Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-04-24
McRee Released.
NO POULTRY TRUST.
Three Big Packers Said to Contro
Chicken Market.

[From Wednesdays Daily.l
Metropolitan newspapers today state
that the poultry market has been cor
nered by three large firms who have
bought up two-thirds of all the poultry
in the country which enables them to
| fix at will the price on all grades of
chickens. The firms who are said to
have control of the market are Armour
& Co., Swift & Co. and Priebe & Semi
| ter, of Bushnell. Ill.
| Representative of two of the above
| firms who have branches in this city
deny any knowledge of combination
or trust, and attribute the high price
to the scarcity of poultry and the high
price of feed, which latter, they say is
the principal cause of the advance.
c. G. Ryder, manager of the branch
house of Swift & Co., in this city, when
| interviewed this morning regarding the
existence of poultry trust, expressed
| himself as being of the opinion that
no such trust existed, and that the
! high price of poultry and eggs was at
tributable to the scarcity of poultry
and to the high price of beef, hogs and
other products which has added great
ly to the consumption of poultry and
eggs, and has increased the demand be:
yond the supply.
'The reason for the high price of
poultry and eggs" said G. w. Hough.
ton, acting manager of the Priebe &
Semiter branch house in this city," is
that the crop of chickens has been eX-
ceptionally light, in fact the lightest
for years, and the supply in the cold
storage warehouses being early ex
hausted it was necessary to supply the
trade direct from the markets, which
by the scarcity of the product and the
high price of corn and other feed have
been kept at the top notch. do not
think there is any truth in this story
of a poultry trust but consider thu
, simple law of supply and demand thu
principal reason for the high prices
charged
The local market quotations today
as compared with one year ago show
an advance in the price paid by the
packers for eggs of four cents, the
price now quoted being fourteen cents
Hens and pullets are quoted at sever
and one-half cents, a. gain of one and
, one-half cents. Turkeys have advanc
ed three cents aud are now quoted a
nine to eleven cents. The market hal
shown no advance for the past few
days and it is probable that the tor
price has been reached.
Weld Immense Power.
/ 1t is admitted that the cold storag
t warehouses have put an instrument o.
: immense power over the necessaries
> of life in the hands of the firm
S which are in position to take advan
: tage of them on huge scale. Alread.
e discussion is active as to the possibi
e ity of gaining public control over the
cold storage business by a state Law
enforcing public reports at least one
week, SO that the public will be abb
to keep posted ON the speed will
which the supplies that are sent t
: the market for the consumers ar
side-tracked in the warehouses fror
n which they will not issue until price
. have been pushed up to point tina
L means hundreds of thousands of do
q lars of profit to the manipulators.
q Massachusetts has such a law go
g erning the cold storage warehouse
Il and Illinois has urged the same prir
/ ciple in controlling public grain ware
a houses.
; The problem is regarded not as or
# of trust" or combination so niue
% as it is Of the effect which the perfet
o ton of cold storage methods and tn
ie great extension of it's use within til
. last three years has had upon the Pre-
r duce trades.