Arizona republican., 1919-01-18
Impartial Presentation Ot
 Food Marker Problem Is Asked Of American Press

being extended and fortified by domi- nation of the meat industry of a large part of the world. It is also being rapidly extended to other important food products. The producers have long known that these processes were at work. They have known that com munity of interest and concert of ac- tion among the large packers had con- feSSedly existed. They have believed that it had continued to exist and that it operated to their disadvantage. They differed among themselves in their beliefs as to the degree and char acter of the monopoly and as to the i remedies for it. They did not differ 1 in the conviction that the great and | sudden fluctuations hat occurred in | the prices paid for live stock at the | great central markets were due to | manipulation and not to the norma | operation of economic laws. They l knew that these violent fluctuations | usually meant huge profits to the buy CTS and serious loss or even irretriev- able disaster to the seller, whose live stock once shipped to such market must be quickly sold to avoid the
 mounting cost of care and keep. But it was not until the price of every other essential (and many non-es- sential commodity except live stock 1 had mounted in response to the extra
 ordinary demands of war that there 1 swept over the farms and ranches of 1 the country a great wave of realiZd l tion as to the full effect of the auto 1 cratic power entrenched at the cen 1 tral markets and of determination to submit to it no longer. The present 1 situation is the result. After strenuous opposition from the packers the federal | investigation was ordered, the facts 1 disclosed and the remedies are now un- l der consideration.
 | Statements Mislead
 Statements published by the pack CTS in advertisements and special ar 1 ticles as to the fraction of the meat consumed in America which is handled l by them, and the implied or expressed conclusion that therefore a monopoly 1 control cannot be exercised, are de- l rived from figures which include not 1 only local butchering but also meats
 eaten on the same ranch or within the
 same farming community which pro- 1 duced them. Such statements are mis- ] leading. The fact that five large Chi l cago packers completely dominate all supplies of meats moving from the producing districts through the great
 markets to the ever increasing city and | industrial populations remains indis- putable and has been confirmed by the investigations and reports of the fed l eral government. The recent annual
 report of the federal trade commission
 contains interesting and significant | statistics upon this subject.
 l The accumulated tolls levied upon
 this traffic and charged to producers
 and consumers alike are now measured by the hundreds of millions of dollars. 1 The economic power represented by
 this wealth, one supplementing the
 other, draws within it's sphere and ulti-
 mately swallows a succession of one
 time competing interests, small pack
 CTS, independent butchers, stockyards,
 special car lines, cold storage facilities
 cattle loan banks, trade papers, can
 ueries and other marketing facilities.
 The control of the market is accom-
 plished by the control of the very in struments by which marketing is car 1 ried on.
 Tt is to meet this situation that the
 recommendations of the federal trade
 commission are directed. These recom-
 mendations have been widely misrep-
 resented. They are not radical They
 are not as radical as many have eX-
 pected and advocated. They do not
 propose that the federal government take over and operate the packing l
 tenn. They propose merely that the
 instruments and agencies of monopoly
 shall be taken out of the central of those who would profit by monopoly. These agencies are the private stock ! and refrigerated car lines, the stock yards and refrigerated storage termi
 nals in the great cities. These recom- , mendations have been considered by , many farmers and producers organ , izations and have been approved by f every such organization that has yet , considered them. Their adoption will , in no way lessen the manufacturing ef- :. ficiency of the packers nor their utili- zation of animal by-products. Never theless, it must be clearly recognized . that efficiency is not the issue. Even
 if it were, is it likely that the highes I degree of efficiency either has been or l can in the future be maintained in ar f industry which has been or can in tho ' future be maintained in an industry