Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-10-17


THE extent to which the packer
should be permitted to enter un-
related food lines" the report said,
rs matter which the public inter-
est alone should determine.
1.-TWO questions, primarily eco
nomic, are involved:
Does this widening of activity
result in additional economies of
production and distribution?
Does it result and will it continue
to result to the publics in lower
prices and better quality of product
and service?"
Extend Products Control.
/ Included in the list of commodi-
ties said to be falling under control
of the big FIVE" are poultry and
game, dairy products, lard and but
ter substitutes, canned and dried
Vegetables and fruit, canned, cured
and frozen fish, cocoa, coffee, mo-
lasses and cane, corn and maple
sirups. In addition, Armour & Co.
is said to be handling extensively
soda fountain preparations and
utensils.
! Owing to the maze and secrecy
of the packers methods of con-
Quoting much of his business" it
adds, "exact statistics on many of
these commodities are not available
for the country as whole.
MANY companies manufacturing
or handling these commodities are
controlled by packer interests, no
hint Of which is disclosed by the
names under which they operate
and even thorough-going exami-
nation may fail to uncover the
packer connection in every case"
Four of the packers, Swift, VIII
son, Armour and Cudahy, the re-
port states, through their subsidiar-
les and not including family con-
trolled companies, handled in 1918,
4o.5 per cent of the estimated total
of shipped dressed poultry and 50
per cent of shipped eggs.
Cheese Market Controlled.
! The same four handled 40 per
cent of the factory-made cheese in
1918, the report says, and adds:
THAT the big five are in a posi-
ton to control rs to 80 per cent of
the cheese of the state (Wisconsin)
is generally conceded"
Libby, Mcneil & Libby, a Swift
concern, alone handled l0.4 per cent
of all evaporated and condensed
milk in 1918, according to the re-
port.
The Armour Grain company, a
factor in the cereal and breakfast
food business, reported surplus un-
divided profits for the year 1917 of
$5,426,830 after deducting 70 per
cent dividend on capital stock, the
report. says, adding:
The years net earning amounted
to 2o0 per cent on the capital stock
and 81 per cent on the net worth
of the company, including capital.
surplus and undivided profits as re-
ported at the close Of the fiscal year
1916"
Make Much Oleomargarine.
Production of lard compounds and
substitutes by the five packers dur
ing the first six months of 1917 was
placed at 49.4 per cent Of the total,
and oleomargarine at 81 per cent.
Complete figures to show the
packer interest in canned foods.
such as fruits and fish, were not
available, the report says, but the
business of the "big five" was shown
to be large and growing. The Lib
by company's canned food sales
alone showed 225 per cent in
crease in 1918 over 1915. Libby's
sales of canned salmon increased
from as per cent of the world pack
in 1915 to 81 per cent in 1918, the
report shows.
$50 complete has become the
control, especially by Libby, Nc
Neill and Libby over the pineapple
supply" the report reads, that one
of the largest wholesale grocers in
the country was unable in the sum-
mer of 1918 to secure any supply
whatever"
There is sufficient evidence, the
report continues, that the big FIVE"
are dividing the field among them
selves.
Armours Take Cereal Field.
"If Armour's grocery specialties
are largely concentrated along such
lines as rice, cereals, certain kinds
of canned foods and cheese, and
each of the other of the FIVE great |
packers concentrates his specialties
along a few we'll chosen lines, the |
profitable fields become pretty well
covered and pretty well ruled by the
five"
The report declares the meat
packers ARE large Spectators and
that their control of capital and |
credit enables them to buy in such |
way as to resell upon a market
in which their purchases have
forced up the price" 1t also as
serts the packers have extraordi-
nary buying and marketing power,
"due to certain advantages. perhaps
not always unlawful but certainly
often unjustihable." |
Among these advantages are enu-
merated packer control of 44.8 per
cent of all cold storage facilities,
their refrigerator car service, the
highly favorable rules" obtained by
the packers for mixed carloads of
fresh meats and packing house
products, permitting them to include
great variety of goods foreign
to their slaghtering business" with
resulting determinations not alone
in service but also in rates.
Until the packers are shorn of
the transportation advantages" the
renort saws. there is no Way of 4