The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 30, 1918, Page 10

“R. C. Howe was on the train and he called to see me & ‘this office, and from what he ‘gaid I don't see anything for to secure our 80 6 per cent. “I expect our Omaha and “Sioux City market will be out of line for some time if we 1se for us to do. The Omaha market seems be the only point in qnutum, and I think /' _we ought figure on keeping i the Sioux City market on an "~ .independent basis. “l will be in Omaha Friday “Yours truly “E. A. CUDAHY.” And then down at the bot- tom are lead-pencl figures . 25 Swifts 16 100 per cent.” Did you receive the original of that letter? .~ Answer by MR. MICHAEL R. URPHY: 1 evidently ‘. did; but I have no recollection of_it now. . MR. HENEY: Well, at that < time the percentage that you -.-were aiming to buy per year waa 80 per cent, wasn’t it? R. MURPHY: Evidently Mr. Cudahy had that in mind. ! R. HENEY: Well, you say you buy on directions from “Ohlcagv You had it in mind then, too, didn’t you? “ MR. MURPHY: Well, on his advices; but he never notified "me to buy a percentage, or anything like that. He would say, “*Take your requirements, or whatever you need.” MR. HENEY: Well, let’s see—let's reread a portion of “.this (reading): “When I was coming to Chicago on Monday night, Mr. R. C. Howe was on the train, and he called to see me at - office, and. from what he said I don’t see nnythmg for us fn /do only to secure our 80 per cent of the hogs at South Omaha, “unless we want to take 29 per cent and let- Swift run 26 . per cent.” Now, isn't it & fact that it was within your knowledge that at that time Armour & Co. were aiming to get 80 per cent of the receipts at South Omaha and Cudahy & Co. were to get 80 per eent and Swift & Co. were to get 256 per cent and Morris & Co. 16 per cent of the receipts? MR. MURPHY: Why. it is evidently so from that letter. MR. HENEY: The next letter I will read is: dated Novem- ber 27, 1911, taken from Cudshy's file and is addressed (reading) : “Mr. M. R. Murphy, “South Omaha, Neb. “Dear Sir: I had a call from your neighbor today, and he agrees that we are paying too much money for hogs at Omaha and 8ioux City, and that if we could get Omaha right, of course, it would regulate Sioux City, and he believes the t ‘plan would be to then split whnt is left. I believe in this plan, and I would advise you to work on it for this week, and I would suggest that you either call him on the phone or see him some time tomorrow and talk the matter over. We are killing a lot of hogs, and there isn’t anything in them, and it is about tim that we should be able to buy them at a margin. “Yours truly, “E. A. CUDAHY.” That neighbor was Armour, wasn’t it? MR. MURPHY: Not to my—my recollection of this letter was it was his neighbor, instead of “yom.' nenghbor. MR. HENEY: Whom did he mean by th: .. MR, MURPHY: I would not know who he meant unless .~ -he meant some of the Armours or Swifts, or possibly this ;National. The National, 1 think, were— g ~. MR, HENEY (interrupting) : Oh, you can readily see that i was Armour. Don’t you see you would not have divided with - Swift after what was left at Sioux City, you would have di- vided with Armour equally? 3 MR, MURPHY : Well, tbis takes in Omaha also, this letter © MR. HENEY: Yes; well, Armour’s percentage i the same as yours, 80-30, and Cudahy was claiming the same “ percentage as Armour at Sioux City on account of being the only other plant. So, of course, that would be Armour? MR. MURPHY: My recollection was that he lud a call from his neighbor inswad of ‘‘your neighbor. : Well, who did you go to see? - MR. MURPHY: I have no recollection of goipg to see mybody MR. HENEY: Yonwmjmtumxiouuanybodyto “War Tax” Stand Brings Persecutlons Story of Washington Grange Outrages Carried to National Capltol . by George P. Hampton, Well-Known Farm Leader s Washington Bnrean, Nonpartisan Leader sat around a long table, the members of the senate commit- tee on finance, on the morning " of September 9, and waited for the ' chairman to call the next witness in the hearmgs on the war-tax bill. ' Senator ' Sim- mons, in the chair, announced George P. Hampton, director of the Farmers’ Na- + tional Headquarters and member of the Farmers® National Committee on War Finance. Hampton, tall and: slender, silver-haired and in- tensely earnest, stood at the lower end of the table and began his statement. To his right sat a row of Republicans—Dillingham of Vermont, Townsend of Michigan, Smoot of Utah and Lodge of Massa- Mexxco, Thomas of Colorado, ~Hoke Smxth of Georgia, with ‘Snnmons at the end, ; let other people have what they want, and - in a doubtful voice the name of - chusetts.” To his left were Democrats—Nugent of Idaho, Gerry of Rhode Island, Jones of New Vthe _war. Colorado, one of the new states, has immense areas such as this available for grazing cattle, but not even grass-t‘ed steers are profitable with a market choked by’ the packing trust. please Mr. cudahy and get tlus thing—this Omahe market, in_line, weren’t you? MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir. R. HENEY: And nstnmlly you would act on it? MR. MURPHY:: As a rule. MR. HENEY: But you have forgotten it? MR. MURPHY: As far as “neighbor” is coueerned. have no recollection of meeting any one whom he might have designated as a neighbor. MR. HENEY: Well, Armour was the -only other one that was ht“gd‘ly interested in getting things right at Sioux City, wasn’t he MR. MURPHY: At Sioux Cify, I would natura.lly think he would be, ¢ Out on the Pacific coast, where there have been less frequent mvestlgatlons than in the East the conspiracies to control livestock and meat prices are conducted much more openly. Not -only are there meetings of the representatives of the com- panies, such as our agents uncovered in Los An- geles and Tacoma, but the heads of the packmg companies are so. little afraid that they fix prices by correspondence. We have a large number of their price-fixing letters, dating from 1915 to the time of our agents’ visit in 1917, from which we select