Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1912 — TRUST GRIP TIGHTENS [ARTICLE]

TRUST GRIP TIGHTENS

MEAT BARONS REACHING OUT FOR OTHER FIELDS. Plan la to Exploit Argentina and Australia—Dissolution of Trust Will Not Bring Relief to Consumer. It is announced that the “beef trust Is no more.” Attorneys for the N,il|ional Packing company have notiflstf the government that its constituent companies have taken over their properties. The Swift Interests get the G. H. Hammond company, the Omaha Packing company plant at Chicago, the St. Louis Dressed Beef and Provision company and the United Dressed Beef company of New York. J. Ogden Armour takes over the Fowler Packing company, the Anglo-American Provision company, and the New York Butchers’ Dressed Beef and Provision company. Morris & Co. get the Omaha Packing company’s plant at South Omaha. While it is an excellent practice to be optimistic It may be well to withhold approval of the dissolution. The beef trust escaped punishment only recently, so why capitulate now? Representative Klnkead, a New Jersey Democrat, is not much of an optimist. In a speech in the house delivered before the announced' “dissolution,” Mr. Klnkead urged the removal of the tariff on meats, as he believed that the proposed dissolution would not relieve the consumer. He said: “The packers . . . exported last year more than a hundred million dollars’ worth of meat, but there was no competition from without If we defeat the beef trust and reduce the cost of meat, which has been felt by every man, woman and child in this country, let us remove the tax from all meat. Let imports come in from Canada, Australia, Argentina, Mexico or from any other country, and there will be hope for relief from the exor bitant prices now exacted. More than two years ago there was agitation for the Importation of meat from Argentina. Then, as now, the American packers said that home production was falling off. hi part, they were right. But later it became known that the speakers were constructing plants in the southern republic, thus attempting to forestall any move to relieve the situation in the United States by importing meats from Argentina. About the time the government lost its case against the beef trust at Chicago, attention was called ,to Australia. Americans were reminded that Australian meats are regularly shipped to England, so why not to the United States. Now comes the following cable from London, which speaks for itself: “A dispatch to the Chronicle from Melbourne says that Australian meat exporters are alarmed at the news that the Swifts are setting up big meat packing works at Brisbane, and ask the government to Interfere to protect trade againßt the American trust methods.” The reader can not help but wonder whether the situation thus presented would have confronted the American householder today if the Sherman anti-trußt law had been enforced froin the beginning. The trust would then not have grown so strong as to reacli out and threaten even the possibility of foreign competition. ,