The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-14

fence posts, wire fencing, builders hardware, binding twine, lumber, mill work, cement, lime, plaster, brick, sand and gravel and roofing.
 In the manufacture of breakfast foods, and stock and chicken feeds, the Armour Grain Company, says the report, lis 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 Battle Creek, Mich"
 SUBSTITUTES FOR MEATS. ! "The reason why the packers are seeking control of the substitutes for meat-the foods that compete with meats-are obvious" Says the report. l "If the prices of substitutes for meats are once brought under packer con- | trol, the consumer will have little to gain in turning to them for relief | from excessive meat prices" An Armour advertisement in the New l York Daily Mail, December 31, 1917, I 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 | Dayl Soups, fish, vegetables, fruits, l condiments, beverages-she can ob- | tain them all under the guarantee or | the Armour name"
 i Judged conservatively by trade ] estimates the Big Five handle at least | half of the poultry, eggs and cheese 1 in the main channels of interstate ] commerce." the report states. Most | estimates place the total production l in dressed poultry and eggs controlled | by the packers at a higher percent | age.
 ] Practically all estimates received stated the packers handle 75 to SO ! per cent. of all cheese ls,oduced in 1 Wisconsin alone where 55.' per cent 1 of the entire country's cheese was made at the time of the last manu- I featuring census in 1914. All of the | Big Five are distributors of cheese and all except Wilson & Go. own and | control large cheese companies. 1 "The packers are also important ! factors in condensed milk, and are
 rapidly increasing their proportion. Wisconsin is covered by their cream | cries, condenseries and buying sta | tions and a similar process of con- | centration and control is already evil | dent in the other principal dairy l states.
 | Swift & Co. is the largest single | butter distributor in the United States | handling in 1915 approximately 5O,- l 100000 pounds or nearly as much as | the combined sales of the two largest lnon-peoker organizations: and the | butter department was pushing for a 1 25 per cent increase in 1918 over 1917. Swift & Co. alone, for it's own l creameries, collects cream in Arkan-
 sas, California, Colorado. Illinois, | Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Wis., consin, and Wyoming. Companies
 owned or controlled by 1t. such as w. F. Priebe & Co.,, Western Meat Com pany, Union Meat Co.,. and Libby McNeill & Libby, obtain milk and cream in still other states.
 Armour Go. in 1916 handled in its branch houses alone over 28,0OO,-
 900 pounds of butter. Most of its ! creamery butter was manufactured
 by the Eau Claire Creamery Co.,, Eau
 Claire, Wis, which is controlled by
 Armour; the Kentucky Creameries,
 Louisville, owned entirely by Armour;
 Oakdale Creamery, Oakdale, Cal. 1; A. S. Kininmnth Produce Co.,, Win
 field, Kan, and the Michigan Ice &
 Cold Storage Co.,, operated by Ar mour, and the Armour plant in Ro-
 chester, Ind.
 Morris & Go. operates no cream
 cries but controls Sherman, White x
 Co.,, Fort Wayne, Ind, and buys
 large quantities of butter manufac-
 tured by other concerns; Cudahy
 owns the D. E. Wood Butter Co.,,
 Evansville, Wis, and the Sunlight
 Produce Co.,, Sioux City. Wilson &-
 Co. owns no creamertes but purchase
 outside"
 The Big Five, the report shows.
 sold in 1916 through their branch houses alone, nearly 1Oo,oOo,0oo pounds of poultry, 90,0o0,0o0 pounds of butter, 100000 pounds of cheese
 and over s5,ooo,ooo dozen eggs PACKERS IN CANNED GOODS. , Fruit and vegetable canning are remote from slaughtering and meal , packing, but the big packers, through , their branch house system of distri- button possess special advantages in
 this field of industry" the report says. 'The Big Ftve's advantage i, rests not so much on their ownership of canning factories, although in , some branches their output amounts
 to more than a quarter of the total
 for the United States. as upon their rapidly growing control of the whole sale distribution of canned goods,
 Armour & Go. increased its canned goods sales from about S6,500,00o In 1916 to $16, 6,0o0,o00 in 1917, whereas the combined sales of these products
 of Austin Nichols Go. and Sprague
 Warner Co.,, two of the largest inde-
 pendent wholesalers. amounted to
 only some s6,0oo.o0o in 1917. Al
 though distribution is the point al
 which the packers fiave acquired the , greatest control. they arc neverthe- less entering the field of manufac- ture."
 Swift & Co.,. the report pointed out , | through Libby. McNeiH & Libby , las become a factor of considerable r importance, canning tomatoes. beans baked beans. cabbage. spinach, as- , paragus, beete. pumpkins, squash