Putnam patriot. [volume] (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962, 1919-02-28
BIG PACKER AS WAR TIME AID.
Swift & Company Issues Year Book

A new idea of the great part played
by America in feeding the allied fore
es in Europe is given in the 1919
Year Book of Swift & Company,
which has just been issued.
In 1918 these products shipped
abroad totaled 590,359, 769 pounds
more than three times the amount
shipped in 1914, the first year of the
war. The pork product shipments
totaled 1851, 454 ,529 pounds as
against 921 1928, 029 in 1914-an in
crease of SO per cent.
During the year ending November
/, 1918, Swift & Company alone ship
ped 760,000,000 pounds of meat and
meat products to the American army
and navy at home and abroad and to
the allied nations for their armies and
civilian populations The Year Book
says: This amounts to about 25,-
900 carloads of meat, which would
make single train 200 miles long"
Some of the difficulties encounter
ed in shipping are shown in the fol-
lowing:
1.-The meat for Europe has gone in
fleets of vessels under convoy, and
the Food Administration has often
been unable to know very far in adj
vance when cargo space would be-
available For this reason Swift 4
Company has frequently been noti-
fled that certain number of millions
of pounds would be wanted at cer-
tain port within a few days. Swift 4
Company has often had shipments on
the way to the seaboard within few
hours after the orders have been re-
ceived, and believes that it has met
with signal success in the filling of
such rush orders.
1.-The packing industry was able to
adapt itself to wartime demands per-
haps more quickly than any other in
dustry. If this industry had not been
organized on large scale along ma
tional, and even international lines,
it would never have been able to an
swer all demands as promptly as it
has. War demands have, of course,
| caused many changes in methods and
| have made it necessary for US to in
crease our facilities in many respects.
For example, when the United
| States entered the war, there devel-
| oped a demand for canned bacon for
shipment to our soldiers overseas.
Swift q Company Immediately took
over a contemplated soap factory
and within thirty days had installed
the necessary machinery and was fill
ing Government contracts. More
than a million pounds of bacon a
week have often been canned in this
factory This means that our sol
diers have been getting fine, cured,
smoked bacon, whereas the Allies
have been demanding only salt, un-
smoked bacon, which does not have
to be canned.
"Another example showing the CO.
operation that we have offered the
Government was when the Govern
ment found it necessary to have large
quantities Of butter, which it had
bought for overseas shipment, put in
to cans. Swift & Company, alone
among the big butter handlers of the
country, was willing to install the
necessary equipment, and in the
course of three weeks, under the most
unfavorable circumstances, began
canning butter for the Government.
Up to the time this Year Book goes to
press, we have put up some three nil
lion pounds Of butter owned by the
Government and also two million
pounds which we have gathered for
the Government, making total of
five million pounds Of butter that
have been put up in tins"