WORLD MEAT TRUST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1021, 10 January 1911, Page 8

WORLD MEAT TRUST.

■ ONLY AUSTRALIA' AND NEW ZEA- ' • • • - LAND FIIEE. ADVANCE : IN PRICES PREDICTED. With the solo exception, of tho Australasian trade, the meat-proilucing industry pf ; the entire world is now controlled by a trpst with' headquarters .in America, and a prediction has been mado' that he.lvy advances'iti prices will result. . Details of .the operation of "this, gigantic trust reached Sydney last week, as indicated in'the cable message published in •The 'Doinifioii at the time. It appears that as far, back as June, 1599, the Beef Trhst 'commenced to extend its- operations to Argentina, although indignant denials were' niafle' at ' the "time, .both inside and outside, as wall as iu Chicago. 'In .that-period, it seems from tho information received by United States Consulsj" the Beef' Trust has carried its schemes, of world" coiiquost a long step towards* realisation. - "For a long time past," 'we are told, according to' reports published,in. both the British and American press, States' packers have been investing their profits' in big ranches arid packing houses in Argentina. They hare absorbed tho La Plata Gold Storage Company and tho; La Blaiioa Company in Argentina, and'the former company under their- management has become the largest ,of its kind in the world.",

The Beef Trust is not importing Argentine products . into.'the' United States, . where it would .cbmpete with itsdivn stock. It, is employing its.'control of Argentine meat for' the purpose of dominating tho British market. This is. apparently the explanation, of • the rapid decrease of American meat exports from 122,972,0001b. ■in 1909 to'.: 75,729,00011). during tho past year. ■ . In ISOO the value of American, beef'sold abroad was : M,20t1,000. In 1909 it was only '.£3,000,000.- In the same period Argentina's exports ■of beef rose from 24,590,0001b. to 210,000,f1001b. It is'stated that the. Chicago packing interests are now operating in. Argentina, seven large companies and plants, whose combined output this year was 1,480,0001b. of beef ' awl 2,601,0001b. of mutton.: The bulk of •this meat, went to Great Britain. It now only remains for the Beef Trust to ■ gain control /of all the meat in the world by acquiring a predominant, interest in.,the: Australian and New . Zealand meat industry. Despite temporary re- ! auction'in price in the United States, the Department of Commerca and Labour in Washington predicts in tho immediate 1 • future a general incrca.se in .the price of j meacs throughout tho world asthe result' mi ' 0 P of tho meat trust.' 1 The."Sydney Morning Herald" states that it is known that the. great meat trust has already-paid some attention to Australia, with . what result is only known to the trust itself- but the Australian producer, though unassailable perhaps in his own home, may find the rami- - "Nations of the trust difficult to cope with iri the markets.of the .world.