The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-09-09
BOSTON MEAT
DEALERS HEARD
sSa
.4tH
Former Cattle Dealer Makes
Claim Packers Got Rake
/ off On All Stock
CHEAPER MEATS
REALLY COSTLY

( 4udA oOStOulduS.s
BOSTON, Sept. 9-The commission
on the necessities of life continued att
an all-day hearing at the state house
yesterday its examination of retail
meat dealers, nearly all of whom were
summoned because they failed to at
tend last week : session. Two of the
witnesses surprised the commission by
stating that the prices of so-called
cheap cuts of meat were as high in pro-
portion as the cost of high priced cuts.
Joseph Ruff of 259 Massachusetts av-
enue said that he bought beef for prize
es from IS to 30 cents a pound and sold
Int anywhere from 40 cents to % cents
a pound.
Mr.. Ruff figures that his profit was
g about 10 per cent Gen Sherbnrne,
chairman of the committee ordered him
| to bring his books. At the afternoon
| session Mr.. Ruff presented them. He
| said he had forgotten his eyeglasses
and would have to ask the commission
ers to go over the figures
Commissioner Willard directed Mr.
I nun w navy toilDiltu UlDHlHlN STATE
ments of the business from Jan |, 1918,
and forward them to the commission.
o. NJ. Lowe of Fitchburg, formerly
in the cattle business, spoke in favor OF
publicly owned slaughter houses in sec.
tions of the state where they would bt
scrviceable.
/ He contended that the big packing
companies control the business done al
the existing plants in Brighton, Spring
field and Worcester and that local in
terests were frozen out +"
"Swift and, the Armours buy most o
the cattle at these places and do TIL
only bidding for local cattle, - he said
He charged that the packers made
"rakeoff of from So to So on the kill
ing of each hog.
When Lowe was in the business, &C
cording to his assertion. the Swif
Packing Company cut off local com
petition by g suggesting to him that h
cut off the credit of the smaller dea
ers who ATTEMPTED, to buy at the. lQfes
A. H. Smith of the Manhattan MAJ
ket Company, Cambridge, said the blu,
4 mess of that firm is conducted so clos
TO cost that the dividends on its sale
do not exceed IA per cent. The gros
l profits for the company, during til
l past year. he said. were S21T,00 q
compared with expenses of S197 ,00t
/ The total sales aggregated $1,279,00
He was of the belief that the meat bu
mess of his company could not be dor
on profits lower than are now made
The average housewife, in the opil
ion of Mr.. Smith, is buying less foo
than in the past and is buying all
the lower priced cuts of meat that al
/ available. This has been the expericnt
I of the Manhattan Markets, he sal
I Prices for the cheaper meats are pr
portionately as high as those for Il
, dearcr varieties, his records showed.
III Mr.. Smith estimated that the cost
delivery ate up 10 per cent of potenti
| profits and said that in the self-servi
stores operated by his company prize
to the customer were approximately
per cent lower, because of the deliver
expenses being eliminated
III G. II. Stockwell a dealer at Bra
tie square, Cambridge. was asked to c
4 plain the reason for a difference of
cents to the pound in the price of 81
loin steak as sold in New York al
| Boston, the Hub figures being highe
81 We never been to New York. " /
piled Stockwell, :but from what T.
heard of the way they do business ov
4 there | understand they cut the
= steaks differently than here
1t was learned by examination
Stockwell S book that the price of 81
loin steak charged by Stockwel was
cents as compared with a cost of a
proximatelv A cents.
q gave my customers the benefit