Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1905 — Profits of the Packers. [ARTICLE]

Profits of the Packers.

There has been a great deal of disappointment because the Garfield report shows that the profits of the packing industry only amount to about two per cent on the volume of business transacted. There is no doubt, however, that the report is correct. The census reports compiled .by the government in 1900, before the agitation regarding the “beef trust" began, throw considerable light on this question. It appears from the census that the packing industry is conducted on a smaller margin of gross profit than any other industry in America. The gross margin of profit of 871 flour and grist mills in Illinois, In the census year, wag nearly seven per cent on the volume of business. The gross margin of fifty-one wholesale slaughtering and meat packing establishments in Illinois was only about one-third as large, or a little more than two per cent on the volume of business. The millers have not been accused of being iu a “trust,” and combinations would seem impossible in a business where there are several thousand mills in the United States competing actively for the flour trade, but it appears that the gross profits of the millers are larger than the gross profits of the packers. It may turn out that the agitation regarding the packing industry will show the same result as he devil found in shearing the pig: "All squeal aud no wool."