New Britain herald., 1919-08-09
MORRIS DEFENDS
 PACKING TRADE
Says Trade Commissions Report
 Is Not Fair One

Chicago Aug. 9.-Edward Morris, presid ent of Morris tS Co.,, said today:
 With the country in arms over the continued high cost of living and with anti-packer legislation pending before congress, the federal trade Comm isSion has seized this moment to issue an other attack on the packers. This statement, simply a rehaSh of the one sided investigation made two years ago, has a double object; to intlame the public and prejudice congress against the packers.
 I assume I am guilty of "lese majeste" in saving a word to the pub lie in defense of our business, judging from recent utterances in the senate To denounce the packers is patriotic statesman ship; to defend them is "propaganda." However, I will risk it and say that the present agitation against this industry is 99 per cent premeditated, cold blooded, cunning propaganda engineered by men of so- cialistic tendencies, who are seeking to bolster up unjust and injurious conclusions, reached by them, and to fasten socialistic control on the buSl- ness of this country generally. Why experiment along these lines With the recent expensive object lesson ot gov ernmentaI operation of railroads and telegraph and telephone lines? If this , is not enough the public is certainly a glutton for punishment.
 The people should know that there is collision between certain persons, with selfish interests to serve, ana with others in sympathy with pater- nalism and communism. These buSl- ness wreckers figure that the packers
 <J 1ty,cr prime necessity, are the most inviting subject, and the present, on account or the high cost of living, is the most op- portune time to foster the policy or government ownership on the people. If the pending packer legislation be- comes the law it is only question Of time until all business will be con- trolled, not by general laws, but by men and bureaus, inexperienced Tn business in Washington.
 wonder when the federal trade commission will issue a report con- taining the testimony of the small packer victims of the Big Five over whom it shed so many crocodile tears Such a report would show that before congressional committees, last winter these oppressed competitors" pleaded to be saved from the salvation pre- scribed for them by the commission. They testified as to the fairness of the competition they met in the stock wards and in the markets in which they sold their finished pEOducts and were a unit in declaring that the legls- lative panacea proposed would not only ruin them, but would accomplish nothing for the people.
 The small packer, padding his own canoe, and doing it successfully, knew then and knows now, that these social istic nostrums will not cure the pa tient, which is the public, suffering from the high cost of living. We are in no combination to raise or extort prices; We work so efficiently and eco nomically that we can exist on a profit of a small fraction of one cent per pound. Eliminate this and the cost to the consumer would not be ap- preciably affected. We are much interested in Q solution of this vital problem as any one and will welcome and aid the fullest investigation by a. diSinterested, competent non-politiCal body into this all important matter Unrest will not vanish until this ques- ton is settled and settled right.