The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-05-28
THIS Is BIGGEST FIGHT THE
PEOPLE HAVE ON AT PRESENT
The People Adequate Legislation With
out Delay.

| OllSJlc COnJfOl over JHe AlllSIICtl
meat industry, but have secured con
! troll, similar in purpose if not yet in
extent, over the principal substitutes
for meat, such as eggs, cheese, and
vegetables-oil products, and are rap
idly extending their power to cover
fish and nearly every kind of food
stuff"
"The monopolistic position of the
Big Five is based not only upon the
large proportion of the meat bust
ness which they handle, ranging from
81 to SO per cent in the principal
lines, but primarily upon their own
ership, separately or jointly, OF
stockyards, car lines, cold storage
plants, branch houses, and the other
essential facilities for the distribu-
ton of perishable foods.
"The control of these five great
corporations, furthermore, rests in
the hands of small group of indi-
viduals, namely, j. Odgen Armour
the Swift Brothers, the Morris
brothers, Thomas E. Wilson (acting
under the veto of small group of
bankers) and the Cudahys.
"The menace of this concentrated
control of the Nations food is in
creased by the fact that these five
corporations and their five hundred
ana odd subsidiary, controlled, and
affiliated companies are bound to-
gether by joint ownership, agree
ments, understandings, communities
of interest and family relationships. -
How the Packers Power Is Used
of h., h,
United States has been and is being
unfairly and illegally used to:
Manipulate live stock markets;
Restrict interstate and interna-
tional supplies of foods;
Control the prices of dressed meats
and other foods;
Defraud both the producers of food
and consumers;
Crush effective competition;
Secure special privileges from
railroads, stockyard companies, and
municipalities; and Profiteer."
Packers Profits
"The packers profits in 1917 were
more than four times as great as in
the average year before the Euro
pean war, although their sales in
uOllctlS anu CtuJS az even IllG III
flated prices of last year had barely
doubled. In the war years, 1915-16-
II, four of the five packers made net
profits of $17S,O00,0 900"
The Meat Industry.
"The most satisfactory single in
dex of the proportion of the meat
industry controlled by the Big Five
is the fact that they kill in round
figures 70 per cent of the live stock
slaughtered by all packers and butch
ers engaged in interstate commerce.
In 1916 the Big Five's percentage of
the interstate slaughter, including
subsidiary and affiliated companies
was as follows
Cattle .......................S2.2
Calves -------.....----.-.----.16.6
Hogs -...--..-.-----.....-. ,6l.2
Sheep and Lambs 1854
"Swift & Co. is the greatest butter
distributor in the United States han
ding in 1916, in round figures, So
100000 pounds, or nearly as much
as the combined sales of the two
largest nonpacker organizations.
Judged conservatively by trade
estimates, the Big Five handle at
least half of the interstate commerce
in poultry and eggs and in cheese
The packers are also important fac
tors in the preparation and distribu-
ton of condensed and evaporated
milk and are rapidly increasing THEN
proportion"
Staple Groceries and Vegetables
Recently the big packers began
dealing in various staple groceries
and vegetables, such as rice, sugar
potatoes, beans, and coffee, and in
creased their sales at such a rate
that in certain of these lines they
| have become dominant factors. Here
again the immense selling organiza-
tons Of the packers, built up in con-
nection with their meat business, as
suyes them almost certain suprem-
acy in any line of food handling
whilh they may wish to enter"
Fertilizers
"The fertilizer industry lies at
the base of the American food pro
duction. The packers, controlling
the disposal of more than two-thirds
of the offal produced in the packing
industry, have become the most i'm
portant factors in the manufacture of
animal fertilizer ingredients and
have strongly entered the field of
production of mineral ingredients. In
mixed fertilizers they produce 10 per
cent of the total"
Instruments of Control and Monopoly
"These strategic positions, which
serve not only to protect the con-
trolls which the big packers have
already acquired, but to insure their
easy conquest of new fields, are:
Stockyards, with their collateral
institutions, such as terminal roads,
cattle loan banks, and market papers.
Private refrigerator car lines for
the transportation of all kinds of
na1.iS able foods