The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-10-31
REIURN0F ROADS MlEANSBlCBlILS
SAYSFARMERS' COMMITTEE HEAD
OUR WASHIN GTON LETTER

Colver, among others, when he be-
gan his speech on the food monopoly
and the way to deal with it.
Kent proposes, if elected to the
snate in his race against Senator
Phelan next year, to make the fight
against the Big Five packers and
their monopoly the chief business of
his official life. Public ownership of
the channels of the food trade, and
public control of terminal retail as
we'll as wholesale markets, is his
platform.
SOME PACKER FRAUDS
Chairman Colver Of the federal
trade commission told an audience
the other day that he could cite proof
that the packers are indeed Saving
freight and freight mileage" in their
grand system of economy. Also he
could show where the public got off
in the process.
Farmers around Jacksonville,
Fla.," he said, bring their hogs in
to that city and sell them to Mr..
Packer at a price which is the Chi
cago price minus the cost of freight
on live hogs from Jacksonville to
Chicago. They sell bacon in Jack
sonville at the Chicago price plus the
cost of shipping bacon from Chicago
to Jacksonville. But the hogs are
slaughtered in Jacksonville, and the
bacon is produced there. The big
packer saves all that freight mile
age. And the farmer and the con-
sumer pay double mileage to the
packer for transportation that never
happened"
This instance of saving freight was
even better. The federal court in
Chicago has just fined one of the
Big Five packers the s.lm of 81 500,
which was paid, for the miraculous
alterations made in freight bills in
order to show bigger damage" to
fresh meat in freight cars than the
value of the fresh meat in those
cars.
This miracle of arithmetic on the
part of the packers claims office
was discovered by accident. An in
spector noticed that every time a
car laden with fresh meat, face pow
der, canned beans and sauerkraut
was held up on the road, a damage
claim for spoiled meat came in to
the railroad administration, and was
duly approved and paid. But on
most of these bills of lading the to-
tai figures were strangely roughened
or mutilated. He looked on the
back, and saw that the carbon copy
Of the original totals was less than
the total shown on the front. Some
body had "kited" the weight of the
fresh meat in each car, after it had
started on it's journey, so as to make
a respectable-sized claim for DAM
ages.
The case was proven on the bills
of lading. Mr.. Packer paid the fine
He had been saving freight, sure
enough. The public had been get
ting off at the usual stop.
This thing only happened in pub
lie, in the federal court" said Col
yer, land that's why it did not get
noticed in the newspapers. You
can't blame the editors for overlook
ing it if there was an advertisement
that day!"
PHOSPHATE TRUST BOOSTED
Secretary of Agriculture Houston,
whose scope of authority is largely
increased by the fact that President
Wilson no longer controls any part
that needed that space in the paper
of the administration, has shown his
hand again. He announces that the
department, "in the circumstances,
would not be warranted at the pres
ent time in naming a fair profit for
phosphate rock or bulk acid phos-
phate."
The circumstances to which he re-
fers are the conditions explained to
him by the producers Of phosphate, in
a conference at his office. These gen.
tlemen want to charge the farmers
what they think the traffic will bear.
Mr.. Houston warns the nation,
solemnly, that any profiteer may be
prosecuted, and if convicted may
have to pay a fine of not over $4,000
or be imprisoned not over two years,
or both. His refusal to say what
will constitute fair profit, however,
will be taken by the phosphate ring
to be an invitation to go ahead.