HOW PACKERS MOULD PUBLIC SENTIMENT
Norris, Senator George W.
How Packers Mould Public Sentiment Startling Expose Made in Congress of Methods Used to Silence Editors and Keep Down Criticism By SENATOR GEORGE W. NORRIS (From Nebraska) George W. Norris is a...
...They were both asked to produce a single written statement of any kind that he had ever given them along the lines of his ostensible employment, but, like Mr...
...IT WAS Sunday morning, the on© day of the week when we can afford to have meat for breakfast...
...Veeder but must have been impressed with an irresistible -conclusion that neither was telling the truth...
...At every step we are impressed with their wonderful power, their inexhaustible resources, the Infinite network of connection with the most powerful financial institutions of the country...
...Veeder was to meet in consultation with "Diamond T." There is no one who heard the testimony of Mr...
...Logan declining to accept it...
...The competition of the independent dealers is negligible...
...His ability as a writer soon brought him additional clients...
...la addition to this, it seems that the editor of this paper was loaned $5,000 by Swift & Ob...
...Instructions were sent from Chicago that a receipt should be taken "in accordance with the understanding had with Mr...
...He was elected to congress in 1903 and to the United States senate in 1913...
...The American Meat Packers' Association, that was supposed to be operated in the interest of all packers, big and small, had, of course, no knowledge that their secretary was getting a salary on the side, contributed secretly by three of the Big Five...
...It ought to be interesting to consider briefly a few of these unnecessary and exorbitant overhead expenses which they contribute to the oiling of the great international machinery operated by the packers...
...Logan who gave to them the first information that the appropriation had passed, and In the notice he gave them he explained that there was no Cause for worry...
...Swift himself admitted that they would spend $2,500,000 in the year 1919...
...To me it looks as though this secondary evidence was given for the purpose of shouldering the identity of "Diamond T" upon a person already identified, and thus prevent, if possible, any further investigation as to his identity...
...Their attempt to control the prices of the country through their lavish expenditure of money is partially accounted for by their desire to conceal publicity of their transgressions...
...In addition to giving him that salary, they gave him outright $100,000 as a bonus in cash...
...and at the time he gave his testimony the question had not yet been determined whether he would be paid a salary in addition to his expenses...
...of New Jersey, $500 a month from the Standard Oil Co, of Indiana, $700 a month from the Atlantic Refining Co., $500 a month from the Freeport Sulphur Co., and $500 a month from the General Electric Co...
...It is quite evident that "Diamond T" had no reference to Mr...
...The ordinary thief would be glad, indeed, if he could agree with the prosecuting attorney that an injunction suit should be commenced in court against him and an injunction issued restraining him from further commissions of crime, if by such an agreement he could escape punishment for his criminal act, The trouble with the ordinary petty thief is that he does not steal enough to come under this new and humane rule of the Department of Justice...
...but for some reason they seem to be imbued with the idea that some one had charged their employees with being unpatriotic, and they rush into print, wrap themselves in the American flag, and proclaim their patriotism from the housetops...
...Logan with...
...I have searched hundreds of country newspapers coming from the smallest villages and have never yet found a paper that was not patronized by the packers in the way of advertising...
...One would think in reading over the very well-written articles that Armour & Co...
...Swift asked his attorney whether he thought it would antagonize this editor if he sent him a hill for the interest, saying that the editor also owed Armour & Co...
...They turned the evidence over to the Attorney General at the time they made their report, more than a year ago...
...Logan, knew before the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr...
...A third can was taken by the officials and brought into court unopened, and upon the trial of the case the prosecution offered to rest its entire case upon the unopened can...
...I think the country generally understood that the suit was actually commenced and was pending...
...They did their best to defeat the eight-hour law for women...
...In 1917 this stock paid a little over 16 per cent, and, according ta Mr...
...but on the whole it was universally conceded that the promiscuous issuing of passes was an evil...
...To carry out their ends they have all kinds of instrumentalities...
...By their utilization of newspaper space they are making it physically impossible for newspapers, even if they desired to do so, to give proper publicity to the cases where they have been found to have violated the law...
...McCarthy was secretly paid a regular yearly salary of $5,000 a year by Armour, Morris, and Swift...
...How much, if anything, has been paid from the Federal Treasury to Mr...
...He simply sold some of the stock that had been given him, at from $50 to $55 per share, and purchased the option at $10 per share...
...An examination of the subject, however, wUl disclose that this advertising campaign was on in full blast long before the Federal Trade Commission's report was given to the public...
...They were liable both criminally and civilly...
...There is no item anywhere which would indicate how much money was paid to "Diamond T." It appears, for instance, that Mr...
...McManus (another packer attorney) would be helpful at the Washington end "Immediately...
...A contribution of $2,000 was made by one of the big packers to a firm of attorneys in Texas for legal services and "legislative services in Austin...
