Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1919-08-29
AGENT OF PACKERS
REVEALS EARNINGS
Tells House Committee That
Profits Dropped in 1913.
TAKES ISSUE WITH GRoNNA
Special Report to the President Uraes
Federal Monopoly for Live Stock
and Refrigerator cars-Pres-
ent System Is Defended.

Washington, Aug. 27.-L. d. H.
Weld, representative of Swift & Co.,
was called before the house agricul-
ture committee on the hearing of the
proposed legislation regulating the
packing industry while Chairman
Gronna sought TO challenge his asser-
ton that profits of the five large pack
ers in 1918 were less than in 1917.
'Mr. Swift, head of your company
has said you made more in 1918, UNI
der food administration regulation"
said Chairman Gronna, reading from
records OF previous Investigations be-
fore the committee what is the
factY
swift & Co. made $33,O00,O00 in
1915" the witness said, "and $4,000
600 in 1917, before federal taxation"
For Federal Monopoly.
Government monopoly of live stock
and refrigerator cars is urged in a
special report of the federal trade
commission to President Wilson.
1t recommends that the nation also
acquire icing stations and other facili-
ties and railroads thereafter be Ii
censed to own and operate them.
The big packers, the report says,
now own 90 per cent of all the re
frigerator equipment in the country
suitable for the transport of fresh
meat.
"The present countrywide system
of distribution by the five big packers
has grown up from their control of
refrigerator car lines in conjunction
with various pools" the report says
in part.
Gain Railroad Advantage?
"In turn the volume of traffic of
the five packers has enabled them to
get from the railroads advantages over
competing shippers.
Formerly in the shape OF rebates,
these advantages now are in expedited
service to the big packers cars; in
favorable mixing rules which include
all their diversified products and even
many articles not related to the pack
ing industry: by allowances paid TO
some of the big packers by carriers for
part of the transportation service ;
by favorable arrangements and lease
of stock yards by the railroads TO
some of the big packers; and by the
sale to the railroads of humping posts
manufactured by subsidiary of one
of the big five.
1.-THE small independent packers
cars misused and diverted, frequently
being out of his service for extended
periods, in several instances as long
as six months.
I'm 1917 the cars of the big FIVE
and their subsidiary companies main
tanned an average of sos miles per
day, while the average for cars of
their competitors, the independent
packing companies, was only 54.5
miles,"
Thomas E. Wilson, president of Will
son & Co, and chairman of the Insti.
tute of American Meat Packers, in a
statement here said the packers were
willing to submit the justice of the
commissions demands ''in its report
on private car lines to the common
sense of the American public"
after an investigation by men In
experienced in transportation ques-
tions," said Mr.. Wilson, "the trade
commission presented a report diamet-
rically opposed to that handed down
by the interstate commerce commits
sion composed of men trained in rail-
road work. There are admittedly too
few refrigerator cars"