THE GREATEST MONOPOLY IN THE WORLD

...Congress created the commission, clothed it with authority to hunt down ana report unfair and unlawful practices in the conduct of business...

...I. F. Laing, Care Nenah Cheese & Cold Storage Co...

...I have had this jip with Plymouth and Sheboygan (two big cheese boards) this week, and again today...

...On June 30, 1916, J. W. Brown (manager of the butter, egg and poultry department of Armour & Co...

...From it I quote briefly as follows: "The commission, through Mr...

...we had to meet a situation created by the destruction of letters and documents vital to this investigation...

...Brown, I can't handle these people down there any longer unless something can be done to keep Blanke from antagonizing them the way he is, and you are the only man that can handle this...

...It is easily within bounds to say that they handle at least half of the inter-state trade in poultry, eggs and cheese...

...That report was made pursuant to an order of th* President directing the commission to "investigate and report the facts relating to the production, ownership, manufacture, storage, and distribution of foodstuffs and their products and by-products aud FAB-T1CULAELY UPON THEi QUESTION WHETHER THERE ARE MANIPULATIONS, CONTROLS...

...The commission employed Mr...

...This summary appears in the congressional record of October 3rd...

...Through their branch house system the packers are fortifying their monopoly of the nat'on's primary food distribution...

...They have entrenched themselves in the strategical position of control of food distribution...

...But this investigation was ordered by the president, "pursuant to authority" conferred upon him by the act creating the commission...

...Jus* across the state line the packers are manufacturing- a couaSasfeit...

...The packers own 91 per cent of all adequately equipped refrigerator cars, for the shipment of fresh meat in the United States...

...These extracts more or less typical of a hundred or more letters in the commission's possession, reveal how closely the American cheese market is controlled...

...While the volume of their business only increased one hundred and fifty percent their profits increased FOUR HUNDRED PERCENT, due to the extortionate prices which they exacted from the helpless public in these grinding war years...

...Dear Mr...

...In this editorial I can only suggest the scope r.nd extent of the packers' monopoly of meats end other food products...

...and not content with reaching out for mastery as to commodities which substitute for meat and its by-proaucts, they have invaded allied indutsries and even unrelated ones...

...TRUSTS, COMBINATIONS, CONSPIRACIES, OR RESTRAINTS OP TRADE OUT OF HARMONY WITH THE LAW OR THE PUBLIC INTEREST...

...We must keep the markets down if possible when we are accumulating these big stocks...

...This action on the part of congress was a recognition that unfair "and unlawful practices in business existed to such an extent that the public interest demanded the establishment of a commission invested with authority upon its own motion to expose such evil practices detrimental to the public in the conduct of any business...

...And it is literally true that Swift & Co...

...When such legislation was finally secured, notwithstanding their opposition, they continued to invade the state with their spurious products in violation of law...

...Of course the packers are patriotic...

...The commission submitted in Jnly 3, 1918 a summary of its report to the President...

...These positions of control are: 1STOCKYARDS, with their collateral • institutions, such as terminal roads, cattle loan banks and market papers...

...The President knew the power of the packers, he knew their affiliation with all of tha large business organizations of the country, their pull with the press and with the congress...

...Even that method cannot save their industry if this monster monopoly is not destroyed...

...It may be assumed that he did not take this unusual action without urgent reasons therefor and after the most serious consideration...

...Yours very truly, "Armour & Co...

...They buy and store when the market is depressed and then hold and force prices up on the consumer in the season of shortage...

...Also, talked with Mr...

...They were bleeding the public while before the war...

...Beginning last year, Armour became in twelve months the greatest rice merchant in the world...

...Funds wer« available upon which to begin the investigation until July 1, 1917...

...This letter is signed by Chairman Wm...

...4BRANCH HOUSE SYSTEM, of whole-• sale distribution...

...They are.rapidly securing control of the principal substitutes for meat, such as butter, eggs, cheese, vegetable oils, poultry and fish...

...Brown: Referring to your wire of even date in regard to getting the market down at Plymouth...

...But this is not enough to satisfy the packers' greed...

...wrote to I. F. Laing: "Your Mr...

...He had seen one effort for an investigation in the house of representatives blocked, he did not order this investigation by the federal trade commission until the gravity of the conditions surrounding the production, distribution and prices of meats fully warranted him m so doing...

...The Greatest Monopoly in the World An Editorial by ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE ON THE third day of last July the Federal Trade Commission submitted to the President its report on the meat packing industry...