...Didn't Know Who He Was MR...
...a like amount and he had paid the interest...
...Swift & Co., through Mr...
...His energies were' spent Upon the broader and more influential plane of building up a sentiment favorable to his clients through his editorial writings and of giving his clients direct information as to the condition cf legislation and as to contemplated legislation, so that they might be able to prepare either to influence it or to meet it...
...Swift seemed to be unable to tell definitely just what Mr...
...Many others remain silent in their .editorial columns when they would otherwise condemn,-if it were not for the oiling of the business machinery through advertising...
...Palmer, testified that this evidence submitted by the Federal Trade Commission showed that the packers had violated the law, but that he had decided not to commence any criminal proceedings against them...
...that he advised his clients how to run their business and how to enable them to serve the public good...
...He was likewise one of the editorial writers on a Washington daily...
...Short in Measure ON THE 7th day of March, 1919, a Washington paper, on an inside page in a very inconspicuous place, gave an account of the trial and conviction of an agent of one of the "Big Five," who, in the city of Washington, had violated the pure food law by selling catsup in original packages which were short in actual measurement...
...Even before Congress Iknew what kind of a food control act they were going to pass Mr...
...I wonder if the farmer in the sod house on the prairie and the laboring man in the overcrowded city of the Bast, really underhand that this mighty space between them is inhabited by a multitude of unnecessary profiteers who are living in luxury upon the toil of the two extremes of this great equation...
...Logan had told him that he (Logan) had Sent in the information referred to in at least one of the "Diamond T" memorandums...
...Another memorandum written by an assistant of one of the packers refers to a note .from "Diamond T" in regard to the investigation about to take place before the Federal Trade Commission, and it is stated in this memorandum that "Diamond T" would be glad to have any suggestions that the packers desired to make...
...In other instances reference is made to information from "Diamond T" which is not plain, and which is not explained by any other evidence...
...Whether the matter has yet been adjusted or determined I do not know...
...It was shown at the trial that the cans of catsup were marked as containing 6 gallons each, and that upon actual measurement they were considerably short of that amount...
...Swift, the head of Swift & Co., and Mr...
...It is a nation-wide campaign to build up a reactionary sentiment in favor of the great corporations of the country...
...I have before me the Sunday edition of a great metropolitan daily, published in the latter part of 1919, in which Armour & Co...
...It is fair to assume that these cans were no exception to the general rule, and that £his great corporation had sold thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of these same cans, all of which were undoubtedly short in measure...
...For weeks the papers were full of announcements that the Attorney General was about to proceed against the packers...
...Hurley, representing the Government of the United States, seemed to be insisting that he should be paid a salary, Mr...
...Contributions to elect Members of Congress were made by the vai packers...
...Hurley wanted, in addition to paying his expenses, to pay him a salary( but he was too modest to accept it...
...He was thus giving ample evidence to the big packers that he was earning the secret salary they were paying him...
...This information has been taken from hearings before Senate committees and the Federal Trade Commission...
...There are many other great corporations that are equally guilty...
...of Fort Worth were each contributing like amounts...
...It is reprinted here because it explains why a part of the press of the nation is silent in exposing the "big packers" and the packing combine-—Editor's Note...
...The wonderful financial outlay, enormous as it is, is placed upon the unwilling and overburdened shoulders of the producer and the consumer...
...It must be remembered that this is only one corporation...
...He testified that Mr...
...In his newspaper campaign to reduce the cost of living, the Attorney General can not stop to consider any of the little fellows...
...It can be seen at a glance that tihs man's work was going into not only the homes but the business offices of the country...
...It is noticeable that after the money was loaned and Armstrong became part owner the policy of the paper^changed...
...it always appeared that what he did had nothing whatever to do with what he claimed was his line of employment...
...They have an army of highly paid, useless employees, who can give no honorable reason foT their packer connections...
...He has given a salary of $125,000 a year, which he still draws...
...She said it was 60 cents a pound...
...and these other corpora, tions, he said that he was an expert adviser...
...that it interfered with the enactment of railroad laws and the administration even in courts of justice where railroads were parties litigant...
...and when it is remembered that Congress was more or less a rubber stamp under the control of the President, the value of such information can be fully appreciated and understood...
...and yet, while this enormous propaganda is going on over the country, this great corporation is violating the law and practicing deception which if committed by the ordinary, common individual would cause him to be driven out of the community as a citizen unworthy of belief...
...Armstrong called attention in his letter to the fact that he had gone into the newspaper business to be of service to Mr...
...If you spread this over the country at the same rate it means that trainloads of paper are used in this wonderful propaganda, 90 per cent of which is useless so far as any legitimate object is concerned...
...In fact, the existence of independent packing establishments is desired by them, so long as they do not develop in size and their competition become dangerous...
