The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1914. GERMANY’S MEAT PROBLEM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 January 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1914. GERMANY’S MEAT PROBLEM.

'1 he high prices of meat prevailing throughout the country in 1912 induced the Imperial German Government to appoint a commission of thirty memhcis to impure into the conditions prevailing in Germany’s trade with cattle and meat. This commission a ihjiletod its work at the end of November and its report has been presented. The evidence of about one hundred and fifty experts from all parts of the Empire was taken verbally. The experts included I‘irnaus, butchers, commissioners, and directors of abattoirs, ’ mayors, town councillors, directors of co-op-1 erativ© societies and big stores. Since id o subject of report was ofii ciallv limited to the conditions of the trade in meat the results are stated co he for the most part negative, bu‘ the report does show that the fa nil does not lie in extravagant profits either of middle-men or of wholesale butchers or of retail tradesmen. Nor can the supposed high charges of the abattoirs account for the prices prevailing, is the opinion given by a

well-known Berlin correspondent. Some time ago the Minister for the Interior attributed these high prices to the.! profits of those through whose hands the meat reaches retailer and consumer but the report of the commission directly contradicts this assumption and points out that these various agents of distribution are not only necessary, hut actually cheapen the meat, owing to their division of labour. Singularly, the re-

1-porb states that of the eight markets visited the groat majority of businesses investigated showed a net loss on their working. The immense profits attributed to the ordinary trade are shown to have existed only in the imagination of the supporters of the tariff wall. The agrarians claimed that meat was enhanced in price beyond reason. by municipal profits from abattoir* aijd cattle compounds. J)r. Delhruck pointed out that a reduction of the abattoir fees would have no effect on prices, - and that the expense to tin* retailer would he greater if butchers were left to provide their own abattoirs. r J he importation of foreign meat to Germany and its distribution by the 'municipalities as' practised largely in the last eighteen months are regarded by i he Commission as emergency j measures capable at times of provid-j ing fie poorer classes with somewhat, cheaper meat. The agrarian pro- j posal that communities should arrange 1 five-year contracts with inland cattle- 1 farmers through their central agen- 1

cies was regarded with distrust by the- Commission, which, however, pointed out that there was no experience to justify comment. The only community, Ulm in South Germany, which had tried the experiment by arranging a live-year agreement with swine-breeders had had its experiment interrupted owing to swine fever. '‘lt is a pity,” writes Dr. Wemlorlf-Toitz. a member of the Reichstag, in the ‘'Bor.-eti-Courier,” “that the Commission was not aide to deal with the real cause of the evil—namely, the relation between supply and demand. Only by the way could the Commission point to the actual fact—namely, that tin German cattle-breeders do not breed sufficient cattle to supply the demand. In order to get at the root of this evil we do not require Commissions on all sorts of minor incidentals, but wc do need to break with our agrarian policy: we need cheaper, uutaxed fodder, we need a great increase of cattle-breeding peasant farmers, and a well-planned colonisation of om own country.”