Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, May 25, 1920, Page 7

TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1920 Extracts from the Report of the Federa) | Trade Commission on the Meat Pack. | ing Industry, Washington, D. C., H duly 3, 1918, Pages 3-4-6-9-19-45-47. | We believe that if the fundamental! underlyiny evils are rooted out, the ole structure of conspirgcy, control, monopoly and restraint must fall. } It appears that five great packing} concerns of the country, Swift, Armour, | Morris, Cudahy and Wilsdh, have at-! tained such a dominant position that|©*/stence of real competition. they control at will the -market in/"e@l. How sham it is will be fully “t which they buy their supplies, the mar.|Ut in the accompanying summary and ket in which they sell their products,!the complete reports. and hold the fortunes of their competi-|_ Some indépendent packers exist py tors fn thats adie |Sufferance of the five, and a few nurdy If these five great concerns owned no} Mes have survived in real competitiun, packing plants, and killed no cattie and! Around such few of these still retained control of the instruments the lines are drawing in. of marketing and| The commission have met and over- storage, their position would not he|come every obstacle that ingenuity less strong than it is. money could devise to impede the rhe producer of live stock is.at the} The commission, through Mr. Hen: cy of these five companies because 1 to meet deliberate falsification as remain of they control the market and the mar-|returns properly required under tegal keting facilities and, to some extent,/authority; we had to meet schools tor the rolling stock which transports the) witnesses where employes were c: product to the market. ed in anticipation of their being -a'iea he competitors of these five. con- cerns are at their mercy because of the control of the market places, stor- facilities, and the refrigerator cars stribution. he consumer of meat products is at jto testify in an investigation or« 1 by you and by the congress of the United States; we had to meet a situation created by the destruction of lette and documents vital to this investiga tion; we had to meet a conspiracy in the mercy of these five because both|the preparation of answers to the law- producer and competitor are helpless|ful inquiries of the commission. to bring relief. Summary of Findings. Some show of competition is staged by the five great packing companies. It is superficial. There is the natural ri- valry of officials and departments, and this is made much of as indicating the The packers, together with their sub. sidiaries and affiliated companies, only have a monopolistic control over the American meat industry, but have secured control, similar in purpose if SEE ADDITIONAL EXTRACTS FROM FEDERAL TRAD COMMIS. SION REPORTS ON PAGE TEN This large modern plant, conceded by der the most favorable conditions -any the most experienced packing house | husiness Was ever received in Omaha. men in the business, to be the finest! and most modern and efficient plant|T® company had all of its plants fin- in the world, after two years of stren.| {shed in the most modern way, with uous, hard and conscientious work on|no mortgage of indebtedness and plenty the part of Paul F. Skinner and Lloyd/of quick assets as working capital, and M. Skinner, and their able assistants,|over $10,000,000 net assets, with good was opened for business about sixty! will, patents and trademarks carried (ays ago, and prior to this, many ad-|at only $1 on their books. ditional years of hard work, allied] ‘This immense investment was made aha industries were established by|phy the principals and some 5,000 farm- them, ers and investors in this section. The This packing plant opened up Un-|company did a business in the pack- To Every It Is not not} ! } 1 Housewife and Especia Every Farmer and Stockman of Oma Tributary Territory READ | KENDRICK’S INVECTIVE | | | i In 4 | line} A a 1 0 oe one lby b “ é | st. | Washington, D. C., May 21—The/their yards." wis | south | “Big Five" meat packers dominate the| ho packers obtained thelr poaltion, | tachis | h line/ livestock industry so completely that|he gaia, hy “suspending coonomts law | plalna | jenactment of federal regulation legis-| " | | | peas t ss © jand defying statute laws alized ‘ south| lation is necessary, Senator Kendrick, | | | \ point |emocrat, Wyoming, author of bills for| ‘The per capita meat consumption of| The | south|that purpose, asserted today, address-|the country and the number of its live-|TeVeale | treet, |inir, the senate. |stock had been dropping off, the ven-| Eugene ‘line| “One by one the big stock markets|ator said. Hogs only had increased in| (Eugene's yun-|have passed into their power,” he said.