Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-17
BURNED THEIR BOOKS.
How the Beef Trust People Prepared
for Official Scrutiny.
METHODS OF THE MEAT BARONS.
Millionaire Packers and the Inconvenient
Sherman Law.
TIE LIFE ROMANCE OF A BIG MONOPOLY

tnree. "A tnOrOugn OVefndullnS VI the
methods of the powerful meat combine, is
about to be begun and recent occurrences
indicate that the combine is preparing
things accordingly.
For years the combine has had its head
quarters in Chicago. Its members are
Armour s. Co. of Chicago, the Armour
Packing Company of Kansas City, the
Cudahy Packing Company of Omaha, Mel
son Morris and Co. of Chicago, and the
house at St Louis, and G. F. Swift & Co. of
Chicago. Until last May, G. H. Hammond
& Co., who slaughtered about 400, 900 cattle
annually, was member of the trust. That
concern was finally sold to an English
syndicate. The sale was followed bv in
ternal dissensions and a consequent de-
probation of its securities Then 1t was
thrown out of the combine, the members OF
which thought that it was powerless to harm
them by its opposition.
In addition to the Hammond Company,
whose output by reason of its troubles has
been materially reduced. there is only one
other dressed meat concern not in the cor1-
bine. That is the International Packing
Company, of which T. E. Wells & Co. are
the owners.
The combine has been in existence in five
years 1t has perfected its system so that
at present 1t has complely in its grasp the
States of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Penn
sylvania, New York, the District of Colum-
bia and all the New England States.
How the Business Is Operated.
Its operation is as follows: A clearing
house with offices in the Montauk Block in
this city receives daily returns of the sales
of each member. Each member is entitled
1F oil In
in. The members pay 40 cents per 100
pounds of meat sold At the end of each
week the clearing house apportions the
total payments among the members accord
ing to the percentage.
The clearing house is in the charge of
William NJ White, who sits up aloft in his
obscure quarters, and with the aid of
couple of clerks deftly manipulates things
so that the members of the association
know Just where to expend few dollars so
that they will do the most good. In fact,
he is the Secretary and Manager combined
of this unique clearing house. Under his
The place that knew Mr. White, however,
knows him no longer. He has vanished
and even his name has disappeared from the
directory of the building. The only thing
to indicate that he occupied quarters in the
block is the name civilian NJ White" on
the Office door. No one would suspect that
behind that modest door millionaires met in
solemn conclave and decided the fate of
some butcher in Olean, n. Y, or down in
the rugged wilds OF Pennsylvania.
Last Saturday, it is said by knowing per-
sons, Secretary White began to put out of
the way all memoranda and books showing
the history of the combine and its doings,
SO that it might avoid undue annoyance in
the investigation about to be started by the
Federal department of justice. 'The fact
is" reports an investigator, "the books
were burned"
Its Method OF Procedure Is Simp'e.
The manager of the G. H. Hammond Com
pany is now in London, and therefore could
not be seen in regard to the connection of
his company with the combine. Mr. Wells,
the President of I. E Wells & Co., was
asked for an account of the workings of the
trust and was free to explain how it had
tried to keep his concern out of Eastern
markets.
The method of procedure, according to
the story of Mr.. Wells, is simple. The
cities anu towns of the East and South are
divided into certain classes In a town of
10000 or under one dressed-meat cooler is
built In this place but one of the combine
sells meat In a city of 90 600 people two
members of the combine may enter. In |
cities of 10000 people or over three of the |
combine are privileged to enter and take |
the scalps of the local meat men. The long |
line of scalps that bangles from the ceiling |
of the Montauk clearing house is an evil |
dence of the discontinue of the tenderfoot |
butchers of the East
The field has not been left entirely to the |
combine, however, for T. E. Wells & Co.
hare proved a thorn in the 'Big Three's" |
10 piof
merits and sneak in a car or two of beef in |
cities preoccupied by the combine. Then |
would appear the fine Corsican hand of Sec
retarv White. Down would go the price of |
beef cent or two, and in some cases a drop |
of cents was made to remind Mr.. Wells |
that he was an interloper and that if he |
wished to do business in competition with !
the big butchers it must be at loss. These |
tactics have been systematically pursued
In two cities only, according to its Presi- |
dent, have T. E. Wells & Co., been driven |
out-in Washington and in Wilkesbarre |
In the latter place drop of cents was |
made, but a subsequent rise in price |
made the combine whole again.
The Law Bearing on the Case.
The Sherman act of July 2, 1890, which |
was IAN act to protect trade commerce |
against unlawful restraints" provides that |
every contract or combination in the form
OF trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in re-
straint of trade or commerce among the |
several States, is illegal, and every person
or corporation entering into such combine
tion is guilty of a misdemeanor and NAV be
Punished by a fine of S., 200 or one years
Imprisonment, or both. Another section
provides that every person who shall
monopolize or attempt to monopolize, or
combine or conspire with any other person
or persons 10 monopolize any part of the
trade or commerce among the several States
or with foreign nations shall be deemed
thereof, the property may be seized and
forfeited the same as any property imported
into the United States contrary to law.
Any person or corporation injured in
business may recover damages to the amount
ct three times the extent of the injury.
T. E Wells & Co. are prevented by the
opposition of the combine from extending
its operations in the East, but the members
of the big Three" are prompt to cut prices
the minute they are notified by their agents
of an invoice of cattle from a rival house,
The total number of cattle killed in this
city, Kansas City and st. Louis annually is
over ., 500, 600. Almost the entire product
is shipped to points east of Chicago. but
little of the amount going to the North and |
Northwest In the sections given over to
the "Big Three" the local butcher is but
"reminiscences. He has been gradually
forced to buy of the combine, for ii he re-
price that meant starvation for him.
With facilities to make use of every scrap
of refuse, much of which is thrown away by
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