The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-02-21
TRUSTS CRIMES
Mercilessly Exposed by Govern
ment Investigation.


1--WE all agree it necessary to
flood the judiciary committee
with kilograms from all parts Of
the country, especially from dis
tricts which it's members repre-
sent, protesting against the Bor-
land resolution, (the Borland res
olution was one calling for the
investigation on the ground
that the Investigation will de-
stroy present satisfactory con-
ditions."
Here is another letter, showing how
the packers intended to use govern
ment bureau, and make the people
pay the expense Of an educational
favorable to the packers.
This letter was written to l. F. Swift
by R. C. McManus, general attorney
for the beef trust:
at is a foregone conclusion
that it is expedient to have some
governmental publication or bull
letin deputed to disseminate the
information needed to carry out
our purpose. believe the bu-
reau of markets is the best part
of the government to do this
work.
Fundamentally, the depart
ment of agriculture is controlled
by agriculturalists and courts
popularity Of the farmers. Con-
sequently it is not natural that
the farmer would expect that he
was being given information IA
vorable to the packers"
In their search for persons Of in
huence, the big packers let Cudahy
into their plans because Thomas
Creight, attorney for the Cudahy
company, has influential friends in
and believe he could be
IF considerable help to Us in the work
we are undertaking at this time"
,aid Mr.. McManus in letter to L F.
Swift. The Cudahy company is . tail
,nder in the "big five," and only got
INTO the combination because its at
orney could pull the political wires
hat the beef trust wanted pulled.
Things were apparently going pref
ty we'll with the packers plans. Al
though they had not been able to
head off the investigation entirely.
hey still had hopes Of turning 1t into
, channel that would be favorable to
them, according to another letter Of
Attorney McManus to l. F. Swift.
said he believed the packers
could have the investigation made by
a congressional committee or by the
bureau of markets. The congress
sional committee, of course, would
be open to political pressure at all
times. The bureau Of markets would
be- blind in which the public at that
time would have full confidence, as
shown above Mr.. Swift didn't intend
to overlook any bets and SO he told
his lackeys to have both kinds Of in
started the same time.
Since they couldn't head it off, the
more the merrier. They thought there
would soon be conflict of authority
between the two sets of investiga-
tors. They knew the bureau could
not compel anyone to testify, and it
would give the packers a good tex
ample" to show the public how badly
official investigations got tangled up.
The more contradictory these two in
could be, the greater
would be the beef baron's victory.
In their attempted use of Mr.. Du-
rand, the beef trust was careful not
to expose Mr.. Durand to the suspi-
cion of the public or show that he
had been friendly to corporation in
terests all the while and was being
used by them. This matter was care
fullv discussed by the political pilots
Of the beef trust and reported by Nc
Manus to l. F. Swift in the following
words, taken from letter written in
March 1916:
"Mr. Wilson thought it quite
possible that we may be charged
with having subsidized Durand
while he was in the government
service and kept him under cover
for just such an occasion. Mr..
Wilson thinks if we decide to
have the committee call Durand
we could give some friendly COM
mitteeman a. little preliminary
education on the subject and
set OF questions and facts which
he might draw out from the wit
nesses."
Don't miss ths clever point Of this
letter. They would give "some friend
ly committeeman q little education"