The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-21
TRUST CONTROLS
POULTRY MARKET
Beef Combine Has Corner on All
Turkeys and Chickens.
PRICES ARE BEING BOOSTED
TRUST Is ALSO AFTER POTATO
MARKET OF COUNTRY.

Dressed turkeys were never so high
in the history of Salt Lake as they are
today. and will continue to be through
out the holiday season, as the result
OF the manipulation of the market by
the newly incorporated beef trust. The
trust has a corner on them. including
chickens. and has boosted prices until
now it is almost impossible for people
other than the wealthy to have tur-
keys on their table The retailer is
compelled to pay fraction more than
20 cents per pound for his turkeys,
which ne retails for 25 cents a pound
Since the organization of the beef
trust, in which Swift & Co. and Ar
mour & Co. are the leading spirits. the
combine, it is claimed, has established
small purchasing houses at all the i'm
DOrtant railroad stations in states
where turkeys and chickens are mar
keted by the farmers. Their agents
were instructed to buy everything in
sight. regardless of cost a local buyer
or a competing commission house was
outbid, or their purchases limited. The
result is that the trust has within it's
mammoth cold storage houses all over
the United States more than 10 per
cent of the dressed poultry on the
market. That enables the trust to fix
Lake today than ever before in the
history of the city.
Local Supply Is Limited.
The assertion was made yesterday
that there are not 1000 pounds of
dressed turkeys in Salt Lake City.
More than. so per cent of those to be
had at the exorbitant prices which are
now asked were sold to the local COM
mission men and poultry dealers by the
beef trust. They cost the dealer from
201s TO q cents per pound. necessitat-
ing the retail price being raised to %
cents per pound. And at that figure
there is not the profit that the retailer
is accustomed to making
The trust is not putting it's poultry
on the market in quantities to meet
the demand. 1t is storing the chickens
and turkeys for future use. The de-
mand for American poultry in Ger
many, England and other European
/ countries is growing very rapidly, a
prices which are higher than those in
| this country. Consequently the trust
is shipping all the turkeys and chick
ems that 1t can across the Atlantic
ocean instead of supplying the home
market at a profit less than that real
lied through expectation
So the people OF Salt Lake who ara
/ forced to pay % cents a pound fol
/ their Christmas turkey can thank the
! beef trust for the exorbitant prices
| asked.
Trust Controls Other Necessities.
The beef trust is not combining it
( operations to beef and poultry alone
1t has a corner on cheese. and is max
ing money by it. A year ago chess
that sold for II cents a pound is today
bringing 16 cents
To secure a corner on pork the trus
has forced the price of live pork dowr
3 cents per pound and boosted tbs
price of dressed pork y a cent pc
pound. Beef is y a cent per pound
! higher today than it was a week ago
and the prediction was made yester
! day that II will be long time befor,
1T will sell much lower.
Just at present the trust is paying
| special attention to the potato mar
ket of the United States with a view
| TO obtaining a corner. That the trus
viii succeed is predicted by those VIII
are in a position to know whereof the.
speak. The assertion was made yes
terday that the trust controls about 9
per cent of the potatoes on the Chicag
market