New-York tribune., 1919-07-12

possess special advantages in this field
OF INDUSTRY" the report says.
:, Swift Co, the report points out,
through Libby, McNeill & Libby, has
become factor Of considerable i'm
porrance, canning tomatoes, beans,
oahed beans, cabbage, spinach, aspara-
gus, oeets, pumpkins, squash, sauer-
berries, plums, prunes and pineapples.
Both canned saImon and other
canned fish, as well as dried and salt
,isn - foremost meat substitutes are
handled by Swift and Armour through
eheIr branch house systems
In 1917 the Big Five's combined
sales of meats and all other commodi-
ties totalled S2,l27 .245, 900; in 1918 they
were over $4,000, 900, ,o00."
Ihe Big Five, in 1916. according to
commission figures, slaughtered So
per cent OF all cattle slaughtered by
interstate slaughterers, S6.4 per cent
ana ol.2 per cent of swine.
average monthly holdings OF noa-
perishable meats during 1915, the re-
port shows, were for the Big Five as
against all other Interstate Slaughter
ers; of frozen beef, 95 per cent;
smoked ham and bacon, 64.1; drv salt
pork 69s; picked pork, 705; total
meatS from swine, 70.
Own Packing Centres
The Big Five control of interstate
slaughter at the twelve great packing
centres-Chicago, Kansas City. Omaha
81. LOUIS, New York City. St Joseph,
Fort Worth, st. Paul, Sioux City. Okla
homa City, Denver and Wichita-was
during 1916 94.4 per cent OF cattle.
S9l calves, 94.3 sheep and lambs and
81 swine.
"ln the Chicago market-the largest
IN the country-the Big Five slaughter
81 per cent of all cattle slaughtered
there Tor interstate commerce, So pe-
cent OF calves, 96.5 sheep and lambs and
on3 swlne," the report states In the
remaining eleven cities they have 97 s
per cent of the total cattle slaughter"
The Big Five on December 81, 1917,
owned SO per cent of the 16,60O re-
trlgerator cars owned by Interstate
3 slaushterers, 20 per cent of the 1892
yentilator cars-used principally in
fruit and vegetable traffic-and 92 per
cent of the 24,592 total refrigerator
cars OF interstate slaughterers
The Big Five packers in 1915 had
1,l2o branch houses throughout the
United States, 80 per cent of the total
of all interstate slaughterers. They
maintained 1897 peddler car routes,
listing $4,000 towns-incl luding duplica-
tlons on lists of the different peddlers
or 90.2 per cent of car routes of all
interstate slaughterers.
In South America
From the establishment of single
plant III Argentina IN 1907 by Swift &
Co, the American packers, Swift, Ar
mour, Morris and Wilson, had devel-
oped b. 1917 until for that year they
exported 57.4 per cent Of all exports Of
frozen and chilled beef quarters from
Argentina and Uruguay
1T is significant Of their power and
the rapidity Of their action" says the
report, that in 1910, three years after
their entrance into the River Plate
(Argentina) field, they had secured
control of over 40 per cent of the
trade"
From four slaughtering plants in the
decade 1S58-1867, the Big Five had
built or acquired by 1917 ninety one
g s!aughtering plants-twenty-tw two and
quarter times the number in
1867. In the ten years from 1903 to
1917 their number of slaughtering
plants increased GO per cent
Starting with two branch houses in
1884 the Big Five" had 211 by 1894;
TAB in 1904, and operated 1920 in 1917.