Republican farmer., 1919-07-18

foods, and stock and chicken feedS, the Armour Grain Company, says the report, lis expanding especially in ! the line of producing retail brands. Within four years, it has undertaken the manufac cture of Armour's Oats, has taken over the Buffalo Cereal Co. with its many brands of cereal foods and animal feeds, and in 1917 took over the Maple Flake Mills, of Battle Creek, Mich"
 SUBSTITUTES FOR MEATS. "The reason why the packers are seeking control of the substitutes for meat-the foods that compete with
 meats-are obvious" says the report. If the prices of substitutes for meats are once brought under packer con-
 trol, the consumer will have little to gain in turning to them for relief from excessive meat prices. An Armour advertisement in the New York Daily Mail, December 31, 1917, said in part:
 The intelligent housewife has
 come to realize that the Armour
 name Is synonymous with virtually every food she needs for her table practically everything for every meal in the week, including the Meatless
 Day! Soups, fish, vegetables, fruits,
 condiments, beverages-she can ob-
 tain them all under the guarantee of the Armour name.
 POULTRY AND DAIRY PRODUCTS. Judged conservatively by trade
 estimates. the Big Five handle at least half of the poultry, eggs and cheese in the main channels of interstate
 commerce" the report states. Most
 estimates place the total production in dressed poultry and eggs controlled
 by the packers at higher percent age.
 Practically all estimates received stated the packers handle 75 to 80
 per cent of all cheese produced in Wisconsin alone where 55.6 per cent. of the entire country's cheese was
 made at the time of the last manu-
 featuring census in 1914. All of the
 Big Five are distributors of cheese
 and all except Wilson & Go. own and control large cheese companies. The packers are also important
 factors in condensed milk, and are rapidly increasing their proportion. Wisconsin is covered by their cream cries. condenseries and buying sta
 tions, and a similar process of con centraticn and control is already evil dent in the other principal dairy states.
 Swift & Co., is the largest single
  handling in 1915 approximately 5O,- 100000 pounds or nearly much as the combined sales of the two largest non-packer organizations; and the butter department was pushing for a 25 per cent. increase in 1918 over 1917. Swift x Co. alone, for its own creameries collects cream in Arkan- sas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Wis consin, and Wyoming Companies owned or controlled by it, such as w. F. Priebe 6 Co.,, Western Meat Com pany, Union Meat Co.,, and Libby, ; McNeill & Libby, obtain milk and | cream in still other states.
 Armour Go. in 1916 handled in it's branch houses alone over 2S,OOO,- | 900 pounds of butter. Most of it's | creamery butter was manufactured by the Eau Claire Creamery Co.,, Eau Claire, Wis, which is controlled by | Armour; the Kentucky Creameries | Louisville, owned entirely by Armour; | Oakdale Creamery, Oakdale, Cal; | A S. Kininmnth Produce Co.,, Win | field, Kan, and the Michigan Ice & | Cold Storage Co.,, operated by Ar mour, and the Armour plant in Ro- | chester, Ind.
 Morris & Go. operates no cream cries but controls Sherman, White & | Co.,, Fort Wayne, Ind, and buys large quantities of butter manufac- | tured by other concerns; Cudahy | owns the D. E. Wood Butter Co.,, Evansville. Wis, and the Sun ight | Produce Co.,, Sioux City. Wilson & | Go. owns no creameries but purchase | outside
 | The Big Five, the report shows | sold in 1916 through their branch l houses alone, nearly o,OOo, ,ooo | hounds of poultry, 9O,000,000 pounds l of butter, 75,0OO.oO pounds of cheese and over 135, 900, 900 dozen eggs. i PACKERS IN CANNED GOODS. Fruit and vegetable canning are remote from slaughtering and meat i hacking. but the big packers, through l their branch house system of distri- | button possess special advantages in | this field of industry" the report | says. ''The Big Five's advantage rests not so much on their ownership ! of canning factories, although in l some branches tEeir output amounts | to more than quarter Of the total | for the United States. as upon their | rapidly growing control of the whole | sale distribution of canned goods, I A | goods sales from about S0,500,0o0 in 1916 to s16,O00,000 in 1917, whereas the combined sales of these products 1 of Austin Nichols Go. and Sprague, | Warner Co.,, two of the largest inde- l pendent wholesalers, amounted 10 only some $6,000,o0o in 1917. Al ! though distrfo ution is the point at
 which the packers -iave acquired the | greatest control, they are neverthe-
 less entering the field of n1anufac- l ture."
 Swift 6 Co.,, the report pointed out,
 through Libby, McNein &t Libby,
 has become a factor of considerable importance canning tomatoes, beans, ! baked beans, cabbage. spinach, as- paragus, beets. pumpkins, squash.
 sauer kraut, pears. apples, cherries,
 grapes berries, plums. prunes and
 pineappIes. Libby, McNeill & Libby
 (Maine) owns 96 per cent. of Libby,
 | McNeiIl Sr Libby (Ltd.), of Honolulu,