...This evidence in summary form accompanies this letter and will be set forth in more detailed form in seven renorts in suDuort of our findings and recommendations, which will be placed in your hands at the, earliest possible moment...

...B. Colver, John Franklin Fort and Victor Murdock, commissioners...

...Signed) J. W. BROWN...

...They own in whole or in part thirty great stockyards, covering the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific...

...125 W. South Water St., Chicago, 111...

...Deny it as they will, the Chicago packer* have had designs on controlling the food supply of this country...

...I am doing the very best I can, and sending a carload of cheese down there a week, to be distributed among the brokers, to keep the market in line and it's costing me a hundred dollars a week to do it, but I can't do it without some help from you...

...It was the first time the President had exercised this power under that law...

...Fortified by extracts from the sworn testimony and by copies of incriminating letters secured by the commission from the files of the packers the summary in itself makes a strong case against the packers...

...The competitors of these five concerns are at *heir mercy because of the control of the market places, storage facilities, and the refrigerator cars for distribution...

...If this man Blanke is causing all this trouble, I wish you would put a muzzle on him...

...5BANKS, the packers by direct connec-• tion, and through their directorship in 62 big banks, located in 14 principal cities, where the meat and food supply transactions are largely financed together with the powerful pressure which they bring to bear through the volume of their business, are strong enough to exert a dominant influence over money and credit, which all competitors are made to feel in trying to finance their business operations...

...Your3 truly, C. E. Blodgett Cheese, Butter & Egg...

...Blodgett's letter attached...

...These stockyards are located at the principal receiving terminal and distributing centers through which run the main currents of interstate traffic in the meat trade...

...I shall have something further to say of the packers' monopoly in the next issue of this magazine...

...The Armour system has branch houses in 24,681 cities and towns...

...This letter had shorthand annotations, which stenographer in office could not decipher...

...The five big packing companies, together with their affiliated companies slaughtered from 61 to 86 percent of al cattle, calves, hogs, sheep and lambs killed during the year not including those slaughtered on the farms for home' consumption...

...But the full report including hundreds of documents from the files of these corporations and something like nine thousand pages of sworn testimony, and thousands of pages of field notes, gathered by the agents of the commission, will at least expose to the pubfic, and preserve in permanent form, the conclusive evidence of the ruthless system, under which in defiance of law and the mandates of the courts, these men have organized and are today operating the GREATEST TRUST IN THE WORLD...

...July 11, 1916...

...The packers cold storage facilities are vastly beyond the requirements of their own business...

...They are buying up the creameries and cheese factories of the state...

...The Wilson Company interests have 19,013 branch houses, and the Cudahy interests, branch houses in 4,198 cities and towns...

...They are energetically extending their operations to other surplus meat producing countries...

...Besides dressed meats, butter, eggs, cheese and vegetable oils, the packers are absorbing the merchandising of canned goods and package foods, rice, sugar, coffee and other staples...

...The Morris interests have such branch houses in 4J019 towns...

...At the present grasping rate, says the commission: "within a few years the big packers would control the wholesale distribution of the nation's food supply...

...Wish you would tell this gentleman that he must not do this, because our interests elsewhere are so great that we cannot afford to raise the market ourselves, and Plymouth will certainly go up-if you bid over thj Plymouth prices on other boards...

...Pauly (Pauly & Pauly, Swift buys 4-5 of sales) about it and they complain bitterly about what Blanke is doing down in that section...

...have attained such dominant position that they control at will the market in which they buy their supplies, the market in which they sell their products, and hold the fortunes of their competitors in their hands...

...We will not trespass on your time to go into details as to the legal and business ethics employed, but on the foregoing statement, which we are prepared to substantiate in every detail, we contrast the ethics of the commission's legal and investigation staff with the legal staffs of the five great eorapanies...

...This serves to give the packers at the outset a fundamental superiority over all competitors...

...The summary is sufficiently comprehensible in itself to constitute a most convincing document...

...Heney'9 ability and courage Supplementing the hi|h efficiency which the federal t.-ade commission has attained under Chairman Colver and his associates insured a thorough going investigating in strict compliance with the President's order...

...This gives the monopoly the whip hand over the railroads enabling it to exact special advantages in the prompt return of its cars, and many other special privileges not accorded to its competitors...

...rolling stock which transports the product to the market...

...Don't you think this is very bad work ? How do you expect we can influence the people at Plymouth (the principal cheese board) to hold the market at 14 cents if you raise the figures...

...we had to meet a conspiracy in the preparation of answers to the lawful inquiries of tha commission...

