St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-04
THE CATTLE POOL.
How the Chicago Syndicate Con-
trolls the Market.

tfOiS the Market.
WASHINGTON, May 3.-The senate re-
sumed consideration of tine bill for the
establishment of bureau of animal in
dustry and to facilitate the expectation
of live stock and their products. Mr..
Palmer addressed the senate in support
of the bill and had read various COM
municatiOns ''tO show the animuS of the
opposition to the bill" which was. he
said, machine work right through"
The general idea conveyed was that the
opposition came from the existing
bureau of animal industry. In cOnclu-
sion he expressed the hope that the bill
would pass. If it did not, ne would
have the satisfaction of having acquitted
himself of his duty,
Mr.. Vest said that if one-tenth of what
was stated in the correspondence which
had just been read was true, the COM
missioner OF agriculture should be
hurled out of official life, disgraced and
dishonored. If the commissioner had
used his official position to defeat or adj
vance legislation he was unworthy to be
a messenger, much less the head. of that
great department. But he (VesD d d
not believe these statements. He had
been diligently searching for the truth
all through the labyrinth of speeches
and literature on this subject. He could
not support the bill. He proceeded to
speak of what he called 1.-The cattle syn
dicate," and said that the people were
helpless and within its power. 1t was
the most terrible tyranny ever eXer-
cised. There were five men or firms in
the city of Chicago which regulated the
price of cattle every day. They met
every night
FINED THE PRICE
for next day. The Missouri farmer who
found from the market quotations that
cattle were 3 or 315c pound, shipped
his cattle to Chicago, but when he got
there he found that the syndicate had
put beef down to 2 OF 81 cents. He
could not store his cattle as they would
be diminishing every day in weight and
quality and so he was coerced to sell.
He went to an agent of Armour's and
was told that the price was 211 cents;
he went to another Armour agent and
got the same answer. He was met all
over the city with the unvarying re-
Sponse ''219 cents apound," and he had
to take it. So that these men owned
the cattle raisers' property and conts-
Gated it as ii they possessed the right to
take it from his farm without paying
him l per cent. Talk, said Mr.. Vest,
about trusts. Talk about pools. The
cattle pool OF Chicago is the most in
famous tyranny that ever existed in the
United States. They have got their
collar on the cattle producers of the en-
tire West. And | know of no remedy
for it. The statesman who would in
vent the remedy would deserve monu-
ment more enduring than the capitol. lie
would perform the highest benefaction
on the people of the Northwest and of
the cattle raisers of the country.
Mr.. Plumb had also something to say
on the same subject. In his opinion the
worst combination in the country was
the combination of beef and pork pack
ers, having its headquarters at Chicago.
There was no trust or combination the
Standard oil trust, the sugar trust, the
copper trust or any other trust, that had
had so powerful or so balefuI an intlu-
ence as that combination. For years
the prices of cattle to the producers had
been going down. They had gone
down, he thought, SO per cent. In the
same time the price of meat to the con-
sumers had gone up, and every single
dollar of the difference had gone into
the pockets of that combination.