BEEF TRUST’S NEW MOVE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 21

BEEF TRUST’S NEW MOVE

The fear of an American monopoly in the English meat market has been revived by the announcement that the Chicago firm of Swift and Co. has purchased one of the largest of the Argentine cold storage companies, which waa started four years ago with a capital of about £400,600. This is suspected to be the beginning of an effort by the American Beef Trust to get hold of the entire meat exporting trade of the Argentine, and thus control one of the principal sources from which Great Britain draws its regular supplies. Negotiations for the buying out of other companies which have their headquarters at Buenos Ayres are reported to be in progress, and as the majority of these firms have not been making much profit of late, they are probably in the mood for a sale or reorganisation. Popoular feeling in England against a general transference of the South American trade to the hands of the Beef Trust would be very strong, as it is being shown that in spite of recent criticism of its methods, the trust continues to send quantities of inferior and even diseased meat to the English authorities. In a report drawing attention To the official seizure and condemnation of 106 tons of meat in London within five weeks, Dr Collingridge, the chief medical officer of the city, states 'that the American Government stamp cannot be trusted, and he mentions a case in. which it was found attached to tuberculous beef. “This," he says, “is only another instance emphasising the necessity of a careful supervision -of all meats coming from the United States, whether labelled or otherwise. The laws regarding the inspection of meat in that country, though perhaps in themselves commendable, are carried into effect with so little regard for efficiency that the salesmen on this side feel that they had best consult their own interests in placing little or no confidence on the label affixed as a result of such inspection." He thinks the English consumer will have no security until America adopts a standard of meat inspection on the lines advocated by the RRoyal Commission on Tuberculosis. 'This London criticism is supported by a remarkable statement which cornea simultaneously from a Chicago newspaper. It alleges that “not one pound of meat shipped to England by the Beef Trust is ever subject to a microscopic examination. And nowadays a large amount of the beef shipped by the Beef Trust is cut from what is known as quarantine cattle. These are southern cattle which have a large suspicion hanging over them at all times of every disease from tuberculosis to Texas fever." Its success in the past in making huge profits out of inferior goods seems to have left the Beef Trust incorrigible. The dislike which it has incurred in England has left the public with a strong inclination to prefer colonial meats, but unfortunatey the smolies of these coming forward are still small.—London Correspondent of Melbourne “Age."