The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1918-09-17
Big Business
Can 1t Be Too Big! Not If 1t Is Honest. Without
Big Packers-Who Would Feed the Army7

try the people of other countries and the armies
United States with meat
It is most important business For the army it is as
important least furnishing weapons and ammuni-
ton for without the food, REGULARLY AND PROMPTLY
SUPPLIED, the army could not exist
It is not necessary to point out what would be the dan
ger and folly of rsng any serious interference WHILE
THE WAR LASTS with the meat industry Of the United
States.
What the people and Government want is EFF
Cheney, the ability to produce.
We have had samples of national failure, in the
lack Of COAL in the flying machine hasco and the absolute
railroad ncompetency which compelled the Government to
add railroadng to its other tasks
The meat industry, the work of gigantic packing
has BEEN whatever its other defects, ONE HUN
DRIED PER CENT EFFICIENT.
When the Government wanted sixty million pounds of
beef delivered board ship properly refrigerated within
sixty days. five men gathered in in Chicago
able to say You shall have it, The beef delivered
Food for the people here at home food for the nations
that helping and food always prompt for the SOL
diers in Francehis has been forthcoming without hitch
It is unnecessary to assert that long this
lasts there should be destructive interference with the
machine that works in this way.
The achievement of the packers of the United States
is important because it illustrates this truth
THE BIGGER THE BUSINESS THE BETTER when
it properly supervised by the Government and when the
economies of great organization divided upon fair
basis between the people and the organizers.
If instead of five six gigantic packing concerns in
the United States there had been ten thousand little
individual butchering concerns, THIS COUNTRY COULD
NOT HAVE FED ITS ARMY
The Government deal with five six men, give its
orders, get what it wants.
It could deal with thousand separate operators
and they could not do the work.
great business, such as the packing industry the
steel industry, is compared to little business what
Niagara Falls is, compared to a tiny stream.
From Niagara you can get power worth while and at
nominal cost. little stream is not worth Harvesting
The power be got from it isn't worth what the machinery
would cost to use it.
Fortunately for this country and for the American
army there was actually existing gigantic Organization
of
millions of pounds at a time
Most fortunately the meat packers of the United
States seshly OF course but ntegently and efficiently
had organized under American control the beef and mutton
supplies of South America the Argentine Brazil and other
countries.
In South America, by United States methods United
States organizers and United States money cattle are
slaughtered the meat frozen and shipped army by
CITIZENS
In South America as here the by-products are saved
than sufficient to pay all the profits the packers take
In the South, where the animals slaughtered the
meats canned shipped directly to Europe to the army
together with the fresh frozen meat.
the Government of the United States wants for its
army in France for its friends the allies ten or fifty or
hundred million pounds of South American beef it doesn
telegraph southwark from Washington but northward TO
Chicago SENDS with the power of organization, huge
capital and thorough industrial efficiency to the soldiers
and workers in Europe beef direct from the South Amer
lean fields.
Only the biggest kind of BIG BUSINESS could have
accomplished this Lucky for this country that big bust
looking ahead using the power of millions organized
and developed the beef industry of South America as well as
that of this country.
Big business alone could have done it. You must have
great deal Of water in place to produce the power of
Niagara You must have great deal of money and great
deal of intelligence place to produce the efficiency of
the packing industry
One good soul will ask "What becomes of your the
cries of Government ownership? The answer is Govern
men ownership will have enough to do for the present
velopng this country irrgatng deserts draining swamps
developing roads, canals railroads. teegraphs telephones
the express busnesaH natural monopoes that the
pie NOW can and should control and own.
Natural monopolies their value based exclusively upon
the increasing birth rate should be in the hands of the
Government.
that much.
Enterprises with minute industrial detail the making
Of hundred different kinds of STEEL the Strengthening of
in IastC