Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1921-07-06
comes a law. is forbidding instru-

! 8 (. - y
comes a law, is forbidding instru-
ment.
at forbids the packers to engage
in unfair devices.
st forbids the packers to engage in
deceptive devices.
ut forbids the packers to engage in
unfair practices.
st forbids the packers to engage IN
deceptive practices.
| ut forbids the packers to carve up
| the supply of live stock among them
selves by interdealing.
1T forbids the packers to restrain
commerce.
SIT forbids packers to create a mo-
nopoly.
| ut forbids the packers to manipu-
late prices by selling to themselves,
1T forbids the charging of unreas-
enable rates in the stockyards.
1T forbids deceptive practises in
the stock-yards
"a harsh critic would say that this
new packer control bill is a hotch-
potch of catch-words designed to at
ford protection to the packers should
they ever get into trouble.
Never to be understood by thinking
men is the failure Of Congress to act
upon its many sad experiences OF the
past by defining what it means when
it employs such terms as unfair prac-
tees, unreasonable rates, etc.
Congress wasted millions of dollars
on the Lever Act for the purpose of
making the taxpayer believe that he
was getting protection against the
profiteer. The Lever Act was just as
vague as the Senate Packers Bill. No
wonder the packers permitted Con-
gress to pass this bill. No wonder
nothing will happen-to the packers!'
eff there is going to be government
| control Of the packers, it should be
sincere and genuine, not the kind
that will render people distrustful OF
| Congress as well as of the packers
asserts the Troy Record" but the
New York Globe believes editorially
that, while "effectual protection Of
| the rights Of consumers and stock
| raisers may not be the fruit OF the
| bill that has just passed Congress, al
least beginning has been made" and
| the Baltimore Sun" thinks that "the
success of this law depends upon the
integrity, intelligence, and admins
trative ability of the Secretary"
! ~ 1A we
| heard from the Kansas City Journal
which says, "the trouble is that bus
| mess has been commissioned and
'bureaued' until it is burdened almost
to the last proverbial straw" and from
Senator Elkins, of West Virginia, who
declares in an interview in the Wash.
ington "Post" "that it is regulatory
and is but the forerunner of similar
other bills taking the first step to put
the Government into private business
Probably the bitterest criticism, how
ever, comes from the packers them.
selves, as represented by one <oi
them, Thomas e. Wilson. "The pack
ing industry is already supervised and
IeS uldleu NY mOlo laws CuOiui
State, and municipal-than any other
industry in this country" asserts Mr.
| Wilson in statement, and he goes
on to name twenty-eight laws that
supervise the packing business. Out
of every dollar received by the pack
ers from the sale of beef and all the
| by-products derived from the animal
from IS to 80 cents is paid out fol
live stock, states this authority. The
principal thing wrong with the pack
ing business, he tells us, sis the UNI
warranted suspicion that something Il
wrong" And he goes on:
"The consuming public has no just
cause for criticism against the pack
ing industry, for all the evidence shows
that it is efficiently distributing daily
throughout the land pure and whole
some meat-food products at a cost and
profit to the packer for the services
lower than that rendered by any
other manufacturer or distributor OF
basic necessities of life in this country
"The fundamental cause of fluctua-
tons in prices is largely due to the
unscientific and inefficient system en-
ployed by the producers in marketing
| their products. There is not now and
has never been any efficient system
governing the marketing"
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