Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-26
BEEF MAGNATES.
INDICTED; FRAUD
CHARGED TRUST
Multi Millionaires Face
Term in Prison and
Big Fines
CONSPIRACY CHARGE
OffenSe Is Extraditable;
Meat Barons Cannot
Escape Trial
ASSOCIATED PressI


- bracing six great packing COM
panies and twenty-one packers, sew
eral of them multi-millionaires, was
indicted by a grand jury In Hudson
county, New Jersey, today, charged
with conspiracy in limiting the supply
of meat and poultry.
The Indictment is drawn under the
law of New Jersey, which provides
upon conviction a maximum penalty of
three years in the penitentiary, q $1,000
fine. or both. The offense is extradit-
able, which means practically that the
meat barons either must successfully
resist extradition or come to Jersey
City for trial.
Pierre Garven, public prosecutor Of
Hudson county, said tonight that he
would forthwith notify the defendants
of their indictment, and would be
ready to force extradition in each case
where the individual concerned is not
willing to face trial.
The Defendants
The defendants, as named, follow:
Corporations-The National Packing
company, Armour & Co., Swift & Co.,
Morris & Co., Hammond Packing COM
pany, G. H. Hammond & Co.
Individuals. Ogden Armour, A.
Watson Armour, Louis F. Swift, Ed
ward F. Swift, Charles H. Swift, Ed
ward Morris, Ira N. Morris, Arthur
Meeker, Edward Tilden, L. A. Carton,
Thomas E. Wilson, Thomas J. Con-
nors, F. A. Fowler, L. H. Heyman,
James H. Rathgate, Jr,, George j.
Edwards, Frederick B. Cooper, D. e.
Hartwell, Henry B. Darlington, A. A.
Fuller, Lemuel c. Patterson.
Ira N. Morris sent a lawyer to Jersey
City this week from Chicago to inform
Prosecutor Garven that he had retired
from the directorate of Morris & Co.,
but nevertheless he was indicted.
Cooper is the New Jersey manager
for Swift & Co.; Rathgate, Edwards,
Hartwell, Darlington and Fuller are
said to be officers and eastern agents
of the National Packing company,
while others named either are directors
or officers of the National Packing
company.
Capiases for the arrest of all the de-
PENDANTS will be issued immediately,
and the grand jury will resume its in
vestigation on Wednesday.
The indictment, which bristles in its
arraignment of the men named, also
refers to divers others" as being re-
sponsible. These latter, however, are
not specified.
The list of names, it will be seen, rep
resents the backbone of the great pack
ing industry of the country, containing
1
and two Morrises, most of them resi-
dents of Chicago.
Their indictment brings to climax
the first concerted effort in the east to
fix responsibility for the prevailing
high price of food in this country.
Jersey City, as cold storage center.
where the packing companies of the
west maintain vast warehouses in
which thousands of pounds of meat and
noultrv are stored, proved a 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.
Today the Indictment was handed up
in the supreme court before Justices
Blair and Caey.
Big Men to Be Tried
The proceedings were formal in the
extreme, and there was nothing dra-
matte in the presentation of the docu-
ment that will mean the trial by jury
of some of the most prominent men in
the United Staes, charged in erect
with cheating the public by manipulat-
ing the food supply through the medi-
um of cold storage.
OF this alleged manipulation the in
dictment charges that the defendants
conspired within the jurisdiction OF
tllS court, WllllulASy ~~%Ae-
loniously devising, contriving and IN
tending for their unjust, excessive, inn
moral and unlawful profit and gain, to
injure, defraud, prejudice, damage
cheat, impoverish and Cypress the pub
lie and the people by cornerlng and
limiting the necessary and reasonable
sunplv of meats and poultry for con-
sumntion by the public and the people
of said city and said county, as to pro-
duce an artificial scarcity in the supply
OF said meats and poultry, and to
greatly, excessively and extort1onately
enhance the cost and price thereof"
Charged with Fraud
According to the Indictment an ille-
gal agreement to control prices was
entered. into by the defendants as far
hack as March 1, 1908, when it is
charged a meeting was held in Jersey
City at which the defendants will
fully. unlawfully, fraudulently and
extortionately" bound themselves to
maintain and exercise control over
monopoly of the meat and poultry sup
ply. and to arbitrarily and unlawfully
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 states that mere
driblets of the supply were put on the
market at stated intervals, small
quantities agreed upon by the defend
ants, 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 at this alleged creation Of
artificial prices, but warehouses are
held specifically to blame. BY this
means, it is charged, the defendants
were successful in keeping off the
market large quantities of meat and
poultry which, If put upon the mar
kets, would have been sufficient to
meet a reasonable demand.
Conspiracy Pact Alleged
Significant relations between the
Armour, Swift and Morris interests
Continued on Page Twol