The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-01-11
THE STATE MUST LIVE

20 quit buying western meat and 70
purchase Florida meat, whenever a
steady supply of well-finished meat .
from dipped cattle is available In the
properly slaughtered; in
sanitary condition; under board of
health inspection, and sold in grades
according to quality Said grades to .
be stamped with registered trade /
mark of reliable association or
packing house"
The foregoing is cut from last /
weeks issue of one of our state pa
Pers; and while it is in the form of
resolution, that paper says that it was
presented by some ladies as a message
to the Florida Cattlemen's Association
assembled at Kissimmee-a few days
ago.
The federated women's clubs of
Florida include large number of our
most intelligent women, and ! believe
an injustice has been done them by
presenting in this form the views of
individual members, for the cattlemen
of Florida may never hope, and hope
never, 10 piedSE suCh LdSIIuio0S Id
dies.
The paper from which the above
message was taken says that it and
the ladies were received with cour-
tesy," which the ladies were well en-
titled to receive; but if anything of
courtesy was shown TO the message
the cattlemen present have won much
more in the race for chivalry than
they have lost by the ticks.
No Florida cow may aspire to pass
the gamut of regulation thus imposed,
and thus they will be forced to live to
/ feed ticks in order to save their own
funeral expenses.
! Ladies, the qualifying adjectives
and adverbs which your prudence
1 suggested you use in this message are
wholly superfiuous, as Florida steer
can not get by the other parts of
i speech which you employ. We see
that you wish something a little more
formal than an inquest held over the
remains of each butchered animal, III
which its antecedent life is to be in
kquired into, which rather br6adens the
/ present duties of a coroncr's jury;
while the subsequent formalities you
require necessitate severaI-post NOR
TEN examinations. Internationally,
/ you have paid an undeserved compli-
ment to the friendless Florida steer,
as the polishing and finishing costs
which you would bestow easily prove
that you consider him veritable dia-
mond in the rough; as to sell his re-
mains at profit, after what you pro-
pose, would indicate that his entire
substance must be reduced to some
condiment, or relish, and sold in jars
at dollar per pint to be served with
hot tea and lemon on sandwiches, like
caviar, or pate de foie gras.
Enough of this testing. The life
of the state does depend in a large
measure upon our meats, so we are
led to consider that subject, but not
in local or partisan way.
The blessings and the personal mis-
fortunes of the writer have been the
means of more information about this
matter than many of his readers pos
sess. Since 1912 he has passed over
the great continental divide eight
times, has been in nearly every state
in this Union, and has some knowl.
edge of the conditions under which
our meats are produced from the At.
lantic to the Pacific; the rich grass
lands Of western Canada and the
beautiful pastures on the mesas of the
Sierra Madras, IN Mexico, have come
under his view.
The winter of 1918-1919 was the
most prosperous season that our meat
producers had ever known. Internal
and eternal, war in Mexico had Their
stripped her of all stocks of cattle anc
sheep, and four years of drouth In
West Texas had, it was estimated
left to bleach on her prairies the bones
of 100000 stock cattle, thus produc
ing shortage in the normal sources
of supply, already reduced by the ex
cessive demands of Europe during the
war. . Range sheep in the west haC
come up from 81 per head in 1914 t.
SIT in the winter of 1918-1919, anC
the same, though in less proportion
was true of cattle, sheep and hogs il
every state in this Union.
The millions who produce these es
sentials of life were never so pros
porous, or so happy; but they were
not satisfied; men never are. The,
were afraid that some one else mad,
a profit on their goods, and as they
sold to the packers it must be tht
packers who made it.
| have talked with hundreds O.
these people and was thus made ac
. quainted with the suspected tricks Of
the packers, which were trifing, in
deed, compared with the tricks which
these men were free to admit the,
practiced on one another. No ont
, abuse seemed to prevade the Chicago
. Kansas City, Denver and Sort Worth
| Stockyards: one man preferred tn sci