Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-28
SHALL A BUTCHER
SELL GREEN GROCERIES?
The Logic Of the Kenyon Bill Regulating
the Meat Packers Would Prevent
Such Business Combination

who have to buy their meals in the res
taurants.
glass of milk, cup of coffee and a
piece of pie in the cheaper restaurants
all cost twice what was asked for them a
year or two ago.
Meat, potatoes, bread, sugar, rice and
other foods have risen in price to such an
extent that families are compelled to cut
down the amount consumed if they would
keep out of debt. Some families are even
then unable to pay their bills promptly.
And we are all searching for some one
on whom to lay the blame for these con-
ditions When two men discuss the sub
| jeCt one or the other is sure to say before
| the conversation ends that some one is
! protitecring. The producer usually es
capes the blame and the wholesaler or
the retailer is held responsible. And this
| is true in spite of the fact that the gov
ernment has guaranteed 1926 a bushel
| to the wheat grower at time when if
left to itself wheat would sell for much
| less.
When seeking for specific offenders the
man engaged in denunciation never omits
the meat packers. They are so big that
they cannot be overlooked. The Federal
| Trade Commission has charged them with
making exorbitant profits, and not only
with monopolizing the meat market but
with setting out to monopolize the market
! for substitutes for meat.
Of course, the packers deny the charge.
| They insist that they do business on the
narrow margin Of profit of fraction Of
a cent pound. They insist that they are
not monopolists, but public benefactors,
| benefactors both of the cattle raisers and
of the meat consumers. Their protesta-
! tionS, however, are received not with a
| grain, but with several barrels of salt
The Senate has directed the Federal
! Trade Commission to inquire into the
methods of purchase employed by the
packers and into the prices paid for cattle
and hogs. 1t is charged that they hold
the cattle raisers under their thumb and
control the industry from the range to the
counter of the retailer. The packers are
charged further with keeping up the price
| of sugar so that the housewives have to
pay exorbitant prices for what they need
| for canning. 1t has been proposed in
Washington that a national market COM
mission be organized to combat the
propaganda of the packers by disclosing
the truth about their operations.
The Department of Agriculture and the
Federal Trade Commission are both COM
mitted to government regulation of the
distribution and manufacture of meat
products. They insist that such regula-
bn
well as the consumers.
Senator Kenyon is sponsor for a bill,
drafted in consultation with the Depart
ment of Agriculture, which would compel
every packer to take out a federal license
and to operate his business under the con-
| troll of the secretary of agriculture exer-
cised through a commissioner of food
| Stuffs. The bill is described in its title
as a measure "to stimulate the produc-
| ton, sale and distribution of livestock
and livestock products, and for other pur-
poses" The packers would doubtless say
that it is particularly "for other pur-
poses"
The Kenyon BILL so far as it is anything
more than a re-enactment of the anti
trust laws and the law defining the duties
of the Federal Trade Commission goes
| further in the regulation of private in
dustry than any bill which has received
serious consideration in Washington.
1t permits the secretary of agriculture
| to make regulations for the conduct of
| the packing business and to issue orders
for their enforcement. But it goes fur
| ther than this. The packers are engaged
in handling vegetables and groceries.
The bill permits the secretary of agri-
! culture to regulate the relation of the
packers to the purchase, manufacture,
storage or sale of foodstuffs or commodi-
| ties other than meat and meat products
and empowers him to require the pack
ers to refrain from direct or indirect par
| ticipation in such other business But it
does not stop here.
Section 7 of the bill provides that it
shall be unlawful to license any packer
who is engaged directly or indirectly in
the business of handling foodstuffs other
than livestock products.
Still further, he is empowered to regu-
late the prices charged for meat prod
ucts, for the bill forbids licensees to
charge ian unreasonable price or rate"
This means nothing or it means price
fixing by the Department of Agriculture.
There may be great merits in the bill
| 1t may be desirable that the packing in
dustry, which controls the distribution of
the greater part of the meat consumed,
should be under the direct supervision of
the government but if the bill should be
passed dangerous precedent would be
set.
The great industries of this country
have developed along logical lines through
expansion. An iron mill which started to
turn out steel rails has found it profitable
to manufacture steel for all conceivable
uses and even to manufacture machinery
out of the raw product. Retail dry goods
stores have expanded until they sell
furniture, hardware, flowers, millinery,
L Il