An extraordinary "meat boycott" is taking place in the United
States. It was begun in Cleveland by the Labour Unions, which declared that the dearness of beef was due less to the shortage of cattle than to the action of the Beef Trust. In a few days eleven thousand heads of families in Cleveland took a pledge not to eat meat for sixty days. The movement spread rapidly to various parts of the United States. In Cleveland the immediate effect was a fall in the price of meat, and the boycotters were so gratified that they advised people to refuse to pay more than SO cents a dozen for eggs, on the ground that an artificial price was being maintained by with- holding supplies in cold storage- "The high cost of living," says the correspondent, "has become a political question of the first importance' The economists do not attribute it to any one cause, but the people hare made up their minds that the Trusts are to blame, and they can quote the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture, who, in giving evidence before a Committee which is inquiring into the high cost of living, said : "It is due to Trusts, just to Trusts."
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