The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 18, 1918, Page 7

SAP HEAD, FROM NOW oN YOuU DEVOTE ALL OF YOUR TIME TOo STORIES ABouT LET ME SEE — | CA PULL THAT DISLOYALTY | AMERICAN BOLSHEVIKI \W.W. oR THE TH' NONPARTISAN LEAGUE] STUFF ANY MORE ‘cAUSE| AGAIN BuT THEY ARE ‘l. ESHAL.I. EXPECT AT AST ONE STORY EVE NIGHT AND MORNING-.RY Farmers Tell Facts Packers TH' PUBLIC'S WISE b TO THAT . | MIGHT WISE TO THAT ALSo, ORI MIGHT —Drawn expressly for the Leader by B. O. Foss Would Hide Beef Trust Probe Discloses Profiteering in Hay and Grain As Well As Meat— - Some Big Business Philosophy Put in the Record : : BY RALPH L. HARMON NE of the most astonishing conditions brought out by the federal trade commis- " sion probe of the packing trust in St. Paul was the “ignorance’” of responsible heads or the various livestock agencies as to ‘how things are done. President William Magivny of the St. Paul Union Stockyards company ‘“‘knew nothing” about’ “wiring on.” He couldn’t tell, nor even guess how the daily livestock quotations are made, where they originate, who originates them, or how - they get from one part. of the country to another. He had been with Swift & Co. 30 years but it was all a “mystery” to him. The most he could . tell was that he “thought the information went out from Chicago.” Secretary A. A. McKechnie of the Stockyards Company was even more ‘“mystified.”” When Fran- cis J. Heney asked McKechnie where the quota- tions came from he said he “théught the telegraph - operator at Chicago’’ got them out. 'Pressed.for more details, it developed that Mr. McKechnie thought that some operator of .the Western Union Telegraph company just walked around the Chi- cago stockyards a while in the morning, took a general view of the situation and then issued the prices on which cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses are cheerfully bought by the big packers in every packing center of the United States. McKechnie keeps the books for the stockyards company, but when Heney asked him how much profit the company made on the feed it compels all farmers who patronize the yards to buy from it,. he said he didn’t know, couldn’t find out, and that there were no accounts of the stockyards company from ‘which anything like a correct esti- nate as to these profits could be obtained. That was the third day of the hearing. Buyers for the livestock commission firms in the yards were put on the stand but their minds were a blank on many important matters. _ However, the informa- _ tion went into the ree- ord. ‘The trade commis- - sion got it from the farmers. There were a good 'many farmers present with exact date gleaned from 10 to 20 years’ shipping ex- perience at South -St. Paul, Chicago and other markets. They were willing to explain some.. _things that men with 20 years' experience in the . -stockyards company, the -~ commission business . the beef trust. didn’t seem- to know anything about. For instance, A. N. Craighead, Minnesota farm- er of 1) years’ livestock experience, told how the -St. Paul Union Stockyards company buys poor hay and corn so that the cattle and hogs won't eat it and take a “fill,” but will weigh less on the scales. This poor stuff was charged for at prices higher than good quality could be purchased for outside. Farmers who refused to use it were com- pelled to pay for the company fodder anyway. A PROFITABLE SIDE LINE - FOR THE BEEF TRUST Craighead told how he had been forced to pay $30 a ton for poor hay in the stockyards when good hay was selling generally at $12 a ton. He 5 complained to President Magivny of the stock- ° yards company, and Magivny thought it was a good Joke. Craighead’s ‘“dander” was up, however. The legislature was in session, and he said he was geing up to the capitol. Magivny couldn’t see any joke in this and he cut-the price. Craighead told of losing 1000 pounds on a car- load of hogs one time because they were given rotten corn. -Of course‘you understand all animals lose weight when traveling.. They get one feed in the stockyards in the morning so as to restore them to normal condition. They are not weighed ‘until afternoon as a rule. These hogs had lost 1000 pounds and were given corn they couldn’t eat. Craighead took a sample of the moldy stuff to Magivny, but the latter assured him it was the best money could buy, and moreover he was pay- ing the top price, whereupon Craighead offered to sell him 10,000 bushels of sound, bright corn at the price named—and Magivny declined to buy. But he paid for the loss due to poor corn. Witnesses told how the left over corn is scooped up by the stockyards company and sold to an out- Adivestock exchange, ‘and - Stacking hay at the St, Paul Union stockyards whers furnishing feed Is one of the profitable sidelines of the LD s sl e s el Sl Des e side feeder, who is fattening hogs. The amount thrown to hogs in the yards has steadily increased year by year until now it is 101/2 bushels per carload, but what does the stockyards company care? The more thrown into the pens, the more it gets paid for. Last year all troughs were re- moved, and a bill to compel them to be replaced was defeated by Magivny’s efforts, and the amount of corn wasted increased. Mr. Magviny admitted this, and also admitted that his company is getting $5500 a year for the left over corn. He said also he 'is washing some of it himself to find if he gave the outside feeder too good a bargain, and if he did, Mr. Outside Buyer will have to ante a little heavier next year. In Chicago, witnesses said, the stockyards company keeps droves of hogs called ‘“pen cleaners” and drives them from pen to pen, fattening them on the leavings already bought and paid for by farmers. Other testimony wonderfully stimulated Mr. McKechnie's figuring ability, and the day after he said there were no figures by which the profits on stockyard feeding could possibly be ascertained, he came to the hearing with a neat tabulation, show- ing down to a fraction of a cent how much prof- iteering there had been in corn and hay, each sep- arately itemized, during the past four years. He showed that the company earned $226,820.63 on 'the feed it sold in 1916, and that its profits ran from $6.84 to $6.94 per ton on hay from 1913 to ! 1916, ‘inclusive, and profits on corn he showed ran from 28 1-3 cents to 39 cents per bushel. DIFFERENT STOCKYARDS ALL IN ONE COMBINE Craighead told how all the commission men at South St. Paul always urge farmers not to re-ship stock even though they can’t get the price they are worth. If they are shipped, argue the com- mission men, chances are they won’t get as much in Chicago. And ' the funny thing about it was that this usually hap- pened. And although the stockyards men couldn’t explain this, several farmers did. They said that as soon as a man ships a load of hogs, cat- tle or sheep ‘out of the yvards after trying to sell them and not getting a good enough offer, ade- scription of the load, to- gether with the farmer'’s name is “wired on’ ‘to. Chicago; and when the farmer gets to Chicago a ‘(Continued on page 21)