The Wahpeton times., 1918-03-21
WEEKLY
NEWS LETTER

0SSAASNA
est criminal lawyers in the coun-
try, the beef baruns are planning
campaign to save themselves
from IL trial in which conviction
might mean Il federal penitenti-
ary sentence and, to save their
monopoly from going into the
hands of the Government.
That is the explanation of the
fight of Henry Veeder, in Chica-
go, against the seizure of the pack
ers' secret correspondence by
FEancis j. Hcney, attorney for
the Federal Trade Commission.
Heney and the Federal Trade
Commission hre trying to wind
up the beef trust investigation as
quickly as possible. Their avowel
purpose is to- start prosecutions
against the Armolrrs. Swifts,
Morrises, Wilson's, Cudahys and
their partners in the "big five,"
of the meat industry. They want
also to start going the machinery
OF enforcement of the antitrust
laws against the units of this
trust. They wait. finally. to
show to the public just how far
the present legal methods of deal
ing with an industrial bandit.
such as the beef trust. fail to
meet the situation.
Lomyers Ploy for Time
All the lawyers hired by the
big packers know what is i'm the
wind. They know the laws that
the packers have broken. They
know that the commission is going
to try to put these law-breakers
in prison stripes. They know
that the Commission is going 10
try, besides that. to smash Thu,
feudal empire of the trust. 50
they are playing for time in which
to wriggle out of the danger.
Every legal technicality they
can find will be used. to delay the
surrender of the packers docu-
ments to the Government. If the
courts finally beat them on that
point, they will try to obstruct
the proceedings some other way.
All sorts of injunctions and writs
will be looked over, for possible
use in the battle for more time.
They want time in which to play
politics in Congress-time, also, to
allow public Indignation at the
crimes of the packers to die out.
Neraly forty agents of the Fed
eral Trade Commission have been
at work since last August, gather
ing evidence of the control of the
meat packing industry and allied
industries by the trust.
Uncovered Rottenncss
In a few directions the evidence
these agents discovered was not
complete. To fill out the gaps,
the commission summoned the
necessary witnesses. Hearing Of
these witnesses in Washington, in
Boston, in Philadelphia and in St.
Paul has brought out to public
view the Ottenness Of the trust in
its relation to the financial Jug
gelry of the Chicago Stockyards
Co., the crushing of the indepen
dent rendering plants, the divid-
ing II poi the buying of cattle
and hogs in each market, and the
tricks played on cattle growers in
the stockyards. But these hear
lngs have only touched a. few
points of the whole story. The
rest OF it is now being summed
up by the Commission and will be
the basis of prosecutions and OF
a report TO Congress.
Under the Sherman anti-trust
law, the Clayton antitrust law
and the Federal Trade Commits
sion act, the packers combination i
is shown by the evidence thus far
made public to have been illegal.
Before the case is completed the
Commission will have established
the grounds for wholesale crimi-
nal prosecutions.
People Demand OWAership
Heney has been getting from
so to Is letters IL day, from far
mers and small commission mel
and packing house employees ant
plain wage-workers who can IL,
longer afford to buy bcefsteak
They are begging him to do some
thing to wipe out the beef trust
Many of them speak of the dan
ger of revolution" in this coun
try if the meat industry does no
go into public hands very soon
They want the producer and tn
consumer to be brought togethe,
through public ownership. Mos
Of the writer's give him some ii
or direct information to aid til
work he is doing.