New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-05-01

Your action requesting representatives of
packing companies to meet me Is unWarrantea
by my letter of April %, and was without my
knowledge any intimation to me that you
proposed doing so until receipt OF your letter Oh
! April % / regret that you have as
sumed TO arrange conferences which misrepre-
sent the governments position.
When Mr. Bullowa was asked last night at
the Republican Club If he had received the fore
going dispatch he said that he had not. Con-
tinuing he said:
I'VE had arranged for a meeting tomorrow
afternoon at Washington of the three members
of our committee Senator Samuel S. Slater
James W. Hawes and myself. with Attorney
General Knox and representatives OF the hVe
important packing houses which are said TO
form the present beef combination. We had
received assurances from the Attorney General
and from the packers that they would be very
glad to talk over with the whole matter OF
high prices. Shortly after o'clock this even
Ing and almost simultaneously. the committee
| received kilograms from these packers-C. F.
Swift ]. Ogden Armour J. Lyman, of Ham
mond & Co.; Michael Cudahy and Frederick
Sulzberger of Schwarzschild & Sulzberger-
wherein they expressed regret that they could
not go to Washington TO attend the conference.
There was evidently understanding between
them that they should not confer with US.
Their kilograms of regret, were couched in
similar language and their excuses were all or
the same formal nature 1t is not clear why
they refused to meet us after having written
that they would be hand.
las to the alleged telegram of Attorney Gen
eral Knox to me- we have seen nothing of it,
Certainly 1T does not sound just right after his
letter accepting our invitation to attend the con-
ference. l start on the midnight train for
Washington and will confer with him to-mor-
row I shall outline the evidence which our
committee has collected and shall try to prove
that there exists a combination in the meat
supply trade
Now that the trust has refused to meet us in
a friendly manner as a kind of intermediary be
tween the administration and the people, it will
be our policy 10 shoot to kill We had hoped to
obtain evidence from 1t which would be of ser
vice. to the administration pending the action
which the government is preparing against it,"
1t was said last night by apparently i'll
possession of the inside facts that the Attorney
General had second thought, reconsidere1
his acceptance of the invitation to meet the Re
publican Club committee and the beef men, for
fear of in some way compromising the govern
ment's future policy toward the trust.
The Republican Club committee will arrange
to meet Attorney General Davies in the
future to lay before him evidence which it has
collected on the operations of the trust. The
committee declined to say of what nature
this evidence.
There is notiCea BILE increase in the interest
which the public is manifesting in the meat
problem. 1t is evident that the people are thor
oughly aroused. and are looking to their leaders
to relieve them from the unwecome jurisdiction
of the trust Newspaper readers are anxiously
awaiting the result of the governments prospec-
tive action against the big packers.
AS far as could be learned there were no
OH In Nzhn IL rrip of
meat. Menu cards in the hotels and restaurants,
by the slow though steady advance in prices,
mirror the rise in all meats, and make one envy
the lot of a Western packer and his profits In
a number of hotels the price of srloin steaks
has increa sed from Is to - per cent. In these
hostleries pays from three to five cents every
time his teeth close over ounce of juicy corn
fed steak HOLSTERS now cost 60 cents where
they formerly cost 10 cents. Everything that is
eaten except perhaps candy and others of the
commodities of less Importance. has been slowly
rising, trying to keep in step with King Cattle.
The Tammany committee on the beef problem
yesterday a communication to Attorney
General Davies in which the committee alleges
II has proof that combination exists among
the large Western packers.
The Tamnany committee has also written the
committee of the Republican Club indorsing
the action Of the latter on the beef question and
promising support.