...In one case the evidence show that the packers took part, down in Oklahoma, in the election of a local assessor, and they were so careful that the assessor should be friendly that they contributed to both sides of the contest...
...Spent Huge Sums FOR the year 1918 Swift & Co...
...The packers are not the only corporations engaged in this great undertaking...
...Wilson was elected president of that corporation...
...of Indiana, $700 a month from the Atlantic Refining Co., $500 a month from the Freeport Sulphur Co., and $500 a month from the General Electric Co...
...Hoover, on one side, and Mr...
...In the meantime he had built a large office force, maintaining two offices in Washington, and was surrounded by quite a number of able assistants...
...and when these men go upon the witness stand and deny any knowledge of the identity of this mysterious individual they not only convince the honest man that they are guilty of falsehood but they make themselves ridiculous in...
...Veeder was in the habit, outside entirely of his expense account, of acting as the middleman by whom sums of money were transferred not only from his clent but from all other packers to various officials...
...Swift and Mr...
...and the Stock Yards Co...
...yon run no chance of being defrauded...
...Veeder's salary was...
...The enlightened public sentiment of- the country condemned the practice, end nearly every State in the Union has made it illegal...
...They have been fined an innumerable number of times for violation of the criminal statutes...
...This is only an illustration of the method employed by the packers in the control of all kinds of associations...
...Armstrong...
...22, 1921...
...You would not suppose therefore that an ordinary individual could go to the packers and borrow money, but in order to borrow money of the packers it is only necessary for them to be convinced that you are able to build up public sentiment in their favor or to be influential in the handling of a public official having to do with their business or to be of assistance in the preventing of any unfriendly legislation or in securing the passage of desired laws...
...The Packers' Defense THE only defense the packers made is that this advertising was necessary in order to show up the erroneous conclusion that they claimed the Federal Trade Commission had reached in its investigation...
...The violation of the Sherman antitrust law, in some instances', could have been proved by their own correspondence, signed by their own officials...
...spends, which everybody will admit is way below the actual fact, we find that the great packers on this basis spend more than $8,500,-000 annually for advertising...
...It seems that those who represented the Government and who controlled the purse strings felt that the editorial writer who was getting so many salaries as a business adviser to great corporations should also be paid by the Government of the United States for giving advice to government officials in order that they might more efficiently conduct the business affairs of the United States in Europe...
...Money From Everywhere NO ONE suspected that Mr...
...They fix the price, and when they have fixed a price that covers all their unnecessary extravagance and expense, it naturally follows that a multitude of little packers can follow along in their tracks and make big profits...
...He did not pay his interest promptly, and Mr...
...When called upon to produce a single letter or memorandum in which he had given such advice he was unable to do it Mr...
...had a large display advertisement in practically all of the great newspapers of the United States, in which they devote the entire space to a demonstration that the employees of Swift & Co...
...Dishonest Expenditures NO ONE will probably ever know just how * » much money has been spent by the packers to control legislation, to appoint officials, and to deceive the public It is doubtful whether packers themselves could give this information correctly...
...It fa not my purpose to discuss the remedy hire, but in conclusion I desire to say that by the ownership and control of refrigerator cars and stockyards the packer question is inseparably intermingled with the question of railroad control, and it will be found impossible to properly control one without controlling the other, and mainly in this I think can be demonstrated the remedy that must ultimately be applied to narrow the present mammoth and expensive gulf that exists between the producer and the ultimate consumer...
...They continually borrow millions of dollars, and their paper is scattered all over the country...
...This may not be a complete list of his clients, but when the reader considers these salaries, together with the compensation he received from the various newspapers and magazines which he represented, it can at once be seen that his income compared favorably with the great magnates of the corporations which he represented...
...that he believed the status was satisfactory...
...Logan was on the pay roll of a large number of great corporations, and while we are considering him now only in his financial connection with the packers, it is interesting to note that he received large salaries not only from the packers but from many other large corporations, notably Standard Oil concerns, which always have been interested in and which always have spent immense sums of money to control not only the laws of the Nation but of the States...
...How Packers Mould Public Sentiment Startling Expose Made in Congress of Methods Used to Silence Editors and Keep Down Criticism By SENATOR GEORGE W. NORRIS (From Nebraska) George W. Norris is a United States senator from Nebraska...
...It was noted by those who knew him best that he was an intimate and close friend of the private secretary of the President of the United States...
...He admitted that he had never written an advertisement for Swift & Co...
...McCarthy...
...Freeman tells about his visit to the plant...
...But in this article we are dealing only with the packers and I confine myself in my comments to the part which they have taken in this colossal undertaking...
...He was unable to tell why they paid him over . $70,000 when he was getting a salary of less than $25,000...
...They are equipped to go into the church, and are likewise prepared to send the bum into the saloon...
