The Washington herald., 1919-01-28
ASSAIL
BILLS TO REGULATE
"BIG FIVE'S" PLANTS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

With Armour as n reluctant wit
ness, Heney attempted to trace the
network of strings by which he
alleged the packers have tried to
tighten their hold on the meat sup
ply and to re-enforce their financial
interests.
He delved into alleged packer
control of street car lines at Kan
sas City and Sioux City, banks in
all packing cities. canneries on the
Pacific Coast, stockyards at Fort
Worth, Texas, st. Paul. Min, and
other points, and vast tracts of ir-
riEated lands in California.
Armour showed signs of irrita-
tion during the minute questioning.
Heney developed the following:
Armour, Swift and Morris have
joint interests in the West Meat
Company, San Francisco.
Cudahy and Wilson are the only
big packers owning Individual
plants in California.
Charged that Armour, Swift and
Morris refused to compete in Cali
fornia, because of their joint hold
inEs.
When Armour started a plant at
st. Paul. Swift increased capital of
stock yards there 500, 900 and handed
the new stock over to Armour.
Swift and Armour jointly own
Sioux City street car lines.
Swift and Armour agreed to estab-
lish stock yards in North Kansas
City and planned to build new mod
ern plants.
Armour Swift and Morris went into
cotton-seed oil business together in
Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma
Pooled funds to fight antagonistic
oleomargarine legislation.
Worked together to keep Omaha
stock yards prices ''in line"
Publicity Campaign Elaborate
Big packers held a conference short
ly after the BorIand resolution was
introduced to frame an elaborate pub
licity campaign designed to influence
public opinion. Heney' charged. He
read letters passing between packers
regarding this.
Plans were to pro-rate expense, send
letters to all papers running advertise
ing when they carried any matter ad-
verse to the packers, and rotate sig
natures of each big packer in the ads
so they would not appear part of a
concerted campaign by the big Five. &"
While the Armour -Heney duel
was in progress, l. d. H Weld told
the. House Interstate Commerce
Committee that the Federal Trade
Commission made improper use of
the Swift files in using only those
letters favorable to its case. Weld
declared this placed a sinister mo-
tive" on the correspondence. and to
his mind tended to discredit the
whole report.
Big Increase in Profits.
War profits of Swift & Co increased
176 per cent over the last three years
of the pre-war period, Weld testified.
He said this was not excessive, citing
earnings of a number of corporations
to support his statemnt. According to
these figures, Bethlehem Steel topped
the list with 400 per cent profits, with
/ number of other percentages much
higher than Swift's. Weld also said
a large proportion of Swift's war
profits were of the paper" variety.
Weld said that Swift and Com
pany, by reason of it's selling sys-
tenn and resources, probably could
sell canned goods cheaper than
wholesale grocers. The same rule
also applied to butter. eggs and
poultry. he said.
The Federal Trade Commission has
warned that the packers will soon
control the wholesale grocery field
we generally get what we can
and the consumer benefits from any
reduced prices that may result
Weld explained. "It would be a So
cial and economical we ste If we did
not utilize our vast selling organf-
zation."