Goldsboro semi-weekly argus., 1909-08-21
A BEEF TRUST CONSPIRACY.

BEEF TRUST CONSPIkAC1.
It begins to appear that the people
of this country little realized how
great was the victory won when,
through the persistent effort of Presi-
dent Taft, and against the strenuous
opposition of Aldrich, hides were
placed upon the free list.
Leading shoe manufacturers do not
hesitate to say that in reality it fore
stalled the absolute absorption by the
beef trust of the shoe manufacturing
business of the United States.
The secretary of the literature COM
mittee of the national organization of
shoe manufacturers gives out state
ment in which he outlines the slow
and insidious degree by which the
beef trust, watching the proper mo-
ment, had prepared to swOop down
upon the shoe manufacturers and take
away their business.
Secretary Jackson Johnson, of St.
Louis, in speaking of the matter, says:
For several years the packing in
terests have had an eye on the shoe
industry; it struck them that it would
be a good thing to control all the
steps of the process, from beef on the
hoof to the shoe on the foot. From
1893 to the spring of 1908, the prices
of leather gradually and steadily
climbed higher, until at the end OF
that period they we're 100 per cent.
higher than at the beginning of it.
This is an important point. for it
proves that the tremendous advance
since March, 1908, was not the reac-
ton from a time of low prices.
'EOn March 4, 1908, prime cattle
sold at $3.50 per hundred; on July
%, 1909, they sold at 81, rise of
about per cent But during that
time the prices of leather increased
from 80 to 120 per cent. On the first
date, packers of leather in
| date, packers heavy hides were worth
9 cents a pound; on the last they
| brought IL IA cents.
"In its campaign for the control OF
the tanning industry, the packers pur-
sued a very insidious policy. They
sent their agents to tanners, who were
worried over the high prices, to say
''You can't buy hides at the present
| figure and make any money selling
| leather Now we have a large guam
| tity of hides we want tanned. What
/ will you do it for?" AS a result, q
number of tanners became custom
| tanners for the packers, and the prod
uct was disposed of through selling
agencies, operating under various
names. Then when the tanner had
become absolutely dependent upoI
the packer, the packer said, 1--WE wan
| to buy your plant" and the tanner
| would have to sell at a nominal price
for his business was gone.
'*This went on until the packers
owned thirty-one tanneries, making
about 20 per cent. of the leather o
the United States. Six months ag'
they began selling openly. The Ar
mour Leather Company has it's rep
resentatives out now among the sho'
manufacturers We began to hea
that the shoe factories were to be alb
sorbed next and that the packers wer'
only waiting until public sentimen
would be in condition to permit it
Then we got busy. It's been a quie
campaign, but we have worked. M.
committee has sent out over 100000,
600 pieces of literature"
It is a curious fact in this connec
ton that the Eastern show men, &C
cording to Mr.. Johnson, saw in tn
fight nothing but the interest of tn
ranchmen of the West, while as
matter of fact, of the seventy millions
of cattle in the country, forty millions
are east of the Mississippi. He put
it succinctly by saying that "ther
/. are more cows in the baekyards thai
on the plains
Il Accepting the foregoing facts a
true, and they come from the highes
authority, the American people hav
made a narrow escape from one @
the deadliest conspiracies of the octo
. pus, craftily led on by Panjandrur
A1drich.