Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-02-08
His Address to Meat Producers
a Scathing Attack OH the Dis
elimination Practiced
PACKERS RAILWAY PARTNERS
Declares 1t Is Unfair to Allow Any
Packer to Own His Own cars-Meat
Produced Advised to Keep Up the
Fight and Keep On voicins Their
Demands.

Des Moines. Feb. S.-Governors Cum
minis and Van SAINT spoke to the con-
vention of the Corn Belt Meat Pro-
ducers' Association last night and the
audience cheered them to the echo.
Governor Cummins talk was in some
respects sensational and he placed es-
pecial emphasis on that part of his
speech referring to railroads ana
He touched the heart of the audience
when he explained the reason that the
meat producer of Iowa must ship his
cattle and hogs out of the state to be
manufactured into meat to be shipped
back again. why are there not pack
ing houses everywhere over the lahd
where conditions are favorable ana
where markets can be found? asked
Governor Cummins. He answered:
II will tell you why. The man who
wants to go into the business OF buy
ing cattle and hogs cannot do SO upon
even terms with those who are already
in the business. And l say that this
desire. as old as humanity itself. to
make money. would speedily dissolve
the iniouitous combination among
buyers of live stock were it not for the
unholy, unlawful, unjust partlsanshlp
between the packers and the railways.
(Applause.)
II choose my words deliberately
when ] say 1t is unfair to allow any
packer to own his own cars. Cap
plause) 1t is an outrage now suffered
long enough to permit any industrial
combination or company to enter into
the business of the common carrier,
whether thru the private car or side
tracks or any other pretense or de-
vice.
IF a man wants to start packing
house in Des Moines, he ought to know
that he not only can reach the ulu-
mate market with his product as
cheapy as the packer in Chicago, but
he ought to know that the railway VIII
furnish the same facilities for moving
his product that it furnishes to the
packers in Chicago or elsewhere
Competition Necessary.
This he conceived to be the kernel OF
the difficulty. What the Iowa meat pro-
Queer wants and should have is the
competing buyer visiting him instead
of eeing compelled to ship his STOCK
to far distant market, subject TO
shrinkage and be forced into mar
ket where there is but a single buyer.
Monopoly is intolerable to a free and
Intelligent people. The meat produc-
ers. the farmers of the nation, have no
combination. There is the keenest
competition among them. And they
have right to demand competition a
mong those to whom they sell their
products. The safety and security OF
the producer is in competition among
those who buy his crop. Present con-
ditions among buyers approach a mon
opoly; already 1t is a semi monopoly
and soon all vestige of competition will
disappear unless it is limited and curb
cd and the buyer will absolutely fix
the price of the product for the seller:
Such condition will be Industrial sla-
very.
But the governor would not impugn
the motives of the railroad partners in
this iniquitous combination. He be-
lieves them powerless and he Is pray
ing and working as much for their de-
nverance as for the peoples.
The men who control the great in
dustrial and railroad enterprises of the
nation have come to an intimate foot
ing. The men who control most of
the railway mileage can get together
in thirty minutes; all Of the managers
(Continued on fifth page.)