The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1905-03-16
COMMISSIONER GARFiELO's RE-
PORT.

1t Is Found to Be Favorable to the
Great Packers.
The report of! Commissioner of Cor
porations Garfield on the beef indus
try, after about eight months investi-
CATION in Chicago and elsewhere,
shows that there has been al enormous
amount Of exasseration iii the stlte-
ments that have appeared for some
tlme past in regard to the beef bust
ness. This Investigation was set on
foot by a resolution of the House OF
Representatives adopted March-7, 1904,
and the a%scertained facts after a most
rigid examination of the methods and
general conduct Of the business are
contained in a report covering 3OS
pages. Its figures and tab~Ies4conclu-
sively show that the popularsbelief in
enormous profits made bNSsthe large
packers. such as Armour &gyCo., Swift
4 Go. and Nelson Morris SEQ, and
in the exclusive control of the, bust
ness which manx think they enjoy, Is
really without foundation.
The report made to President Roose-
Welt by Commissioner Garfield is real
ly the first official statementyQf the ac-
tual conditions Of the beefsebusiness
that has been made. and as alEthe con
illusions arrived at are based as shown
by him. upon, data officially Sobtained,
there seems to be no Yeason}why they
should not be regarded as reliable and
in all respects trustworthy.
This report shows why the price OF
both cattle and beef advanced to the
highest level ever known after the
short corn crop of.1901, and states that
because OF the decrease in number Of
cattle and also in decreased weight.
"the high prices Of beef which caused
so much complaint among consumers
at this time wereyattributable wholly
to these abnormal cattle prices..'
All the figures of the live weight
and live cost of all dressed beef cattle
were obtained from actual Killing rec
ords and all information of every kind
obtained By the Commissioner was
voluntarily and freely offered by the
packers, all books of record and papers
connected with the business having
placed at his disposal.
To make certain that the results OF
the investigation should be. absolutely
accurate, the Commissioners states that
n double method of ascertaining profits
was adopted, and. without going into
detail here, tits found that the conclu-
sion arrived at shows an average profit
OF % cents per head. The Commits
sioner says 1.-The close parallelism in
the results of the two methods of ascer-
tanning the profits confirms completely
the correctness of the general conclu-
sions.' 1t is clearly established that
western packers do not control more
than half of the beef supply Of the
United States the conclusion OF the
Commissioner being that the business
done by them amounts to "about ~
per cent of the total slaughter OF tia
country.
The whole report is extremely inter-
esting and well worthy of careful pc
rusal. As an official report it may be
regarded as worthy Of confidence and
it certainly leads the reader to tho
conclusion arrived at by the Commits
sioner when he states that the capita!-
ization Of non of these concerns ~
excessive as compared with its actual
investment and that from thorough
and rigid examination of original Ell
tries in books and papers to which ia
had access there was also indirect eyi-
dence that the profits of the packers
In their beef business are less than il
frequently supposed as shown by
comparison between the total profits
u the total amount of sales.