|Number, due to the fact that indcynd-| Miles w Yeast | “until today they contro! not only the|€nt packers still had a large measure | Tesardec fourteen principal markets, but four-/f control, he added. pugene \un-|teen others as well, so that their dum-| “As conditions stand today," he cor-|Deered: vest| ination of the industry is all but com-/tinued, “the thousands of producers and | SP POF ne|Dlete. During the year 1916 more ttan| millions of consumers who are so in-| Of W! pele, cent of all the stock handled in| terested in what goes on in livestock| ¢r | © commerce ed through! markets are wholly without protection.” sue } e (From World-Herald Friday Bvening, May 21, 1920.) | rest, ing plant alone the first twenty one days it was open, of over $1,300,000. The plant was too big, the future look- ed too bright, and the lineup of our large acreage of over fifty-one acres. which-put us in an independent pos tion looked too threatening, and ‘ monkey-wrench was thrown in the ma chinery” inside of sixty days, by a man we had engaged in good faith for our own interests and for the inter- ests of all the stockholders. This ‘monkey-wrench” was thrown in with Omaha Chamber of Commerce—he }as been, and is now, actively against this great Omaha institution. We have made the statement many hundreds of times that the Skinner plant is a strictly independent piant and it has been true. We have hud suspicion cast upon us many times since the first of this year that we had disposed of our interests to other pack- ers—this, we always truthfully denied, and we have always taken the stand that we had no one to fight, especially the big fackers. ‘We know there is no money for our- fight, and have done everything but let this plant pass out of our control, in’order to keep pace and avoid a fignt. We want the world to~know that the Skinner plant was organized as an in- dependent packing institution, that it is an independent plant and that it will always be an independent plant as iong as we have any connections with it. The following affidavit is made for the information of our stockholders and the public in general, so that they may know that as far as we are personul concerned, we could be on easy street today with no fight on our hands and no worry, however, it has been, and has always been our ambition, and is our ambition today, to build up a big inde- pendent packing company here in the middle west that will be a credit to our- selves and a credit to our stockholders and the public in general. AFFIDAVIT. State of Nebraska, ) Affidavit ) ss Paul Douglas County F. Skinner. Paul F. Skinner, being duly sworn on oath, deposes and says: 1. That he was born in Loup county, state of Nebraska, and has lived in the |city of Omaha for the past twelve of 1414 First Nationai Bank THE SKINNER COMPANY PACKING PLANT the assistance of the president of the} selves, and for our stockholders, in a} a st jyears 6. On the 8th a | 2. Since the incorporation of the|C. Howe, without a directors’ meeting,| Skinner company, has been, and now| maliciously wrote out checks and wire jis, the duly elected and active chair-jall eastern banks with whom we had| jman of the board of directors of the/established a favorable line of credit, Skinner company. and checked out about $700,000, prac-} 3. That in the fall of 1919, that a/tically every dollar in the company’s} certain representative of the packing] t ry, with company checks out-| jinterests, gnterviewed him, with the|standing, aggregating over $100,000, idea of disposing of the packing plant|none of the loans being due at the time.| of the Skinner company. This nidjand a great majority not due until) |representative put forth the argument!some time in June. jthat he and his associate were not ex-| (Signed) PAUL F, SKINNER. perienced packers, and that his inter ests could be disposed of on a very fa |vorable basis, and wanted to opén up| negotiations with that idea in mind. This representative was advised the |plant was not for sale under any con- |ditions, and that the outlook was so bright that it even would not be good | business to open negotiations for a sale, 4. On January 26, 1920, Paul | Skinner was approached in writing. b: a representative of another packing in terest, with the proposition that we sell Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before me this 22nd day of May, 1920. (Signed) ELIZABETH (Notary Seal) A. HODGSON, Notary* Public, The packing plant has a Strong ex- |perienced organization—we have a fine »,|plant, a fine up-town branch house and | wholesale market, and over fifty-one jacres of ground on which the plant is located. We can have our own stock- y out the Skinner packing plant. This|¥@rds and make our own shipments di |representative was advised in writing|Tect, if it is necessary. on January 27th, by said Paul I Skin| ‘This business can be, and will be op. erated at a fair and substantial profit to every stockholder, at the same time treating the stockgrower right, as well Jas the consuming public | We are in a fight; we intend to op erate the Skinner plant as a STRICT |LY INDEPENDENT PLANT. Do you |want us to operate independently? If |you are with us, giv ner, that the plant was not for sale, |and that we would not be interested in a sale. This same party in a few days then Jadvised he wanted it understood that jhis parties could handle any proposi- tion up to $50,000,000 or $60,000,000. This party was again advised that the Skinner plant was not for sale. 5. Paul F. Skinner further deposes|C°Uragement NOW. and says that after agreeing with R.