The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-01-21

ruin and desolstion to tens of thousands OF
cattlemen's homes. Ii has made during
the past few years poor men OF thousands
} VINO before these unholy com binatious were
men of sffluence and the best and most gen
| er us and enterprising citizens of our re-
public. Ii has sspprd the prosperity, the
vitality of one of our most important in
dustries. 1t has been done that greed snd
avariee might be gratified, no matter how
. many lives might be blasted, how many
homes desolsted.
1t stetns hardly necessary to tell a. this
J late day how this condition OF affairs has
been brought abont Every cattleman
knows. When he goes TO mark, =. with his
cattle il does not require much time to take
in the real situst The Big Four" have
agreed among themselves not to bid against
each other. They are not competitors in
making purchases. They make division
J OF the days among themselves, one nrm
buying one day, another firm another day,
aud so on. no one to Interfere on the day
of the others purchasing his sstock. Tn.
man is on hand at the stockyards with bis
cattle TO dispose of. An employe of the
big Four" makes an offe- that the eeller
thinks is wholly insdequste. No COM
petnors, however, are lowering around, no
advance figures are offered, and the buyer
hurriedly tells the seller that unless he ac-
cepts the offer within fifteen minutes cut
of fifteen cents per hundred will be made
on the price already named. The seller
finds himself completely at the mercy of
the combination, and has to take what
ever may be offered. The "Big Four" in
one way and another, have silenced all
competing slaughter houses. They don't
allow slaughter houses TO exist, that are in
their way, and thst are competitors in
their business. They establish sale hous es
of their goods right under the noses OF
competing firms and put down the price
| of beef so low as to break them up, or COM
pei them to buy from them, and as soon as
that is done the price of their goods goes
up again. By this systeun Of doing bust
ness one slaughter house after another all
over The country has succumb,d. one |
butcher after another has had TO take his
stock of beef from Chicago, until local
slaughter houses and local butchering are
almost things of the past. The most cruel |
and remorseless war has been waged upon |
competitors in state after state, city after |
city, town after town. This system of doing |
business, this war against competing bust |
ness men, is one of the greatest outrsges
of the Nineteenth Century! 1t has been |
cruel and remorseleSs, but the millions of |
capital massed in the hands of few men
in Chicago, who have had no conscientious
SC uples TO restrain them have gone on
day after day, year after year, wiping out
all who dared to carry on the same bust
ness they were engaged in, and the men of
smaller means have been swept out of
existence, or have been compelled to take
- al. A
10 former times there were hundreds of
buyers for slaughter houses ali over
land, making purchases of cattle for their
firms. Competition ran high.
Buyers were In earnest in their competing
bids. The cattle market was a most lively
place. Prices were satisfactory, but the
"Big Four" having wsged a war of ex-
termination against all competing firms ,
md fPfeedo ola brdtfR ii aa oins Bushes
and introduced their new and improved
system of purchasing and have the cattle
men OF the farms and plains In their tolls.
There IS not doubt If the old, honest
style OF purchasing and slaughtering pre-
vailed, that competition would be as Iiveiy
rs ever, and prices would rule as high, and :
,attlemen would be making as much J
money as they did before this baneful sys.
EN- was introduced by the "Big Four" of !
Chicago.
But this combination has been largely 2
aided by many of the railroads leading in
% and running out of Chicago. They
nave extended to them privileges that 9th.
r slaughter houses did not receive. They
lave given 10 these firms large rebates on
relghts, on live stock coming into Chicago.
nd then large rebates on freight bills on =
he dressed product as il was sent to IFS re- u
pective places OF delivery all over the u !,
ountry. This was part of their system q
warfare, sort OF swapping and mining, a.
an underground way. which proved yerv u
Elective In bringing the enemy to terms.
iany oil the leading railroad magnates q,
ave been interested with the "Bip Four" OF
is charged, stockholders in their con- al
erns, and have worked in unison with u
hem in silencing competition and crush i1
* Cut rival companies. -- 10
liz IS alleged that the cause of the decline 10
prices OF farm commodities is an over w. W.
reduction OF them, but 1t is also necessa- ~
10 give statistics that are known 10 be Ia
Liable to refute such positions. IN
Take cattle and il will b. seen that there IN
as been decline in the number of cattle "a
the thousands OF population, and there co
ignt 10 nave been an increase of price .s
stead IT that heavy decline which has 50 IN
'ostrsted the cittlemen of the country. 20
All OF this is owing TO the improved an
stem OF purchasing adopted by the big OF
'ur," which has consisted in stiff ng ali COZ
mpeting slaughter houses, thus prevent. ioI
g competition in buying and taking all TN
e profits OF the business and putting them oe'
to their own Unsuitable pockets. Is il an
y wonder that such men build up col ev'
sal fortunes ? Ii is this improved method sta
doing business that has made million an'
res ont of one set of men, and poverty ant
icken citizens out of another. cen
Before the "Big Four" had formed their tri'
nbination and perfected their huge MT
,nopoly, when honest prices were paid ms
the market wss full of competitors for gre
. beef cattle that WIRE raisaa md - an(