A BEEF COMBINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

A BEEF COMBINE.

PROSECUTION OF MILLIONAIRES.

The criminal prosecution of the ten millionaire " Beef Barons" which is proceeding in Chicago, has now produced revelations which show the immense importance to the public at large of suppressing the huge food trust which has flourished so long under the guise of competitive companies.

It has taken the Government eight years to bring these wealthy packers to the bar of justice, because the methods employed by the heads of the " Big Six," as tho trust is known, have been so evasive, and their conferences to fix prices and rule the market so secret.

It has been shown that the packers joined hands to eliminate all competition between the Swift, Morris, and Armour groups of packinghouses in the purchase of live cattle, sheep, and hogs, and in the sale throughout the country of fresh meats. The Government alleges that a conspiracy wag formed to refrain from bidding on livestock and to agree on a uniform price for all parts of the country. The unlawful medium by which the defendants are alleged to have secured domination of the meat industry, it is charged, was the National Packing Company, a corporation composed of 16 companies, organised in 1903 with a capital" of , £3,000,000. By means of the agents of this combination tho Government alleges that a most ingenious spy system with which to keep track of competition was perfected by the modern "Barons of tho Plunderbund." Scheme Defeated. Mr. A. H. Veeder, who was formerly counsel for the Beef Trust, has given many details of tho attempt to form an international trust which would take in Great Britain in its field of operation. Mr. Veeder, however, declared that this ambition was defeated by a company ol London stockbrokers, who were associated with the re-organisation scheme of the Swifts' stockyards in Chicago. Mr. Veeder testified that the London stockbrokers suggested to ono of the Swifts when the latter visited England the idea of an international combine, but when Mr. Swift returned to America, ho found the Englishmen there attempting to form a combine of their own. In order to head the Englishmen off tho Chicago trust absorbed the Canadian concerns and attempted to push their practical monopoly to England. Hero they were kept out by the London stockbrokers. Testimony has also been given about the Oleo Company, which is declared to bo a secret subordiiiary of the Beef Trust. This company was capitalised in £380 only, while the testimony given shows that the company's profits for the first year of its existence amounted to £800,000, which amount is alleged to have been diverted into the pockets of the "Beef Barons."