The Detroit times., 1912-02-29
BY WOODROW WILSON.

When | read the testimony In the
trial OF the meat packers In Chicago,
| find that these gentlemen buy cat
tile on the hoof, charge all the ex-
penses OF all their operations TO the
meat; and they sell the hides and the
hoofs, and the parts, whatever they
may be, that yield very valuable glue,
and all the by-products, which In their
sum total are extremely profitable.
without any charges being entered
against them In their books. So that
we are paying for meat in order to
enable them TO sell hides and deter
mine the prices of shoes.
Now, that Is a valuable inside piece
of information. They can't any longer
impose upon us by showing US their
books upon fresh meat Tor meat that
isn't fresh that comes out of cold stor-
lge), That is what l call one OF the
items In our bill Of particulars on
business. Now We know what they do.
And also we know by their own
testimony II isn't necessary for them
10 combine themselves In a corpora
ZION in order TO fx prices. II Is only
necessary TO have gentleman's un-
derstanding, and have correspondence
through a secretary agreed upon' ana
that this secretary, one every 80 OFT
On, sends out circular suggesting q
price for meni, and this suggestion Is
: ,inally taken and acted upon. And
that suggestion Is perfectly Arbitrary;
they can establish the price OF meat
upon an absolutely non-competitive
basis.
Very well, We know what the meat
packers are doing, and what the steel
men are doing, and. what all these
other men are doing. We have got
now some of the transactions and the
form in which they are carried
through. Now, 1t seems to me, we are
ready TO proceed to business, so Tar
"a we see what we are about. we
are not going to lay about In any
blind and vague way, but We are going
10 do something like this, not propos-
ing this as measure, but merely as
an illustration.
II YOU want TO cure men OF Joy-rid-
ing YOU won't break up their automo-
biles. but catch the men that do the
ioy-rtding and see that these very
useful and pleasant vehicles OF our
modern life are left for legitimate
uses. II YOU want to stop joy-riding
among oorporations--for that II what
, is being done-you won't break up the
corporation. We may need to use
them. But you will break up the
same.
We will say that a corporation SO
long as Il acts within its charter, or
q within the limits Of the law is some
thing we won't look inside OF. We
will regard II as long as 1t Is within
IFS legislative uses as body corpor'
ate that has its own separate entity,
, and into the details OF whose organ'za-
ton we won't pry. We Will hold IL
responsible so far only as body, an
unbroken body, but the minute some
body inside begins to use 1t for pur-
poses he has no right TO use IT, tnen
we are going to turn II inside Out ana
see who Is inside. F. --------'---,-,--
And we are going TO establish this
nrinciple. that with regard to breaches
~ the law. we will deal, not with cor
norations. but with individuals; that
we don't know corporations, that we
never heard of them. when we are
dealing with breaches OF the law. We
will oblige every corporation to hle
Nth the sproper officer, of the law
sworn analysis with regard to the way
Continued ON Page Nine.