The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-19


 bring the best prices, but on a diff ferent plan. At his -thousand- acred King Ranch, said to be the worlds largest, a special breed of cattle has been developed which will fatten on native grass, so that the calves born on his range can be conditioned for market right at home, without the expensive corn or other stock-feed fattening such as IS done by co-congressional cow man Wadsworth.
 If all this sounds as though the big beef men of Congress have a good thing on the side and that bus mess in these wartimes of meat scarcity has been dandy, that is a fair assumption. But into each life some rain must fall and today, over the range homes and the Washing ton office suites of the congressional cowmen the skies are almost con- tinuously cloudy, there are discour- aging words heard at all times, and the Adirondack deer and the Texas antelope are not having fun.
 OPA AND OES BLAMED
 The reason for all this despond that muddies up the picture is, as you may or may not guess, the guv- rnent -OPA and OES, the admins trative end of the guv-ment-not the legislative end, of course. Spec ifically, the Office of Price Admin istration is accused of having fram- ed, and Office of Economic Stabili- Zation Director Fred M. VinSon is accused o having promulgated the OES directive of Oct. 25 which in effect does four things:
 l. It changes the rates of subsidy payments from a flat $110 former ly made to slaughterers, to varying sums from 50 cents to $1.45.
 2. It gives an extra subsidy of 90 cents to small slaughterers who nor mally handle about IS per cent of the countrys meat supply.
 B. It provides for deductions of subsidies if slaughterers overpay on theil average prices to cattle feeders during any month. 4. If directs the War Food Administration to allo- cate live cattle to slaughterers.
 Congressmen Kleberk will make you a speech on the subject at the drop of a hat, five-gallon or larger preferred. It goes something like this: We fought the Civil War to determine for all time the issue of whether we could be half slave and halt free and the outcome was that not even a minority shoult. be slave. With this decision we all now con- cur, but the issue today, l tell you is whether we shall all be slaves slaves to bureaucracy"
 COWMEN APPREHENSIVE
 All such oratory, when strung up by the hind hoofs on 8 packing house rail, reveals in lean meat what the fundamental beef of the cattle men really is, if you'll pardon the bal pun. It is simply that the new directive from Judge Vinson's office means that the coWmen see in this order prospect for cutting down on the amount of money they're going to get for the steers they're going to sell in the coming months. Partic- ularly, it has thrown scare into the sellers of beef that grades out choice. It works like this:
 At the present time, the govern ment pays the packers a subsidy Of $1.10 per hundredweight, regardless of grade. This enables the packers to pay the cattlemen higher price, which encourages production. Under the new schedule, the subsidy for choice, A grade meat is reduced to $l.1O per cwt., while the subsidy for good or A grade meat Is raised to $1.45. Subsidies for medium of B ard lower grade beefs are 50 cents to 90 cents. This may mean that the best good beef may bring more than the worst choice beef.
 But this is only one phase of the terribly complex but interesting sub feet of beef. It's worth considering further, in the next issue.