...The people would be perfectly justified in reaching this conclusion from the announcements that were made at various times in the public press...
...There was evidence developed upon the investigation to show that this was the real intent and purpose of a large portion of the advertising...
...Both Armour and Swift have packing plants at Forth Worth...
...Agent on Secret Salary THE National Provisioner is a trade publication, published by the Food Trade Publishing Co...
...Nothing was developed in the evidence that ever disclosed anything that he had written or anything to which his signature was attached...
...He was taken on as one of the editorial writers of an economic magazine, a publication with a circulation all over the United States, having for the main object of its existence the maintenance of a high protective tariff...
...They considered the paper unfriendly- Both Armour and Swift loaned money to Mr...
...The evidence disclosed that Mr...
...Advertising in the Press ONE of the most remarkable attempts to control the public sentiment of the country through the instrumentality of the public press has been going on for the last three or four years...
...him, and when they did not meet ham they had no idea that he was writing editorials for tihesa various magazines that were building up a public sentiment favorable to corporations, or that Ihe was on the pay roll of the great corporations that I have enumerated...
...It would appear upon careful analysis that his boasted suit against the packers consisted in agreeing in advance with the attorneys for the packers upon a petition, an answer, and a decree, and that no papers were filed until this agreement was reached, and the Government and the packers both voluntarily went into court, presented the decree, and asked the judge to sign his name upon the dotted line...
...The result was that the agent making the sale was found guilty and he was fined the enormous sum of $10...
...Assuming that the other members of the "Big Five" spend one-half of what Swift & Co...
...On February 28...
...I have a copy of a small newspaper, published way out on the frontier, in a small country town, that contains a half-page advertisement signed by all five of the great packers, in which they make common cause to demonstrate that it would be difficult, indeed, for the country to exist without them...
...that the brand of this company is a guaranty of purity, of quality, and of quantity...
...In this letter Mr...
...Their suffering and their toil have made possible the luxury of many of the so-called great captains of industry...
...how satisfied and enthusiastic all the employees were...
...Reference to this character only appears where information is given from one official to another that certain information had just been received from "Diamond T." It was from "Diamond T" that information was given of the beginning of the movement to fix maximum prices...
...This practice is well illustrated by what happened just before the war in Fort Worth, Tex...
...Logan was drawing these salaries he made a trip to Europe at the request of Mr...
...Veeder had emphatically and persistently denied on the witness stand that he had any recollection or knowledge whatever of the identity of "Diamond T," he returned to the witness stand and stated that Mr...
...There are many other great corporations that are equally guilty...
...He came to the Capital City as the Washington correspondent for a Philadelphia paper...
...Logan reported the substance of the conference between Mr...
...Neither do I argue that because a newspaper accepts advertising it is necessarily controlled in its editorial policy...
...of New Jersey, $500 a month from the Standard Oil Co...
...How much "Diamond T" received in the way of compensation, or who he was, will perhaps always remain a mystery...
...The assertion is made, however, that the advertising of the packers is far beyond any legitimate, fair, or even liberal allowance for that purpose, and neither can there be any doubt but that some newspapers are controlled in their editorial policy by the advertising end of the business...
...Large sums of money were expen to handle legislation in a large number of Sta legislatures...
...They used their power against the enactment of laws regulating the cold storage of meat, fish, eggs, and poultry...
...and paid for by the producers of hogs and the consumers of meat...
...The producer is still toiling...
...One can was shown on actual measurement to be 2 quarts short...
...Hurley, a Government representative...
...Logan in his statement that he was employed simply as an adviser...
...Veeder from "Diamond T" telling what had happened at a meeting of the Federal Trade Commission...
...For the last 50 years the packers have been growing in size, and as they have grown their disposition to avoid the law has increased with their size...
...He was soon employed 6s a writer on a magazine known as the Fourth Estate...
...Logan was getting $500 a month from Swift & Co., $500 a month from the Standard Oil Co...
...three hundred subscribers...
...They have spent many thousands of dollars in the use of special trains to carry delegates to various conventions where editors, particularly of farm journals, have been invited to be their guests for the real purpose of indirectly influencing the news columns of such magazines and for the purpose of suppressing from the people a knowledge of their shortcomings...
...Swift called bis attention to the fact that Armour & Co...
...Wilson's own statement, is worth much more than par...
...An Expert Adviser NO ONE has ever charged Mr...
...In other articles he speaks, as do the advertisements of the packing company, of the guarantee of the company's brand...
...Wlhen Congress appropriated the money to make the investigation of the packers by the Federal Trade Commission, it was Mr...
...Let us take Wilson & Co., one of the "Big Five," as an example...
...In addition to all this, it should be said here that while Mr...
...All of these various occupations and activities of Mr...
...Armour and Mr...
