Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-07-11
DOES YOUR FOOD
COST ENOUGH?
Maybe kenyon's Bill Will
Bring Prices Lower--lt's
Up to Congress
By MILTON BRONNER,
N. e. A. Washington Bureau, 1925
1874 MuuSev Ride

WASHINGTON, July Icon
gress will have to decide whether we
are to have government of the public,
for the packers pocketbooks, by the
the packers, or whether we are to
have government of the people, by
people, for the people. The isslte is
clear cut. 1t has been made so by
the big packers themselves. Every
member of this Congress will have to
face the issue of standing by the
packers or with the people. The
question will come up in concrete
shape when the Senate and the House
consider the bills to put the packers
under the license, to regulate them,
and to shake off their clutches from
the dairy and poultry business, from
the canning business and from many
branches of the grocery business"
Senator William S. Kenyon, OF
Iowa, thus summed up the situation
discussing just what his bill and the
bill of Senator Kendrick put up to the
Solons.
ST do not pretend the millennium
will ensue if my bill is enacted" he
said. -."I do not claim lower prices for
commodities will Immediately follow.
But if my bill is adopted in sub
stantially the shape in which it has
been drafted and without being cut
to pieces by cunningly worked amend
ments, 1 think the cattle raiser, the
small packer, and the everyday con-
I'M will have a better chance to
prosper.
"As things stand today the federal
trade commission has proved the hog
packers control the market in which
they buy their raw material, the cattle
n hogs, and also control the market
In which they sell.
This means that in most cases they
nav the patt1a nrndrppr who in I nv
cases is a Woodworking farmer, too
little for his livestock, and charge
the of meat too much. So
the big packers make none both
ways, n the general public suffers
both ways.
"If the big packers are no longer
to control the markets in which
they buy, through their ownership or
control of stockyards and cattle cars
and through agreements between
themselves. real competition FOR the
cattle offered for sale will follow.
Ever little packers will get a snow
for a price based upon the real mar
ket value of his goods.
II know the big packers are telling
the farmers they are Keeping up the
market and paying them good prices,
But if they had no monopoly they
would hav to a the farmer still
more.
And If h packers are no longer
able to control the market in which
they sell, and real competition en-
sues, the chances are, despite the food
shortage throughout the world, prices
to the American consumer will gradu-
ally fall. The consumer will get some
measure of relief.
There is another angle to this
thing. Nowadays it is hard for indie
pendent little packers to exist. ]
have seen them put out of business
in my own state because the big pack
ers would undersell them. If neces-
ary they would make prices that were
al cost, or even below it.
"Of course the small man could not
survive such opposition. The losses
sustained by the packers in such a
fight in one territory would simply
be added to the prices demanded
somewhere else, so one monopolized
territory paid the freight for the folks
who, for the time being, were getting
very low priced meat in territory
where the packers did not enjoy
monopoly but expected to shortly.
IF a combination of men dam UP
a stream they get the full benefit Of
its waters but interfere with the or
binary flow below. The packers have
clutch on things. They have inter-
fered with the ordinary flow OF
economic results by cutting out conf
petition and substituting monopoly.
''If left without federal interfer-
ence they will soon get to the point
where a few men meeting at various
times will be able to fix the price of
everything the housewife prepares for
the dinner table,"