Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-07-12

tai of all interstate slaughterers.
They maintained 1927 peddler car
| routes, listing $1,000 towns-includ-
ing Implications on lists Of the differ
| ent peddlers-or s0.2 percent of car
routes of all interstate slaughterers.
1.-THE branch houses" explains the
report, (which are located in the
cities and large towns, are supple
mented by a wide-reaching 'peddler
| ear service, which consists of refrls-
| orator cars loaded with meats ana
provisions operating over what are
known as car routes. These peddier
cars are in effect miniature Dranch
houses on wheels, reaching thous-
ands of small communities where
trade is not sufficient to JUSTIFY the
investment in a branch mouse.
Branch house and car route sales or
the Big Five for 1916 were 58.2 per-
cent of their total sales for that year,
or over 1925, 100000. During that
year the Big Five sold through the
means some 6,50o,o00.00O pounds Of
commodities, or something like IS
pounds per capita for the entire pop
ulation of the continental United
States: or 156 pounds per capita of
population living in cities or towns Of
over 5000 inhabitants.
Branch house sales of fresh and
cured meat by all interstate slaugh-
+, terers in 1916 showed the Big Five
94.9 per cent of fresh meat, S6.5 per-
cent of cured meat, and 92.8 of fresh
and cured combined.
The 1920 Big Five branch houses
represented in 1916 book value in
vestment Of s30.275,55o. with sales Of
| $3.50, $40. AS to branch houses
where both land and buildings were
owned. the investment was $20,184,-
APT and sales s33S,S66, 1S8-an invest
ment per dollar of sales of six cents.
| The Big Five in South America
From establishment of single
plant in Argentina in 1907 by Swift
& Company, the American Packers,
Swift, Armour, Morris and Wilson,
had developed by 1917 until for that
year they exported 57.4 percent Of
all exports of frozen and chilled beef
quarters from Argentina and Uru-
quay.
1T is significant Of their power and
the rapidity of their action" says the
report. that in 1910, three years af-
ter their entrance into the River
Plate (Argentina) field, they had Sc
cured control Of over 40 percent Of
the trade; that in 1915 they had sub
stantially IS percent; and that their
weighted average control during the
eight years from 1910 to 1917 was IS
percent. In this period they export
ed nearly 22,o00,000 quarters Of beef
from these two South American
countries. which represents we'll over
100000 head of cattle"
The American packers control or
are associated with II meat compan-
les or holding companies in South
America, according to their reports
to the Commission.
Growth of Big Five
Commenting on an elaborate table
of The Packers Progress 1857 1917"
. the report says:
ITO reconstruct the economic and
financial history that lies behind this
bare record oft outward change would
be an undertaking replete with hu-
man interest. There can be little
doubt that such a history, if it could
be written, would reveal imagination,
energy, shrewdness and indomitable
determination on the part of the
founders of these great slaughtering
companies, but would also reveal,
even if obscurely, back ground Of
wreckage brought about by unfair
and oppressive methods followed by
| these packers in their progress to-
ward their goals"
From four Strengthening plants in
the decade, 1S5S-1867, the Big Five
had built or acquired by 1917. 81
slaughter plants-22s times the num-
Der in 1857. In the ten wears from
1908 to 1917, their number of slaugh-
tering plants increased 60 per cent.
Swift, Morris and Armour increas-
ed their cattle slaughter from $780,
Cos head in 1898 to 5,157,S3O in 1916,
doubling their kill in those IS years.
From slaughtering 74.9 per cent. of
cattle slaughtered in interstate COM
merce in 1907-19O8, the Big Five
| jumped to sos per cent. by 1916-1917;
| from SO per cent. in calves to 1876;
from 71.6 in sheep to $3.50: from So. 2
/! in swine to 60.2. In the face of this
nine-year growth of the Big Five,
the independent interstate slaughter
ers lost ground in actual number of
| head slaughtered as we'll as in their
proportionate shares. In 1907-190S, all
interstate Independents slaughtered
1,7S6,120 cattle and by 1916-1917 had
dropped to 1.783,51S-their interstate
slaughter cut down proportionateiy
one fifth in nine years. During this
period, the Big Five slaughter grew
from 5,330.155 head to 1854. In
sheep, the Independent fell off from
2,753,45S to only 1,524,G17: while the
Big Five increased from 6.949.0S7 to
9,S1S.S01. The Independents lost over
one-half in sheep and lambs; three
tenths in calves and over one-seventh
in swine.
! Starting with two branch houses
in 1884, the Big Five had 211 by 1894;
74S by 1904; and operated 1920 in
! 1o17