Bisbee daily review., 1916-04-06
NEITHER PACKER NOR PRODUCER
 MAKE MONEY
Such is the Inference to Be Ia ken from Statements Made to Judiciary Subcommittee Investigating Borland Bill.
(By Review Leased Wire.) !


 WASHINGTON, April 5.-Despite the soaring prices of meat, neither the producer nor the packer is profit ing greatly according to testimony given today by representatives of the respective interests in House judici- ary subcommittee hearing on the Borland resolution for federal in Yestigation of the packing industry
 Answering declarations of producers that packers are reaping enormous profits, Arthur Meeker, vice president of Armour and Company, declared that last week his firm lost approx imately s50,000 on their total sales in the United States His statement interrupted that of John Lanergin, a big cattle raiset of Amarillo. Texas, who insisted that in spite of the large sales, he had only broken even" in his business the last three years
 Edward l.. Burke, of Omaha. rep resenting the American National Live stock Association, told the committee that higher prices were inevitable in
  tion.
 MT. Lanergin, who said he once made an unsuccessful attempt as a member of an important Texas Pack ing company to compete with the five large firms that control the bulk of the business in this country, was positive in the declarations that the packers were making money
 They tell us they are making only from sixty cents to S1.15 on each steer" he said. Well, maybe so, but we think they have left out some thing in their calculations and some thing besides the liver. too. Possibly they have left out a front quarter or hide and because we are not satis- fled with their statements and the state of affairs. in which We find our business we want an investigation"
 Do you find your business profit able?" MT. Meeker inquired.
 We find it uncertain" NIT. Lander gin continued. We haven't made any money in the last three years. It was a close shave last year. The year before there was none.'
 Failure by producers to regulate shipments is one of the greatest causese of complaint against packers" MT. Meeker said. Often times more cattle comes to us than can be sold. The shipper seems to- think that we can get rid of them somehow.
 "On all the beef that Armour and Company sold in the United States last week. think it was 25.0O0 cat tle-we lost from 25 to 40 cents hundred pounds. If we handled 25,0O0 our loss was about $50,000."
 If you lost money on beef. how is it that you have piled up surplus of S6S.000, ,000?" asked Judge w. H. Wal lace of Kansas City.
 MT. Meeker replied that he did not maintain that his company was oper- ating at a general loss, but that only with the aid of receipts from by products it was able to show gain.
 Tn my judgment" MT. Meeker con tinued. beef has gotten so high that it has curtailed the consumption of meat. and the packers are forced to sell at loss. We have not sold within 20 percent of the beef we ship ped last week.
 The selling price of beef last week went down six cents below that Of a week before. and yet we had to pay more for it. We cannot force anyone to pay a certain price. Of course. we try to sell at a certain fig ure. but buyers bid on our product the same as we bid on cattle, and we can't always get what We want for it.
 MT Meeker said it was not fair that producers should lose money on