The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-19


 it's are made from the wastes of 40 years ago.
 The problem we have to consider how. ever, is the ultimate social result of this expanding domination, and whether it can be replaced by system of better social character. and of equal economic efficiency for the present and of great CT promise for the future It is certain, to my mind, that these businesses have heen economically efficient in their period of competitive upgrowth, but, as time goes on, this efficiency cannot fail to diminish and, like all monopolies, begin to defend itself by repression rather than by efficiency. The worst social result of this whole growth in domination of trades is the undermining of the initia tive and the equal opportunity of our peo- pie and the tyranny which necessarily follows in the commercial world
 COMMISSION RECOMMENDS The federal trade commissions recom- mendations fall into three parts: 1. That the railroad administration take over all animal and refrigeration car services.
 2 That they take over the stockyard terminals.
 g. That the federal government itself take over the packers branch houses, cold storage warehouses, etc., with view, l assume, to the establishing of equal opportunity of entrance into distribution among all manufacturers and traders. AS to the first part of this recommen- dation, on car service, am in full agree ment and may recall to you that soon after it's installation, we recommended that the railway administration should take over and operate all private car lines in food products. This has, to some degree, been accomplished through their car service division.
 These arrangements are purely un- der war powers, and if the reforms pro- posed are to be of any value they must be placed upon a permanent basis and not merely for the war. There can be no doubt that the car services, in or der to obtain the results desired and the greatest national economy, must be greatly expanded and must be op- erated from a national point of view, | rather than from that of each indvid- ual railway. Moreover, they are high | ly technical services beyond the ordi- nary range of railway management and | the need to embrace all cooled cars as well as meat cars. Whether this serv- l ice on national scale should be con- | ducted by the government or by private enterprise, under control as a N..o- | lie utility, seems to me to require fur | ther thought and, in any event. to de-
 
 ! railway question:
 l As to the stockyards I am in agree ment that they should be entirely dis associated from the control of the l packers. A distinction must be drawn between the stockyards as a physical market place and the buying and sell | ing conducted therein. In the first sense, the complaints largely center around the exclusion not of buyers and | sellers, but of the prevention of com petitors from establishing packing plants either upon land of the yards, or of obtaining track and other con- nections herewith The solution of I this problem in permanent form will also depend upon the ultimate solution of the railway problem. If the govern- | ment should acquire the railways, it | would appear to me that it should, as | a part of the system, acquire the yards. l If the government returns the rail- ways to their owners 1t would appear to me that these ends could be accom- plished by appropriate regulation under the interstate commerce commission, and this should be done ad interim As to the wrong practices between buy CTS and sellers. these would not be cor rected by the government owning or controlling the physical yards; they are, in fact, now under war re1ula-
 ton by the department of agriculture.
 FINDS MUCH DIFFICULTY As to the recommendation that the 1 federal government should at once | take over the packers branch houses cold storage and warehouse factilies,
 find much difficulty. I do not as- sume that the trade commission con
 templates the government entering upon the purchase and sale of meat
 and groceries at these establishments Nor does it appear to me that the in- dividual separate and scattered branch houses of the packers furnish any prop
 CT physical basis for free terminal wholesale markets. In discussion with
 the independent packers I find no be-
 lief that the packers branch houses
 would serve as a basis of universal
 market service, and I find much diff
 ferences of opinion as to public mar
 kets as a solution. Any of the great
 packers equipment ill this particular
 would in any event require a great deal
 of extension to effect such objectives
 and we are in no position to find the
 material and labor during the war. We do need an absolute assurance to
 the food trades of such terminal ia cilities as will allow any manufacturer
 or dealer in any food product equal op- portunity to handle and store his goods
 pending their final distribution. The
 usefulness of either public, wholesale or retail markets in the promotion of
 these ends is a matter of great di- vision of opinion. The most predomi-
 nant feeling in the independent trades is that if sites can be made avail fable, adjacent to railway facilities, the
 trades themselves would solve the mat
 ter. In any event, the whole public
 market question is peculiar to each city
 and town, and my own inquiries find
 little belief that the, present branch
 houses of the packers would serve this purpose.
 Furthermore, my own instinct, in any
 event, is against federal ownership ot
 such facilities. and our own inquiries rather indicate that if transportation questions, together with factors men, tioned later on are put right, this prob- lem will solve itself. Altogether. l do not consider that the prime object of maintaining the initiative of our citi-
 zens and of our local communities is to be secured by this vast expansion of federal activities.
 There are certain matters relating to | the development and control of the packing industry which are not referred
 to in the report of the trade commis-
 sion, which appear to me of first inn portance. One effect of the great cen
 tralization of this industry has been
 the qualification of decline in slaugh- ter near many large cities and towns 1 believe this has been initially due to such advantage as under the centrali-
 zation, a disability that does not now generally exist. for most of these prod ucts now have an outlet. It has also been partially due to the cheaper anil malS from the cheaper lands of the