The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-01-18
THE STATE MUST LIVE

y I
going up by leaps and bounds.
The wholesale grocers heard the
hue of the meat gamblers in the west
and the cry of the tenderloin steak
eaters of the east, whom their retail
ers were robbing. Hence the rumblings
began in Washington.
In the normal development of the
packing business, and to get the |
cheapest service for themselves in
collecting from every state all the |
surplus meats of our farmers, and in |
redistributing in the best and cheap |
est manner the finished products, the |
packers had spent many millions in
equipment. Such equipment, in off
seasons in the meat trade could in
part be employed in handling canned
fruits and thus by using in another
line idle equipment, designated for
the meat trade, the packers might cut
the cost of meats to the public, or cut
the cost of canned fruits to the pub
lic
Even though the idle equipment, so
given additional use, might seem to
play small part in the handling of
canned fruits, yet when you know of
the millions thus invested the small
percentage of economic saving to the
public might be very large; and when
the power to withhold from the public
all proper benefit of such saving is
fortified IN the hands of the packers
by lack of adequate competition, it
| Is time for the public to sit up and take
notice; to the end that the people do
get fair share of such savings,
lich big brains and big money are
| able to make by joining one line of
| business with another.
When it comes to question of
which bunch of millionaires is to be
allowed to extract from the public the
profits in any line of goods the state
is not called upon to act.
/ Whether fifty millions in money are
owned by one man, or that same mon
ey be owned by two hundred men,
thus possessing $250,000 each, is after
all of secondary concern to the COM
mon citizen; but how that money is
employed is of first Importance to all
i 1t is to the interest of the common
people to use, not to destroy, all the
must be developed by capital with the
aid of intelligence; thus the public
may serve it's own good for the day
without cutting off from the future
: Phil Armours the hope for some fail
rewards from any great economic say
ing which their brains may hereafter
devise.
These views were not held by thu
: big wholesale grocers in the spring O.
. 1919; so taking courage from the hui
in the west and the cry in the east
| but with no thought to benefit anyon
:, but themselves, they took their trou
q bles to Washington; hence the rumbl
ings began there.
The heavy governmental artiller
a was thus numbered and brought t
play on the packers, and the -huer
and the cryers and the public go
G buncoed, as is abundantly proved b
nj actual results now obvious to all mel
Those who may try to defend tn
q policies pursued by the governmer
q toward the packers in 1919, if an
W such can now be found, cannot sa
a that the decline in the prices of Cal
\ tie, hogs and sheep may fairly be a
i, tributed to reatcion from war price
X tributed to reaction from war price
n Cured until the summer of 1920, ar
~ the end of 1921 still found the farm
ers giving ten calf skins, or five co
hides, for decent hat or pair ,
shoes.
During all this time, too, the farm
n. ers and consumers paid prices f;
IT, above even war levels for almost e.
+ erything they used.
y This was not a party matter az
an was not to be treated in a partizs
Ia way. The farmers and the produce
t. need little help from the governmer
20 but they need to be left in a positit
n where they may help themselve
o. They are not beggars to ask for the
support at the expense of 9th
r classes; but when the governme
finds out that drastic means must
ed used to cripple those who offer t
90 only adequate outlet for their surpl
"a supplies, public interest demands tn
before the government acts to CORE
such abuses it first should make su
Y that other adequate outlets are
working order, for the shock of tidi
rs over the time until some pet thee
n may wor kout may be too hard for t
atl producers; and they are the life bio