The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-13
BETTER FOOD AT REDUCED PRICES MAY BE THE
 OUTCOME OF INVESTIGATION BY FOOD COMMISSION

Furnishing to the people of the United States and especially the resi-
 dents of our industrial towns and cities of an abundant supply of whole some food at the lowest prices that will assure its production is mat ter of the greatest importance
 By express direction of the Presi- dent and under specific appropria- ton by Congress, the Federal Trade Commission has made a searching investigation into this subject, parti- cularly as it is affected by the opera tions of the large Chicago packers. On December 10. 1918, at the sug
 gestioE of the President, a bill was introduced in Congress by Repre- sentative Sims. of the House Com mittee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, for the purpose of carry
 ing into effect the recommendations of the Federal Trade Commission with respect to the marketing of live stock and of meats and other pro- ducts derived from the sIaughterins of live stock. A preliminary hearing was held on December 18th, and further hearings are now being held.
 An alert and informed public opIn- ion is essential to the right determina- ton of the issues involved. The i'm mediate issue is the relation of the five big Chicago packers to the con- sumers of meat and animal products and to the producers of the live stock from which these meats and other products are obtained. Involved in this issue Is, also the marketing of many other important food products.
 The interests of the big packers have now for many months been pre- sented through paid advertisements and special articles which together constitute an unparalleled publicity campaign conducted by experts in the art of influencing public opinion and costing enormous sums of money. Neither the consumer nor the pro ducer can compete effectively with these methods, although they ulti- mately pay the bills. The consumers are wholly unorganized and the pro- ducers are practically unorganized.
 The American National Live Stock Association Is the national association of producers of meat animals in the United States. Directly and through It's affiliated organizations 1t speaks for q great part of producing Amer ica and speaks in the interest not only of the products but of the con- sumers of meat products. It views with serious concern the extraordi- nary campaign of concentrated power and concentrated profits which the packers have been and still are con- Io opinion. It does not possess the financial resources with which to combat 1t on its own ground, even if 1t desired to do so. All 1t does desire to do is to make certain that the evil
 dence and arguments of all parties in so vital controversy shall be fairly and fully presented to the great pop ular jury of the country. It believes that neither the producers nor the consumers desire anything that Is un
 fair to those who perform the neces- sary and useful functions of slaught- ering live stock and marketing it's meat and other products. It be- lieves, however, that they do desire to open and to keep open if possible the door to free and fair competition in every branch of the great business of supplying the consuming public with the products of the farm and of the ranch, and that while such com petition, is being established and un- til it is established the practical monopoly which has confessedly ex- isted in the past and which the Fed
 eral Trade Commission has found exists today shall be effectively regu- yo.
 tion of the interests of producer and consumer alike. They recognize the value and the need of cooperation between all those who engage in the inter dependent processes of produc- tion, of manufacture and of distribu
 tiOn; but it must be the co-opera ton of democracy and not the co-opera- ton of financial oligarchy with democracy. It must be a co-opera- ton not only between packer and producer but with the consumer; and its object must be to furnish food to the consumer at the lowest cost con sistent with a fair return to those producers. manufacturers and distri- butors who do perform essential ser vices by efficient methods ecOnorni- calIy sound. The President has well said: "It Is obvious that there will be no sufficient incentive to enlarge pro- duction if there does not exist an un-
 obstructed and economical fiuctua- distribution. Unjustifable huctua- tions in prices are not merely de- moralizing; they inevitably deter adequate production" If effective competition does not exist and if monopoly is not effectively controlled, the injury to the producer directly results to the injury of the consumer. Indeed, the Sims bill Is chiezY de- voted to the establishment of public control over the instruments and | agencies for the transportation, stor- ! age and distribution of meats and other food products to the consumer. Such control is essential also to the protection of the producers. The prartial regulation which is being exercised as an emergency war meas ure is temporary in character and | inadequate in it's operation.
 Upon the great body of farmers l stock raisers and feeders rests the
 task of producing beef, pork and
 mutton, to feed the consuming pop
 ulations of American towns and in- | dustrial and commercial centsrs. The | months and years which these pro ducers must spend In raising and fat ! tendng a meat animal for market Is | to be contrasted with the hours oE 1 days or weeks necessary for slaugh-
 tering and distribution. And as the
 time necessary for production exceeds
 that of distribution, so does the total
 investment in the ranches, farm
 buildings live stock feeding plants
 in corn lands and in the production