The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-05-03
CONTROL PRICES OF MEAT.
How Armour. Swift and Morris Have
Combined Together.

tlons on petroleum.
The agricultural department may
not be able to establish the fact to
the satisfaction of Attorney Gener.
al Olney, and others entrusted
with the duty of enforcing the anti
trust law, but it is a fact. A con.
gressional committee tried in vain
to get at the truth, yet every cattle
raiser in the west feels the heel oil
the combine on his neck, and con-
sumers realize its power now.
The three firms are Armor & Co..
Swift q Co. and Nelson Morris &
Co. They have a combine active
capital Of not less than $75, 100000
They have immense packing
houses in Chicago, Kansas City and
Omaha that give employment to
more than 10000 men.
The firms of the combine control
between 1,100 and 1 200 retail and
wholesale meatmarkets throughout
the country which are supplied
with meats by a transportation
service which embraces fully 1000
refrigerator cars, built, owned and
run by themselves. They have
$4,000 invested in their
local markets, $1C,0 900 in refrigera-
tor cars and $4,000 to $4,000 in
packing plants.
Nearly $1,000,000 a day is used
in the purchase of cattle. More
than 100000 a week is required
to meet the pay rolls. In
the course Of a year they slaughter
100000.
This stupendous business is the
growth of twenty years ofsagacious
management by three of the great
est merchants Of the period.
P. d. Armour, the head and di-
recting spirit Of Armour & Co.,
halls from New York state, went to
California in 1850, but returned to
Chicago and has made $50,000,000
in meat and grain since the war.
G. III. Swift, head of Swift & Co.,
is Boston man, and is worth pos
sibly $25, 100000. He is a typical
Yankee in appearance, manner, in
stinct and speech-iong- headed, au-
dacious and close figurer.
"Nels.o Morris is not unknown
in Wall street as the chief manipu.
lator of the "Whisky Trust" He
is genius in money getting. He
is worth more than Swift but moi
| SO much as Armour.
For a long time these three men
were rivals. G. HI. Hammond, q
driving millionaire of Detroit. now
dead, was also in the meat bust.
ness, while Libby, McNeill & Libby
were nearly big enough to make q
fifth, and they are not even left out
Of calculation, but they are not Of
fensively aggressive.
Each of the "Big Three" excelled
in certain directions, and each was
quick to borrow ideas from the
other, SO they all ran along neck
and neck. Armour was first to
conceive the idea of occupying a
market in the state, district or
town by the overpowering force Of
superior capital. He would drive
out and kill off competition by un-
derselling. Competition disposed Of
he could make up the preliminary
expenses by charging high for his
product.
Swift improved on this by build
ing his own town markets through
out the middle and eastern states.
For years he had over 400 of these
markets and was still building,
Armour followed suit and put up
his own market houses by the hum
dreds.
Morris also went into the mar
ket-house construction, but on a
more limited scale. He preferred
making alliances with those already
in business. He also found it prof
table to deal with European gov
ernments, and for several years
past he has been the greatest con-
tractor in the world for the feeding
of the armies in the Old World.
They pooled issues some years
ago. They did not go into a pool
on the theory Of a division of prof
its or a single management, but
they found many things upon
which they could come to an ami
cable agreement and save money.
The first thing they agreed upon
was to stop bidding against each
other for cattle and combine against
outsiders. They divided up each
days receipts for cattle and, there
being no other market, the produc-
ers were obliged to accept the
Combines" quotations or take
their cattle home.
Innumerable plans have been
proposed to break up the power Of
the combine" by the immensely
wealthy but scattered cattle-grow-
ing interests, but they discovered
that to "bust the combine" they
would not have only to establish
their own packing houses, but also
to provide for the distribution Of
the product, field the combine"
had already spent 100000 in
cash and twenty years in time TO
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