The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-14
5 PACKERS WOULD CONTROL FOOD SUPPLY

dealing in various staple groceries and vegetables, such as rice, potatoes beans and coffee, and increased their sales at such a rate that in certain lines they have become factors of great moment.
 Here again the selling organization of the packers, built up in connection with their meat business. assures them almost certain supremacy in any line of food handling which they wish to enter.
 Armours drive into the rice market in a single year Is perhaps the most striking instance of their potentialities in this direction. Early iI 1917, Armour & Co. first under took the handling of rice, and in that one year sold more than 16,000,000 pounds of rice, thus becoming at a single move, on the statement of the vice-president of the company, the greatest rice merchant in the world During this period the wholesale price of rice increased 65 per cent Even the oldest and most strong 1y established wholesaling houses find that line after line of their merchan- disc Is being absorbed by the pack | CTS branch house system. First the packers 'encroached on the handling g of butter, eggs and cheese, then on l cannot goods, and on various kinds of l package goods; and now han l ding increasing quantities of rice, ] coffee and other staples.
 Tn 1917, the Big Elves combined I sales of meats and all other com l modities tota1ed s2,127.245 900; in 1 1918 they were over s3,OOO,O00, 900. DOMINATE MEAT INDUSTRY.
  l Commission figures, slaughtere q | S2.2 per cent. of all cattle slaughter 1 ed by interstate slaughterers; S6.4 | per cent of all sheep; 76.6 per cent. l of all calves, and 61.2 per cent. of 1 swine.
 AS to both cattle and sheep" the ] report states, the percentage of con 1 trol by these five concerns constitutes i a monopolistic position, considering | the harmony with which the five work 1 together in their purchase of animals | and the extensivenesS of their dis l tributing systems. These combined | percentages of control indicate d po- | tential degree of influence over the | price paid to the producer and over the price paid by the consumer, suf- l ficient. if exercised, to account for a 1 large share of the suspicious and ! lildI nave dIlSeu over lI1S 1 meat industry"
 | The explanation of the SIP per i cent. slaughter of hogs lies, the re- port points out, in the nature of the products. The advantage of the big 1 packer to utilize by-products most | efficiently has less scope in hog | slaughter because only some 10 per cent. of the live hog goes to by pro- ducts against 20 per cent. of cat | tie. Also, the big packers lose the 1 special advantage of their highly de- veloped refrigerators and private car | line systems, since cured hog pro | ducts do not require refrigeration IT l shipping. For these reasons, the re- port stated, nearly all the indepen- | dent interstate slaughterers confine their interstate trade to cured hos | products; and in fresh meats dc | principally local business.
 | Including besides all interstate slaughterers, all wholesale local or interstate slaughterers the Big Five percentages of slaughter In number of head are: Cattle, 74.5; sheep, 7S.5; calves. 62.5; swine, 56.9.
 The ability of the large packers to undersell the small slaughterel l locally says the report, 'is a poten 1 weapon, even if unused, to keep him | from undertaking any aggressive cam | paign to increase his business. The ] branch houses and 'peddler car routes of the Chicago packers cover
 the country with such a network tha
 the local slaughterer realizes that ht | cannot maintain himself against theil
 distributing system If he should at l tract their unfavorable attention by
 aggressively trying to increase hi
 volume of business. The local packer | 1,1 to ,D,,fa in, hn | market, fears to exert his full powers 1 His strong tendency is to come iIl
 under the umbrella of big packer
 prices and to content himself with (
 modest share of the nearby business l Evidence on this point and on com
 petitive conditions generally is giver
 in other parts of the report
 Average monthly holdings of non
 perishabie meats during 1916, the re
 port shows. were for the Big Five as
 against all other interstate slaught
 CTS; of frozen beef; $50 per cent
 smoked ham and bacon. 64.1 pei l cent; dry salt pork, 69.s; pickleo
 pork, 705; total meats from swine
 TOO
 CONTROL GREAT PACKING | CENTEzRS.
 The Big Five control interstate
 slaughter at-t4re 12 packing centers-
 Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, st Louis, New York City, St. Joseph
 Fort Worth, St. Paul. Sioux City, Ok
 lahoma City. Denver and Wichita
 was during 1916, 94.4 per cent of cat
 tie; Ss.1 calves; 94.3 sheep ant
 lambs; and S1 swine
 'In the Chicago market the
 largest in the country-the Big Five slaughter S7.1 per cent of all cat
 tie slaughtered there for interstate
 commerce; 93.6 per cent of calves
 96.5 sheep and lambs;) and ST.;
 swine" the report states. Tn the re
 mainfng II cities they have 97.6 per
 cent. of the total cattle slaughter"
 CONTROL OF STOCKYARDS. Receipts of live animals at stock
 yards controlled by the Big Five