...When a big corporation was about to cut a melon or a few millionaires were about to rob the Government in some unconscionable contract, they always made an attempt to distract attention by parading in public under the Stars and Stripes...
...For many years the general manager of this concern was a man by the name of McCarthy...
...He gave them tiirect information of some disagreement between the President and Mr...
...An examination will also disclose that a very large part of the matter included in the advertising had no reference whatever to the sals of any of their products and made no attempt to refute the charges of the Federal Trade Commission...
...It is denied by the owners of the National Provisioner that they had any knowledge of this secret bonus of Mir...
...some of the overhead charges and expenses that oil the machinery of the mighty corporations which control most of the lines of the food products of the world...
...He likewise became an editorial writer on a trade publication for manufacturers...
...The evidence discloses that they loaned money to a man by the name of Armstrong, in Fort Worth, for the purpose of buying an interest in a daily paper there, which had been advocating the control and regulation by the Government of the meat-packing business...
...Holding these two positions, it is quite evident that Mr...
...He served three terms as prosecuting attorney and was judge of the fourteenth Nebraska district from 1895-1902...
...It is unnecessary to say that he had no difficulty in getting an extension of his loan...
...This may not be a complete list of his clients, but when the reader considers these salaries, together with the compensation he received from the various newspapers and magazines which he represented, it can at ones be seen that his income compared favorably with the great magnates of the corporations which he represented...
...They are secretly entrenched in politics, in all kinds of business, and in nearly all the activities of human endeavor...
...What One Young Man Did SEVERAL years ago a very bright and enterprising newspaper man in Philadelphia moved to Washington...
...and that before he took action on this request he commiunicated with the packers who were contributing this money on the side, in order to make a selection that would be satisfactory to them...
...It is quite evident that the investigation only disclosed a small part of the information that was thus received...
...During the war this was a favorite pastime for all profiteers...
...Excepting as they were invited to meet him at social functions, they were, as a rule, unacquainted with...
...making an attempt to directly control the) vote of any Member of Congress...
...This cost only includes what is actually paid to the newspapers and magazines...
...It must be remembered, too, that these great corporations do not in reality pay one penny of all these enormous expenses that I have enumerated...
...McCarthy was also the secretary of the American Meat Packing Association, an organization composed of all the packers, big and little, throughout the United States...
...Wilson found himself with a salary of $125,000 a year, a cash bonus of $100,000, and a gift of stock worth more than $4,300,000 — all without the investment of a dollar...
...A day or two after Mr...
...The public is turning water into a steady stream of gold that goes to men who neither toil nor spin, excepting as they manipulate figures and prices...
...Veeder, the general attorney for Swift & Co., was paid $71,000 in one year...
...The president of Swift & Co., in a letter asked his attorney whether they had better comply with the request of this other paper for a "donation" of $1,200, which should be given ostensibly in return for a "page devoted to hogs and bog raising...
...No country paper was too small to be taken into consideration by therm...
...He soon became a regular contributor to a Wall Street publication on financial subjects...
...advance information as to just what the food bill would be and as to just what would be required under the law of the packers...
...He was admitted to the bar in 1883 and began the practice of law in Nebraska in 1885...
...To keep the machinery going and to employ the necessary men to prepare the advertisements entails an additional expense of enormous amounts...
...but he was drawing a salary of less than $25,000...
...Their control of human food is so great that expense is a secondary consideration...
...The next morning Mr...
...The packers carry large page and half-page advertisements in all the newspapers of the United States...
...controlling a vote...
...alone spent over $1,600,000 for advertising, and Mr...
...NO one suspected that Mr...
...This wonderful advertising of great corporations, if reduced to its legitimate sphere, would of itself alone settle the acute question, which is now country-wide, of a paper shortage...
...McCarthy could be of inestimable service to the Big Five, if be was disposed to do so...
...Large amounts of money were spent in political contests...
...The great packing concern, however, declined to accept this proposition...
...In one of their articles Mr...
...Logan had outlined the plan In full to his clients, Swift & Co...
...The packers are not the only corporations engaged in this great undertaking...
...The attorney, however, asked Mr...
...It was discovered upon investigation that Mr...
...We can therefore sum it up by saying that out of this transaction, within two ot three years time, Mr...
...1918, Swift & Co...
...This would mean more than $200,000 a month, about $7,000 per day...
...Logan possessed Superior facilities for gaining inside information, and that, as a matter of fact, he was paid this magnificent salary by Swift & Co, partially for the inside information he was able to get and partially because they desired to contribute, in connection with the other great corporations, their share of the fund that would enable the trade journals and the political magazines to be editorially controlled by friendly minds, "Diamond T." THE investigation by the Senate Committee on Agriculture disclosed the existence of A mysterious character who was very valuable to the packers in giving them advance informa-fcloa ©x possible legislation In Washington, This character was never designated by name...
