The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-19
AGREE TO
 M E A T AND THE CONVENE ACTIVITY TO
 PROVISION BUSINESS
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4N( AA(ANC AR - MA AN@hON( (Continued from Page One)
 the location of cattle banks and cattle
 loan companies, to concerns and corpora tions in which they, or some of them, or individuals who are stockholders in said parent companies, hold the controlling
 stock, all of which has been done with the
 intent and purpose and has had the eff feet of discouraging and suppressing the establishment of independent packing es tablishments and dwarfing the growth of
 such independent packing companies which might then be in existence, to en- able said parent companies. their sub l sidiaries or the individuals who own and | control the parent compan nies and their subsidiaries to obtain vast profits from
 the management of the stock yard and | the granting of the privileges appurtenant thereto, which profits are realized not only lnpon the live stock purchases by the pack CTS, but upon that purchased by their com petHors. and have thus enabled them to enjoy and realize such profits without the | same appearing or being disclosed in the profits of the parent companies, and otherwise to further the attempt of said parent companies to monopolixe the meat | industry of the country and artificially control the ultimate price which the con sumer pays for meat and meat products. The investigation demonstrated that
 even with a practical monopoly of the supplies of meat in the country the price could not be controlled by the defend ant without the control of substitute foods. To accomplish this purpose. the defendants availed themselves of the ad- vantages at hand in the auto trucks,
 route cars, branch houses and storage ! warehouses owned or controlled by them. | The control was extensively and rapidly increasing.
 | "ln the 15 years, from 1904 to 1919. Swift 1 & Co.,, Armour &<Co, Wilson & Co.,. Inc.
 and the Cudahy Packing company, ac- cording to their financal reports, grew
 from net worth of approximately ss2
 0O00O0 to a net worth of approximately | $f79, ,000,000, but in this same period they
 paid in cash dividends $1O5, 100000 Only ] SS9, 900 600 of their increased worth was represented in capital.
 1 Though always asserting a very low | rate of profit on sales, the five parent | their combined net profit for 1919 has ! equaled nearly the amount of their total l sales in 1904. The sales themselves in 15 years have increased until, for the fiscal year 1918, they reached the vast sum Of 1 s, 200, ,0OO,0 900. This was realized from meats, substitute foods and unrelated lines, as hereinabove set forth.
 l Tn dOQ1ItOI 10 the pTOlllS, lucTc hd . been other vast profits, difficult of as certainment, realized by the individuals ! by virtue of either their personal con- 1 trol of other packing houses and slaugh- l tering companies their interests in stock yards, terminal railroads. render ing companies, cattle loan institutions and banks and other corporations. The parent companies, or the indi- vidual defendants, and their families maintain and control 574 corporations or concerns, including 131 trade names. They have significant minority stock interest in 95 others, and an interest or unknown extent in an additional s. Thus the total number of concerns in which they have control or interest is some 762 Practically all of these com panies, however, come under the juris- diction of the court through the naming
 of the above mentioned defendants. "The principal agents in stifling com petition in the unrelated lines was, as has been stated, the fact that the dis
 rtributing system of the great packers
 was an efficient and cheap way of handling not possessed by their competi-
 tors
 The decree further enjoins the indi- vidual defendants from individually or jointly owning 50 per cent or more or the voting stock in any corporation e2 gagged sn the business of manufacturing, i iobbing selling transporting, dlstrlDut- ing or otherwise dealing in any of the unrelated commodities; or from adopting any device or arrangement which, by reason of their relation to the corpora tion defendants or any of them would have the purpose or effect of giving to such unrelated, lines any advantage over their com petitors similar in purpose or effect to any advantage now enjoyed ov any of the corporation defendants through their distributing systems. The bill provides that immeditely upon the entry of the decree the defendants shall commence to dispose of such com modties owner or handled by them as
 have been herein described, and shall commence to divest themselves of all interests in firms. corporations and as sociations dealing in any of the so- called unrelated commodities, and shall continue in good faith to dispose or said commodities and to divest them selves of said interests as rapidly as may he consistent with the nature of the business and the seasonal nature or the merchandise involved; that, in fact, they shall have completely disposed of said commodities and completely divested { themselves of these interests within two years from the date of the entry of this decree The attorney general may ap ply to the court at any time within said two years to compel the defendants or any of them to make report to the court as to the progress being made by the defendants in divesting themselves of ca id interestS