Each action of each chicken in New York City, from the time it arrived here in the railroad cars to the time it was sold to the retail stands and butcher shops, was watched carefully by eight hawkeyed special investigators for Supervisor Leroy Peterson yesterday, the first day of operation of the Code of Fair Competition for the live poultry industry in the metropolitan area.
The hens and roosters squawked unconcernedly while 600 self-appointed guardians of the code watched the 800 units in the live poultry industry for the first infraction of the code.
So far, declared Leroy Peterson, supervisor of the code in six counties-two in New Jersey, three in New York and one in Connecticut-no violators have been found, although suspicions were directed at one or two refractory firms. These violations, however, were very minor, Mr. Peterson insisted.
The poultry trade was on its best behavior because New York City Commissioner of Public Markets William Fellowes Morgan, Jr., had warned it at a meeting on Tuesday that if racketeering continued after the code went into effect, “the full force of the city and Federal governments will be used to drive out the chiselers,”
Cut-throat practices would no longer be tolerated, Mr. Morgan said. Local shochets, however, were inclined to believe that the Commissioner did not intend his remarks to apply to their own trade.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