...A suit was finally actually filed and judgment rendered on it, but it looks as if it had been agreed upon in advance between the attorney and the packers before it was actually filed, How many of the people really believe that the Attorney General had accomplished the great things that he so bombastically boasted of in the headlines of the newspapers...
...But in this article we are dealing only with the packers and I confine1 myself in my comments to the part which they have taken in this colossal undertaking...
...Logan, they were unable to do so...
...Their paid emissaries are in every locality...
...Veeder asked the recipient to use the money "in accordance with our conversation...
...In writing to the packers for a renewal of the loan, Mr...
...I do not want to be understood as claiming that all of this advertising was unnecessary or subject to criticism...
...The following article is taken from his address, which was published in the Congressional Record, Jan...
...It will be found upon a full and impartial investigation by the honest student that their privately owned refrigerator cars, their ownership and control of stockyards and refrigerator plants, together with their intimate connection with large financial institutions, are the main sources of their power...
...So that the enormous discrepancy between his salary and his expenses, in addition to the various sums of money amounting to many thousands of dollars, which passed through his hands from the packers to almost numberless persons who were carrying out their plans in various localities...
...That the men who were dealing directly with him in such important matters, where many millions of dolars were involved, should completely forget his identity when they had taken such great pains to conceal it, is completely beyond comprehension...
...Little transactions like these have been going on for many years and are going on now...
...Nothing is said in it about anything for sale and nothing is said in regard to a defense of any of the charges by the Federal Trade Commission...
...The editor of the Nebraska Farmer could undoubtedly tell of such an invitation that he recently received himself...
...Swift, and also called attention to the editorial policy of the paper "before and after taking...
...At a recent hearing before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, the present Attorney General, Mr...
...and the Stock Yards Co...
...Diamond T" at this time advised that even the exchange of telegrams would not be advisable, and so important was it to conceal the identity of "Diamond T" that the official who prepared the memorandum of information received from him asked that even the memorandum be destroyed '"immediately...
...of New York...
...and with what marvelous consideration every whim of the faithful employee is looked after by this great corporation...
...Their agents are at the meeting of every legislature and in the Capital City of Washington...
...Together they own the stockyards at that place...
...Veeder, their general attorney, both corroborated Mr...
...It occurred to me that the producers and the consumers ought to know something about the middleman's profit on this necessary article of human food...
...The consumer is still Buffering...
...Under existing conditions the producer and the consumer are so far apart that they almost live in different worlds...
...The facts axe that the subject is almost inexhaustible...
...He claimed that when he went to Europe he went as a sort of advisor to government officials...
...I have made no attempt in this article to discuss what I believe to be the fundamental reasons for their great power...
...It was discovered upon investigation that Mr...
...More Might Be Said IN THE foregoing sidelights I have made no attempt to exhaust the subject...
...In one memorandum prepared by one of the officials reference is made to receiving valuable information, without disclosing what it was, with the statement that the matter referred to would be looked after at once...
...The person who received a pass was not requested to use his influence in their favor, and it does not follow that because a man received a pass he was in any way influenced...
...The ordinary reader would not get the idea that it was an advertisement, but these series of articles contain a most ingenious and misleading argument in behalf of the honesty of this member of the "Big Five...
...Hoover and the President were in private conversation on the night of the 14th day of May, 1917...
...Swift not to present any bill for interest at that time, because they had some important litigation pending in Texas, and he thought It would not be wise to ask for the payment of interest from the editor until this litigation had been disposed of...
...While they are fighting before a referee in Chicago with their employees, who are seeking better working conditions, they are advertising in Minneapolis the alleged advanced sanitary conditions of their packing establishments...
...When put on the witness stand and questioned as to what he did to earn his salary for Swift & Co...
...This is a trade publication for newspapers, and goes to practically every newspaper office in the country...
...That he was some one high in official councils, and therefore a very expensive character, and that he was able to give the packers exceedingly valuable and inside information, will not for a moment be questioned...
...Houston, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, on the other...
...I had just been reading from a western country newspaper that the price of hog's on the western prairies was from 10 to IS cents per pound...
...The matter is highly and beautifully illustrated, and a great deal of the space is taken up with a showing made in behalf of the philanthropic treatment on the part of this great corporation of its employees...
...They went over the entire situation, and the legislation needed was at that time agreed upon and outlined...
...Logan (newspaper man) was on the pay-roll of a large number of great corporations, and while we are considering him now only in his financial connection with the packers, it is interesting to note that he received large salaries not only from the packers, but from many other large corporations, notably Standard Oil concerns, which always have been interested in and which always have spent immense sums of money to control not only the laws of the Nation but of the States...
...In fact, in every case where any activity of Mr...
...They both realize that middlemen are necessary, and that machinery is essential to make over the product of the farm Into a suitable commodity for the table...
