The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-08-24
Official Statement from Armour & Co.
Relative to Food Price Agitation.

The current food-price score" has
brought forth much ignorant and
RECKLESS Misrepresentation.
/ Armour & company is 40 longer
willing OF be maligned and will chal-
IIenge any mis-statement or misrepre.
sentation which seeks to hold us up
to public scorn as malefactors.
Armour & Co. invites ths fullest
possible inquiry into current food
prices. 1t is ready to cooperate in
such an inquiry with public officials.
governmental committees, or any au-
thoritative agency anywhere without
reservation.
From the first moment Of the food
price scare" every scrap of inforna-
ton in Armour and company's pos
session has been available. When
the morning papers of -Tiday, August
IA, announced that food prices would
be Investigated by the federal au-
thorities, Armour G Co. Immediately
got into communication with the
United States attorney for the Chi
cago district, who was then out OF the
City liz representative 11kOS 1850 49, y
following morning. Saturday, August
| Is, and rendered to him. without res
ervation, any and all information he
might desire that could be obtained
from the books, documents and rec
ords of Armour & Co.
In spite OF this voluntary coopera-
ton, Armour & Co., with others. has
been publicly assailed as II the
packers" had to be and we're to be
| hauled into court as manacled male
| factors. This outrageous treatment
serves no purpose but to inflame
| further a public already overheated
by exploitation of ignorant, II not
willfuly malicious, Misrepresentation.
Look at the one big factor OF the
situation. 1t is this:
When all Europe went war-mad, a
little over two weeks ago. every news
paper in America proclaimed or pre-
dicted, in one way or another. rise
commerce. That alone would cause,
as it did. prices to rise, because both
consumers and dealers everywhere
were Immediately prompted to antici-
pate the rise by quick and heavy
buying. Food prices were affected
first, of course, and a scare" was
on. Then the scare" was exploited
and that still further stimulated the
buying impulse. Unprecedented de-
mand was created and higher prices
| grew with it.
| Families which ordinarily buy su.
gar and flour by five and ten pounds
were buying by the barrel. Retailers
who ordinarily buy in five and ten
i case lots were buying. or trying to
buy. in fifty case lots AS conse
quence, wholesale and retail houses
report an unheard OF volume OF bust
ness in the last week or two-more
volume in week, in some cases, than
in the whole month Of July.
Under such conditions, and par
ticularly when the conditions arc
stimulated by sensational expioita
| ton of reckless statements, no human
power can control, regulate or modify
price tendencies until the law OF sup
ply and demand is repealed.
Misrepresentation has bred more
Misrepresentation. There have beer
many concrete examples of it like the
following:
A Chicago newspaper OF Wednes
day, August 10, had Representative
Ware of Pennsylvania saying that
while meats in this country have
/ jumped $500 per hundred since the
war began, Armour & Co. contracted
with England last week for 5,000,O0t
pounds OF canned beef"
There was not a word Of truth II
the statement. Meats have no
jumped $500 per hundred. Arrnoul
& Co. has not contracted with Eng
land for canned meat of any kind
, either Immediately before or since
the war began.
Other publications had US shipping
Z vast quantities Of meat into Canada
to be shipped abroad from there
i, Neither before nor since the war be
, gan has Armour & Co. shipped meat.
to Canada for these good reasons:
, Canada has prohibitive tariff o
: So hundred against American meats
, Armour & Co. has plant in Canad;
and daily imports meats from there
, as we'll as from other Canadian plants
l Representative Mcclellan of Tennes
;, see, on the floor of congress lag
! week, in speaking on cold storage
, bill, attacked Armour e Co., and 9th
er packers to this effect: He charged
that Mr. Meeker of Armour & Co. re
fused to appear before senate com
| mittee to give testimony on a COLI
1 storage bill; that not a packer ap
+ peared before the committee; tina
, the packers tried to embarrass thu
!. committee and treated the late Sena
; tor Hepburn, the chairman, "simpl.
4 outrageous"
!. Part of this is half-truth, whicl
4 is the most malicious kind OF false
q hood; the remainder is untrue.
n Mr.. Meeker did not appear befor