The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-07-18

ment, lime, plaster, brick, and sand
and gravel roofing.
In the manufacture of breakfast
foods, and stock and chicken feeds,
the Armour Grain company says the
report, sis expanding especially In
the line of producing retail brands.
Within four years, 1t has undertaken
the manufacture of Armour's Oats,
has taken over the Buffalo Cereal Co.
with its many brands Of cereal foods
and animal feeds. and in 1917 took
over the Maple Flake Mills, of Bat
tie Creek, Mich.
Packer Invasion of other Food In
| dustries And Substitutes For
Meats.
| ''The reason why the packers are
seeking control of the substitutes for
meat-the foods that compete with
meats-are obvious" sayssthe report.
"If the prices of substitutes for meats
are once brought under packer con-
troll, the consumer will have little to
gain in turning to them for relief
from excessive meat prices" An
Armour advertisement in the New
York Daily Mail, Deceber 81, 1917.
said in part:
.The intelligent housewife has
come to realize that the Armour
name is synonymous with virtually
every food she needs for her table
practically everything for every meal
in the week, including the Meatless
Day! Soups, fish, vegetables. fruits,
condiments, beverages-she can OBJ
tain them all under the guarantee OF
| the Armour name"
| estimates. the Big Five handle at least
estates, the Big Five handle at least
half of the poultry, eggs and cheese
| n the main channels of interstate
| commerce." the report states. Most
estimates place the total production
IN dressed poultry and eggs controll-
ed by the packers at higher per-
| centage. -
Practical all estimates received
state the packers handle seventy fire
I % eighty per cent of all cheese pro-
duced in Wisconsin alone where 55.6
DER cent of the entire country'i
| cheese was made at the time OF the
asst manufacturing census in 1914.
All of the Big Five are distributors
If cheese and all except Wilson d
20. own and control large cheese
companies.
1.-The packers are also important
actors IN condensed milk, and are
apidly increasing their production
Wisconsin is covered by their cream
ries, condenseres and buying sta
ions, and similar process of con
entration and control is already evil
ent in the other principal dairy
tates.
swift & Co., is the largest single
,utter distributor in the United
States, handling in 1915 approximate
50,000,OOO pounds or nearly as
-.uch as the combined sales Of the
wo largest non packers organiza
tons; and the butter department was
ushing for twenty five per cent
Increase in 1918 over 1917. Swift &
o., alone, for its own creameries
collects cream in Arkansas, Califor-
lia, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, 10.
va, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota
Iissouri, Nebraska, New Mexico
lilo, Oklahoma, Texas, Wiscon-
IN, and Wyoming, Companies
wned or controlled by 1t, such AZ
" +. F77e6e 4 Co., Western Meal
Company, Union Meat Co., and Lib
v. McNeill & Libby, obtain milk and
ream in still other states.
Armour & Co., in 1916 handled in
IS branch houses alone over $4,000,
90 pounds of butter. Most of its
reamery butter was manufactured
W the Eau Claire Creamery Co., Eau
Claire, Wis, which is controlled by
,rmour; the Kentucky Creameries
.ouisville, owned entirely by Ar
hour; Oakdale Creamery, Oakdale
'alif.: A. S. Kinninmonth Produce Co
Winfield, Kans., and the Michigan
ce & Cold Storage Co., operated by
,rmour; and the Armour plant in
rochester, Ind.
Morris &, Co.. operates no cream
'ries but controls Sherman White &
To-, Fort Wayne, Ind. and buys large
Quantities of butter manufactured by
ther concerns; Cudahy owns the D.
:. Wood Butter Co., Evansville, Wis.
nd the Sunlight Produce Co., Sioux
lily, Wilson & Co., owns no cream
'ries but purchase outside" ~
| The Big Five, the report shows,
old in 1916 through their branch
II tOuSGS lOObOVUYUOO
'ounds of poultry. 90,000,000 pounds
f butter 75.000.OcO pounds Of cheese
yer 135,000,000 dozen eggs.
Packers In Canned Fruits, Vege-
! tables, Etc.
| Fruit and vegetable canning are
'emote from rlaughtering and meat
hacking. but the big packers. through
heir branch house system of distrib-
ltion possess special advantages in
his field of industry" the report
says. "The Big Five's advantage
ests not SO much on their ownership
| Of canning factories. although in
| iome branches their output amounts
| % more than a quarter of the total
For the United States, as upon their
'apidly growing control of the whole
'ale distribution of canned goods,
Armour & Co., increased its canned
-oods sales from about $6500,000 in
1916 to s16.000.000 in 1917, whereas
1.-THE combined sales of these products
lof Austin Nichols Co., and Sprague.
Warner & Co., two of the largest in
dependent wholesalers, amounted to
only some $6,000.000 in 1917. Although
distribution is the point at which the
packers have acquired the greatest
lcontrol, they are nevertheless enter
| ing the field of manufacture"
Swift e Co., the report pointed out,
through Libby, McNeill e. Libby. has