Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1904-04-28
BEEF TRUST INQUIRY
PRESENT CONDITIONS IN THE
CHICAGO STOCK
YARDS.
ONE BID OR -FOUR ALL ALIKE
ARE OFFERED, LOSSES TO
STOCKME
DEPRECIATION IN FARM VAIL
UES IN IOWA. PROFITS OF
NJ MEAT TRUST.

NJ LA L. II VI 81
Chicago, H., April pa govern
| ment investigation that is being
made into the inner workings of the
beef trust that has headquarters in
! this city. is attracting wide atten-
ti0n. Farmers and stock raisers all
over the west and northwest are
watching the outcome, of the efforts
to compel the beef trust to allow
some competition in The selling Of
retail dealers, and in the buying by
packers from the stOckmen. In Feb,
1903, Judge Crosup Of the U. S.
court enjoined the big packers from
Forcing down live stock prices by
refraining to bid against each other
| in the market.
Regulating real price Of meats and
meat products in other states.
Bidding up prices of cattle to
stimulate shipment.
Agreeing to adjust and regulate
prices at which meat shall be sold.
| Limiting the quantity of meat
shipped to agents.
1t is claimed the packers have never
! Obeycd this order, and tables OF prices
paid each day for various months
since show that no real competition
| has existed and the order Of the
court has oecn violated. Prices have
been bid up to stimulate shipment
Of cattle and then when the stock
began to come in in great numbers
from the ranges, there would be no
bidding against each other by the
packers, and the shippers would get
the worst of it by being offered ruin
Gus prices and obliged to take them
| or lose even more. The combine or
| trust is said to be in the form Of a
| "gentlcmcn's agreement among the
leading packers of the city. That il
! works against the cattle raiscrs frs
and second, forces the retailer to
advance prices more than beef is
| worth to city customers, which
prices are out OF proportion to prices
paid for the beef on hoof.
The live stock business in the west
since 1923 has met with severe
set backs, and the losses to farmers
feeding cattle on corn have been
enormous, due largely to the arbi-
trary fixing of prices by the packers,
at the market centclS, while the
prices of retail meats have not been
| materially changed. The combine is
said to consist Of three well known
| firms and a fourth, which is no more
than holding company for the small
| er independent concerns in the com
Dine. The private agreement was to
| prevent government action against
! the corporation that was once sought
| to be chartered under the laws OF
! New Jersey but which plan was after
wards abandoned.
1t is claimed that the prices Of
meats in this city have been tiXed
daily BY the combine and the prices
for the buying and selling Of cattle
also 4 schedule is made out That
all the firms nIuSt follow and butchers
who attempt to undQrscll are marked
for ruin as well as those buyers who
attempt to over bid. II is now
claimed that Chicago is one Of the
worst market points in tn country
while it should be the best from its
natural advantages. Ice machines
freeze beef and keep it in fine cOndi-
tiOn from summer till winter. Com
fed beef is said to be bought for about
the same aS grass fed stock. Farmers
who have fed cattle on 40 cent corn
and shipped the stock to Chicago,
found they could get only one bid Or
four bids all the same.
The yards built up at South st,
Paul, Omaha, Kansas City and ST.
Louis are all in the same gigantic
combination. There are various de-
vices employed by which the Chicago
buyers get the lowest prices by fore
ing the shipper to come to to- ms
Holding OFT to bid for stock until late
in the afternoon, buying when the
rush is on and Off days letting prices
soar Until the cattle come in and
then dropping prices. Of.course it is
claimed that there is no combination
and the utmost secrecy is observed
in the management Of the combines
methods.
Meat has been and is selling at
from D to "a cents pound in the