Arizona republican., 1917-12-29
PACKERS
 SQUEEZE DEALERS
tRepubIican A. p. Leased wireJ


 BOSTON, Dec. 2S.-Tostimony about the squeezing of small dealers out of competition by the alleged grasp of the big packers upon the meat, ren- dcring soap and fertilizer industries of the country, was given today by witnesses before the federal trade commission.
 Francis J. Hehey, special counsel for the commission, said the packers controlled the rendering business from its collection of butchers waste tO the manufacture of valuable by products. By their methods of gain ing control of meat scraps, fat and bone, he added, the commission sought to show that the man who bought a steak or roast paid an unnecessarily high price for his dinner.
 Witnesses engaged in the rendering business asserted that the packers stifled competition for the collection Of waste products by bidding up prices beyond the reach of the inde- pendent dealers, by resortihg to the scheme of giving short weight for re- fuse, by giving bonuses to retailers to break contracts with competing rendering firms, by fomenting agita- tions against the erection of new competing rendering plants and by dividing territory among themselves by gentlemen's agreements in which the trade of a man opening a new butcher shop was sold to the highest bidder transactions in which the butcher had nothing to say.
 IT, New England, it was testified, rendering companies which were trust-controlled, maintained a fund 10 pay bonuses for the trade of re- tailers at points where independent rendering companies tried to compete. Not only the rendering business but even the corner store trade in meats was sought by the packers, witnesses declared. Large markets, they said. were established in strategic positions in various large cities where packers named the price al which meats could be sold at re- tail. These prices were said To be below that at which the small re- taller could sell. As a result. it was said. the neighboring butchers were closing up their >stores in ever in- crcasing numbers because customers were drawn to the larger stores Wit ncsses named the Mohican company, which has a chain of stores through out New England. as q specific in- stance of this kind.
 Many of the witnesses heard today gave their version of being driven out of business by what they termed the trust. or of getting into the combine in order to live. Two of the witnesses enlivened the session by voiciLg their defiance of the packers.
 Mir. Heney called Edwin F. Martin of Brookline, a small stockholder ir the Chicago Junction Railways and Union Stock Yards company of New Jersey, which was absorbed by the Chicago Stock Yards company. Mar tin said that he was pursuaded by Frederick II. Prince of Bostcn to give up his stock for stock in the new concern which Prince told him was controlled by the Chicago packers Martin was reluctant to let his stocE go, he said, because of the big sur. plus which he thought would be di vided among the stockholders. bu Prince told him there was danger O the packers going to some other cit, if the deal did not go through.
 And no word was said" asked MT. Heney, about the S3,000,000 sur plus which evidence has shown wen Np llitt diu HIS dSSOCldleS.
 Nothing" replied the witness.
 Tn other words" Commissions Murdock asked. "you were not toll that the melon was to be put ol ice?"
 'I didn't find that out until later, Martin answered.
 A. F.. Keeler. a former independen renderer, testified as to "how tn trust wound up independent bushes like an alarm clock" by paying bonus to customers of independen concerns to break contracts. The re tailers were told. Keeler said. tha they would be protected iri any law suit that might result.
 In the midst of a tale of trouble i building up a trade and then losin it when unable to compete agains thc bonus system and soaring price and other Inducements offered b
 Continued on Page Two)
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