Arizona republican., 1910-02-26
Wholesale Indictment By a
 New Jersey Grand Jury THE CONTROL OF PRICES
Established By Investiga tion. Twenty one Packers Representing Six Com panies Must Appear At Jersey City

New York. Feb 25-The beef trust" embracing six great packing companies. and twenty-one packers. several Of them multi -millionaires. was indicted by the grand jury of Hudson county. New Jersey. today. charged with conspiracy to limit the supply of meat and poultry. The in dictment is drawn under the law of New Jersey. which provides a maxi mum penalty of three years in the pcnitentiary and sl000 fine. The of fensc is eXtraditable. which means that the meat barons must either sue cessfully resist eXtradition or come to iJersey City for trial
 Pierre Garven. prosecutor of Hud- son county. said tonight ths' lr "oui1' fort hwith notify the defendants of the indictments. and that h. would be ready to force eXtraditim of those ln- dividualS if they were not willing to face a tri8l.
 The defehu;snts a'e the National Packing company. the Armour com pany. the Swift company. the Norris company. the Hammond Packing com. pany. C. H Hammond and compan Y. ogden Armour. Watson Armour. Louis Swift. Edward Swift. Charles Swift Edward Morris. Ira. Morris. Arthur Meeker Edward Tilden. L. A. Carton. Thomas Wilson. Thomas ConuoIs: F. A Fowler. l.. H. HeXman, James Rathgate jr George Edwards, Fred erick Cooper. D F. Hartwell. Henry Darlington. A. A. Fuller. Lemuel Pat terson The list represents the back bone of the packing industry.
 The indictment brings to a climax the first concerted effort in the .east to fix the responsibility for the high price of food in the country Jersey City as d cold storage center. where the packing companies of the west maintain vast warehouses in which thousands of pounds of poultry and meat are stored. proved fruitful source Ur Investigation More than month ago the Inquiry started: the cold storage plants were inspected and witnesses were examined. Today the indictment was handed up to the supreme court.
 The indictment charges that the de fendants 'conspired wilfully and un- lawfully. feloniously devising and contriving. intending for their unjust. excessive immoral and unlawful prof it and gain to injure. defraud. preju- dice. damage. cheat. impoverish and oppress the public by cornering and limiting the necessary and reasonat5le supply of meats and poultry
 The significant relations betw cen the Armour. Swift and Morris inter .sts through fhe medium of the Ma tional Packing company are set forth in the document. To carry out the conspiracy. it is charged that certain adjustments of the directorate of the National Packing company were nec- essary. To this end, the indictment SAYS. meeting was held in Jersey City on December 14. 1908. at which various directors of the Armour com pauy. the Swift company and the Mor ris company were elected directors of the National Packing company, con stituting majerity of the controlling board The Armour interests were represented by Ogden Armour. Con nVrs and Meeker: tue Morris interests by Edward Morris. Thomas Wilson and K K McLaren. and the Swift interests by Edward F. Swift. Louis Swift and l.. A. Carton.
 According to the indictment the il legal agreement to control prices was entered into as far back as March l. 1908. when. it is charged. a meeting was held in Jersey City at which the defendants 'wilfully, unIawfully, frau dulently and eNtortionately" bound themselves to maintain and exercise control oyer monopoly of the meat aud poultry supply and arbitrarily and unllwfuliy to- increase >sfe price of meat. poultry and not to sell to the public meats and poultry except at tho eXhorbitant prices agreed upon"
 The indictment states that mere driblets of a supply were put on the market at stated intervals in small quantities agreed upon by the defend ants. thus to curtail and restrict the supply flor the purpose of fictitiously, arbitrarily and unlawfully increasing prices
 The indictment charges that Ar mour and the other defendants. by means of a majority of the directorate Of the National Packing company conspired as far back as March. 1908, to let only stated quantity of meat get out of cold storage. so as to arbi trarily maintain exorbitant prices. The National Packing company is s15.- 0O0.0 600 New Jersey corporation
 Ira Morris sent lawyer to Jersey City to inform Prosecutor Garven that he had retired from the directorate of the Morris company hut nevertheless he was indicted