The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-26
Packers Charge Butchers Get
ting Ali the Gravy. !
Livestock Market Is at Pre.War
Levels Now.
RETAIL PRICES STILL UP
Wholesalers Are Cleared by
Their Quotation Lists.
Butchers Declare No Demand
for Low Grade Stuff.

Chicago, April 26.-Retail butchers
are now dipping their ladle into the
gravy. They are clinging on to the
bowl with a vengeance. take it from
those who produce livestock and pre-
pare it for the markets.
With prices of both cattle and hogs
down to pre-war levels. the retail mar
ket still holds up and there IS little
prospect of the public getting any
great benefit from the slump in live
stock prices, according to leaders in
close touch with market conditions.
interviewed by the United Press today.
But Beef Goes Up.
While prices of choice beef steers
dropped to the lowest point in the
last decade, there has been an ad-
vance of from l to cents in the last
two weeks for the best grade of beef
The advance in beef quotations was
explained by butchers, who said there
had been strengthening of the de-
mand due to the scarcity. Packers
had been killing no more than neces-
| sary and had little in storage. it was
! learned. so that as soon as the demand
was felt it had an immediate. effect
on retail and wholesale prices of meat
but not on livestock.
Market quotations show that live-
stock is selling below pre-war levels
so that the responsibility for keeping
up retail prices cannot be placed on
the producer. The buck is then
passed up to the packer-the whole
saler.
Market quotations on such articles
! that the packer sells which can be
compared to pre-war prices put the
packer in the clear of the responsible
ity, they claim. Lard is down to .
or 10 cents, whichswas about the fig
ure in 1916.
Pork Down First.
| The first meat product to complete
4 s4iiauidation, according to packers, was
| pork. Wholesale pork reached the
1914 level some time ago, and yet
retail pork prices are still far above
the figure ofSseven years ago.
Three and a daarter pounds of pork
roast today sold Tor $1.1S at lead
ing retail butcher shop. The same
piece of meat could be obtained from
y--fsae4teE-employes organization
shop for about 5 cents. This is above
the wholesale price, as the employees
shop must also pay its overhead
charges from the selling price, the
same as other retail shops.
Hogs and cattle now being received
are of the choicest grades. They have
been fed heavily during the winter
on cheap corn and other feed. An alb
normal number of high class hogs and
i cattle are reported at practically all
markets.
| Say Demand Low.
Butchers say the reason that prices
remain up is because there is no de-
mand for the low grade" of meat,
and they must make enough profit on
the high grades to make up for the
loss in the low grades. They must
buy both classes from the packer.
h Inquiry at a half dozen Chicago
butcher shops for soup bones and
other cuts usually regarded as low
grades" brought the response that
they had nothing of the sort on hand.
Even the once lowIy liver ma images
to maintain the high caste to which it
was elevated during the war. Attic
the price of the live animal is Just the
same as it was ten years ago when
/ enough liver could be obtained for a
nickel to feed a family of six, Chicago
butchers were charging Is cents a
pound.
All Depends OH Butchers.
Kansas City. Mo. April 26-Tha
livestock market will not improve rn-
til the retail butchers reduce their
prices to the consumer. a livestock ex-
change official said today.
He claimed retail prices were so
high that people were eating less and
less meat, resulting in decreased de-
mand and an oversupply of livestock