The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 25, 1918, Page 7

R [y~ ~caught his breath, but braced up and s pronl;g in general are assured and how - SAPHEAD THE REPORTER—HE WORKS FOR THE GANG PRESS TOWNLEY'S GOING TO| THESE SMALL 'rowrls SURE ARE A JOKE, | DON'T BELIEVE THERE 1S AN OUNCE OF I'VE GoT To coveRr| BRAINS (N TH' TALK TO THE FARMERS OF HAY CREEK. ToDAY AN’ IT FORTH DALY GRAPHT, wAN ALON G? T TO GO that the reserve bank maéfimery' be used to pht out the money, and said that with a low rate of interest on the loans the government would not lose a dollar, MANY HELPING BAER TO GET BILL PASSED 3 5 . Gifford Pinchot and Ed. C. Lasater of Texas de- scribed the cattle famine, and appealed for imme- diate help for the stockmen and farmers. “The necessary confidence for raising a large crop has not been created,” Pinchot declared. “The farmer has been given to understand that he is to do the work, and that others will run the. war. There is no representative of organized farmers in WHOLE 2,000 au& important post in connection with the direction _of the war activities.” Lasater said that “after. three years of war this country has marketed three crops of beef—two at a loss to the farmers and one at a profit; it is en- tering the fourth year with beef, mutton and pork selling below the average cost of production.” He then quoted Joseph P. Cotton, head of the livestock and meat division of the food administration, as saying to the stockmen that the meat packers would have to be guaranteed profits of 9 te- 15 per cent on their various industries, to protect their credit, but that “I do not say that you livestock growers are to have a leadpipe cinch on a profit this season.” ARE YouU CRAZYY ALISTEN — , WHISPER CHATTER — Buz= _SAY MAN AND THIS S THE WAY THE PuBLIC 1To —Drawn especially for the Leader by B. O. Foss After calling attention to the fact that stock farm- ers use more credit than packers, Lasater said that it was time that the farmers’ credit be safeguarded by a guarantee of at least such prices as would meet the cost of production. Representative Rankin and Representative Evans of Montana and Representative Norton of North Da- kota, also testified for the Baer plan of relief. Miss Rankin showed that 60 per cent of the homesteaders in the grain country of eastern Montana need help this spring, and can get it only in some such way as the Nonpartisan league congressman had pro posed. Says Packers “Prefer Enormous Profits” St. Paul Hearmgs Brmg Out Frank Confessions From Beef Trust Men, and Show Producers and Consumers Equally Stung BY RALPH HARMON . HE sordid tale of piracy by which the big packers of the Uhnited States clubbed to- gether to club out and starve out all their less powerful competitors, was - brightened from time to time in the Federal Trade commission hearings in St. Paul by bits of packer philosophy put into the record by President William Magivny of the St. Paul Union Stockyards company. At one time Special Prosecutor Francis J. Heney told Mr. Magivny that he had made out “the best case of special pleading for the big packers” that Mr. Heney had run onto in all the investigation. At other times he had to stop Mr. Magivny’s flow of argument and remind him that facts were what the commission wanted. : Mr. Magivny proved that he is a cog in the profit machine and because he is a cog and not because it is Mr. Magivny, what he said is of general interest. It was he who show- ed how the various big packing cen-. ters all are locked together—how banks, stockyards and packing houses are only tentacles of the same octopus. It was he told how L. F. Swift secured a little pocket change by having him- self paid a salary of $1500 a year for being chairman of the board of di- rectors of the stockyards company; who told of “big” losses on the St. Paul Bridge and Terminal company, ° the beef trust railroad over which everything has to be hauled in and out of South St. Paul. ‘While making out a hard luck story, ? one day for the railroad company and the packing business in general, Mr. Magivny sdid the railroad company lost $7,000 last year. - “How - much -did: they lose ‘the: year - before that?’ asked Heney. Magivny replied, -“It made a proflt of 365 000 the year before.” - Mr. Heney asked him how beet trust it came that Swift and Co. had cleared $37,000,000 in profits last year. “It was a very extraordinary year, and things oc- curred due to the war that made this possible. The packing business is run on a very narrow margin of profit. A change of a fraction of a cent in some one item might result in enormous lpsses,” he said. HONEST CONFESSION GOOD FOR THE SOUL “And rather than to take a chance on enormous losses, they decided to fix it up for enormous prof- its?" asked Mr. Heney. “I'd rather have enormous profits than enormous losses,” said Magivny. He .admitted that with the weighing of cattle and the feed they eat in the stockyards in the hands of the stockyards company An Interior vlew of a dlttrlbutlng house of one of tho “blg flvo" paokon. and _one’ of tho ononflal food produotn upon whlch they, have a monopoly. PAGESEVEN SioCaisa e “we could rob them if we wanted to.” “Yes, and unfortunately whenever people are in the position to take advantage, they do it,” said Mr. Heney. “Unless he is wise enough to know there is a day of reckoning,” put in Magivny. “And under this system there is no chance for a day of reckoning,” rejoined Heney. Magivny said they would “have to show him” if the government couldn’t control the five men who are charged with being the packing trust. “You talk as though the government was just one man with complete power,” said Mr. Heney, “but you should remember that there is a senate of over 90 members, and a house of representatives of over 400, and that every one of those men is subject to human influences.” Magivny himself had just been telling how he dominated the Minnesota legislature in the matter of legislation affecting the beef trust, and Mr. Heney’s remark was fully appreciated by the farmers who sat back in the room. Another bit of Magivny’s philosophy was this: “Producers have no right to ask if there is a combination, but should be - satisfied if they get a fair price com- pared with other markets”—as though by going from one beef trust market to another the livestock producers could escape. “I don’t think federal regulation is necessary until these men (the pack- ers) have proven themselves unfaith- ful to their trust,” he said at another time. ing him what more they could do that would prove them “unfaithful to their trust.” his conviction that middlemen who buy cattle from one farmer to sell to another (the regular speculators in stockers and feeders charging commis- trade” but that commission men who Mr. Heney refrained from ask- ° *Mr." Magivny also ‘put in' the record sions both ways) are “necessary to the v