...This control of the cheese market is of particular interest in view of the enormous hoarding of this food indicated, by a letter dated November 4, 1917, from C. E. Blodgett (who with Armour, owns the C. E. Blodgett Cheese, Butler & Egg Co...

...This enables them to buy and store the output of other producers having no such facilities...

...It is to be remembered that the summary of the report accompanying the letter of the commission to the president from which I have quoted above, can in the nature of the case give but a small fraction of the proof which the commission wil submit to the president in seven distinct sections...

...to I. F. Laing of the Neenah Co., another Armour concern...

...Wisconsin struggled for thirty years to build the leading dairy trade ;:i the country...

...Here is a fine example of their devotion to country in these war times...

...The farmers' only salvation lies in the cooperative manufacturing and the cooperative marketing of their butter and cheese...

...we had to meet schools for witnesses where employees were coached in anticipation of their being called to testify in an investigation ordered by you and by the congress of the United States...

...This chart show* toe financial ramifications of the big Chicago {packers and their ownership of stock in corporations all over the country...

...The consumer of meat products is at the mercy of these five corporations because both producer and competitor are helpless to bring relief...

...In 1917 the combined sales of this monopoly totaled TWO/ BILLION ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-TWO MILLION, TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS...

...It appears that five great packing concerns of the country—Swift, Armour, Morris, Cudahy and Wilson...

...The manner in which their financial tentacles are reaching out in all directions indicates this...

...J. W. Brown, Care Armour & Co., Chicago, 111...

...OR RESTRAINTS OF TRADE, OUf OF HARMONY WITH THE LAW AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST, WE HAVE FOUND CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE THAT WARRANTS UNQUALIFIED AFFIRMATIVE...

...Dear Sir: Please note Mr...

...Thi summary is voluminous and occupies thirteen pages of the congressional record printed in fine type...

...The more powerful they become the larger their indemnities are going to be...

...2PRIVATE REFRIGERATOR CAR LINES • for all kinds of perishable goods...

...You and I both know that there are enough twins (a form of American cheese) in storage in the United States, if England doesn't come back and buy of us, to last for the next two years to come...

...He issued his order to the commission on the 7th of February, 1917...

...She produces half of the cheese sold in the United States...

...Signed) C. E. BLODGETT...

...Francis J. Heney, of California who had immediate charge of the field work and especially in-its legal aspects...

...It is too great a competitor to be permitted to live...

...The statutes were finally enforced and Wisconsin was able to take first place in butter production...

...Producers of livestock are' at the mercy of these five companies because they have control of the market and the marketing facilities and, to some extent, the...

...Let me hear from you, please...

...They own and control more than half the export meat production of Argentine, Brazil and Uruguay...

...They are constantly extending their boundaries, fortifying their frontiers, and seizing strategic places on the highways and by-ways of commerce...

...Ncsbit at Spring Green raised the market to 14% on cheese...

...The packers are making a desperate raid on the dairy interests of Wisconsin...

...As they do this their indemnities are being slowly but surely exacted from the people...

...They maintained a lobby at the Wisconsin legislature and for years defeated the enactment of laws designed to promote the dairy intrests of the State...

...about going to the factories and paying premiums for cheese and claiming that the dealers are all sore about it, and they can't handle them, although they have agreed with me to put the market down a quarter of a cent, if it is possible, but I tell you one thing, Mr...

...SCOLD STORAGE PLANTS, for the pres-• ervation of all kinds of perisable foods...

...They all seem to be worked up over this Relations between the big packers in the cheese market are well shown by the following letters: "Marshfield, Wis., July 9, 1916...

...Answering directly your question as to whether or not there exist MONOPOLIES, CONTROLS, TRUSTS...

...marketed more butter in 1916 than any other dealer in the United States...

...The Swift interests have branch houses in 23,376 cities...

...I doubt very much if this can be done...

...Not only the business of gathering, preparing and selling meat products in their control but an almost countless number of by-product industries are similarly dominated...

...But in three war years, 1915, 1916, and 1917, their total profits exceeded their average profits for 1912, 1913 and 1914 by more than ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY MILLION DOLLARS...

...As an example of the pernicious methods employed by the packers to ruin > great industry the following correspondence secured from their files by the federal trade commission is herewith submitted: Here for example are extracts from a few letters taken from the files of the Neenah Cheese and Cold Storage Co., one of the subsi-daries of Armour & Co., which neglected to "comb" its files before the visit of the commission's agents...

...Accompanying the summary is a letter from the commission addressed to the president...

...Heney had to meet deliberate falsification of returns properly required under legal authority...