The Public Caught in the Meat Strike's Crossfire
As packinghouse workers and beef trusts battle for profit and wages, the Tacoma Times laments the rising cost of living for everyday families.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The meat strike illustrates that the processes of concentration and combination have not in the least interfered with the public's right to 'be damned.' The packers are picking up a good profit at advanced prices on the meat they have in storage. Provision dealers are exhibiting a foresight equal to their regard for profit and are disposing of their meats in stock at prices that place the beef beyond want. Retailers appreciate the situation and are cheerfully safeguarding their own interests. The strikers, though losing wages now, expect to get a good thing out of it in the end, as the packers, dealers, and retailers are getting now. There is just one element that is getting the worst of it from every viewpoint, and that is the innocent, disinterested public. Every dollar of the increased price of meals added to the profits of packer, dealer, and retailer comes out of the public. There is no possible gain for the public. And is there no remedy? The remedy is compulsory arbitration. This country has become sufficiently civilized to demand some precautions for the conservation of public rights.
“The strikers hope to gain by the strike, the employers hope to gain by resisting; and so the upper and nether millstones grind and grind and grind, and the grist they grind is the public.”
This 1904 editorial highlights the perennial tension between organized labor, corporate monopolies, and the 'helpless public' caught in the middle. Much like today's concerns over inflation and corporate price gouging, the piece argues that the public interest should be prioritized through mandatory arbitration, a common civic refrain during the height of the Progressive Era.
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