The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-03-25

sirloins, we put beef heart on the
market, too. Likewise do we make it
necessary to dispose of chucks, TANKS,
neck, ROUNDS and the various other
cuts that are less in demand but which
figure in the poundage of the live ami
mai for all that. Our wholesale price
list shows lungs selling at 3 cents a
pound. although we pay four or five
times that much for them. If con-
sumers Were willing Ito pay a higher
price for lungs. the price of sirloins
could be reduced.
The consuming public has to pay
enough for the meat from the whole
steer to recompenSe the farmer for
producing that meat and to reimburse
the packer for Strengthening, dressing,
preparing and distributing. So If the
consumer won't buy the neck meat ex
cept at a discount he will have to pay
for the neck when he buys porter
house or the particular cut that is most
demanded. II n steer could be raised
that would cut up into only such cuts
as are most in demand. the matter
would be solved That is, the price Of
the cuts in question would bear an
evident relation to the price Of the live
animal. But as long as ten people de-
mand fancy cuts while only one is Will
ing to take the less desirable, there is
going to be an adjustment Of price
which will force the particular con-
sumner to help pay for the cuts he will
not purchase.
Now just a word as to profits in
view of the fact that the uniformed
sometimes suspect that they are I'M
duly large. Including every branch of
our industry in the United States--and
some of them are more profitable than
are the strictly food lines--we made,
last year. a profit of 3.S cents when
we sold a dollars worth of goods. On
that basis a good sized hardware store
doing a business of $4,000 a year
would pay it's owner $1,000 aud the cor
ner grocery doing $4,000 a year would
show a profit of $3.50.
On strictly food products of all kinds,
Aymour and company earned at the
rate of 2.2l cents on the dollar last
year. A tobacco store conducted on
that same basis and doing a business
of SO. 900 a ycar-and that is pretty
good business for a small tobacco store
would show Il Profit at the end or the
year of only S22l,
On meat and meat products alone.
our company earned only 2.oT cents on
the dollar. Put in concrete terms, this
means ON an amount of fresh beef
equal in pounds to the per capita con-
sumption in this country, we earned
50 cents last year. The government
says that the average citizen eats 2So
pounds of meat in a year. At the cur
rent price of fresh beef in the carcass
the way we sell most of it-2So
pcands is worth S39.l0. That is what
the retailer paid us for it. Out of that
sum so cents was our profit.
Is that your idea of eNtortion?
AS TO why meats are high-a glance
at the market reports in any paper
tells the story. Meats cannot be cheap
when hogs are selling at SIT per hun
dred pounds live weight and when
steers on the hoof cost from Sl3 to
SIS per hundred pounds. Those are the
prices paid to the farmers and stock
raiscrs today and who shall say they
are not justified in view of the high
price of feeds and the increased cost of
| labor and the other factors which enter
into production of meat animals? My
! knowledge of the stock raisers' prob
lem prevents ME from blaming high
prices on them.
! We have high prices for meat be-
cause the world is at war and because
there is a greater demand and n small
er comparative supply than was ever
the case before. And the wonder is
that prices are not higher. Civil war
days found them higher, despite the
fact that there was then no world WAR
and no world shortage.
Hoardins meat is another groundless
charge often made. Normally, the
Iamount Of meat of all kinds in stor-
age or in a process of curing in all the
packing plants and at all the storage.
.of the whole country represents lea