The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-08-12

Hog Price Situation
Assuming Serious
Proportions
by VINCENT LYONS.
Times Financial Editor

! ~ A
w ceilings daily in Western
livestock markets, the situation IS
beginning TO assume rather serious
proportions. The rise that has al
ready taken place has lifted pork
out Of the reach Of many people
and packers are reported 20 De
hesitant Of passing or the latest
rise Tor fear that It will be provo
cative Of widespread consumer
strikes.
Packers apparently are reluctant
TO step up the price for two rea-
sons. The first IS that such con-
sumner strikes are likely TO develop
into resistance campaigns against
all meats. The second reason is
that II the price Of pork reaches too
high a level. many persons will be
forced 20 quit eating this type Of
meat with the result that they will
lose their taste for It.
Pork on the hOOf currently Is
worth SD a hundred weight. the
highest quotation IN six years. On
the last day Of April the price az
the Indianapolis Union StOckyard5
was 50 and on July ! It was 1910
Add N the current price the 1925
processing tax which the farm
or receives and II Is seen that the
packer has to pay more than sl4
a hundred weight for the pork
before II is dressed and made
read. Tor the table And both the
packer and the retailer are en-
titled to a profit IN handling the
business.
DORK'S persistent advance is A
Il reflection OF the elementary,
but infallible, law Of ecOnOmics-
supply and demand. In Chicago,
the nations leading livestock mar
ket, swine receipts in June we're
the hghtest in more than so years.
Supplies at other points also have
fallen perceptibly Meanwhile, the
demand has not contracted to the
same degree as supply with the re-
suit that packers have had to bid
high TO fulfill their needs.
The marked contraction of sup
ply at the present time follows
from three conditions. The Fed
eral government, through the Agri-
cultural Adjustment Administra-
ton. urged farmers to curtail their
livestock production in an effort
to bring about higher prices. Then
the drought INTERVIEWED to cause
further curtailment The third fac
tor is that farmers at present are
more concerned with thrashing of
wheat than with marketing Of
their livestock.
If it we're not for the fact that
there are several substitutes for
pork in the diet, there would have
been a sensational advance in the
price of the meat AS the situation
stands today, however, each uplift
of quotations further reduces the
area of consumption. And it is
this very item which is making
packers apprehenSive of placing in
effect new advances.
THE thing to be feared now is
i that the dizzy climb of hogs
may occasion lamb and beef TO
run out of bounds. This would
come about if consumers ignore
pork in the butcher shops and
create such an increased demand
for the other meats that packers
will engage in q stiff bidding bat
tie to get the scaut supplies now
available. The Department of
Agriculture has declared that lamb
receipts at livestock markets are
running low and that the pros
pect is for higher prices over the
next year.
Actually accompanying the up
rush of hogs has been lard. The
price has gone up so rapidly in the
last few months that our export
trade in the commodity has fallen
of TO q mere shadow of normal.
During the second quarter of the
year outgoing shipments aggre-
gated but 23,809.976 pounds, con-
trasted with 146.525, 312 pounds in
the corresponding period last year.
With the price of lard contin-
uing TO move forward. It is highly
probably that packers will begin
a concentrated drive to replace
their lard trade with the less eX-
penSive compound shortening or
vegetable shortening.