Omaha daily bee., 1911-12-27
ATTORNEY vEEDER ON STAND
Swift and Company Lawyer Tells Of
Failure of Combine,
NATIONAL COMPANY FOLLOWED
Intended to Operate Independent
Companies Purchased.
IMMUNITY PLEA AGAIN CITED
witness Admits Packers Have Or
ERnizatiOn which Meets Every
Tuesday Afternoon Near
Law Ofs;ccs.


CHICAGO, Dec, 26-Details of the plan
for a $5OO,OOO,OOO merger OF the Armour
Swift, and Morris interests in 1902. which
the government contends sought to con-
troll the meat industry Of the country.
were revealed today I'm the trial Of the
ten Chicago packers before United States
District Judge George a. Carpenter.
The contract which was dated May 1,
1902, was read to the jury and offered in
evidence by counsel for the government.
The original agreement was produced
in court by Albert II. Veeder, attorney
for Swift and company, who was called
by the government counsel.
Attorney Veeder testified that the plans
for the giant merger were abandoned
and that in March, 1903, the National
Packing company was organized to oper-
ate certain independent packing COM
panies purchased with view of including
them in the big company.
y Under the terms of the agreement the
three large packing corporations and
their subsidiary companies together with
recently acquired Independents companies
were to be merged into one giant con-
cern. Armour, Swift, and Morris were
to receive bonds and preferred stock of
the new company in payment for the
value of their tangible property. In
addition to this the promoters were to
receive s25,OOO.O0O worth OF the new com
panys stock for intangible property and
large block of common stock for their
good WILL this amount to be fixed by the
earnings of the different plants during
the first year Of the new merger.
The promoters planned to borrow $780,
100000 to finance the giant corporation.
The appraised valuation of Armour,
Swift, Morris and their subsidiaries
companies was given at $lS0.0O0,OOO. Each
Of three promoters deposited 81 100000
with a Chicago bank as evidence of
good faith, but they were compelled to
drop the plan on account of the failure
of certain New York capitalists to furnish
the funds needed.
Veeder was on the witness stand
throughout the day and will continue
his testimony tomorrow.
Previous to the e.illing OF Veeder' to
the stand the defense made an unsuccess-
full attempt to have excluded from the
governments case all transactions prior
to 1905 on the ground that the immunity
indicted seven years ago, apply to that
period.
Counsel for the packers put their motion
in writing, but Judge Carpenter, while
reserving his decision to give the gov
ernment time to reply indicated that
he would deny the motion.
Veeder, at the beginning of his direct
examination, admitted that the packers
-. ,tal.
Tuesday afternoon in the same building
and on the same floor with his law Of
flee and that his son, Henry Veeder.
acted as secretary in 1900, 1901 and 1902.
He did not know the name OF the
association and what business was trans
acted at the meetings. He said he never
attended any of the meetings.
The witness said books and records of
the meeting were kept but he did not
know where they were now.
The government contends that 1t was
at these meetings that the price of meat
was fixed and plans discussed for the
of competition.
The witness said he had heard at the
pool meeting the different companies and
the territories allotted to them were
designated by letter. He said territory
"A" was north of the Ohio river and
east of the Missouri river. He said
Armour was known as "a among the
He did not know the letters
used to designate the other members OF
the alleged pool.
He said the association of packers was
dissolved in 1908 and his son, who had
acted as secretary, was taken into his
law office as partner. The witness
said he first became attorney for Gus
tave A. Swift, in 1885 and that on differ
ent occasions had served as director for
Swift & Company, and several of its
companies.