Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-07
A CHICAGO INDUSTRY
Rise and Development of the
Stock Yards.
REFRIGERATOR CARS
ARE WHAT MADE THE BEEF
TRUST POSSIBLE.
More Than Billion Pounds of Dressed
Meat Leave the Windy City
Annually.
REFRIGERATOR CARS

Written for The Evening Star.
When President Roosevelt ordered Attor-
ney General Knox to begin the inquiry
which led to the filing OF the pending suit
against the beef packers of Chicago he
laid his executive hand on an industry which
directly involves the livelihood of more men
and women than any other in the world
1t is customary to indicate the magnitude
of Chicago's meat industries by saying that
the Big Six against which the govern
ment is proceeding, and the 100 other firms
doing business in the Chicago stock yards,
employ there 10000 men TO whom they pay
an annual wage of $50, 600, 600; that the stock
yards company employs more than Loo
! other men, and that 1880 clerks are en-
| gagged in the business of the exchange in
| the buying and selling Of cattle and similar
operations. But when you consider those
| who are engaged in raising cattle, hogs
and sheep, in growing the corn on which
they are fattened, in transporting them from
| the range to the farm and from farm to
| market, and feeding and caring for them
| there, in buying and selling them, slaush-
| tering and dressing them, handling the al
most infinite by-products, and managing the
| intricate business of placing the dressed
beef and the cured meat in the hands of
| the consumers, the 10000 men seem only a
| handful, and the $4,000, 600 a bagateile. Be
| sides there are the uncounted millions both
| in America and across seas whose whole
| course of living depends upon the price of
| 1reSh and cured meats quoted at Chi
| cago.
Foundation of the Industry.
| Chicago's meat industry had its real or
| igin in the refrigerator car somewhat more
than score of years ago. The Capital
| Union Stock Yards Transfer Company was
i chartered in 1865, and 1t soon grew to be
an institution of magnitude. But it could
| never have been more than a Strengthening
place and market for Chicago and clear
| ing house" for live cattle destined for other
| markets save for this invention.
| A steer weighing 100 pounds contains
about $50 pounds of useful product. Only
about GOO pounds of this is directly salable
as meat. In shipping cattle on the hoof it
4 is necessary to pay freight on the whole
| loo pounds. Ability to slaughter in Chi
cago and save the freight on COO pounds
| gave the western man an advantage the
| fasteners could not meet. The attack on
| the eastern market was begun in Boston.
| That city was soon won over entirely to the
western pa ckerS. Then New York was in
| vaded and after that the rest of the world
| was brought into line. The Chicago slaugh-
| ter houses were doubled and doubled again.
| Acre after acre was covered with new
| buildings designed for use in the industry.
Thousands of men were put to work at
! construction in Packingtown, which was
built on the western edge of the stockyards.
Other thousands went to work in the cities
which the packers invaded, building storage
houses and wholesale markets, first in the
big cities. then in the smaller ones, until
| wherever one goes today he finds the Chi
cago dressed beef storehouse close beside
the railroad. And near scores of lakes in
southern Wisconsin may be seen the gil
gantic icehouses in which ice is stored in
hundred thousand ton lots to aid the
frigerating.
Refrigerator cars are expensive. There
many trunk lines of railroad running
east from Chicago and no one of them
nplr1d of to. h,Itd nd nyb
frigeratorS to carry the output of the big
packing houses. The leading packers built
the cars for themselves, and, having the
cars. were able to ship by what line they
would and charge the railroads a stiff
price for the rent of the cars. Competi-
tion was found to be a useful means of
keeping down freight rates. and the pack
erS used it freely. Today more than 20.-
600 refrigerators are in carrying meat
products from Chicago. and nearly all of
these belong to the pic. GERS In the field
1.-THE Big Six" Armour & Co: own more
than 10000 of them Swifts more than
half many. Upton, the Anglo-American,
Hammond. Libby. each concern has its
own. There are others owned by the rail-
roads and by the smaller houses and by
special companies. which accommodate
those who have not cars of their own.
There are more than 100 firms engaged in
the business Of packing meat about the
union stock yards, though the six big
ones have the bulk of the business.
Thus it is that of all Of the beef slaugh-
tered in this country more than 40 per
cent-nearly one-half, in facts killed in
the packing houses about the Chicago
stock yards In 1901 more than three mil
lion cattle were shipped thither from every
state in the Union, and of these nearly |
two-thirds-a little less than ooo00o-were |
slaughtered and dressed in the yards. Eight |
million hogs of twenty-five million killed |
In, ha rhnln s. Eh.R
shared their fate as did nearly 100000 |
calves. A single railroad brought G'.O00 |
carloads and others nearly as many each. |
These millions were not the lank, long
horned Texas cattle. that formerly met |
their death in Chicago, but booded stock, |
mostly hornless, though numbering many |
fancy short-horn, and they reached the |
yards fat and sleek from the feeding farms |
of Iowa, Illinois, Missouri. and, In fact, |
from nearly every part of the country.
Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas raise corn |
by millions of bushels. The greater part |
of that corn they feed to the cattle from
the grazing country. These corn-fed cat
tie have made American beef famous. And
in the dressing and shipping OF that beef
at Chicago centers the labor Of not Only |
the herders of Texas and the short-grass
country-all of western Kansas and Ne
braska-but the corn raisers as well, who
form middiemen between the plalnSmcn
and the packers.
The farmers are swiftly learning that
corn in the shape of good beef Is worth
more than corn on the cob So not only
from the west, but from the south and even
from the east, fancy cattle go to Chicago.
1t is not uncommon for blooded cow or
bull to bring $1,000 at the stock yards.
Farmers who ten years ago had not a beef
animal their ground now number their
herds by hundreds and have found that
small herd of fancy stock can be raised and
proftably where the long horn
OF happy memory would have been an utter
failure. Ten years ago the action of the |
President would have affected not a tenth |
Of the men and women who are reached by
i, today.
Five Hundred Busy Acres.
This meat trade of the country centers I
not only in Chicago. but In a restricted
area in that city, in the old town of Lake.
In that area, where last year 40 per cent of
the cattle and third of the hogs of the
country were marketed, there has been a