Show WHY MEAT IS HIGHER in tiie the midst ot of the annual fall crop ot of government reports that only amaze and stagger most of us by a bewildering array ot of figures secretary wilson appears with in an enlightening report on the painful rise in the price ot of meat su a subject that interests everybody this rise in moat meat values accompanies the rise of other farm products product and is in part tile the rise in the price of corn used ill it feeding cattle the advancing prices and increasing crops unite to make this our banner year in the value of the farm yield which tile aw secretary treats before beford taking laking up the subject ot of meat prices the value of the corn crop for 1909 Is leading the list ol of farm products cotton coming next with a value ot of tS 5 00 and ad T wheat third with 7 2 00 the hay crop is worth 6 00 0 0 the it oats and so on down thle the list the grand total ui of farm products reaching the stunning sum of it may inay give some ome idea of this vast amount to say that it if it were in ill the shape ot of 20 sold gold pieces stacked in one pile the column would reach miles in the air it if laid flat edge to edge the coins would roach reach from alaska to the panama canal with enough left over lor for a golden line from new york to san francisco if distributed it would give us its all apiece men women and children to return however to the rising price of meat secretary wilson it seems has been making inquiries in fifty cities large middling aud and little about the difference between the wholesale and retail price sand has trade made some interesting discoveries summarized in the washington dissat hes elles thus tor the 50 cities the total retail cost charged to customers above the wholesale cost paid by the retailers is 38 33 per cent in 5 a cities the rate of increase is 20 per cent and under in 10 cities 21 to 30 per cent in 12 cities s 31 to 40 per cent in 12 cities 41 to 50 percent per cent kand and in 11 II cities over 50 per cent tile average retail price exceeded the average wholesale price by per cent in the north atlantic states by 38 per cent in the south atlantic by 38 per cent in the north central per cent in the western and the biggest increase was found in the 4 birth central states 54 per percent cent A gross profit of 20 per cent was aund in new york city and la in phila belphia 28 per cent in buffalo 36 26 per cent in boston 17 per cent lit in baltimore 42 per cent in washington 46 per cent in chicago 23 25 per cent in cincinnati 23 per cent in omaha as S per cent in kansas city 27 and 33 35 after fter per cent in minneapolis and st paul 40 per cent in milwaukee and detroit 39 per cent in st louis 64 pe per cent in lobile 39 per cent in san francisco 24 4 per cent in seattle 24 per cent lit in denver 37 per cent tire the lower the grade of beet beef the defter ref ter percentage of gross profit in boston for illustration the rate pt gross prof itis nearly twice as great for beet beef costing 8 cents at wholesale as tor for beet beef costing it 11 and 11 cents low priced beet beef is marked up nearly i twice relatively as high priced beef PEN jer mother words perhaps it Is adafe in ference that the poor Ioor people pay nearly ly twice as much profit as the well to do people pay the retailers are arc not blamed however as their delivery service I 1 is costly and the retail business is overdone the next question Is whether the farmer has shared lit in the advancing prices we ve read on oil this tin s point tire the farmer lias has failed to receive h a share of higher beef prices with ith regard to the raw animal the price level of 0 old steers at the tann farm being regarded as for 1896 1900 tile price of such steers rose to 1399 in n 1900 declined to in 1905 and rose to 1008 in 1309 1909 all for the date of january I 1 and for prices at the farm substantially before corn feeding h had ad begun the price of corn in 1909 at the farm is represented by with for the price level of and the price 1 of the best native steers it at the chicago stock yards in the same year is 1399 which is much aboyo lim i index number lor for tire the price of the animal at atthe the tarm larm and much below the price of corn at the farm the inference is that the farmer gets some return tor for the high priced corn that he feeds to his steers but not a return equal to 60 cents a bushel tor for his corn which is the price for the last two years As for the unfed steer it does not participate in the upward movement of prices in its farm value ake the wholesale prices of fresh beet beef carcasses have increased in about the same degree that the prices of steers have at the stock yards and the retail prices of fresh beef have kept pace with aith the wholesale prices tire the increasing prices of fresh beef therefore are due to increasing prices of animals at the stock yards and this Is explained by the abnormal circumstances to which tile the raising of beet beef animals has been subject in recent years there has been a breaking up of range herds consequent upon the enforcement of 0 the no fence law by the national government and by encroach ments of the settlers upon th the e rang ranges s made possible by the practise of td dry IY farming m not all of the cattle have gone directly front from the ranges to the slaughterhouses slaughter houses a great portion of them has gone to farms for maturing and nd finishing largely upon corn this extra demand anthe corn crop is reflected in corn prices which are now higher than they have been since the records of 0 the department of agriculture began in except for half a dozen years of this abnormal movement of beef cattle from range to tile the great markets began to tell upon the supply in 1908 when the deliveries fell oft off in a marked degree and the decrease continued in 1909 the situation with regard to hogs Is more fair to the farmer than the cattle situation is but still it is apparent that during the last three years the price of corn has been too high for the price of hogs the relative price of hogs on the farm january 1 1909 was 1473 as compared with tor for the mean price of 1896 1900 and tire the average cost of all hogs slaughtered at principal markets jn the year before wis was 1481 or about the same as the farm price the price of hogs bogs of pounds in new york in 1457 and the carcasses of market pigs at chicago at 1484 which is approximately the number representing tel resenting the relative retail price of fresh pork in the case of hogs therefore the farmer has fully participated in the rising prices whereas in the case of the farmers cattle the unfed animals are barely as valuable as they were w er e nine tp fourteen years ago and had not the price of corn ascended to a high figure perhaps lie he would not have 4 shared hared in the higher beef prices one may collect from these data says the new york globe that the retail prices of meat are more likely to go higher than to come down unless there is a material cheapening in theorice the price of feed another explanation of the high price of meat Is i given in the following editorial in th the c new york world the statement submitted by armour company in connection with the hie listing of a bond issue of on stock exchange shows the packing industry to be even more profitable than had popularly been supposed the company by its own showing made a gross profit of tor for the year on oil a capital stock of and earned a surplus of or the equivalent of a dividend of per cent liere here is something more than the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice itis it Is avarice itself I 1 in the manufacture and sale of a necessity of life armour company by their own admission have justified the charges cli arges of extortion brought against the beet beef trust in the light of this enormous profit the explanation of the high price of meat recently made by the chairman of the packers committee requires modification that explanation was in effect that the packer being obliged to pay a higher price for live stock passed on oil the additional cost to the dealer who in turn shifted it to the consumer this however is not the whole story of the rise ol of mess mesa beet beef from sn a barrel in 1906 to 1320 in 1908 for or its full understanding there must he be taken into account the millions of surplus profits received by the packers to convince wall street of the sate safe and lacerative lucera tive bond issues that make moat meat dear literary digest |