The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-22
PACKERS ANSWER
 HE GOVERNMENT They Deny Every Material
 Allegation OUTLINES DEFENSE
OUTLINES
DEFENSE
Attorney Says Public Has Been Bene- fitted Rather Than Injured By Operations of the Packers.
 Defense Meets Defeat

Chicago December 21--Denying every material allegation made by the govern
 ment against the 10 Chicago packers on trial before United States District Judge
 Carpenter for violation of the criminal sections of the sherman law, Attorney
 George T. Buckingham today outlined the
 case of the defendants in his opening | statement to the jury
 | The defense met defeat when Judge | Carpenter at the opening of the court de-
 nied motions to eliminate counts two and three from the indictment and to have l the jury disregard statements made by District Attorney Wilkerson in his open | ing address regarding certain acts of I the defendants prior to the three year period covered by the indictment. Attorney Buckingham described in de- tail the method of buying, selling and accounting used by the packers and de- clared that the unusual nature of the business made some such system abso- lutely necessary. In outlining the pack CTS defense, Attorney Buckingham made statements in reply to charges of the government, among which were:
 That the business operations of the packers do not constitute an undue and unreasonable restraint of trade under the Sherman law, as recently interpreted by the United States supreme court in the cases of the Standard Oil company and the American Tobacco company.
 That the public has been benefited rather than injured by the operations of the packers. That the governmentss proof of alleged combination must be confined to the three year period subsequent to 19e7.s That the profits of the packers do not exceed 10 per cent on the actual money invested.
 That the profits on the sales of meat do not exceed 3 per cent M
 That no agreement on the purchase price of cattle or on the sale of meat ever existed among the defendants
 That the weekly meetings of the pack CTS, held prior to 1902, were for the sole purpose of preventing the overstocking of the market with perishable fresh meats and not to fix prices or suppress competition
 That there are nearly 300 independent concerns in daily competition with the indicted packers
 That the defendants supply less than 70 per cent of the meat used in this country. tla..
 That the National Packing company I was organized in good faith to trans act legitimate business and not to per- petuate system for the fixing of prices or the control of the product,
 Attorney Buckingham addressed the jury as the representative of four of the defendants. Louis F, Edward, Charles II Swift and H. A. Fowler
 Pointed paragraphs in his statement were: 3l
 'It is specifically denied that the fcost system now in nses was invented for the purpose of enabling combination between the packers" 5sss .if
 We deny the charge that the drec- tors of the National Packing company make any agreements about the busi- ness except that of the National
 The old trade arrangement, whose ob- ject was to prevent the over accumuIa- tion of meats as perishable articles in the various markets. was ended by agree ment prior to June. 1so2. The indictment charges the National Packing company was organized for the purpose of perpet- uatng this old arrangement. This is em- phatically denied.' iT
 Attorney M. W. Borders representing the Morris group of defendants will speak tomorrow morning.