Surplus catch is trade term only.
There has never been. catch made
that could not have been disposed of
to the consumer if it were permitted
to come to market, but it isn't. The
fish trust members tend to that They
simply refuse to accept the conSign-
ment, and when 1t rots 1t is carted
off to the dumps or thrown overheard
or sent to the fertilizer factory.
There are many ways of putting up
fish for future use, and none know
them better than the men in the busi-
ness One dealer with a trifle more
conscience than some others said.
New Jersey should be producing
thousands of barrels of sailed fish
every year, to say nothing of the
thousands of cases of smoked ones.
Each and every eatable fish that
comes to our coast can be smoked or
sailed, and they would find a ready
market. The fishermen know this, and
they put down enough in salt to carry
them through the winter as well as
putting up a goodly supply of smoked
ones"
The dealer in question said he had
been in the fish business thirty years.
and that he felt that the gift of God
should not be destroyed wantonly and
that the fishes from which fertilizer
was made were unfit for food, and
that proved conclusively that food
fish were never made for wilfu2 de-
struction.
This same man said that it was time
to take up the conservation OF food
fish, and showed his books to prove
that even in New York city the price
has advanced more than 900 per cent.
in ten years, and in one of the articles
to appear later the Evening Star will
give several examples, taken from
those books, that will show the hand
of the fish trust as 1t is gradually
Tightening around the pocket books
of the people of New Jersey.
Rome wasn't built in a day and
neither can the story of this grasping
monopoly be told in a day. Every
time the staff of the Evening Star
starts on lead some one suggests
new one, and so it goes. The men
of this city are awakening to the fact
that they pay 20 cents a pound for
bluefish entrails, and pay 1t without
murmur, while they complain If an
inch of bone is left In a steak.