the two following, which are interesting be- cause they show the Western Meat company, joint- ly owned by the Big Five, trying to fix a price so low that the Cudahy Packing companys repre- sentative suggested a hlgher one: - April 15, 1915. Mr. R. Scott, Mgr., Cudahy Pkg. Co., Los Angeles, Cal. Dear Sir: Do not know just when I will be in Los Angeles, but thought I would let you know that it looks to us as though it would be fairly easy to buy cattle on a reasonable basis. I think 6 cents will be the opening price, and whether they go lower or not will depend en- tirely on how many are offered, as the demand for beef is less than last year, regardless of the expositions= They tell us that Mr. Fuller is shipping some of his cattle to Los Angeles to-kill. Our man went down to see these cattle with Mr. Fuller, - “The chairman of this committee stated at the hearings on Saturday that every one knew: the : farmers’ are loyal,” Hampton began. “I was glad to hear that statement from'fhe chairman of the _ senate finance committee, for while we know that that expresses the sentiment of all 100-per cent: Americans, we also know that in many sections of the country the farmers are being persecuted be- cause, after they have- ‘liberally subscribed to and worked for the Liberty loan,”War Savings stamps and the Red Cross funds, they ask that a large portion of the cost of the war be pald by current taxation. “On a trip to the Pacific coast last May, extend- ing. through June and July, I met the officials leading farm organizations both: gomg and comms, and I assure you that the farmers are thinking these queshons of war finance deeply and earnestly, : G with a growing indignation against all attempts to suppress honest d:gcussmn of how best to finance " assist-us in determining’ upon: the correc “the chair believes that the witness should tryk to v conflne his statement to_the matter of the bill.” - _ whether Hampton had. all)llfi sugsestl' who priced them at’ 7 cents. We. did not know’ whethef you were figuring on us- ing these cattle or not, but we told him that our ideas were "6 cents, which of course would not: hurt you in making your trade. Do you need these cattle, as if you don’t we could probably use some of them very nicely, as they are not too heavy and are fairly close by? Our market is about the same as when you were ap here last, 1014-1014 cents for desirable steers weighmg 650-700 pounds, 93,-1014 cents for the heavner weights. I am quoting the Butchertown prices on straight cattle, as we would not consider selling . anything under 10% cents"at the present Baa anybody bonght t.he Oxnard yet, was_ told t.hey could be purchased for GK cents thh n 4 per cent shrink With beat rexarda to you and Mr. Benjamin, I remain, ours very ti (Signed) F. ‘L. WASHBURN. FLW- —0 P. 8. I received a letter the other day from Mr. Cud- ahy thanking me for taking you all to the plantl.‘.whieh I very much appreciaf Ww. i THE CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY, Los Angeles, Cal., Aprll 22, 1915... Mr. F I.. Washbum. tern Meat Company, San Francisco, Cal. - Delu- Sir: Your letter of the 15th came duly to hand and would have had my . attention sooner were it not on account of my absence. in Imperial Valley. Found the valley looking well, with an abundance of feed in sight and not a great many cattle on hand to consume_it. The only disturbing element is an invasion of grasshoppers that were' in striking evidence in parts of the valley. Whether these will increase and m me a serious menace, or will "fold theh' tenes like the Arab gents and silently steal away,” we _-are unable to say, but hope they will not prove of as great injury as they were last year. ‘We note your views as to the future of the grass: cattle market: which seems to be in line with the views of most of the Los Angeles packers. I esnh hardly bring myaelf to. believe, however, that we will be fortunnte enough to get good grass American cattle for 6 cents per pound, and while we have not yet arranged with Fuller as to the price to_be paid for the Chowchilla cattle, I have in mind a figure of 614 cents. The sample shipment we have had is.very good and two or three weeks more: time on good feed, on which they are on, will make them a very de- sirable herd. The weights are right and they are going to be in good condition. . Our idea would be that 6 cents for the average run of grass cattle would -be about a fair market figure, provided there are sufficient sup- plies to meet -the requirements of the summer trade. . Woodward-Bennett Co. and . the Pacific. coast people geem to think there is' going to be a bountiful supply of good steers. I have not yet heard the Hauser people. ex= themselves. We understand, however, they have ;]mdg px;i% 614 cents for some grass steers from low points. Answering your inquiry as to. the Oxnard cattle, they . - were sold to the Pacific coast at 614 cents with a-4 per cent ehrink. ey were certainly a cheap ‘lot of cattle and should make a nice “pot” of money. The Patterson ranch people must certainly have been in a panic to have sold them at that price with as much cheap feed as there is available at the present time. They could cer- hinly have afforded to carry them into the summer or fall, but perhaps thelr judgment in dispoamg of them at the pment time may be Jut:&lfled by future prices. . y_you CUDAHY PACKING COMPANY, (Signed) R. 8. Scott, Manager " We will need the Chowchilla steers. Expect to use most of them before othgr Coast cattle are fully matured. 8. as broken up on the eyening of J'une.G bn a trumped-up charge of -disloyalty. The attempt to -justify the' outrage was based on the charge—" = - At this point: Senator Lodge, stm'mg uneasily ‘in +his' chair, leaned over and whlspered to Chairman < Simmons. - .The North Carolma. senator mterrupted Hampton.. : “While we do not wish to interfere with -any testimony ‘which the witness may give: fiut the tax rates in this bill,” he sa.xd, in sul ce, cussion - prevented through intimidation. = ~Senator Smoot broke in with a question as §j;