Wild Week

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Cried a commission man at Chicago's Union Stockyards: "It was like having the deliriums. You might as well ask a steer to read the newspaper as try to figure out what would happen."

Nobody was very much surprised when the Price Decontrol Board ordered a restoration of ceilings on meat, left grains free (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). But hog and cattle producers had expected the ceilings to be clamped on immediately. On the day after issuance of the restoration order, receipts at major markets fell to record lows.

Then came word from Washington that OPA needed more time to prepare new price schedules; stockyard ceilings would not take effect until Aug. 29, with slaughterhouse ceilings following on Sept. 1, retail ceilings on Sept. 9. Result: a thunderous stampede to beat the deadline.

Not only did producers rush to market with great numbers of animals (including a high percentage of culls and inferior grades), but they got record prices for them as slaughterers, too, fought for quick predeadline profits. The Chicago price for full-fed steers hit an alltime high of $28.40 a hundredweight, then rose another $1.60. First day this week, the torrent turned into a deluge. Trucks loaded with hogs and steers were lined up 30 blocks waiting for the yards to open. By sundown the number of steers received was approximately 40,000, just a cut or two under the famous Dust Bowl liquidations of 1933.

Most packers predicted meat supplies in normal channels would dry up as soon as ceilings went back on. But things would be different this fall. For one thing, OPA has promised to "throw the book" at black marketeers. For another, ranges will start drying up in October, and cattle will have to be shipped to market willy-nilly.