The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-01-11
REVEALS INIQUI1Y
OF PRIVATE CARS
Witness Before House Committee
Tells Of Armour Grip on
Commerce.

Washington, Jan. 11.-Some remarka-
BILE testimony in regard to the. defiance
of law and decency by the private car
lines, particularly those managed in the
interests of Armour, Swift and the other
big packing companies, has been
brought out at the hearings before the
house committee on interstate COM
merce. -..' -s
George F. Mead, a member of the
Boston meat and produce exchange,
made statement which shook the
committee out of its composure by
the defniteness Of his allegation and
the serious character of the results he
declared were being accomplished. He
referred to the fact that Armour, Swift,
and other big packers had of late gone
into the fruit and produce business,
and he gave abundant instances from
his personal experience to show the pack
ers rapidly were securing absolute. con-
troll Of the commission business of the
country; that they were able by illegal
methods to stif1e competition; and that
the private car lines had an improper
and unhcly alliance with the railroad
companies.
witness showed that in 1900 the price
of icing car of peaches from Michigan
to Boston was 500. Then the Armour
company secured an exclusive contract
for doing all the icing on the Pere Mar
quette railroad. The Armours lmmedl-
ately put the price up to $50 and tlnally
to $40. According to the witness, Ar Ar
mour & Co. proceeded to buy up practl-
cally all the peaches in Michigan at
their own figures, because they found it
convenient to refuse cars to other snip
pers or to be unable to ice anything
along the line of the Pere Marquette
railroad until after the fruit had rot,
ted, thus forcing all competitors out OF
that field entirely.
"Trick of the Trade
An entirely new development was
suggested by the witness, when ne SAID
there were exclusive contracts between
the refrigerator car line and the rail
roads. which positively bound the rail,
, road company to notify the Armours
and other owners of private car lines
of all intended shipments of similar
products, no matter by whom. The re-
suit was, in several cases, that when an
Independent shipper got off a carload OF
fruit, which arrived at Worcester
4 Mass, say on Wednesday, he found the
] Armour combination, having beer, notl
fed in advance by the railroad, and hav
/ inc the means to expedite it's own ship
! ment, had flooded the Worcester mar
\ ket with fruit on Monday or Tuesday
\ so the independent shipper found abso
\ lutely no buyers for his carload, ant
was obliged to sacrifice it or throw L
4 away entirely.
In another case which came under nj
personal knowledge, Mr.. Mead explalne9
h that the Pennsylvania railroad gave. t.
the Armour combination the. excluslv
right Of icing cars at Jersey City. The.
charged the Pennsylvania compan;
So. so for ice, while others had to pay 81
Not satisfied with this eXtortlonat
profit, the refrigerator car line woult
whenever it found it to it's interest t
do so, refuse to ice private individuals
cars under one pretext or another, an
I thus ruin the shipment.
"Kicked' and Is Kicked.
In one particular case Mr.. Mead toll
4 of car of peaches shipped by the LA
\ nois Central Railroad company on whlc]
\ the charge for icing was 800, while tn
\ freight bill was only $25. He protest
4 ed, and the refrigerator line was force
to make good. Thereupon it persuade
the Illinois Central Railroad compan,
to take his firm off the credit list, thu
involving him in unnecessary trouble t.
prepay shipments from obscure towns
This gross outrage was finally corrected
but it served to show what the privat
car lines could do by connivance wit
the railroad companies to punish rebel
! lious shippers.
\ Chairman Hepburn asked the witnes
q if he knew any shippers who had bee