Evening star., 1918-08-08
INVEST|GATORSASK
GOVERNMENT TAKE
STOCKYARD PLANTS
Federal Trade Commissions
Recommendation Made
Public by President.
MONOPOLY, CONSPIRACY
AND RESTRAINT CHARGED
/ Railroad Administration Proposed
Agency to Create Competitive
Food Marketing Conditions.

Government acquisition and control
of all the principal stockyards, cold
storage plants and warehouses, and
both refrigerator and cattle cars has
been recommended to the President
by the Federal Trade Commission, to
destroy a monopoly which it declares
Swift & Co., Armour & Co., Morris &
Co.. Wilson & Co., Inc, and the Gu
daily Packing Company exercised not
only over the meat industry of the
country, but other necessary food sup
plies.
The commissions report Is based
upon exhaustive hearings conducted
recently in many cities and was made
public today through the White
House. It has been in the hands Of
the President since July 5, and it
was explained that it had not previ-
ously been issued because the Presi-
dent wished first to be in possession
of full information
Great Volume Of Evidence.
Basing its statement upon a great
volume Of evidence examined, much
of 1t taken from the confidential files
of the packing companies. the COM
mission said the power of the five
packing companies has been and is
being unfairly and Illegally used" to:
Manipulate live stock markets;
Restrict interstate and interna-
tional supplies of food;
Control the prices Of dressed
meats and other foods;
Defraud both the producers OF
food and consumers.
Crush effective competition;
Secure special privileges. from
railroads. stockyard companies and
municipalities, and
while we have found" said the
report to the President.
land will disclose to you an intricate
nations. conspiracies and restraints
which would seem to indicate SINH
1arly complex and minute system or
legislative or administrative reme-
remedy may be more simply arrived
I'VE believe that if the fundamental
the whole structure of conspiracy.
control. monopoly and restraint must
fall"
no packing plants and killed no cat
tie and still retained control of the
Instruments of transportation, of
marketing and of storage, their posi-
tion would be no less strong than
it is
List Of Recommendations.
Il.
"1) That the government acquire,
through the railroad administration,
: all rolling stock used for the trans
such ownership be declared govern
nlent monopoly.
"(2) That the government acquire,
through the railroad administration,
the principal and necessary stock
yards of the country, to be treated as
freight depots and TO be operated un-
der such conditions as will insure
open, competitive markets, with uni
form scale of charges for all services
performed. and the acquisition or es-
tablishment of such additional yards
from time to time as the future de-
velopment of live stock production in
the United States may require. This
to include customary adjuncts Of
stockyards.
"(3) That the government acquire.
thr ugh the railroad administration,
all privately owned refrigerator cars
and all necessary equipment for their
proper operation, and that such own
ership be declared a government mo-
nopoly.
Markets and Storage
"(4) That the federal government
acquire such of the branch houses,
cold-storage plants and warehouses as
n ornVida facilities fnr
the competitive marketing and storage
of food products in the principal CEN
tiers of distribution and consumption.
The same to be operated by the gov
ernment as public markets and stor-
age places under such conditions as
will afford an outlet for all manu-
facturers and handlers Of food prod
ucts on equal terms. Supplementing
the marketing and storage facilities
thus acquired, the federal govern
administration, at the terminals OF all
principal points of distribution and
consumption, central wholesale mar
kets and storage plants, with facili-
ties open to all upon payment OF just
and fair charges.
International Activity.
out Of the mass of information in
our hands," the report continued. zone
phasis The small, dominant group of
american meat packers are now in
ternational in their activities, while
remaining American in their identity.
Blame, which now attaches to them
for their practices abroad. as well as
at home. inevitably will attach to our
country If the practices continue.
The purely domestic problems in
their increasing magnitude, their
monopolization of markets and their
manipulations and controls, grave as
those problems are, are not more seri-
Gus than those presented by the added
aspect of International activity. This
urgently argues for a solution which
xiii increase and not diminish the
high regard in which this people Is
held in international comfy"
The commission says, in addition to
their immense properties in the United
states, the five packing companies,
either separately or Jointly. own or
control more than half of the export
Continued on Sixteenth Page.)