The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-12-22
PACKER CONTROL
OF DISTRIBUTION
AND MARKETING
Senate Committee Listens to
Testimony of Representa-.
tive Of 10 gden Armour.
JUNCTION RAILWAY YARDS
Fifteen Thousand Shares of Yard
Stock Armour's But Name
Not in Transaction.

conducted by the federal trade com
mission to determine the ownership
and control of the Chicago Junction
Railways and Union Stockyards
company was evinced today when
Frederick w. Croll, treasurer of Ar
mour & Co., was questioned by Fran
els J. Heney, special counsel, who
sought to develop the extent of the
packers control of the marketing OF
cattle and the distribution of meat
products as we'll as ownership OF
yards at st. Paul and Kansas City.
Croll testified that neither ]. Ogden
Armour nor Armour & Co. of which ].
Ogden Armour owns 70 per cent, had
any interest in the Kansas City yards.
st. Paul Plant.
did any Of the big packers have a
plant at st. Paul before Armour &
Co. began building their plant there?"
asked Heney.
Eyes, Swift & Co." replied Croll
did Armour & Co. receive bonus
for going there?"
"A citizens committee agreed to do
something, but l do not know what
they. have done nor what the total
amount was to be-"
WAS it as much as $50O,00O?"
Il cannot say"
WAS it more than $10O,000?"
II venture to say it was"
do you know if, after this agree.
ment was made with the St. Paul
citizens committee, any agreement
was made with Swift to secure part
ownership of the St. Paul yards?'
II do not"
WAS any agreement made for part
control of the Drovers' bank?"
Handled Through Agent.
II do not know. The entire matter
was handled by Geo. S. Robbins, vice
president of Armour & Co." Mr.. Heney
did not question Croll further on the
subject. From other witnesses an ef-
fort will be made to ascertain wheth-
er Armour or Swift entered into any
understanding regarding the meat
packing industry at St. Paul. "
In organizing the Chicago Stock
Yards company, J. Ogden Armour be-
came the possessor of 1880 shares,
according to testimony, but like all
the other shareholders, his identity
was concealed through the use of
share warrants, payable to bearer.
Crou said Armour now had turned in
his stock to Armour & Co. in. order
that the eight other stockholders of
that concern, all of them members of
the Armour family, might benefit.
Ownership of the stock, however, is
Jumped with other assets.
Details of the methods used by Ar
mour and F. H. Prince of Boston,
on obtaining control of the Junction
Railways company, necessary pre-
liminary to the formation of the new
concern, were brought out in letters
obtained by the commissions inyesti.
gators.
The Junction Railways.
In letter to Armour, Prince wrote:
Il propose to have the guarantee
stock listed on the stock exchange and
the present stock will be stricken
from the list We shall do our best
then to depreciate the value of the
outstanding stock so as to get the
small holders to come in. Then dur
ing the next two or three months our
office will busy itself with getting the
outstanding stock which in time we
should get down to minimum"
Records were introduced to show
that after the reorganization the
stock yards company, without assets
or business other than controlling the
older corporation was able to "cut
melon" of more than 100000 out
of the junction railways surplus and
to declare quarterly dividends of 214
per cent on their $S,000,000 capitaliza-
ton after the small investors in juno.
ton railways had been given their
guaranteed 9 per cent per annum.
Testimony of w. NJ. Walden, for
mer treasurer of the Stock Yards COM
pany, and Croll, esta blished Armour's
connection with the deal. Efforts to
prove that other big packers were in
terested in the company met with lit
tie success. Non-committal replies
were given by the witnesses to ques-
lions as to what was meant by "the
packers and "the other Chicago peo-
pie" in correspondence concerning the
organization of the Chicago Stock
yards Co.
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