Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-03-02
SIX PACKING COMPANIES AND
TWENTY-oNE PACKERS
INDICTED.
PROSECUTOR GARVEN DECLARES
HE'LL EXTRADITE ALL
BELLIGERENTs
LIST OF NAMES INCLUDES BIG
MEN IN THE PROVISION
INDUSTRY.

New York, Feb. 26.-The beef trust.
embracing six great packing compan-
les and 81 packers, several of them
multi-millionaires were indicted by
the grand jury at Jersey City yester-
day, charged with conspiracy in limit
ing the supply of meat and poultry.
The maximum penalty in New Jersey
is three years in the penitentiary,
$1,000 fine, or both. The meat barons
must successfully resist extradition
or come to Jersey City for trial.
Prosecutor GaTven announced last
night that he would seek for extradi'
ton in every case where the individ-
ual was unwilling to face trial. The
defendants are as follows: National
Packing company, Armour & com
pany, Swift & company, Morris &
company, Hammond Packing com
pany, G. II. Hammond & company.
]. Ogden Armour, A. Watson AR
mour Louis F. Swift, Edward F Swift,
Charles H. Swift, Edward Morris, Ira
n Morris, Arthur Meeker, Edward
Tflden, L. A. Carton, Thomas E. VIII
son, Thomas J Corners, F. A. Fowl
er, L. H. Heyman, James E Bath.
gate, Jr., George ]. Edwards, Freder.
lex B. Cooper, D. E. HartweIl, a. A.
Fuller, Henry B. Darlington and Lem
uel c. Patterson
The indictment bristles in its ar
raignmeBt of the men named. and also
refers to divers others" as RESPONSE
bic. The latter, however. are not spe-
CITED. The list of names include rep
resentatives of the backbone of the
packing industry The Indictment is
the climax of the first concerted effort
in the east to fix responsibility for the
high prices OF commodities.
Jersey City as a cold storage center.
wherein countless thousands OF
pounds of meat and poultry are stored
proved fruitful field of iMvestiga.
ton More than a month ago the in.
quiry started, and storage plants were
inspected and witnesses examined
There was nothing dramatic in yes.
terday's presentation of documents
which mean the trial of some OF the
most prominent men of the country
charged IN effect with cheating the
public by manipulating the food SIP
ply.
The Indictment charges the defend
ants with "wilfully. unlawfully. felon-
iously deyisfng contriving, intending
for their own unjust, excessive. i'm
moral, unlawful profit and gain, to in
jure. defraud, prejudice. damage
cheat, impoVerish and Cypress the pub
lie by cornering and limiting the
necessary and reasonable supply of
meats and poultry for consumption by
the public. so as to produce an artif-
cial scarcity in the supply of said
meats and poultry. and TO greatly, ex-
cessively and extortionately enhance
and increase the cost and price there
Of"
According 10 the Indictment the IL
legal agreement to thus control prices
{ was entered into by the defendants
March /, 1908, when, it is charged, a
meeting was held in Jersey City
whereat the defendants wilfuily. un-
awfully, fraudulantlv and extortion-
ately" bound themselves to maintain
and exercise control over monopoly
of the meat and poultry supply, and
arbitrarily and unlawfuIly increase the
price OF meat and poultry and not sell
meats and poultry, except at the ex-
orbitant prices agreed upon"
The Indictment states that mere
dribIets of the supply were put on the
market at stated intervals in small
quantities agreed upon thus to cur
tail and restrict the supply purpose
fictitiously. arbitrarily and unlawfully
increasing the prices TO the public -
The defendants, it is charged. were
successful in keeping of the markets
large quantities of meat and poultry
which If marketed. would have been
sufficient TO meet any reasonable de
mand. To carry out the conspiracy,
it is charged. meeting was held IN
Jersey City, December il. 1908, where
at various directors OF the Armour,
swift and Morris companies elected
directors of the National Packing