The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-10-15
MILLIONS in MEAT
ANIMALS Are KILLED
GEORGIA ASKED TO CONSERVE
HER MEAT AND LEATHER.
CAMPAIGN STARTS SOON.

In the year 1917 it is roughly esti-
mated that cattle to the value of
$25O,OO0,00O was destroyed by the
railroads of Georgia, and that at a
time when the government was de-
manding food production and con-
servation of all kinds to speed the
war.
The department of food conserva-
ton has brought to the attention
of the state council of de-
tense the important problem of con-
serving our national resources of
meat and leather. The tentative fig
ures presented were so startling that
the subject matter became at once
of serious concern. Without hesita-
ton the state council Immediately
took up the work of securing actual
statistics on the subject and of taking
steps looking to the elimination, or
at least a reduction, of this great
waste.
Georgia Loses $25O,OOO,O a Year.
The public may gain some idea of
the Importance of this matter from
the fact that during the year 1917
the money value of animals fit for
food killed by the railroads in GeOr-
gia was 250,000,000 on a railroad
mileage of about 1000 miles, which
is $125.00 per mile for the entire
railroad mileage. 1t is confidently
stated and believed taht this average
will be maintained; therefore, for the
ten Southern states the money value
of the animals killed reaches the
startling sum of two and one-half
million dollars.
None of this meat is conserved, but
is food alone for the buzzards. The
railroads are operated by the govern
ment and payment to the owners for
the stock killed, while coming direct
ly from the railroads, is in point of
fact coming from the treasury of the
United States. The United States has
no money in its treasury that does
not come from its people, and there
fore the people are paying to the
owners of live stock killed in the ten
Southern states two and one-half
million dollars for meat and leather
which is going to waste. The money
value in no sense approximates the
food value under the present necessi-
ties of feeding the military and civil
ian populations at home and abroad,
This is especially true when we re-
member that live stock killed upon
the railroads is as a rule not fat and
in condition to make meat. Fat stock
is generally we'll cared for and kept
up out of danger. The poor stock,
however, are allowed to run at large,
and it is generally from this class that
the killing occurs. The poor hog or
cow is worth more, as matter Of
food conservation, than its actual
money value; for instance a one-eyar
old hog too poor to kill for meat by
the expenditure of say $1,000 worth
of corn may become a fat hog worth
$4,000 for meat purposes, but if kill
ed by the railroads cannot lie worth
more than twenty or twenty-five dol
lars. 1t would require, moreover, an
other year to replace this hog with
another year old, and time is mat
ter of grave Importance. 1t is to the
interests, therefore, of the owners of
stock to preserve and safeguard them
from destruction on railway rights of
way in order that they may be util
lied for meat and leather, and own
ers will be expected to exercise ev-
cry safeguard, and those engaged in
the operation of railway trains will
be expected to exercise the very
greatest caution and care not to kill
any food animal where it can posi-
bly, be avoided.