The Detroit times., 1910-02-19
INDICTMENTS ARE
FOUND AGAINST
PACKERS
Grand Jury of Hudson County, New
Jersey Charges Plot To Control
Beef Output and Control
Trade.
Voting OF Indictments Believed To
Be Forerunner of More
True Bills.

JERSEY CITY, n. j.. Feb 10
Charged with conspiring 10 control ia,
output OF beef and defrauding the pub
hc the Hudson county grand jury late
yesterday returned indictments agains.
Armour q Co, Nelson Morris q Co
the Cudahy Packing. Co. Swift & Co.
ana the National Packing Co.
They are charged with conspiracy
In that they kept foodstuffs in cold
storage with the purpose OF raising
the price. The indictments are TO be
handed up TO Supreme Court Justice
Francis j. Swayze next Wednesday.
The directors OF the National Pack
ing company, according 20 the pub
lished records, are: j. Ogden Armour
i. +. Swift, Edward Morris l.. r
Swift, Ira y. Morris, Arthur Meeker,
Edward Tilden, i. j. Connors. l.. A.
Carton. X. X. McLaren, r. L. VIII
son, c. II. Swift, l.. H. Heyman, Sam.
uel McRoberts. +. a. Fowler, a. W
Armour. The exempted member OF
the directorate is Kenneth X Nc.
Laurin. treasurer Of the Corporation
Trust company OF New Jersey, an in
cooperating agency with Offices at 10
Exchange place, Jersey City Mr..
McLaurins place in the directorate
is said to be purely nominal. and no.
connected In any way with the active
business of the corporation,
The National Packing company
was Incorporated in New Jersey on
March IS. 1903, and it owns the capt.
tai stocks OF the following companies
engaged in the business of packing
meat products: The Fowler Packing
company, the st. Louis Dressed Beef
4 Provision company, the Fowler Can
adam company, Ltd, Fowler Brothers,
Ltd. OF Liverpool. the Omaha Pack
ing company. the Hammond Packing
company. the G.. II. Hammond COM
pany. the Anglo-American Provision
company, the United Dressed Beef
company. It's capital stock was SO.
100000.
The voting OF these indictments is
believed to be the forerunner OF the
finding OF more true bills by the Jer.
sey grand jury.
The investigation was started Feb.
9, when Justice Swayze charged that
IL the evidence sdduced showed that
there existed a combination OF indi-
conspiracy was justified, provided u
could be shown thar the combination
had for its object merely To enhance
the price OF focdstuffs and has ne
lawful aim" The law governing such
cases is borrowed from the New der
sey statutes from che old common law
OF England.
The inquiry mas been conducted
under the direction of County Prose
cutor Pierre p. Garvan.
Officers OF the packing houses ia
Jersey City have been called and
have testified before the grand jury
Another of the chief witnesses mas
been DR.. George f. Mclaughlin, q
bacteriologist of Jersey City. He was
before the jury last Friday. and his
testimony was along the line of prov
ing that bacteria developed in meat
that had been taken from cold stor-
age and treated 10 fresheningup
process Experiments had proved 10
his satisfaction, he declared, that
meat treated in this way was men
acing to the public health. One OF the
officers OF the Merchants Refrigerat
ing company. cola storage concern
of Jersey City, brought before the
grand Jury a turkey that he said had
teen I'm cold storage seven years. IL
was still. he maintained, a perfectly
good turkey. and ne would be glad 10
have a chance 10 eat IL himself. This
was by way OF rsfuting the ideas adj
yaneed by DIT. Mclaughlin.