New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-07-30

which, on the basis Of the British propa-
4 ganda, is popularity supposed to be the
crime Of the Ell Kaiser, is cut of by has
ing the Indictment entirely on the
violation Of Belgium neutrality, as latest
reports from London have it. Perhaps
q the Allies themselves feel little shy
. about going into the causes Of the great
crime and its real horrors.
The Packer Z yrauasy
More than once it has been shown
that the food Of this country is controlled
by the packers combination. That
group has more diabohcal power than
was ever exercised by the Standard
Oil Company as described either by
Henry Demarss5 Lid or Ida NJ.
lTarben. It grips and squeezes both
the small producer and the general
consumer. It controls banks, railroads,
elevators, grocery stores, even vege
table and fruit markets. It controls
the price of hides and leather for gloves
and shoes. It has a practical monopoly
Of fertilizers and cattle feed, fence posts,
wire fencing, and indeed reaches about
powerfully into every form of mer-
chandising. The octopus has a thou
sand, maybe ten thousand, blood-such
ing tentacles fastened upon the public.
The record of its ramifcations is so long
that it could not be covered in page Of
daily paper? Only part one of the
/ Federal Trade Commission report has
been published. Worse remains be-
]. hind. Z The packers are more power
fm than the government. There are
laws against combination in restraint
Of trade, but the evidence Of packers
combination is overwhelming. The COM
bination taxes the poor mans break
fast, dinner and supper table and the
clothes on his back and the shoes on his
/ feet. Its profits stagger the imagination.
/ Its power pervades the nation. Govern
! mental departments can do nothing
the combination docs not approve.
/ The press has to put the soft pedal on
| exposures while carrying advertis-
ing that celebrates the philanthropic
achievements Of these engrossers and
/ forestallers of the peoples food. The
| combination does not lack journalistic
defenders who say that mere bigness is
! no crime, ignoring the fact Of human
nature that those who have power will
use 1t to their own advantage. Power
i tends to exact all the traffic will bear. !"
/ Power mortised and tennoned in privii-
llege knows no limit. The packers have
| land privilege, incorpo privilege,
| privilege in the nation highways. They
| control both production and distribution.
They direct the great warehouses and
storage plants and the vendors from
] peddlers carts. They take their rake
of on the drug store soda fountain and
they get their bit off everysbanjo string.
/ They have their profit in everything that
is put up in cans. They own ship
| lines and chains of city butcher shops.
/ They deal in every kind of grain that is
edible in any form. If they have COM
petitors in any line the competition
exists only on sufferance. Often tie
competitors are only disguised subor-
dinates of the trust. Seven hundred
and seventy-fve commodities they deal
in, so far as the Trade Commission has
been able to tabulate their activities.
| And what is to be done about it all?
| All laws passed to check tie rapac,ty
j of the packers are failures. New laws
framed on the old lines will fail like
/ wise. It is a question if the govern
| ment is strong enough to take over the
packers battery of businesses. The
packers are more likely to take over the
government. They have already largely
/ done that by indnection. What will be
/ the result Of the revelations in the Trade
, Commissions report? Possibly nothing
] more than large, fat contributions by
the packers to the campaign funds in
], the next presidential election. Is there
! any popular indignation over the reve-
{ lations? Not SO as you can notice it.
The average citizen pays and says
Whats the use Of Hcking?' He
doesn't care to listen to any remedy
]. because any real remedy would prevent
his doing what the packers have been
and are doing if he ever gets a chance.
His best approved remedy is to get into
I the big game himself, to become, if he
can, an exploiter in some way, large OF
small, instead Of one Of the exploited.
He thanks God he's alive, and lets it
go at that. BE would stand for anything
that obstructs THE career open to talent
! OF that violates the sanctity Of property,
though he has neither talent nor Dro-