Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-05-12

HOW FARAERs ARE ROBBED.
senators Vest and Plumb Tell How-Sena-
eor Plumb Says that the Farmers OF Asn'
sas Have Been Robbed of $40,0OO.OOe
During the Past Three Years.
WASHINGTON, D. c., May 3.-After discuss
ing and acting upon several other matters
the senate resumed consideration OF the oil!
for the establishment of bureau OF animal
industry and to facilitate the expectation OF
live stock and their product.
| Senator Palmer addressed the senate In
favor of the bill. He was followed by Sen
ator Vest, who said that he could not sup
port it.
Mr.. Vest then proceeded to speak of what
| he called the "cattle syndicate" and said
that the people were helpless and within Its
power. 1t was the most terrible tyranny
! ever exercised. There were five men, OF
| firms, In the city of Chicago, who regulated
the price of cattle every day. They met every
night and fixed the price for the next day.
The Missouri farmer found from the market
quotations that cattle were to 90 cents q
pound, shipped his cattle to Chicago, but
when he got there he found that syndicate
| had ut beef down to to 21a cents. he
could not store his cattle, as they would be
diminished every day in weight and quality,
and so he was coerced to sell. be went to
an agent of Armour's and was told that the
price was ~ cents. He went to another
Armour agent and got the same answer. Re
was met all over the city with answers OF =
cents a pound, and he had to take it. So
that these men owned the cattle raisers'
property and confscated it as if they
possessed right to take 1t from his farm
without paying him one cent.
Talk, said he, about trusts; talk about
pools; the cattle pool of Chicago is the
most infamous tyranny that ever existed in
the United States. They have got their col
lar on the cattle producers of the entire
west, and know no remedy for it. The
statesman who would invent the remedy
would deserve a monument more enduring
than the capitol.
SENATOR PLUMB SPEAKS.
Senator Plumb then addressed the senate
on the seattle syndicates." In his opinion
the worst combination in the country was
the combination of beef and pork packers.
There was no trust or combination, the
Standard Oil trust, the sugar trust, the
copper trust, or any other trust that had so
powerful or SO baneful an effect as that COM
bination.
For years the price of cattle to the pro-
ducers had been going down, they had gone
down he thought so per cent. In the same
time the prices of meat to the consumers
had gone up, and every single dollar of the
difference had gone into the pockets of that
combination, and SO perfec. vas their con
troll that they knew absolutely, not only how
many cattle were to arrive each day in Chi
cago, but over what railroad they were to
come, where they had been slipped from.
their character and the men who shipped
them. When the ca tie reached Chicago
the syndicate representative was sent to
review and put a price upon them and that
was the price at which they had 10 be sold
unless it -~as made lower. No cattle COM
mission man dared to set up for himself in
Chicago.
By the operation of the trust, prices of
cattle had declined unnecessarily and de-
structively. 1t was safe to say that on every
steer, of three years old and upwards, raised
west of the Mississippi river during the
past five years, the market value bad been,
by this combination, reduced not less than
$40 head.
The damage to the state of Kansas alone
during that period of time had been more
than $40 O,OOO and the wealth, OF the syn
dictate had grown prOpOrtlOnately.
They had a committee there now, having
in their pockets the money of this ''stock
ring' to get congress to give them control
of the question of cattle quarantine. With
that control Chicago would be made "open
water" and st. Louis could be quarantlned
against. Practically there was the same in
fuence in st. Louis and Kansas City.
This combine" had allies in the railroad
managers; they had allies in the railroads;
they had made the railroad officials partners
ir their stock yards, partners in their feed
ing stations, and given them sops out Ct all
the profits derived by them from the time
the cattle were shipped until the cattle
reached the abbatoir in New York, or
elsewhere. Step by step they had come to
the final condition where they actually fixed
the price of cattle just as though they we're
the men who raised them, and were the only
persons in the world who did raise the m.
When he considered that they then propos-
ed to have congress rivet the final chain
on the cattle industry in their behalf. re
was lost between admiration and indigna-
ton at their audacity.
The senator said he believed the commits
sioner of agriculture would do as well with
the powers given in the bill as anybody else.
He had great confidence in him He would
trust him a thousand fold before he would
anyone in the combine" He believed in
giving to the commissioner of agriculture all
the powers proposed to be given to the COM
mission, and would not vote for any meas
ure that would detract from the power and
dionitv OF that department.