Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-20
Custer Suit Brought by Mis-
souri, Attorney General.
CONSPIRACY is ALLEGED
Control of Prices Both to the Pro-
ducer and Consumer.
FORFEIT CORPORATE RIGHTS
Petition Asks That They Be Debar-
red From Doing Business
in the State.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. June 2O.-At-
torney General Elliott E. Major began
custer proceedings against five meat
packing companies today by filling quo
warranto informations in the Supreme
Court. The companies attacked are Ar
mour Packing Company, Morris & Co.
Swift & Co. Hammond Packing Com
pany and St Louis Dressed Beef and
Provision Company.
The Armour, Swift ard Morris COM
panies are charged with violating the
antitrust law and conspiracy and the
Hammond and ST. Louis Dressed Beef
and Provision Company, as subsidiary
companies of the National Packing Com
pany. with conspiracy to control the meat
packing business in Missouri.
May Confscate Property.
I he five companies are named in two
petitions which ask that the corporations
be excluded from all corporate rights
that their licenses be forfeited and that
all or such portion of their property as
the court may deem proper be confiScated
or in leu thereof fine be imposed.
Armour. Swift and Morris are charged
with having entered into a conspiracy in
1909 TO control the prices to be paid to
dealers in live stock. poultry. butter,
eggs. dairy and agricultural products. to
control the prices to be paid by retail
and wholesale dealers for dressed meats
and to control the prices to be paid by
all retail and wholesale dealers for but
ter, eggs, poultry. game, dairy and agri-
cultural products and by-products from
the business of slaughtering live stock.
The second count of the petition charges
that the three packing companies con-
spired to restrain trade and destroy
competition in the purchase and sale of
meat products. live stock, poultry, butter
and eggs, and by fixing price to be paid
by all the members of the alleged agree
ment and cOnspiring to control the busi-
ness of buying, selling and dealing in
packing house products.
The National Packing Company, the
information filed in the court today
alleges, was chartered in New Jersey in
1902 with capital stock of So, 900, 900, to
engage in meat packing am selling and
to hold stock of any other corporation.
THE National Packing Company" the
petition says, was not organized in
good faith for the purpose of engaging
in the business authorized by it's char
ter, but as a corporate scheme, to, ef-
feet an unlawful trust
Attorney General Major. after he filed
the suits, said:
THE suits were filed as result OF
the examination conducted recently be-
fore former Judge Daniel w. Dillon.
who was named by the supreme court
to preside at the hearings. The Ham,
mond Packing Company and the st.
Louis Dressed Beef and Provision Com
pany are owned and controlled in every
matter and detail both in the purchase
of live stock and in the sale of dressed
and finished products by the National
Packing Company of New Jersey.
Owned by Three Packers.
"The National Packing Company. the
hearing developed, is owned by three big
packers Swift owns seven-fifteenths.
Armour, six-ffteenths. and Morris. two
ffteenths While the National controls
these. supposedly independent corpora
tons. it has been holding them out to
the public as separate entities and inde-
pendent corporations and competitors in
business,
I'm this way these corporations have
been and are being used as the device In
controlling the purchase and selling
prices In thus monopOlizing the field
and in controlling the packing industry
the entrance of new competitors in the
business is practically prohibited.
II have not instituted suit against the
Cudahy Packing Company and the
Schwarzschild & Sulzberger Company be-
cause the examination which / conducted
was laid along certain lines and led to
a field of inquiry which did not disclose
whether they were guilty of any viola
tions of the law"
The packers must make return to the
suits by June ~. If demurrers are filed
| until the October term. If answers are
! filed the court may appoint commits
! sioner to take evidence before adjourn
ment for the summer