Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-05-17
ANOTHER TRUST.
How the Chicago Cattle Syndicate
Controls the Market and Make
Serfs of the Western Stock
men---A Denial of the
Senator's Ale-
cations.

There was under consideration in the
Senate recently bill for the establishment
of bureau of animal industry and to
facilitate the expor alton of live stock and
their products. Vest, of Missouri spoke of
what he termed the cattle syndicate, and
said that the people were helplessly writhing
under it, 1t was the most terrible tyranny
ever exercised. There were five men or
firms in the city of Chicago which regu-
lated the price of cattle every day. They
met every night and fixed the price for the
next day. The stockmar who found from
the market quotations that cattle were
three cents or three and half cents 9
pound, shipped his cattle to Chicago; but
when he got there he found that the syn
dicate had put beef down to two or two
and half cents He could not store his
cattle, as they would be diminishing every
day in weight and quality, and so he WIS
coercCd to sell.
He went to an agent of Armour's and
was told that the price was two and a half
cent he went to another Armour agent
and got the same answer. He was met all
over the city with the unvarying response,
"two and half cents per pound" and he
had to take it. So that that these men
owned the cattle raiser's property, and con-
fiscated it as absolutely as if they possessed
le right to take it from his farm without
paying him one cent
Talk" said Mr. Vest, "about trusts, !,
Talk about pools The cat lie pool CT Chi
cago is the most infamous tyranny that
ever existed in the United States. They
have got their collar on the cattle producers
of the entire West, and know no remedy
for it, The statesman who would invent
the remedy would deserve monument
more enduring than the Capitol. He would
con 'er 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 first
combination in the country was the COM
bination of beef and pork packers, having
its headquarters in Chicago. 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
80 baleful an influence as that combina-
tion. For years the prices of cattle to the
producer had been going down. They had
gone down, he thought, fifty per cent. In
the same time the price of meat to the
consumer had gone up, and every single
dollar of the difference had gone into the
pockets of that combination at Chicago.
PER CONTRA.
A representative of Mr.. Armour was
visited and shown the foregoing He said
in reply:
"There is no combination here between
the buyers of cattle for any purpose. Each
house requires so many cattle for its days
work, and the buyers are instructed to buy
that number at the lowest price they can
secure them for. The price of cattle is
regulated by the supply. When there are
plenty of cattle in the yards the price is
lower and when the supply is light the
price advances. This would not be so if
there was combination to manipulate the
prices. There is no combination among
packers and there never has been. The
statement that packers know just how
many cattle may be coming into the yards
and their quality is not so.'
"The difficulty with Mr.. Vest and Mr..
Plumb is that they assume to represent
the cattle raisers' interests without know
ing anything about the business"
Several live stock commission men seen
said the packers could not control prices if
they tried. There were too many rival
packing centers and rival concerns. The
low prices of cattle were due to large sup
niles