| We especially call the attention of C. Howe to make him president of the| the stockmen of Omaha tributary ter- company, issue him certain stocks in|ritory, to the fact that when _ their addition to his original contract with|banker buys the securities including the company, the said R. C. Howe made|the commercial paper of any of the the further demand that the name of! packing house trust he is not only help the company be changed, which was|ing this trust to get a greater control agreed to if necessary for the success|on this country but he is giving this of the company, and made the further|trust your money to enable the meat |demand that the said Paui F. Skinner|trust to develop great ranches and |escrow his stock holdings with full vot-|packing houses in South America and ing rights with the First Trust +om-| with this competition they not only beat pany of Chicago, a trust company com-|down livestock prices for you, but monly known as being controlled py|throw these profits to their foreign the great packing interest. This d¢-|eompanies and avoid their proper tax mand was met with the agreement to|in this country, not only taking away escrow the stock holdings of the said|your profit on live stock but increasing | Paul F, Skinner with a certain promi-|your taxes. jnent successful Omaha business man,| If you want better live stock prices jand said agreement was refused by R./in this country and want the packing Cc. Howe y thelr proper tax, ask yous Write or Wire at Once to PAUL F. SKINNER or LLOYD M. SKINNER us a §vord of en-; ind th not yet in extent, over the principal) .oy, dual families, or through off direetors, or con ntial employ of the packing companies. In addition, ; there are a number of banks not cove Jered by this list, in which close busi+ |ness associates of the packers are di- rectors. | Business Ethies of the Packers. | ‘The packers, in their nt public statements and advertisements, have to create the impression that have grown to their present size ely as a result of superior efficienc substitutes for meat, such as eggs, thatiwhataverd imtropech On) iis che and vi ble-oll products, andi practices were discovered in connection ar rapidly extending their pow to with the business w cover fish and ‘nearly every kind of/dental, The, conclusion, howe : foodstuff. “lis produced by a study of their his In addition to these immense prop-|tory and present activities is that they erties in the United States, the have attained their dominant position separat or jointly, own or control result of unfair prac- more than half of the export-meat vro methods. The fact |duction of the Argentine, Brazil and they ve so gener Uruguay, and have large investments! sorted to methods of r in other surplus meat producing coun-| competition edits their claims of tries, including Australia. Under pres-| superior efficiency. It is difficult to be- ent shipping conditions the kers control more big Amer than haif of pendent their owne of stockyar age plant sepa or joint lines, and cold stor packers are represe of directors through ted on members of the| the board) ficiency lieve that, if the big packers had been able at upon which the allies are de-|hy efficiency alone, th to extend their business rapidly y would not have lresorted to the devious and illegal The monopolistic position of the big)means of crushing competition which packers is based not only upon the)they have employed. large proportion of the meat business! ‘The rapid of thé ‘packers 40) pow. which they handle, but primarily upon! er and immense wealth nd their pres nt strangle hold on food suppiies were not i jship of y based on their owne: . but upon t* necess cking house ir They a further intrenched in finun-|control of the chanr distcibution. celal institutions throughout the United] particularly ti? stoc | States, as is evidenced by the follow-|lines, cold-storage plant ing list, which relates only to the prin |houses. Similarly cipal cities and packing centers. In) which they have secured and are new each of the banks shown in this list the/ securing are not primarily due to ef+ in operating parc. it (Continued on Page 10.) EB OM rhs Branch House, 12th and Douglas, Omaha, Neb. of April, 1920, R.|banker if he has turned over any of, great help. your money and that of other deposit-| port. jors for packing trust securities. If he has, explain to him tha: this not only | by reducing the price of live stock and| the prosperity of the farmers and stockmen. We want to hear from you; if feel strongly in the matter, don't w to write, wire us a night letter. Public eling and public sentiment in a mat ter of this kind, if it is favorable, is al you} Building Omaha, Nebraska ADDITIONAL I FEDERAL SION REPORTS ON worlul hurts you but will indirectly hurt him} pany. {fa me er | to write or wire us at one with us, t| directly STRACSS COMM (3. PAGE TEN TRADE iF AN ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH We need your moral sup- » have every dollar w invested in the Skinner com. We want every housewife, eve: ev stockman, every retail- very interested man and woman, if they are have in the and in return, ch will in- benefit. Respectfully, PAUL F LLOYD M. R.