The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1919-07-12
PACKERS ACTIVITY
in Controlling
FOODS Is SHOWN
Federal Trade Commission shows
That "Big Five" Haxe Their
Fingers in All Lines
Of Trade.

|
nation of the nations food supply by
the Big Five Chicago meat packers
the Federal Trade Commission today
made public Part of its report to the
President on its investigation of the
meat industry, bearing on Extent and
Growth of Power of the Five Pack
ers in Meat and Other Industries"
AN approaching packer domination
of all important foods in this country
and an international control of meat
products with foreign companies
seems certainty unless fundamental
action is taken to prevent it," the re-
port says.
"a fair consideration of the course
the five packers have followed and the
position they have already reached
must lead to the conclusion that they
threaten the freedom of the market
of the country's food industries and
of the by-product industries linked
Herewith.
"The meat packer contfol of other
foods will not require long in develop
ing"
Declaring "the history of the pack
| ers growth is interviewer will illegal
| combinations, rebates and with undis
closed control of corporations" the
report also urged the Importance of
full publicity of corporate ownership
for all industries. Gas to devices for
secret control, there does not exist
adequate law. In It's absence unfair
competition may run its course to the
goal of monopoly and accomplish the
runin of competitors without the Sc
cret ownership being suspected and
consequently without complaint to the
Commission or investigation of facts
The competitor is in. jeopardy so long
as he has not the knowledge of true
ownership and the public is entitled to
such knowledge"
Pointing out that the Big Five
packers jointly or separately WELD
controlling interest in 574 companies,
minority interest in So others and un-
determined interest in ga total of
762 companies-and that they pro-
duce or deal in some IT'S commodities,
large food products, the report gives
this picture of growing packer inva-s-
ion into related and unrelated indus
tries:
I'm additional to meat foods, they
produce or deal in suvh divers com
modities as fresh tomatoes and banjo
strings, leather and cotton-seed oil,
breakfast goods, vim fiz, curled hair,
papsin and washing powders. Their
branch houses are not only stations
for the distribution Of meat and poul-
try, but take on the character of
wholesale grocery stores, dealers in
various kinds of produce and jobbers
to special lines of trade.
"They have interests large enough
to be a dominating influence in most
duction and distribution of animal
foods and their by-products, and are
reaching out for control, not only of
substitutes of animal food, but of sub
stitutes for other lines into which |
the indignation of theor business has |
led them. They are factors in cattle 1
loan companies making the necessary |
loans to growers and feeders of live
stock; are interested in railways and |
private car lines transporting live
stock and manufactured animal pro-
ducts in most of the important stock
yards comprehensive public market
for the bulk of food animals and in
livestock trade papers on which grow
ers and feeders rely for market news.
"They are interested in banks from
which their competitor packing
houses borrow money; in companies
supplying machinery, ice salt, mater
ials, boxes, ETC., to themselves and
their competitors; they are principal
dealers on the provision exchanges
where future prices in standard cured
animal products are determined; they
or their subsidiary companies deal in
hides, cleo, fertilizer, material, and
other packers these crude by-products,
and themselves carry the manufacture
there of to further stage than most
of their competitors.
"They are important factors in the
leather industry, in olemargarine and
lard substitutes, in cotton-seed OIL in
fertilizer, insoap, in glue, etc.
Their vast distributing system,
with the advantages arising from the
control of private cars, cold storage,
and a network of branch houses, has
enabled them to extend their activities
on a large scale into poultry eggs,
cheese, butter, rice, breakfast foods,
canned vegetables, soda-fountain sup
plies, and other lines.
From rendering edible fats from
what would otherwise be wasted in
their own factories, they have reached
out to secure for rendering the waste
fat and bones of local butchers in
large sections Of the country. and in
some instances are interested in COM
panies contracting for the disposal of
garbage of large cities.
"Indiyiduals of the Armour family