The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-23
THE PACKERS, PROFITS.

]. ogden Armour, president of Ar
mour & Co.. in his annual report to
the stockholders, submitted a financial
statement showing net profits Of $14,
098,5 06.75 on a total volume of sales
amounting to more than a billion dol
lars. The profit, the statement said.
represented a return of 1.S5 per cent
on turnover and GA on actual invest
ment.
1t is well, perhaps, that the pack
ers have agreed to dispose of their side
lines. their control of stock yards and
various other interests. Public senti-
ment has become such that anything
savoring of monopoly is q target for
constant attack; it is stronger than
the love of economy. 1t can hardly be
questioned that concerns like Swift &
Company, Armour & Company and
Wilson & Company were in a position
to conduct businesses more efficiently
and economically than smaller con-
Germs. But probably they were well
advised in deciding to acquiesce in the
demand of the department of justice
that they lop off their subsidiary ac-
tivities and confine themselves to their
original activities as packers.
Don't imagine for one moment,
however" says Forbes Magazine,
that we will now be able to buy but
ter or eggs or cheese or canned fruits
cheaper because of the so-called dis
solution of the packers. We will
indeed, be fortunate If the transfer
of these lines of business into weaker
hands does not add to our price bur-
dens and entail periodical scarcity and
inconvenience which were averted by
the broad-gauge operations of the big
concerns. We have asserted our de-
mands to be freed from 'monopolistic
interests Let us hope we will not
have to pay too high a price for this
species of freedom
Let any man go into a small slaugh-
ter house and observe the filth, waste
of material and waste of labor, as
compared with cleanliness and econ
omy in the abattofrs of packing
houses in Chicago or Kansas City, and
he will not be in doubt as to which is
preferable. Let any man go into a
small establishment for the prepare
ton of any kind of food-fruits,
vegetables, cereals, milk, butter.
cheese, or fish-and compare the
methods with those which obtain in
a large establishment, and his judg-
ment will be passed Immediately in
favor of the latter. Let any man
compare the cost, speed, dependability
and convenience of marketing goods
thru numerous small agencies with
similar handling of the same COM
modities thru a large concern, and his
verdict will inevitably be in favor of
the latter. Public health, efficiency
of labor, conservation of material,
production are all promoted by the
systems gradually built up by large
packing houses.
That net earnings of packing COM
panies have been large in the >aggre-
gate is certain. They should be, large
Any man or group of men who have
the business ability to devise and in
stitute better methods of doing bust
ness, who have the enterprise to
VI 6dAAAS large lOTCSS VI men LOT more
economical handling of commerce and
manufacturing, and who are willing
to risk their capital in new adventures
are entitled to reward in proportion
to the service they have rendered the
public. II, by their better methods
they are able to do at cost of rs
cents work that previously cost a dol
lar. under primitive methods, they are
entitled to a considerable part of that
saving. of IS per cent.
This is not saying that they are en-
titled to all of the saving, or thai
they should be free to use in wrongful
ways the power that goes with con-
centration of business in the hands oil
a few. If their power has been mis-
used either to force producers to sell
at too low a price, or to force CON
sumers to pay too high z price, this is
an evil for which a remedy should be
found. 1t may be reasonably doubted
however, that the producer will gel
more or the consumer buy for less q.
a result of dismemberment of packing
concerns.
There is little reason to expect thai
any good will come to either producer
or consumer thru destruction of large
business concerns in which efficienc,
and economy have been the secret o.
success.