The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1905-03-17
Big Packers Exonerated by Garfield


The report Of Commissioner Garfield
on the methods under which the business
of the sO-called beef trust is conducted
has been published and a closely printed
book of over 300 pages is the result of the
examination to which that industry has
been subjected. The report IS very full
and complete, every phase of the business
having been investigated with the utmost
care and thOrOughness, as IS shown by
exhaustive tables of figures, with authen.
ticated facts and statistical data covering
almost every detail of the business.
After a careful reading of this report
it is impossible to arrive at any other con-
clusiOn than that for some time past
there has been a great deal said and writ
ten about this great industry that has
had no foundation in fact. 1t would APP
pear that a popular clamOr has resulted
from newspaper comment and the pas
sage of many resolutions by those who,
as plainly shown by the report, were with
out any definite information. This re-
port, the result of an inquiry in cOmpll
ance with a congressional demand upon
the secretary of commerce and labor, is
so complete and detailed that as a whole,
it will not of course be read by the pub.
lie at large, but the facts and figures,
authenticated by government expert eX-
aminers, which it contains, show with
indisputable certainty that the hue and
cry raised during the past year against
the packers has been at least unreason.
able and much of it, indeed, has been
hysterical.
These officially ascertained facts are
surprise to very many who have been i'm
pressed by the denunciatOry language
they have read and heard for some time
past, for they now find that, instead of
the great profits said to be made by
western packers, the business is being
conducted upon a smaller margin of
profit than that prevailing in any other
industry. Commissioner Garfield himself
says: "The year 1902, instead of being
one of eXorbitant profits, as has been
commonly supposed, was less profitable
than usual, and this will be remembered
as the gear when the highest prices ruled
and the packers were being everywhere
accused of eXtOrtionate methods. Regard
ing this very year when the complaints
of injustice were the loudest and the
most unanimous, the commissioner says:
I'm fact during the months when the
prices of beef were the highest, some, at
least, of the leading packers were actual
ly losing money on every head CT cattle
slaughtered" for the reason, he con-
tinues, lit was not possible to advance
the prices of beef in full proportion 10
the great advance in the prices of cattle
at that time"
The report also shows that the public
belief that enormous profits are usually
characteristic of the beef business is en-
tirely erroneous, as it proves, after full
investigation, that the maximum net re-
turn on the several investments was two
and three-tenths per cent. and the mini
mum one and eight-tenths per cent.
The report is much too detailed and
extensive to attempt any thorough review,
but it clearly demonstrates that there
has been a great deal of unnecessary
alarm on the part of the public as to the
meat situation and good deal of loose
denunciation OF packers about whose
methods and business there has been lit
tie or no real infOrmation The eonclu-
sions of Commissioner Garfield are all
the more valuable as the investigation
was by no means commenced in anything
like a friendly or partial spirit and that
1T has been full and complete is shown
when he saws: "All the statistics taken
from the books of the companies were
checked in the most thorough manner.
1.06als selected at random were verified
by the items. Many typical bdnrhes Of
cattle have been traced from the time of
Iuretlaee to the time Of sale as dressed
beef, thus obtaining accurate informa-
ton from original records of costs, Of
actual selling prices and of intimate
profits. ia many cases the statements of
cattle purchased by the companies were
compared with accounts Of the commits
sion houses through whom the. cattle
were Sold The various checks thus en-
p)oyed insure the absolute accuracy OF he
figures"