The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1918-08-23

/
er been turned out than the expose
of the unpatriotic character OF the
packing trust by the federal trade
commission. 1t is plain, straight
forward English, and it marshali
the facts in way that leaves no
doubt as to the justice of the fight
made by the Nonpartisan league
farmers.
Take this paragraph, for instance
Give experimentation & &C..
Swift & Co., Morris & Co., Wilson
& Co., Inc, and the Cudahy Packing
company-together with their sub
salaries and affiliated companies,
not only have monopolistic control
over the American meat industry,
but have secured control, similar In
purpose if not yet in extent, over the
principal substitutes for meat, such
as eggs, cheese and vegetable-oll
products, and are rapidly extending
their power to cover fish and nearly
every kind of foodstuff."
THAT is A SIMPLE STATE
MENT THAT WE ARE FACED BY
A FOOD TRUST IN TIME OF WAR.
That, too, is clear. So long as this
huge monopoly is permitted to live
it will continue to suck profits from
more than half of the total meat pur-
chases of all the armies and navies
that are fighting against the kaiser
in Europe and Asia and upon the
seas.
Now, just where is the weakest
spot in the chain by which the allied
nations are tied to the chariot of this
packing trust?
The federal trade commission finds
that "The monopohstic position of
the Big Five is based not only upon
the large proportion of the meat
business which they handle, ranging
from 81 to Sc per cent in the prin-
cipal lines, but PRIMARILY UPON
THEIR OWNERSHIP, separately or
jointly, OF STOCKYARDS, CAR
LINES, COLD STORAGE PLANTS,
BRANCH HOUSES AND OTHER
ESSENTIAL FACILITIES FOR
THE DISTRIBUTION OF PERISH
ABLE FOODS"
That fact of ownership of stock
yards and all the rest of the mar
keting machinery is the central adj
vantage on which the trust is built
up. Knock out the private monopoly
of stockyards and the rest of the
marketing arrangement, and you
mock out the heart of the trust.
Public ownership and free competi-
ton of buyers in the stockyards, and
public ownership Of the wholesale
markets which supply the retail meat
dealers, will put the Armours, the
Swifts and the Morrises off their
golden thrones.
And here is the language in which
the commission answers:
"The rapid rise of the packers to
power and immense wealth, and
their present strangle hold on food
supplies, were not based necessarily
on their ownership of packing houses,
but upon their CONTROL OF THE
OF DISTRIBUTION,
particularly the stockyards, private
car lines, cold storage plants and
branch houses. Similarly the GREAT
WHICH THEY HAVE
AND ARE NOW Sc
CURING are not primarily due to
exceptional efficiency in operating
packing houses and manufacturing
plants, but are secured through their
control of the distribu-
tive machinery. This applies not
only to the meat industry, but to the
other branches of the food industry
WIlISll t1lCy OOuCIOl, as ID
by the fact that particularly in re-
cent years they have made far great
er efforts to secure control of the dis
tribution of the product than to Sc.
cure manufacturing plants in the
case of such products as cheese and
canned goods.
GAS long as the packers control
these distributive utilities, producers
will be at the mercy of the big pack
ers, competition will be restrained
and consumers generally will con-
tinue to pay the price of monopoly.
Control and manipulation of the
livestock markets have been >the
great factors in the discouragement
of livestock production. Control of
The transportation and marketing IA
cilities have been the instruments by
which competitors have been crushed. |
"W6 see no possibility of affecting
he fundamental improvements
which tho nroci DENTS letter. co,1ob+ |