Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/484

 464 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

classes of fruit an irrepressible remnant, frequented by the small farmer of the surrounding country. But what about our other necessaries ? Where are our fish markets? Have any of our cities such a convenience, with direct access for the fishing boat and appliances for handling the day's catch ? A few retail- ers on a street or other public place is no market. If a few packing-houses in the East, with branch houses in the inland cities, are named, the whole supply of this article is exhausted. Instead of fresh fish from the adjacent waters, the dejiizens of these places are supplied fish that has been kept in frozen con- dition no one knows how long.

Most inimical, however, to the interests of the people is the condition of our national meat market. On account of the large amount of money involved in this trade, on account of its connection with the markets of the world, and on account of the large industries, as packing, preserving, manufacturing by- products into soap, axle grease, and fertilizers the whole trade has been brought under exclusive control of firms able to handle large sums of money, and any sort of a free market prevented or obliterated by these. The struggle against this condition if ever there was a movement worthy of this name has been given up long ago. The whole trade has been consolidated on private firms and the public mind perverted to the belief that this is a condition to be proud of.

If we, as they have in all important European cities, had a public meat market and public slaughterhouses or abattoirs, we should bring into the meat packers' calculations such a large amount of uncertainty that it would be impossible for them to control the prices, as they do now, and by export of surplus pro- duction keep these on a desired level. The time of the " cattle baron," one of the pioneer stages of our meat-packing and export- ing industries, is slowly vanishing, to be replaced by the regular, surer, and less hazardous supply of meat from the cattle-raising farmer. In its wake ought subsequently to follow the institution of public ownership of all appurtenances to the meat market ; not only in order to obtain a natural regulator of the market price of meat, but also to limit the swing of the trust idea in this important line.