The Steer Hangs High

From most of the U.S. came the same bleak news: the meat situation was terrible, was fast becoming desperate. Honest butchers had only a scaleful of high-grade cuts, black markets were growing like a yearling, meat-hungry citizens paid outrageous prices--and practically nobody knew what to do. Harried Washington officials last week guessed that up to 20% of all livestock slaughtered is going to black-marketers; in New York City alone illegal meat sales total about $2,500,000 weekly.

> Cleveland Press Reporter Clayton Fritchey scouted the countryside, came back with grisly pictures of carcasses in rat-ridden, blood-stained slaughter barns (see cut), a shocking story of racketeers who had already sidetracked 40% of the city's meat supply.

> In Vallejo, near San Francisco, the meat supply was a paltry 10% of normal; in Richmond, Calif, (shipyards) the population is up 40%, the meat supply down 70%. One butcher's solution: "I gotta make a living and I gotta keep my customers satisfied. Every morning I make the rounds of four black-market outfits. In one I say to the guy 'I'll bet you $25 you can't get me a side of beef.' I lay the cash on the table and I always lose the bet. What the hell would you do?"

Meatlegger's Paradise. Much of the problem is in the meat industry itself--it is one of the biggest and most complex in the U.S. Sugar is effectively controlled through 17 refineries; gasoline is carefully checked through 500 refineries. But meat grows on millions of U.S. farms and ranches, is slaughtered in tens of thousands of big and little abattoirs, is sold in 223,000 butcher shops. In this economic labyrinth the meatlegger finds easy pickings. Because he sells at prices 10 to 200% above OPA-fixed levels he easily outbids legitimate packers in dealing with stock raisers with itching palms; because he has choice cuts to sell he easily outtrades honest butchers.

Another trouble: meat price ceilings are in the wrong places and at the wrong levels. All retail meat prices are pegged at the March 1942 level, but livestock prices (exception: hogs) are as free as a steer on the range. Inevitable result: a record wartime demand pushed livestock prices smack against retail meat ceilings, squeezed profit margins so thin many a jobber and packer was temporarily forced out of the market.

But plenty of the blame rests squarely on U.S. meat buyers. With more free cash than ever before and a shortage-sharpened yen for meat, U.S. citizens pay without complaint far over ceiling prices. Los Angeles aircraft workers pay $1.95 a Ib. for steak, then display their prize like a Prohibition college boy showing off his flask; Manhattan housewives happily fork over 80-c- a Ib. for beef liver.

OPA officials frantically sought a solution. Policing and criminal prosecution are too cumbersome--it would take the whole U.S. Army and a new set of courts to do the job. But there might be other ways. Best was to drive home to every U.S. citizen the plain & simple fact that there is not enough meat for everyone every time, and that to trade in the black market only makes the problem worse. After that OPA could establish dollars & cents ceilings anyone can understand (pork ceilings may start soon), could set up a down-to-realities rationing plan, could decree meatless days for the whole U.S. Lastly, OPA could make a real drive to slap on the livestock ceilings the farm bloc has so persistently opposed.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.