El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-01-23
Packers Do Not
Deny The Facts
Says Mr.. COIUer
Trade Commission Head
Defends Methods Fol-
lowed IN Investigation.

Denver. Colo, Jan. 25.--Tm. 3. Col
YER, chairman Of the federal trade
commission. discussing the commits
sion's report on the packing Industry
before the convention OF the American
National Livestock association today.
declared that the packers. in attack
ing the report Of the commission. de
vote themselves to criticism OF the
commission itself. but do not deny the
facts contained in the report
Got Faets from Files"
They criticise the language n
which the report was written ne
said. but / failed to see what differ
ence that makes. s long as the facts
are in the report. and the packers
don't say the facts are not there
They can't deny the facts. because
they were obtained from their own
files.
They say they were not fair be-
cause we did not let their attorneys
into cross examine witnesses and look
: into the papers we had.
But these papers were taken from
their own files and they had exam
ined them long ago. What they
wanted was to find out what papers
We had got hold Of"
Planned Impartial Probe.
Mr. Colver said that II the commits
tial Investigation. had admitted the
packers attorneys to cross examine
witnesses and had treated the packers
as defendants, IL would have been
criticised then on the ground that the
investigation was unfair. because the
packers were being prosecuted
I'VE did not consider the packers.
CT any one else as defendants" he
added. We had no prejudice against
them or any one. We merely set out
10 discover the facts in the food stu
alton. and no one has yet announced
that the report does not contain those
facts
When we began our Investigation.
we submitted questionnaires to the
packers and asked them for sugges-
tons They did not then suggest
that they were treated as defendants
or that their attorneys be permitted
to be present to cross examine wit
nesses. On the contrary. they took
the attitude that they were not con-
cerned in the investigation. as all their
business was open and above board
packers in Close Touch"
we had not gone very far. how
ever, before we found that the pack
ers were in very close touch. secretly
in Washington and in many other
places. including such associations q 81
this We saw how they tried to stop
AAlAE ASSOCIATION from DEMANDING
investigation OF the stockyards and
packing Industry, and we stopped the
same men who tried 70 stop this as
s0ciatirn when they tried 70 stop Us.
we have Investigated many other
industries In the same manner in
which we Investigated the packers.
and the men OF those industries did
not say we were unfair. II all de-
ponds on what you say about them
whether Won are fair"
Mr. Colver spoke at length on the
findings OF the commission in the
report. and continued:
Says Packers License.
The packers say IL Is Bolshevik 10
license the packing industry. But the
packers have been licensing the com
mission men
In Sioux City. the commission men
have to sell dead stock 70 the render
ing company in the yards. under pen
atty OF cancellation OF their leases
The rendering company paid S3-42 for
q carcass. when the hide alone was
worth $40. That IS the way the
licensing system OF the packers
works.
H A Jastro. in 4 preliminary re-
port Of the market committee. said
that the work Of that committee dur
ing the coming year would be more |
important than ever.