The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-02-07
Government Proves Them to be
Ripe for a Federal Jail


Every hearing from the Atlantic to
ST. Paul has disclosed additional
good things the packers enjoy-good
things they have let the world share
only by paying enormous tolls tc
Packingtown.
At first they denied these good
things were all sewed up in one bag.
They pretended the banks, packing
firms tanneries, stockyards, etc, were
independent concerns, but from
schedules of ownership, submitted to
the commission, clever'y designed to
deceive though they were, enough
loopholes were left so that the actual
facts were divulged. The wider the
commission tears the rent in this
bag, the more it sees what the bag
contains. This concentrated owner
ship was concealed through dummies.
Attorneys, clerks, subordinates were
found holding vast blocks of stock
in their own names for their em-
ployers. Sometimes these blocks of
stock would remain in one "owner's'
hands only long enough for him to
indorse it to another dummy owner,
and it would be passed on. Starting
at the origin of such block of stock,
Investigators were thrown off the
scent at each transfer. Frank r.
Pegram, it was claimed, owned a big
block of the stock Of the Chicago
Stockyards company. Pegram was
found to be only a clerk drawing
$4,000 a year salary. At South St.
Paul, the Union Rendering company
was said by one witness of the Swift
ring to be an independent concern,
but when Francis ]. Heney, the great
prosecutor, attorney for the commits
sion, with smile on his face turned
to the Swift & Co. schedule, land
started to read Swift's admission
that he owns the Union Rendering
COMPANY, hide, hair and tallow, the
witness blushed, "Oh yes, l remem-
ber now"
Why, bless your soul, you cam
even get the Union Rendering COM
pany on the telephone without call
ing up Swift & Co., at South St. Paul
its only department with a
branch exchange line. The commits
sion uncovered the deal by which Ar
mour and Frederick H. Prince, Bos-
ton banker, compelled the little
stockholders in the Chicago Junction
Railways company and the old Union
Stockvards company, to sell out to
the dummy-made Chicago Stockyards
company. through a New Jersey cor
poration headed by Prince. The lit
tie fellows were told the big packers
wouldn't pay rent to them any long
er and would move away. They were
scared into selling, and while they
got guaranteed 6 and 9 per cent,
the big fellows, working behind the
dummy organization, got 150 per
cent dividend.
That the Chicago Stockyards COM
pany is nothing but a dummy was
shown by testimony. Its board OF
directors never holds any meetings,
the directors don't even know each
other, and when dividends of $25.0OO
and $4,000 were declared, clerks in
the offices of these stockholders,
scattered through different cities,
signed over their dividends like good
dummies and didn't get even the
price of cigar.
One of these dummies was "presi-
- L4
involved, but testified that when a
dividend of $3.50 was declared on his
single share of stock-the one share
he held so as to be eligible as "presi-
dent'-he had to turn over the two
fifty to his master without any kind
of rakeoff for himself Pegram, for
instance, the $4,000 year clerk, was
shown by the records to have paid
$1,000, 900 cash for block of stock
during one stock juggling deal, but
on the witness stand he confessed
frankly he was only clerk, hanging
onto the ragged edge OF frenz'ed
finance. He further confessed that
when the official demand for infor-
nation as to his vast holdings
reached him, he went and asked the
attorney of his employer, the Boston
banker, Prince, what replv he should
make to the United States invest:-
gators.
The Investigators found that the
American Agricultural and Chemical
company was nothing but the fertii-
izer branch of the beef trust, and
that it was-secretly-the owner OF
ali the rendering plants in Massachu-
setrs but one. 1t got this owner