The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-04-25

dENS people ana ll3QSIS mas OcNldLGO
recently against the Fowisrs, the cor
porate name of which is the Internal
tional Packing company The commits
sion firm or trader on this market will
sell buyers Of this plant a hOOf of Sny
sort Of stock because the Information
al has been soliciting shipments direct
from the country people to their own
yards and abbatoirs. where they claim
to properly classify and weigh them
for the owners without charge. and al
low them the highest prevailing price
or their consignments- They have
built up quite a business on their rep
reservations that they would save the
shipper yardage. commission charges
and dOckage, TO which they are subject
on the open market. and they are get
ting considerable business from feed
ers in the country which does not pass
through the yards at all. Their re-
ceipts are principally hogs, but they
get some cattle and sheep.
Not Independent Concern.
The movement got a start with the
people while the FoWlers conducted the
plant. when they thought they were
shipping to an independent packing
cOmpany-One outside of the combina-
ton. 1t now develops that the Inter
national is really Armour, Swift and
all of them. 1t is confidently asserted
at all events that the two first named
of these own 81 per cent of the pack
ing company's stock, and that they
are going after shipments direct from
the country by soliciting straight con-
signments from this joint plant, be-
cause they have been unable to ac-
quire any ownership in these yards as
they have secured interests in others
located elsewhere.
The Kansas City stockyards are
owned by Boston people, who know
how to hang on to a good thing them
selves, and as they won't jar loose a
section Of their ownership, the packers
are resorting to their old Hammond,
Ind, tactics. which they worked so
prCfitably on the English buyers Ct
the Chicago yards. The combination
was all in the old ownership of the
Chicago yards when it was sold to the
foreign investors at an Outra geously
high figure, and they poGketed their
share Of the Doodle. Soon after they.
started the big works over at Ham
mond and began figuring on moving
their business over there with a SEEM
ing seriousness, which, it was assert
ed and never denied, induced the new
buyers 10 give them back their old
interests in the yards. About every
body knew at the time that they said
they were going to Hammond. and
their contentment with the lakeside
jumping-Off place since the deal talk
mentioned subsided, is equally well adj
vertised. Quite a business No Won
der they cherish a desire which they
can't hardly relinquish to butt in here.
It's almost as big a thing as Chicago.
Countryman Being Trimmed.
But the amazing feature of this row
| is the position the countryman occu-
| pies in it. He is actually shipping his
stuff direct 10 the combine, letting
their buyers classify and fix price on
! it. and their employees weigh il up
| in many cases with a full knowledge
| Of who they are doing business with.
/ How is that for evidence of a cOmbi-
nation in restraint of trade? and can
anyone doubt that the packer viii
/ have some country evidence with him
when he's put on trial again? And
/ what becomes Of the charge upon
| which the prosecution lays so mucn
] stress that buyers meet the night be-
| fore TO fix a price on stuff? If the IN
! ternatiOnal continues to increase its
| receipts. its buyers will have to meet
| at night, surely, to avoid delaying
| shippers who come in for their trim
ming and are in hurry to get back
| home and tell Mary about it. While
| the receipts run light they are prob
! ably meeting in the morning while
! they smoke an after breakfast cigar.
Cowmen Are Indifferent
| But viii the shippers care when they
meet? To this writer not one CONT
mental or other kind of a cent;
nor does the suggestion that such is
! the practice among the big fellows APP
pear TO inspire the average shipper
with any fear that competition on
/ the open market is in anywise serious
/ " menaced by the practice cited.
/ Speakers and writer's nave been as
sorting fer years that the packers don't
| compete with one another on the open
market except on rare occasions. And
| many cowmen know how seldom one
Of their buyers raises another bid even
4 trifiingly; but cowmen decline to be
! worked UP TO any other sort Of protest
] than the time-honored resolutions per
functorily passed at the different as
} ISOLATION meetings. They cannot be
cajolsd or reasoned into contributing
/ the price of a steer to ascertain how
and to what extent they are being
/ buncoed by collisions which the laws
] forbid; nor can they be relied uDon,
/ even, for moral support as a body, 10
| discover and defeat methods that op-
/ crate to their injury. Only a few Of
{ them will work together at the same
! time for something that they all need.
/ AS a matter of fact, they have never
made wel-directed and sustained Of
! fort to determine the profits made out
of their products by the manufacture
ers. They have acted with an appear
ance. of helplessness that amazas in
/ the handling of their livestock once it
leaves their ranges of feed lots
Thoughtful, Observant, protective and
progressive in producing and preparing
/ their products, they have seemed sat
isfied 20 master a knowledge of one
/ end Of their business only, and take
/ some interested mans word for he
! other end Of 1t. The packer and his
| friends have always said that the laws
/ of supply and demand regulate prices.
! and no questions are asked as to
| whether those laws are being mon
/ keyed with; and the railroad people
] say that there's no money in handling
! livestock, because OF the claims. the
! cost of service and abuse Of the pass
/ privileges To all intents and purposes
: the shipper accepts these statements as
true. They have not for themselves ss-
+, certained whether the killer makes So
or $40 on every bullock they sell him.
They seem willing TO leave It to the
packer to follow the supply and ie-
! mand law, and mark their tickets ac-
cordingly. He may be doing it on the
I market as he is undoubtedly doing il
| for the time being over at the Inter
national yards. Like the confiding
| farar tf,.vr