...In fact, many of the men who are engaged in the packing business devote most of their time and most of their energies to concealing the true situation...
...Many others remain silent in their editorial columns when they would otherwise condemn, if it were not for the oiling of the business machinery through advertising...
...particularly those offices that have to do with the creation of public sentiment on various public questions...
...Logan, because where information was received from Logan, there was no disposition to conceal that fact...
...Wherever reference was made to him in the packers' memoranda it was a character drawn witih pen and ink...
...That the evidence shows plain violation of law there can be no doubt whatever...
...He also notified the attorney that he would receive the same amount each from Armour & Co...
...His entire expenses from the time he left America until he returned were paid out of the Treasury of the United States...
...The men who were running this paper, however, were not aware that their competitor, the other daily newspaper published at Fort Wor*b, was likewise having its machinery oiled by packer money...
...The ordinary individual, the common citizen, who violates the law and commits a crime hag no opportunity to make an arrangement with the prosecuting attorney by which a civil suit shall be commenced, satisfactory to both sides, with the understanding that no criminal prosecution shall take place...
...A Different Kind of Story IT HAPPENED that the same paper containing this announcement contained a column article written in behalf of this same packer...
...They know that, after all, all these expenses are paid and all this machinery is oiled by the consumers of the country...
...Several years ago Mr...
...The slogan, "The Wilson Label Protects Your Table," has been printed a million times and is familiar to every citizen of tbe United States...
...This memorandum likewise disclosed the fact that Mr-Veeder, the attorney for Swift & Co., was to see "Diamond T" the following Monday...
...Logan are in themselves perfectly legitimate...
...Another memorandum disclosed that on the 20th day of June, 1917, information was re* ceived by Mr...
...so when the transaction was completed he found himself the owner of 43,000 shares of the stock, of the par value of $4,300,-000, which cost him nothing...
...This memorandum also suggests that Mr...
...Logan was getting $500 a month from Swift & Co., $500 a month from the Standard Oil Co...
...It is a nation-wide campaign to build up a reactionary sentiment in favor of the great corporations of the country...
...For instance, it was disclosed that he had given to Swift & Co...
...The Attorney General IT MUST be remembered that the Federal Trade Commission recommended that prosecutions be commenced against the packers...
...McCarthy, because he was secretary of the American Meat Packers' Association and was therefore supposed to be fair and unbiased and well acquainted with all of them, was requested by the Food Administration to suggest the names of some of the small packers who would be suitable for appointment to such committees...
...Logan...
...How he got his information, or who it was that told him what happened at that secret conference between the President and Hoover, can only be conjectured from the facts that I have outlined above...
...In adidtion to this they gave him $1,500,-000 of the common stock of the company without the payment of one cent...
...Large display advertisements appeared in newspapers that had only two ox ONE of the most remarkable attempts to control the public sentiment of the country through the instrumentality of the public press has been going on for the last three or four years...
...Veeder in his office in Chicago on May 21, 1908...
...It did develop, however, upon the investigation that he had given them information about affairs in Washington along lines that were entirely foreign to what they claimed was his duty as an employee of Swift & Co...
...It further appears that after we got into the war and after the establishment of the Food Administration, in making up some of the various committees to properly carry out the administration of the law, Mr...
...They are, however, exceedingly important when taken into consideration with what follows—and the reader must not minimize his social activities* In every great capital of the world many thousands of dollars are spent in social affairs, innocent on their face, legitimate of themselves perhaps, but having a sinister, powerful, silent, and perhaps unconscious influence on the control of legislation and the activities of executive officials in the enforcement of the law...
...The National Provisioner went to most of the customers, and as secretary of the American Meat Packing Association he came into direct contact with all the packers throughout the United States...
...the eyes of all honest people...
...They had probably violated the pure food law in every city and hamlet in the United States, but so far as I have been able to learn this was the only place where they paid any penalty...
...They do not fully understand that they are both bowed down in poverty because they contribute day by day and year by year to the immense fortunes of many millionaires, who are living in comparative idleness and luxury upon the toil and the sacrifice of the two extremes...
...For instance, the books of Swift & Co...
...It was not long until he became an editorial writer for a well-known eastern magazine...
...There can be no doubt but that one of the objects of this campaign was to mold public sentiment, and to close up the criticism that their acts would otherwise receive at the hands of newspapers...
...It ought to bo interesting to the underpaid producer and the overcharged consumer to get a view of soma of the side lights...
...are patriotic...
...have more than 15 pages of advertising...
...They do not realize the network of machinery existing from one end of the country to the other, having within its grasp the most mighty financial institutions, and under its control the dissemination of news and literature of the day, by which the very atmosphere of both consumer and producer i3 saturated with a false knowledge of the necessity of all this useless and expensive machinery, thus keeping them both in ignorance, with a natural tendency in each to fear that the other is getting the best of the deal...
