Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-08-11

which cost more than hundred thou
sand dollars. This investigation was
conducted by Francis ]. Heney, of San
Francisco, as Special Counsel, and
who was shot down in the court room
while prosecuting the trolley officials
in San Francisco for corruptlng the
city government, and whose place IN
the trial was taken by Hiram Johnson
Mr.. Heney and his assistants found
upon the books of these five COM
panies conclusive evidence that they
were in active collusion and In virtual
partnership in dividing the market
They found also that they received
most important and valuable adVan-
tages in the handling of their products
over the railroads which were denied
to competitors. In the classification
of freight the so-called mixing rules
were manipulated so that they got
distinct advantage over competitors.
The possession of the stockyards, OF
course, gives them decided advan-
tage over their competitors. The
plainest evidence of discrimina-
tion appeared in the way the re-
frigerating cars owned by the pack
ers were expedited over the roads.
Swift & Company's representatives
claim that the refrigerator cars OF
competing concerns are hitched onto
the same trains and go through In the
same time as those owned by the
packers, but Federal Trade Commits
sion investigators find exactly to the
contrary. The facts as they found
them were that the packers cars
maintain an average of more than
eighty miles a day year in and year
out, whereas the cars owned by COM
peting concerns average about fifty
five miles a day when they run at all.
Many of these cars, the report asserts,
are frequently delayed, to the great
damage of the competitors business.
Swift & Company's representatives
say that If such were the case they
would have claims for damages. That
may be so, but what is a claim for
damages when the railroads maintain
an elaborate law department which
litigates all such questions to the Su-
preme Court, and which naturally has
the advantages in the fight.
"Swift & Company's representatives
say that they have been acquitted by
the courts on this charge. That is not
so. When the facts gathered by Mr..
Heney for the Commission were
placed before Attorney General
Palmer, of the Wilson administration,
he publicly announced that in his
judgment the proofs were sufficient to
place the leading men Of these Trust
concerns behind the prison bars, and
he proposed to put them there. The
next that the public heard was that he
appeared in court with the representa-
tives of the Trust and consented to the
entry of decree dismissing the prose-
cution upon the express pledge that
the trust would, refrain in the future
from the evil practices complained of,
and would also refrain from going
into the grocery trade attempting to
monopolize that.
"This claim of a court sanction is
like Senator Frelinghuysen's claim
that Newberry was exonerated by the
Supreme Court, when as a matter of
fact it simply declared the law which
Newberry had violated unconstitu-
tional
Upon the facts as thus ascertained
hxy ioI %-fh Avx,
are Trust and are violating the law.
The profits of the Trust are indicated
by the fact that the capitalization of
the Swift concerns has grown in re-
cent years from something like $5,-
100000 to over $10O,0O0,0O0, and which
fact strongly supports the charge of
the Federal Trade Commission that
these five firms control this trade by
an arrangement equivalent to a trust
agreement maintained by railroad dis
elimination in their favor. 1t is note
worthy that Swift & Company admits
that one of the members of the Trust
concerns is prominently identified with
several leading railroads.
81 wish it were possible to induce
Senator Freinghuysen to enter the dis
cussion of this and other questions
concerning his record. In Washington
it Is an open secret that the Old Guard
Senators, including Newberry and Fre-
linghuysen, are very bitter against the
Federal Trade Commission for these
exposures Of the packers trust. Sena-
IN q 80 nd -
Frelinghuysen's senatorial cronies and
whom he advertises to come to New
Jersey to speak for him, made an open
attack upon the floor of the Senate
upon the Federal Trade Commissions S
investigation of the Beef Trust, which
he characterized as Bolshevistic ac-
tivity. The Old Guard has sought to
cripple the Commission by diminishing
its appropriation for such investiga-