The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1916-12-13
TOO many STEPS
N Distribution
BOOST R|CES
Control of Terminal Facilities
Presents Serious Handicap
to Stock Raisers
1T GIVES PACKERS
VIRTUAL MONOPOLY
Producers Place All Their Troub-
les at Door Of Controlled
Market

! Market
Chicago, Dec. 13.-Up until the time
beef is delivered over to the rail-
road company to be shipped to the
commission man, who acts as selling
agent forthe producer with the pack
ers, 1t has a comparatively simple
life history. If it is a typical animal
| 1t was born on a big range, grazed
upon the vast reaches of the plains
and was finally sold to the breeder
| through = commission man to a feeder
who "fea it up for the market.
More Complicated
But Immediately the animal leaves
the feeder, It's annals become more
COMPLICATED and the various economic
forces which are exerted upon it until
f, it reaches your table are more clouded
in mystery, more swathed about with
long, clinging terms such as supply
and demand" and market excess and
such cl0aks OF concealment which big
business bundles about its operation,
whether consciously or uncOnsc1Ously.
For the moment the beef arrives at
one of the big live stock markets, the
influence of the packers begins to be
felt upon all concerned in this beers
disposal.
The beef under discussion is now
/ in the hands of the commission man
! who is going to sell it for the feeder
to the packer who wishes to slaughter
and dress it for the retail market.
The commission man therefore is, to
all intents and purposes, not greatly
more than small object between two
millstones, as the live stock business
lis conducted today in America. He
must please his client, the producer,
insofar as he is able, but he must also
! make terms with the packer II he is
~ Sell. &.
!; The lower milestone in this crucial
transaction in the history of the evolv:-
IingFof beefsteak may be represented
as desire of the producers" The
upper milestone is "the will of the
packers" Let us first see how the
producers outline their desires as re-
CARDS the selling of their product, and
how nearly they came. to making this
desire operative, and what they think
of the results. Then we will be ready
to look at "the will of the packers"
in this great bone Of selling and buy
ing the meat for nations!
| In the first place the producers, as
we have shown, declare they are being
so underpaid for their animals that
their losses are becoming alarming
and loss Of confidence is resulting in
their either cutting down their scale
of production greatly or, in some
cases, going out of the business en-
tirely. That their product does not
bring the figures it should, although,
the retail price of meat is rising so
greatly, is due, they vOciferously
charge, to live stock market in Rrac-
tically absolute control of the packers,
the famous Chicago five who largely
dispense; the meat of this country.
They cite, with vehemence, the fact
that as against their alleged losses.
the packers last year made the largest
profits in their history!
Their first charge, in what they al
|lege to be evidence of this controlled
and manipulated market by the pack
ers. is that the leading packers really
constitute q trust; that, while on the
surface they appear to be independ-
ent, they, in reality, work in harmony
so far as buying is concerned.
1 Entire Market
| Since they constitute practically the
entire market of the United States SO
far az the commercial producer of cat
tie is geerally concerned. this fact, IL
true-namely that they buy I'm har-
mony''-would make it quite possible
for them to shove the market up or
down practically as they see fit. BY
all buying lightly, for instance, es-
lpecially in the face of large receipts
of cattle (Which, as has been explain
ed, must be sold at once) they could
nut the commission men in panic and
reduce the current quotations con-
sederably if, indeed, of course, they
Indulge in organized buying"
! That the producers believe this
manipulation of market to be true is
evidenced by the fact resolutions by
various other state groups OF pro-
ducers the national live stock inter
ests submitted in support of their
charges of packer control of the live
(stock markets, exhibiting what sort OF
"a regime they wish together with an
outline of the situation as they see
lit. This is summed up in the resolu-
ton passed by the great blanket or
ganization of the cattlemen, the Amer
Iican National Live Stock association.
This resolution says:
| whereas, the, big meat packers OF
1.-THE United States are largely in con-
troll of stock yards. and the terminal
facilities thereat; of the slaughter and
distribution of cattle, sheep, hogs and
poultry, and the products thereof, In
Guiding hides; of tanneries and the
products therefrom; Of many of the
articles made from horns and hoofs,
1 including glue, buttons, combs, ETC.;
of cottonseed oil mills and refineries,
the products of which are used in the
manufacture of lard compounds, soap,