...SWIFT, who handled some of this memoranda, on the witness stand denied all knowledge of the identity of the person as "Diamond T." Mr...
...His dinners were attended by members of the Cabinet, members of the House of Representatives, the United States Senate, foreign ambassadors, and other prominent people influential in national affairs...
...This would be more than $1,000 for every hour of the 24...
...We approach the domain of the great packers as a little child would approach a giant...
...In Illinois the evidence shows that various sums at various times were contributed to influence the legislature...
...Big Salaries Paid IT WILL be found upon investigation that the middlemen who handle the food products after they leave the producer and until they reach the consumer are receiving salaries that in many cases are altogether out of proportion to the work they actually do...
...It was only one of many that had been printed in practically all the papers of the United States—a nicely written article, directed to "Dear Folks," and signed by William C. Freeman, of New York City...
...While he was getting a salary of about $25,000, his expenses amounted to about $50,000...
...Logan I can not say...
...In the meantime he developed into a great social leader...
...They took an active interest in defeating the bill in regard to renovated butter that the farmers desired put on the statute books...
...It became known that it was almost a daily occurrence for these two men to be lunching together at one of the most exclusive and expensive hostelries in Washington...
...Houston, knew that Hoover would have complete control Of the Food Administration, and that he would not only control the packers in this country, but that he would do the buying for the Allies as well as for the United States Government...
...In addition to all this they gave him an option on $3,500,000 more of the common stock, at $10 per share, which option he afterwards exercised...
...He claimed that he earned his salary by telling them how they should run their business so as to best satisfy the public...
...In another case a check for $500 was sent to an attorney at Fort Worth, Tex., in which Mr...
...An examination of the evidence also disclosed that Mr...
...Logan was disclosed in regard to Swift & Co...
...If their expenses increase, they have but to lower the price that they pay to the producer, or increase the price that they charge the consumer, or both...
...would nowhere show the payment of any salary to Mr...
...Such testimony, if given by the ordinary person, would be at once branded as false, but when testified to by those who represent hundreds of millions of dollars, it escapes notice in the news items of the day...
...It might be said in passing that this is illustrated by the public announcement recently made through the press that the British ambassador has been allowed by his Government nearly $100,000 annually for social entertainment...
...The advertising campaign of the packers is akin to the former practice of Tailroads in issuing passes to all influential people, particularly these who had to do with the making of Jaws controlling the railroads or the enforcement of them...
...It is quite apparent that his influence and his power in the building up of any sentiment throughout the country for the control of legislation in a silent and unseen way would be of wonderful force...
...Its subscribers consist mostly of packers and dealers in various articles of food...
...It was proposed that the can be opened and that if it was full measure the prosecution would be dismissed...
...Loaning of Money THE packers are heavy borrowers, as everybody knows...
...is organized more for philanthropic purposes than for financial reasons...
...The assertion is made, however, that the advertising of the packers is far beyond any legitimate, fair, or even liberal allowance for that purpose, and neither can there be any doubt but that some newspapers are controlled in their editorial policy by the advertising end of the business...
...and that the plans should not be changed until advised...
...As I took my slice of nice crisp bacon, I asked my wife what it cost...
...Hoover and the President to his clients, Swift & Co...
...I do not want to be understood as claiming that all of this advertising was unnecessary or subject to criticism...
...They scatter thousands of dollars around over the country in the payment of secret salaries to persons having official connection with organizations that have anything to dio with the meat or food business...
...Neither have I suggested a remedy...
...Moreover, the greatest of this advertising took place at a time when there was a shortage of production, when they were positively enable to supply the hungry with the food which it desired...
...Neither do I argue that because a newspaper accepts advertising it is necessarily controlled in its editorial policy...
...Instead, he determined to commence a civil suit...
...These articles, paid for by the producers and consumers of our country, attempt to demonstrate that when you buy of Wilson & Co...
...It is quite apparent from the evidence that Mr...
...When he exercised this option and purchased this stock, he did it without the payment of a dollar of his own funds...
...His time was too valuable to b« used for the purpose of directly...
...Veeder, general attorney for Swift & Co., when on the witness stand, likewise denied any recollections whatever of "Diamond T," although acme of the memoranda referring to information received from "Diamond T" was prepared by Mr...
...Swift, and at least one of the memorandums disclosed the fact that Mr...
...The packers are told in this information from "Diamond T" that there will be enough delay to give plenty of time for readiness, and he suggests that they have everything ready in regard to high prices and their causes...
...This character was represented by the letter "T" inclosed in a rectangular figure the shape of a diamond, but because the printer does not have any character that properly represents it I refer to the character as "Diamond T." It is quite evident that "Diamond T" was a very important person...
...He led the fight in the House of Representatives to overthrow "Cannonism...
Vol. 13 • February 1921 • No. 2
