Evening star., 1948-09-15
U.S.. SuestoSp|ii
Big A. Packers
Into 14Firnns
Companies StifIed
Competition in Meat.
CompIoint Charges
BY the Assoeioted Press

The Government sued today
to break up the big four meat
packing companies into IA sepa-
rate and competing concerns.
A civil antitrust suit filed in Fed
e1al Court in Chicago alleged that
the Big Four packers-Swift &
Co., Armour & Co., the Cudahy
Packing Co. and Wilson g. Co., Inc
violated Il ,rman Act by sup
pressing compl .ition.
( 1t asked that Armour and Swift
each be divided into five separate
comps nies and Cudahy and Wilson
each be divided into two separate
companies.
Clark Announces Suit.
Attorney General Clark an
nounced filing of the suit in Chicago.
The four defendants named in
the complaint are charged with sup
pressing competition in the sale of
meat and meat products" Mr.. Clark
said in a statement.
The Attorney General described
the suit as another in a series OF
cases instituted by the Department
of Justice in furtherance of its pro-
gram to free the production and
sale of food and food products from
monopolistic restraints
Complaint Cites Methods.
The complaint alleges these
methods were used by the four pack
ing concerns to suppress competi-
ton:
|. Controlling the amount OF live
stock each company purchases for
sale, thus controlling the supply of
meat made available;
2. Using uniform cost formulas for
arriving at selling prices;
3. Selling meat at loading" rather
than at delivered" weights.
4. Selling at substantially identical
prices and terms of sale.
The four companies, the COM
plant said. accounted for So per
cent of the cattle. 54 per cent of the
hogs, 68 per cent of the calves and
! 70 per cent of the sheep slaughtered
under Federal inspection during the
last 10 years
Clark Issues Statement.
! Mr.. Clark's statement said: "No
avenue must be overlooked to pre-
vent the basic necessities Of life
such as food, from falling into the
hands Of monopolistic groups" 1t
added: ..
The channels of distribution be-
tween the farmer and the consumer
must be kept free from all restraints
and artificial blockades and. when
other methods fail, the only alterna-
tive left Is to separate the few DOM
inant concerns into number Of in
dependent and competing COM
panies.'
Herbert A. Bergson, Assistant At
tolney General in charge of the
Antitrust Division, said there
has been an absence OF effective
competition among the big fou-
meat packing companies since 1893. y
Division of Purchases Charged.
Mr.. Bergson said in statement
They possess such tremendous
power to suppress competition and
the systematic use of that power is
so deeply imbedded in their whole
method of doing business that
nothing less than destruction OF
that power can provide an opportu-
nifty for any real or effective COM
petition in the sale of meat and
the purchase of livestock"
Mr.. Bergson said the complaint
charges that one of the methods
used by the four big packers was
division or ALLEGATION Of purchase OF
livestock. He added:
This procedure left no incentive
to compete in buying since each de-
fendant is assured of getting its as
signed percentage without COM
petitive effort. Conversely, there is
no incentive for any defendant to
reduce selling prices below those OF
the other defendants since its vol
ume of sales could not thereby be
increased in relation to that of other
defendants, as the respective sales
volume of each is determined by its
volume of livestock purchased. The
result is suppression of competition
among the defendants in both buy
ing and selling !