42 THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 



a similar plan in the meat industry. For a very few 

 choice cattle, a high price is frequently paid. This 

 is given the widest publicity, and in every shop it is 

 given as the reason for the high price of beef to 

 people who never tasted this high class of beef the 

 meats sold them generally coming from a class of cat- 

 tle for which the farmers received little or no more 

 than one-half the price quoted. 



The consuming public, as well as the farmer, from 

 daily market quotations, should know the number and 

 percentage of each class of animals sold, and the price 

 paid for same at the stock yards; that the one may 

 know what his stock should bring, and the other what 

 his meat should cost. These grades being established, 

 the Government, during the war at least, should pro- 

 hibit the slaughter of certain classes of immature and 

 unfattened animals. The result of this would at first 

 work apparent hardship. Consumers might, for a 

 time, have to pay higher prices, but for a better class 

 of meat; the farmer, obliged to sell non-slaughterable 

 cattle, probably would find a poorer market. But 

 these conditions would only be temporary. The stim- 

 ulus given to the feeders would rapidly increase the 

 amount of wholesome beef, and that in turn would 

 stimulate the prices of young and undeveloped ani- 

 mals. The Administration being able to detect and 

 eliminate vicious practices in the trade, our farmers 

 would soon be producing an abundance of meat to be 

 sold on the block at lower prices, still leaving them a 

 fair profit, instead of sustaining heavy losses, as in 

 recent years. From the standpoint of production, 

 meat must always be an expensive food, as compared 



