The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 9, 1918, Page 11

L financial institutions throughout. the ~ this list the packers are represénted " “on the board of directors -through . ‘or. through officers, directors or con- - storage facilities. They h.ave gone far beyond the’ tequirements of their own output and have. estab- lished huge plants in which they store outputs _ bought from other producers. The packers’- distribution of their products is ef- fected through a system of branch houses located in the large towns and cities, and a system of re- frigerator “peddler car” routes which reach the smaller communities. Swift & Co. reach a larger number of cities and towns by peddler car than ail other packers, while Armour & Co. have de- veloped: a system of delivering from their branch houses by. trucks, reaching by this means over’ 20,000 towns, and making their total number of towns greater than Swift & Co. The number of’ such branch houses and car routes controlled by the Big Five is as follows: i | Car routes i : 555 | 23 |E8% Zow = S s ER 353 23 |ASH Armour interests 366 197 [ 24,681 Swift interests .,.. 3 23,376 Morris interests .. 154 229 | 4,019 Wilson & Co., Inc. 117 187 | 1,903 Cudahy Packing Co. ..| 118 | 200 | 4198 Total 1,098 *Total would include a great number of duplications. ¥ This system of wholesale dis- tribution through branch houses and peddler cars is the bulwark of monopoly. There is virtually no limit to the possible expansion of ‘their wholesale merchandising short of the complete monopoli- zation of the primary distribu- tion of the nation’s food. e With the development of their branch house and .car route systems it is unnecessary for the pack- ers to go through the slow process of building up manufacturing -plants. .After the manufacturers have been under exclusive contract for a few years they: become virtually tied to the packers, and unable to break away and develop new outlets for “production. FINANCIAL AND REAL ESTATE INTERESTS : Already even the oldest and most strongly es-‘ tablished wholesale houses are seeing line after line of their merchandise absorbed by the packers’ branch house system. First, they saw the packers encroach .on the handling -of ‘butter, eggs and . cheese, then canned goods, then various kinds of “package goods,” and now rice, sugar, coffee and " .other staples are being increasingly handled by ‘the packers. Last year the Big Five’s conibined sales totaled $2,127,245,000. At the present rate of ‘expansion, WITHIN A FEW YEARS THE BIG PACKERS:- WOULD CONTROL THE WHOLE- SALE DISTRIBUTION OF THE NA-- TION’S FOOD SUPPLY. - Lastly, as an element of control, are the big packers’ widely distributed interests ‘in banks. and real estate, “which the commission has not as yet completely explored. RS In the financial field the packers’ strength is based not so much’ on ac- tual ownership as upon the influence - which they can exert by reason of their volume of business and com- - manding industrial position. " They are further entrenched in'’ United States, as is evidenced by the following list, which relates only to ‘the principal cities and packing cen- - ‘ters. In-each of the banks shown in — “'members of the ‘individual families, fidential employes of the packing com- panies. ' In addition, there are a-num- ber: of ‘banks not-covered by. this' list, in’ which close business associates: . Why does the Nonpartisan league insist‘on public ownership of marketing facilities? - The federal trade commis- ~ sion has answered this question in its report on the investigation of the packers. The facts discovered are exactly ' as the Leader has stated since the day it first appeared. Read this story of the interlocking business rela- = tions of the packers. It is part of the commission’s report. Next week there will be another section. v tion (Armour); Irving National bank- (Swift, Ar- mour); Guaranty Trust company (Wilson); Irving Trust company (Armour); New “York County Na- tional bank (Swift); Hallgarten & Co. (Wilson). Boston—Commercial National - bank (Wilson); Broadway National Bank of Chelsea (Swift); Har- . vard Trust company (Swift). Chicago—Continental Commercial National bank (Armour, Cudahy); Hibernian Banking. association ‘(Armour); Fort Dearborn Trust & Savings bank (Swift); Illinois Trust & Savings bank (Swift); - First National bank (Morris, Wilson); First Trust & Savings bank (Wilson); People’s Trust & Sav- “ings bank (Armour); National Bank of the Repub- lic- (Swift, Cudahy); Continental & Commercial ° Trust & Savings bank (Armour); Drovers’ National * (Swift, Armour). One source of the big meat packers’ war profits—Hereford cattle on an Okla- homa range. ‘These cattle went into the process which ground out $121,000,000 of excess profits for four of the packing companies in three years. The farmer complained to congress that the market price on cattle would not meet his cost of producing them. bank (Swift); Liberty Trust & Savings-bank (Mor- rig); Woodlawn Trust & Savings bank (Swift); West Side Trust & Savings bank (Morris); Mid City Trust & Savings bank (Morris); Union Trust com- pany (Armour); Stopey Island Trust & Savings bank (Armour); Kenwood Trust & Savings bank (Swift); Depositors’ State & Savings bank (Wil- son);- South Side State Bank (Armour, Swift); Central Manufacturing District bank (Armour); Drovers’ Trust & Savings bank (Swift); People’s Stockyards bank - (Morris, Armour); Stockmen’s Trust & Savings bank (Armour, Wilson); Live- stock Exchange National bank (Armour, Swift, Wilson) ; Stockyards Savings bank (Armour, Swift, “Morris).. s : s - “East St. Louis, Ill.—National Stockyards Na- tional bank (Morris, Swift, Wilson). . South St. Paul, Minn.—Stockyards Mortgage & Trust company (Swift); Stockyards National bank (Swift, Armour). -Sioux City, Iowa—Livestock National bank ‘Omaha; Neb.—Livestock Iiational bank (Swift, Morris); Stockyards National bank (Armour, Cud- ahy); Omaha National bank (Cudahy). St. Joseph, Mo.—St. Joseph Stockyards bank (Swift; Morris); American National bank (Swift); = Drovers & Merchants’ bank (Swift); First Na- tional bank (Swift); First Trust company (Swift). Kansas City, Mo.—Drovers’ National bank (Mor- ris, Swift); Interstate National bank (Armour); New England National bank (Armour). Wichita, Kan,—Guarantee Title & Trust company (Cudahy); Kansas National bank (Cudahy); Union Stockyards National bank (Cudahy). ‘ Oklahoma City, Okla.—Oklahoma Stockyards National bank (Morris, Wilson). Fort Worth, Texas—Stockyards National bank Denver, Col.—Denver Stockyards bank (Swift, Armour, Morris). Portland, Ore.—Livestock State bank (Swift, Armour). San Francisco, Cal.—Anglo-Califor- nia Trust company (Swift); Bank of South San Francisco (Swift). ALSO ENGAGE IN LAND SPECULATION The real estate interests of the big packers apart from the land acquired and held for industrial purposes are very diverse and widely scattered. They range from immense terminal properties in great distributing cen- ters to huge ranches in the West and in ‘South America. Not as a list of holdings, but as examples of the kinds of properties which the big packers are interested in acquiring, the fol- lowing investments may be cited: CENTRAL MANUFACTURING DISTRICT, CHICAGO, ILL.—Owned by Chicago stockyards interests. Consists of 375 acres of fac- tory sites situated “in the exact geographical and population center of Chicago.” 3 > NORTH KANSAS CITY REAL ESTATE EN- TERPRISES—Jointly owned by Armour, Swifi- and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy_railroad, including the following c¢ompanies: g ; North Kansas City Development company, North Kansas City Land & Improvement association, Union Depot Bridge & Terminal Railroad company, - Parkside Land company, Kansas City Ferry com- pany, and Guinotte Land company. The combined book assets of these companies in January, 1918, - amounted to $9,840,000, including 3,500 acres of land on the north side of the Missouri river and a strip known as the “river front property” on the south side. : SUTTER BASIN—The Sutter basin consists of 120,000 acres of river bottom lands lying at the confluence of the Sacramento and Feather rivers, which is now being reclaimed by a system of dikes.. 2 The Sutter Basin company, 88 per cent owned by Armour interests, has acquired about 60,000 acres of this land and is now engaged .in preparing it for cultiva- tion, this land is worth from $500 to $1,000 . per acre, somewhere between $30,000,000 and $60,000,000. i Among other real estate interests of the packers are the following: company {(Portland, Ore.); Peninsular “more of stock—Chowchilla ranch (4 000 acres, Merced county, Cal Eastern Oregon Livestock compan; (140,000 - acres, ' Harney City, Towa); ‘Franklin Land &:In - vestmenit company (London, England) The company estimates that making the total value - Joint interests—Kenwood Land ' ”; (South San Francisco, Cal). = - = Separate control of 50 per: cent or: i i ¥ 14 i 1 { i A \ ; ] i | § H H b i 1 8 & |} i Industrial company (Portland, Ore).; ' North Fort Worth Townsite company = = (North Fort Worth, Texas); South . Oklahoma Townsite company (Okla-: “homa City, Okla.); South San Fran- cisco ‘Land & Improvement company ' “county, ' f i| Ore.); Hawkeye Land company (Sioux ' &