Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1919-09-10

OIt AUG OVIulIIlSSiUIi VI40S
tor Cars.
pov1des that the government may fix
wholesale and retail prices of all prod
ucts obtained from land leased under
the bill.
There is ample evidence that the
bill as originally drawn would be very
satisfactory to the Standard OH com.
pany.
6aer Urges Soldier Bonus.
An amendment offered by Represen-
tative Baer to the bill incorporating
the American Legion, which provides
that every state must be represented
In the establishment Of this war vet
Grams association under permanent
federal charter, was adopted by the
house on August 81.
: Mr.. Baer's bill providing for IL
months extra pay at $50 month for
honorably discharged world war vet
Grams, is daily gaining in popularity
among representatives in congress.
The bill provides that the sum neces-
sary for its carrying out shall be pro-
vided from extra taxation on all in
comes over $4,000 a year, and also
by an upward grading of the excess
profits tax. 1t is held, pending hear
ings, in the house military affairs
committee.
Houston Kills Drought Aid.
David Franklin Houston, secretary
If hoC DIV toll
to the drought relief bill introduced
in the house a few weeks ago by Rep
fresentative Sinclair of North Dakota.
In lengthy letter just received by
Mr.. Sinclair, Houston expresses the
belief that the matter is one in which
the federal government can not be ex-
pected to give financial aid, and re-
fuses to give his Endorsement. Rather
than expanding money in drought re-
lief, the secretary says, he is inclined
to favor reclamation work of the type
embodied in the irrigation extension
bill of Representative Riddick of Mon
tana, now pending. State and local
authorities, he believes, must handle
local drought problems.
Refrigerator Car Facts.
Government operation of all refrig-
orator, peddler and special equipment
cars, such as are used by the Big Five
packers to maintain their food distri-
button monopoly, is urged by the fed
eral trade commission in a special re-
port on this subject made to Presi-
dent Wilson this week.
Stating that government monop-
oily in this line is essential to prevent
strangle-hold monopoly by the Ar.
mour, Wilson, Cudahy, Swift and Nor.
ris ring, the commission points out
that the big packers now own 80 per
cent Of all refrigerator car equipment
IN the country. 1t Is further recon-
mended that icing stations and refrig-
orator equipment in addition to cars
be acquired by the government, and
that the railways be licensed to oper.
ate them on strict nonprivilege
basis.
"IThe volume of traffic of the big
packers has enabled them to secure
from the railroads advantages over
competing shippers" the report says
in part. "Formerly in the shape Of
direct rebates these advantages are
now usually in expedited service to
the big packer cars. = =
''The small Independent packer cars
are misused and diverted, frequently
being out of service altogether for ex-
tended periods. In 1917 the cars Of
the Big Five and their subsidiary COM
panies maintained an average OF 8O.8
miles per car per day, while the av-
erage for cars of their competitors,
the independent packing companies,
was only 54.5 miles,"
There is evidence that the recent
cut In prices paid for cattle and hogs
! on the hoof was done with the inten-
ton of lining up stock raisers behind
! the packers out of economic necessity.
Testimony of a few stock raisers and
eastern farmers before the committee
this week, indicates that that result
has been achieved in a few cases.
In this connection, Jessie R. Haver,
Washington representative of the Ma
| tional Consumers league, has issued
| the following comment:
THE farmers Of the country are be-
| ing made to suffer for the sins of the
packer, as in times past. Only this
time the penalty has been imposed for
q different reason. Just as hearings
were started on the Kenyon-Kendrick
| bills to regulate the packers the most
unprecedented drop in prices paid for
hogs and cattle took place. And so
this week Washington has been food
| ed by cattle raisers, cattle feeders,
farmers and Independent packers to
beg congress to put stop to all this
! agitation. Many of the men who have
appeared are probably not wholly dis
interested in their point of view, but
many are honest, Woodworking men
who even yet do not understand the
forces OF the powers which are rob-
bling them and have been robbing
them all these years. Meanwhile the
packer warehouses are bullying with
enough stored food to carry their busi-
ness for the winter. They can afford
| to cease buying for a while.
''The consumers must realize that
the packer monopoly can not be
smashed without having an old-estab-
lished, nationwide cooperative move
ment ready to do the work, nor can
people feed themselves if the packer
monopoly is merely smashed, with no
county. and city abattoirs and public