The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1906-03-23
A PACKING PLANT
PORTLAND WILL HAVE LARG-
EST WEST OF OMAHA.
Swift & Co Of Chicago Will Build
$l,000,OOO Plant on the
Peninsula


Is assured, says the Journal Swift
& Co. of Chicago will build 81 ,000,-
600 plant on the Peninsula. Louis Il.
Swift, pre- ident of the company, aud
a number of his associates were in
Portland recently and arrangements
were concluded that will make Port
land the largest livestock csnter on
the Pacific coast.
"The company has acquired 1000
acres on the Peninsula. The plant
will be modern and complete. 1t will
include extensive stockyards, said
Mr.. Swift. "Tho object will be to
supply the trade of the Pacific coast,
Alaska and the orient. The output
will depend upon the ability of the
country to supply the materials.
The capacity of the plant will be 500
cattle, 1000 sheep and 1000 hogs
daily"
Mr.. Swift said that Portland had
been selected because of the great pro-
ductive country back of it. In this
respect, he said, it was better than
the Sound country. The company
will draw upon the ranges of Eastern
and central Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah
for livestock of all kinds.
Swift & Co. is the largest packing
and refrigerating company in the
world. Louis f. Swift, the head of the
concern, is the eldest son of the late
George F. Swift of Chicago, whose
genius and industry founded the bust
ness and built it up to its present
proportions. He is man Of extreme
modesty, studiously avoids publicity,
and although he has made frequent
trips to Portland in the last year, the
statement given by him last evening to
the Journal is the first authoritative
one he has made to any newspaper re-
garding the plans and purposes of his
company in Portland.
1.-THE published statement that this
company has bought the Union Meat
Co. is an error. 1t is also untrue that
any other packing company is con-
nected with our Portland undertaking,
or that there is any meat trust" he
said.
The company's plant will employ
1000 men, the largest number of en-
ployes in any packing house west of
Kansas City and Omaha. The large
number of acres required for this
plant is partly due to the extensive
area needed for stockyards. The com
pany's buyers will lie constantly in
the field, and consignments of sheep,
hogs and cattle will be constantly
moving in trainloads to Portland.
1t is said there will be genuine COM
petition in buying on the ranges and
farms, and for this reason the plant
will be good thing for the ranch
men.
Canned meats and all the by-pro-
ducts of the packing house will be
turned out of the Portland plant.
There will be great quantities of tin,
box lumber and printing used, in the
manufacture and marketing of canned
meats, soaps, lard, gelatine, glue,
hair and hides. A packing plant
contributes vast quantity of COM
modities to the merchandise of the
country. Fresh aud cured meats form
the bulk of the output, but when
these are disposed of the remainder of
an animals carcase is reduced to some
form of merchandise with the utmost
economy. Nothing is wasted. In
the list of great packing company's
stock may be found sofa pillows,
mattresses, matches and buttons. The
Portland plant will be located on
ground lying between and adjoining
the rights of way of the Northern
Pacific, Great Northern and o. R. &
N. Co. S lines across the lower Penin-
sula.
"When will the plant be built. "
was asked.
''When the railroads are ready for
the business, the plant will be ready, "
was the reply.
Negotiations for the Peninsula site
for the plant were begun more than
six months ago, after the company's
officials had made careful canvass
of the business situation, transporta-
ton prospects and an exhaustive
study of livestock conditions in the
Pacific northwest. The selection Port
land as thelocation for the plant is
regarded as one of the greatest com
meIcial victories ever achieved by a
Pacific coast city. It's commercial
Importance is inestimable. OF a per-
manent character, the plant will not
only be large employer of skilled
labor and furnish limitless market
for Pacific northwest livestock, but
it will grow steadily in proportion
with the increase of population and
productiveness of the country and the
increasing capacity to absorb its pro-