New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1918-04-10
THE PACKING HOUSE INQUIRY

Testimony is now being taken by the
Federal Trade Commission for a report
on the Chicago meat packers that should
be one of the most illuminating and help.
full documents ever contributed toward
the solution of our economic problems.
TIE packers have been exposed and
muck-raked repeatedly, but never with
the thoroughness now being displayed
by Mr.. Francis J. Heney, attorney for
the Commission. Most of the earlier
investigations were made with criminal
proceedings in view, in the days when
the country had not yet lost its tatuous
reliance on putting people In jail as a
solution for our ills. We can be pretty
sure that Mr.. Heney and the Commits
sion contemplate no such action this
time, and it is earnestly to be hoped
that they do not. Not that the leading
packers do not deserve prosecutions
all the evidence seems to indicate that
they do, that their policies have in
| volved a moral turpitude, a callous
contempt for the public welfare, will
lingness to conspire and intrigue, that
violates even the standards of conven-
tional morality prevalent in the business
community The objection to prose-
cutions is not only that they get nowhere
with men of the high pecuniary prestige
of the Swifts and Armours, but even that
if they did it would be too easy solu-
ton. Mr.. Heney is famous as pro: e.
cutor, but as long ago as 1910 he vowed
that he would never prosecute again.
In San Francisco he came to see that the
Ruefs and the Calhouns were merely
! the product of a system that permits
private monopoly of necessary public
services, and that only by "ehanglng
the SYSTEM could we put an end ito
exploitation and corruption. And Mr..
Heney shares this understanding with
the other men who presumably will
have share in the writing of the report
Mr.. Basil Nj. Manly, who has acted as
special examiner for the Commission,
and Mr.. w. B. Colver, one of the most
active of the Commission.
With the Commissions report in
prospect, there is no need to attempt
here more than a summary of the dis
closures brought out by the testimony
and letters introduced at the hearings
in Chicago and elsewhere. These sho w
a small group of men in absolute control
of the process by which great nation
and it's foreign customers are supple
with meats and the by-products .of
slaughtering. They control these pro-
cesses from the ranch to the kitchen.
Producer, consumer, and every inter-
mediate agency feel the heavy weight
of this control and pay tribute to it.
With the great accumulations of money
it has built up for them, Trey have
reached out to otker fields, endeavoring
to bring under like control poultry,
canned vegetables and fruits, fertilizers,
and fish. They have gained control OF
great banks and chains of banks, and
! erected themselves into one OF the
dominating financial groups. They con-
troll chambers of commerce, commercial
clubs, and newspapers in half dozen
cities Great communities look to them
for decisions that will make or break their
prosperity, and delegations of leading
citizens from these towns 60 to Chi
cago on Bonded knee to ask for favors.
Cattle growers in every state are at
their mercy: They control railroad
systems, terminals, stock yards, and the
facilities for feeding live stock that have
arrived at tie markets. BY secret
agreement they fix the number of cattle
to be purchased and the prices to be
paid. TIE cattleman takes what Trey
are willing to pay or faces the alternative
of shipping his stock back to tie ranch
at ruinous expense. Profits from the
sale of meat and of by-products are sup
plemented by every petty gouee for which
their secret ownership OF stockyards
and auxiliary services give opportunity.
Stockmen are forced to sell "canners"
and slightly defective animals for song,
and the difference between the purchase
price and the actual value of these ex-
ceptional animals alone spells large
profits. Five years ago Armour & Co.:
had capitalization OF $40, 100000 and
surplus of $84,00G,000. Last year
their profits alone were more than
thirty millions, while those of Swift
& Co. exceeded thirtyfour millions.
What the country has paid IN other
ways is beyond computations. True,
there have been great gains in efficient
operation, in standardizing and in
= utilizing by-products.. But these were
! the work of the operating force, and
there is no assurance that they are
other than the normal and to-be-expected
;; gains that American Ingenuity would
have given us in any CASE Ofsettlng
them, we have seen the disappearance
of the small local slaughter house, and
there is no way of telling whether this
is a proper economic development or
the result OF unfair methods of COM
petition, by which butchers who bought
ofsindependent local houses were put 1t
Of bust less. There are plenty Of farm
authorities who say that all through
the East and Middle West the small
average farmer has quit raising food
animals because there was no local
market and the cost of shipping less
than carloads on the hoof to distant
packing centers was discouraging. i
While Mr.. Heney was examining wit
nesses and reading letters in a court
room in the Federal Building in Chi
cago, Mr.. Frank P. Walsh was bringing
out the facts regarding tie human ele-
ment in the packing industry in a court
room at the other end Of the hall. These
latter proceedings were the federal
arbitration Of demands for higher wages
and better working conditions, formu-
lated and presented by packing house
employees newly organized with the help
of President Fitzpatrick and Secretary