The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-04-08
THE BEEF TRUST
A Monopoly Of a Necessary Article
Of Food.
THE WORST OF COMBINATIONS
Cold FLOODED Methods Used to- Com
troll the Meat Trade of
the Country.

Speaking about railroad mergers and
Industrial trusts said George A. Brack-
EFT to T h e ournal, the beef trust
is the most Ubiquitous and cold FLOODED
proposition in the whole list"
Mr.. Bracket has been reading the dis
patches with regard to the, discovery in
New York Of documentary evidence to
show combination between five of the
leading beef and pork packing companies
and an agreement to observe the terms of
the combination as to prices and territory
under the surveillance of one Arthur Col
by, designated as arbitrator" According
to the document quoted from these big
packing concerns employed Colby and
clothed him with power to examine their
books, papers and accounts and to Inn
pose and collect fines for each violation of
their agreement to maintain prices.
Mr.. Bracket was one of the promoters
of the New Brighten stockyards, in which
the citizens of Minneapolis invested about
a million dollars. The New Brighton
company discovered soon after it got
ready for business that the Chicago insti-
tutions were disposed to resist the effort
to establish a packing industry at this
point Methods so often employed by the
Chicago beef combine were set on foot
with reference to the Minneapolis enter
prise and it became apparent that the
Chicago packers would make the business
Improbable at this point, no matter what
it might COST t@a
About this stage of the proceedings Mr.
Bracket went to Chicago to try and inter
est some ofSthe Chicago packers in this
plant and induce them to employ the
stockyard facilities here afforded in ex-
tending their business in this direction by
branch establishments here. Mr.. Bracket
was coolly informed by the Chicago pack
ers that this territory belonged to them
and that they would brook no interior
ence. Facts were presented to show that
this business would be profitable here,
but he was informed that this made no
difference, the combine chose to handle
it from Chicago; that their plan was to
control the entire meat business of the
country from that point.
What difference" said Mr.. Armour,
does it make to us in controlling the
meat trade of ESQ cities if, in order to do
so, we should temporarily lose money in
fifty of them, provided we ultimately get
control of that territory?'
In other words, they were quite willing,
because they had the power, to ruin the
business of any number of independent
concerns at any point, or in any given ter
ritory, by doing business temporarily on
an Improbable basis, for the sake of ulti-
mately freezing out the local manufactur-
ers and dealers and controlling the terri
tory themselves.
ut may be suggested," said Mr. Brack-
EFT, "that this Is the way of the world and
the way of trade-the SURVIVED of the
fittest. We suffer by it because these big
concerns at Chicago drain this entire
country of practically all our live beef;
they ship out the best of it to- eastern
markets and return us the lower grade
stuff. Mr. Armour said to me, = do not
wish to do you any HARM personally, Mr..
Bracket, and you would better sell out.
The New Bright on stockyards will have to
| go down. l do not wish to hurt you but
we are going to have that business .
Mr.. Bracket replied that he would
"stand or fall with his Minneapolis asso-
ciates, and reported the facts to them
| upon his return. The sequel, as everyone
| knows, was as Mr.. Armour planned. The
New Brighton enterprise, which, in the
natural order of things, ought to have
! been a success, because well located and
central to territory providing large
quantities of raw material and requiring
large quantities of manufactured product
had to be abandoned! It would have been
success but for the determination of the
Chicago combine to permit no competition
and divide no territory with those not in
the combine. This they were able to do
by arbitrarily advancing the price of cat
tie In the territory tributary to this
market, by influencing the transportation
lines against it, and by Offering the manu-
featured product at ruinously low prices
until the local Institution should be frozen
out. This was the policy pursued with
reference to independent concerns all
through the country, and brought ruin to
| thousands of men. This power they were
able to exercise largely because OF the
connivance of the railroads, to which the
railroad men have recently confessed to
I the interstate commerce commission.