The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-08
NRNvVtNsLN
------'--

Copyright. 1902, by John SWAMP
When President Roosevelt ordered
Attorney General Knox to begin the in
qUiry which led to the filing of
the pending suit against the beef
packers of Chicago, he laid his execu-
tive hand on an industry which di-
rectly involves the livelihood of more
men and woman 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 government is proceeding
and the one hundred other firms doing
business in the Chicago Stock Yards,
employ there forty thousand men to
whom they pay an annual wage of
thirty million dollars; that the Stock
Yards Company employs more than a
thousand other men, and that fifteen
hundred clerks are engaged in the bust
ness of the exchange, in the buying and
selling of cattle and similar opera
tions. But when you consider those
who are engaged in raising cattle, hogs
and sheep, in growing the corn on
which they are fatted, 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, slaughtering and dress
ing them, handling the almost infinite
by-products, and managing the intri-
cate business of placing the dressed
beef and the cured meat in the hands
of the consumers, the forty thousand
men seem only a handful and the thir-
ty millions a bagatelle. Besides. there
are the uncounted millions both in
America and across seas whose whole
course of living depends upon the price
of fresh and cured meats as quoted at
Chicago.
Foundation of the Industry.
Chicagos meat industry had its real
origin in the refrigerator car, some
what more than a score of years ago.
The Capital Union Stock Yards Trans
fer Company was chartered in 1865 and
ii soon grew to be an institution of
magnitude. But it could never have
been more than a slaughtering place
and market for Chicago and a clear
ing house" for live cattle destined for
other markets, save for this invention.
A steer weighing 1900 pounds con-
tain about $50 pounds of useful prod
uct. Only about 600 pounds of this
is meat. In shipping cattle on the hoof
II is necessary to pay freight on the
whole 1,200 pounds. Ability to slaugh-
ter in Chicago and save the freight on
600 pounds gave the Western man an
advantage the Fasteners could not
meet. The attack on the Eastern mar
ket was begun in Boston. That city
was soon won over entirely to the
Western packers. Then New York was
invaded, and after that the rest of the
world was brought into line. The Chi
cago slaughter houses swere 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 construc-
tion in Packing town, which was built
on the western edge of the stock yards.
Other thousands went to work in the
cities which the packers invaded, build
ing storage houses and wholesale mar
kets first in the big cities, then in the
smaller ones. until wherever one goes
to-day he finds the Chicago dressed
beef storehouse close beside the rail-
road. And near scores of lakes in
Southern Wisconsin may be seen the
gigantic icehouses in which ice is
stored in hundred thousand ton lots 70
aid the refrigerating.
Refrigerator cars are expensive
There are many trunk lines OF railroad
running east from Chicago. and no one
OF them could afford 10 build and own
enough refrigerstors TO carry the out
put of the big packing houses. The
leading packers built the cars for them
selves, and. having the cars were able
10 ship by what line they would. and
charge the railroads a stir price for
the rent Of the cars. Competition was
found % be "a useful means Of keep
Ing down freight rates and the
packers used u freely To-day more
than 10000 refriReratora are DO use
carrying meat products from Chicago.
and nearly all ~ these belong 90 The
pioneers in the neld-"fhe Big O."
Armour and Company O~n more Than