Two Little Meat

Too Little Meat

To many a U.S. citizen who yearned for a good steak last week, one kind of farm abundance (see above) was poor consolation for another farm shortage.

Boston, which needs a million pounds of meat a day, was getting only a fifth that much. On Thursday three carloads arrived instead of 75. People who wanted beans had to eat them without pork. People who wanted meat had to take lamb or poultry and pay the price. There were meat shortages also in Providence, Philadelphia, Cleveland, many another large city. Even in Chicago, meat center of the nation, some 50 independent butchers had too little stock to open their doors.

Despite record-breaking production, there is not enough beef or pork for everybody--for the Government is buying 30% of the kill for Lend-Lease and the Army, and the new rich are buying meat as never before. The shortage struck first in cities where the ceiling prices were lowest: the packers, squeezed between ceilings and rising hog and steer prices, naturally preferred to sell where the squeeze hurt least.

The Government now believes that nothing short of full-dress rationing will make the supply go round. The present plan: every family to have a meat card by snowfall.

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