Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-01-10
ASKS REGULATION
For Packing Industry
of Country

Federal Trade Commission Member
Says Need Has Been Amply Shown
by Recent Agreement Between
Packers and Dept. Of Justice
Washington, Jan. 9-Charges that
arrests of Federal trade commission
employees in the recent department
of justice campaign against radicals
have been the result of Frame ups
designed to build the theory that the
commission is a hot bed of Bolshev-
ism" were made today by W. B.
Colver of that body before the Senate
Agriculture committee, Colver left
the intimation that the larger Chicago
packing concerns had connived in
some degree to attain that result and
involved Ludwig G. A. K. Martens
self stlyed ambassador of the Rus
sian Soviet republic to the United
States, and S. Nuerteva. Martens
secretary in his account of instances
TO prove the point.
Given a hearing before the commits
sion which tonight announced its
hearings cnded, Colver likewise
voiced a vigorous demand for legisla-
ton to regulate the packing industry,
need of which was proved he said,
by the recent agreement between the
packers and the department of justice
IN nf r nrnnanH
ings.
To this testimony the commissioner
added a critical analysis of state
ments and motives of witnesses who
have opposed packer regulation dur
ing the prolonged hearing of the
American committee of the Kenyon
and Kendrick bills last year. conclud-
ing with the assertion that in the
maturity competition is continuing
to lessen and monopolize to include
and to exhaust the power of present
Federal laws intended to restrain it
The first instance the commissioner
said of the frame up" has resultd in
the arrest of Rafael Mallen, a former
clerk for the trade commission, in
raids directed last week at Chicago
communist centers by the department
of justice. FL. j. G. Claybaugh head
of the secret service at Chicago and
his assistant "a man named Barry"
Colver said both whom have since
resigned. We're responsible and Barry
now was special agent" for Swift
& Company, Mallen later was re-
leased
Johann Ohsol, another employee of the
commission, Colver said was arrested
in Washington hotel during the pres
emit week while on a visit to S. Nuertva
having been pointed out to police Off
GERS as Martens, who is being sought by
the secret service. Reading an alleged
claim of Nuerteva and Martens that
purchase of large meat supplies from
Chicago packers had been arranged with
the object of getting it into Russia
through the allied blockade. Colver said
meat packers and the Soviet represent
atives significant" as it concerned On
soils arrest, especially since the latter
had been taken into custody when he
came TO see Nueretva in answer to q
telegraph call. Reverting to the agree
ment prepared by Atty. Gen. Palmer
concluding the Sherman law prosecu-
that merely settled the Sherman Law
of the matter" Separation of the pack
ers from their grocery holdings, how
ever, as in the case of the transfer by
Wilson & Co. of its grocery business 70
Austin Nichols Co. of New York, a
wholesale grocer. he asserted merely
means that the stockholders of Wilson
& Co. have added the Austin Nichols
concerns to their holdings"
Principles incorporated in the settle
ment decree. he urged, should be work
ed out in examination and amplihed.
The federal trade committee would not
stop because of the settlement and OF
its proceedings against the packers
having to do with unfair trade prac-
tees, he said.
Dealing with persons who have dis
cussed regulative legislation before the
committee since the Kenyon and Ken
drick bills were advanced, Colver said
that out of 1S1 heard, IA had opposed
any federal control of the industry.
Many, he said. had been influenced by
propaganda from packer institutions.
To show that the consumer was not
getting any benefit from lower live
stock prices. Colver presented a dia-
gram showing that on August /, when
live hogs sold at @ cents pound, pork
loins sold in Boston for 34a cents. while
on October q when live hogs sold at 12a
cents, loins sold at 37s cents in Boston.