Evening star., 1902-04-25
The Beef Trust and the Law.

There are four possible weapons which
may be welded against the beef trust in
the fight against its artificial Increase In
the price of foods. These are, first, the
antitrust law on the federal statute books;
second. the common law prohibition of fore
staliing or interference with the natural
price of articles of food; third, the publics s
abstentiOu from meats while prices remain
high; finally, the increasing force of public
opinion in condemna tion of the avarice of
the trust in tampering with the food supply
OF the people. 1t is gratifying now to learn
that the government proposes to utilize the
frst-named of these means Of attack At
torney General Knox yesterday announced
that ne had instructed his assistants, in
Guiding Judge Day, former Secretary OF
State to bring suit at once for the checking
of the operations of the beef trust. 1t may
require a long time to produce results
which will be felt by the public. But the
moral effect Of the governments action
cannot fail to be beneficial and to strength
en- the arm of the people as they In turn
swing their weapons against the corpora
ton.
The antitrust law may be a cumber
some engine of assault. 1t may permit
many delays 1t may exasperate the pub
lie. already sorely tried, by its complexity
OF procedure. But it is at present the best
available means of reaching the trusts
through the courts. If the campaign Is
sharply fought by the agents of the gov
ernment the people will be heartened. II
meanwhile states with antitrust laws will
apply them. or will at the least apply the
common law rules to the case, the trust
Will soon find itself seriously embarrassed.
1t will be at least driven to find means Of
uarding off action and the steady falling
away in the market demand for its product
will quickly bring matters to a climax.
The Indignation of the public has already
brought about the governments move and
is causing the rise of great wave of pro-
test from practically all the newspapers of
the country. The close scrutiny of the sit
uatIon by the press has resulted in some
interesting reve1a tions. 1t has been shown
that the supply of cattle is not short as
the trust claimed. Indeed some statisti-
clans claim that the supply is not short at
all. But 1t has been proved that whether
the supply is short ample. the trust has
been In absolute control of 1t for several
seasons and has been able to dictate terms
to the farmer and almost to regulate with
only a narrow margin the number of avail
able cattle for slaughter. In addition 1t
has been demonstrated that the increase
in the price of live cattle has led to wholly
disproportiOnate increases in the price of
dressed meats. For instance, the packers
are now paying 2.1O cents a pound more
for beef cattle and 1.42 cents a pound more
for Texas steers this year than a year ago,
while they have increased their wholesale
prices of dressed beef from 615 cents to 9&l
cents a pound. They pay one cent a pound
more for hogs and have increased the
price of dressed pork three cents. They pay
1.35 cents a pound more for sheep and
charge three cents more for the dressed
meat.
Thus it Is 20 be seen that there is an alb
solute control by the beef trust of the cat
tie market and Of the meat market. 1t reg
ulates the supply at both ends and it regu-
lates the price at will. The case plainly
calls for an effective application of all the
remedies which lie at the hand of the pub
lie for use in such an emergency.