Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-26

where the packing companies of the west
maintain vast warehouses in which count
less thousands of pounds of meat and
poultry are stored. proved fruitful
source of investigation.
More than a month ago the inquiry by
the grand jury was started. cold storage
plants were inspected, witnesses were
examined. and now the indictment has
been handed up in the supreme court
before Justices Blair and Carey.
The proceedings were formal in the
extreme. and there was nothing dramatic
In the presentation of the document
which will mean the trial by jury of
some OF the most prominent men In the
United States. charged. in effect. with
cheating the public by manipulating the
food supply through the medium of cold
storage
OF this alleged manipulation. the in
dictment, after voluminous and repeated
legal reference to the defendants. charges
that they did meet and conspire within
the Jurisdiction of the court will
fully. unlawfully and feloniously devising.
continuing and intending. for their own
unjust. excessive. immoral and unlawful
profit and gain. to injure. defraud, pref
udice, damage, cheat, impoverish and op-
press the public al / the people by cor
nering and limiting the necessary and
reasonable supply of meats and poultry
for consumption by the public and the
people OF said city and said county. so as
to produce an artificial scarcity in the
supply of said meats and poultry, and to
greatly. excessively and extortiOnately
enhance and increase the cost and price
thereof"
An Illegal Agreement.
According to the Indictment. an illegal
agreement to thus control prices was en-
tered into by the defendants as far back
as March 1, 1903, when, it is charged a
4. TT,
the defendants "willfully and unlawfully.
fraudulently and extortionately' bound
themselves to maintain and exercise con-
troll over a monopoly of the meat and
poultry supply. and to arbitrarily and un-
lawfully increase the price of meat and
poultry, and not to sell to the public
meats and poultry except at exorbitant
prices agreed upon"
The indictment goes on to state that
mere driblets OF the supply were put or
the market at stated intervals, small
quantities agreed upon by the defendants,
thus to curtail and restrict the supply
"for the purpose of fictitiously, arbitrarily
and unlawfully increasing prices to the
public
No attempt is made to recite the loss
alleged to have been sustained by the
public by the alleged creation of artificial
prices, but warehouses are held specific
ally to blame BY this means, it is
In keeping off the markets large quanti-
ties Of meat and poultry, which. If put
upon the market, would have been suffi-
cient to meet the reasonable demand.
Relations Between Firms.
Interesting and significant relations be-
tween the Armour, Swift and Morris in
| terests, through the medium of the Ma
uonal Packing Company, are set forth in
| the document. In order to carry out the
conspiracy, II Is charged, certain adjust
| ments in the directorate of the National
Packing Company were necessary.
| To this end, the indictment says. a
| meeting was held In Jersey. City De-
| cember IA, 1908, at which various direc-
| tors of Armour & Co., Swift & Co. and
Morris & Co. were elected directors OF
| the National Packing Company, con-
shutting a majority and controlling the
board. The Armour interests were rep
resented by ]. Ogden Armour, Connors
and Meeker: the Morris interests by Ed
! ward Morris and Wilson and Kenneth
X. McLaren, a resident director, (Mc-
Laren was not indicted; and the Swift
| interests by Edward +. and Louis +.
Swift and l.. A. Carton.
The makeup of the directorate Of the
National Packing Company indicates how
wholly representative 1t is of the great
packing interests of the country. while
| In turn the company owns the capital
stock OF the following: Fowler Packing
Company, st. Louis Dressed Beef and
Provision Company. the Fowler Cana
dian Company, Ltd; Fowler Brothers,
Ltd, Of Liverpool. the Omaha Packing
Company, the Hammond Packing Com
pany, the G. III. Hammond Packing Com
pany, the Anglo-American Provision
Company and the United Dressed Beef
Company.
Morris Explains in. Vain.
Ira N. Morris sent a lawyer all the
way from Chicago last Wednesday to
point out to Prosecutor Garven that he
had resigned from the directorate OF
| Morris & Co. last year. and that there
/ fore he should not be included in any
proceedings taken against the packers.
Mr. Garven at that time assured Mr..
| Morris lawyer that he had not been in
/ dicted, but the grand jury, basing its
| action on what was done by the defend
ants March 1, 1908. did not exclude him.
Cooper is the New Jersey manager for
| Swift & Co.; Bathgate, Edwards. Hart
well, Darlington and Fuller are said to
| be officers and eastern agents of the
National Packing Company. while the
others named in the indictment are either
directors or officers or former directors
or ofYicers OF the National Packing Com
pany.
The National Packing Company.