The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-09-28
PIGS AND CATFISH
Hush little porker, don't you squeal,
You may be catfish, in the new deal.

|
You may be catfish, in the new deal.
According to a recent Associated
Press dispatch under a Kansas City
date line, large part of the pigs
slaughtered at st. Joseph, Mo-, and
East St. Louis, ILL.,, under the govern
ment's pork reduction program, has
been thrown into the Mississippi and
Missouri rivers, while those pur-
chased at Kansas City are being con-
verified in edible pork and fertilizer.
1t was estimated also by Frank Hun
| ter, Sr., representative of the Ameri-
can Institute of Meat Packers, that
about $4,000 of the $4,000 paid
by the government at East st. Louis,
in the premium hog market, was eX-
pended on meat which was thrown
away. A major part of the pigs killed
at St. Joseph, it is said, has been
thrown into the Missouri River.
Now the catfish in the Missouri and
Mississippi rivers are famed in song
and story for their delicacy and racy
flavor. Just how they will grow and
wax even fatter on a diet of Secre-
| tary Wallace's premium pork remains
to be seen, but the prospects ought to
be favorable, and we expect to hear
even more eloquent stories than usual
this season about the size and eating
qualities of the catfish caught along
the banks of the two historic rivers.
But this isn't all. According to
United Press dispatch from Chicago,
"where breezes blow west or south,
residents of three Chicago suburbs
have pungent reminders of Uncle
Sans plan for slaughtering thous-
ands of pigs to increase hog prices.
Complaints on file here told of indie
scribably revolving odors waited by
winds which blow over the carcasses
of animals dumped in the Markham
yards of the Illinois Central Rail
road"
"Packers," continued the United
Press, "said the animals had been
deodorized before they were dumped.
Compliments disagreed. No one
knew what would be done with the
millions of pounds of pigs already
dumped, but officials promised that
hereafter carcasses would be taken
at least 200 miles from Chicago"
So the governments hog-price rails
ing program seems to be continuing.
1t will doubtless be popular with the
horned fish slipping sinuously through
the muddy waters of the Mississippi
and the Missouri, even if it is in bad
odor in Chicago.
A great many people decry what
they term this ruthless wastage of
good food. But it seems that the far
mers responded more enthusiastically
than expected to the proposal of the
government to buy their pigs at twice
| GilC maj hCG p1lNS-WIllSH ny IIlS way
is just about what the government
usually pays for what it buys. AS
result more little pigs came to market
! than could be converted into human
food and the fsh-feeding and produc-
ton of bad odors was a necessary
complement to the plan.
If big surplus of pork products is
built up by government purchases,
great many people are wondering
whether it will not hang as a depress-
ing. cloud over the hog market just
as the mountain of government wheat
purchased by the late lamented Farm
Board acted as drag on the wheat
market for so many long months.
To turn the pork products over to
the Red Cross to feed the hungry dur
ing the coming winter would seem,
like sensible and humane thing to
do. But this would defeat the purpose
of the administration in buying the