The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1909. MEAT TRADE COMBINES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12257, 3 July 1909, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1909. MEAT TRADE COMBINES.

A.xotheti aspect of the American Meat Trust's operations, to which we referred on Wednesday last, is provided by the report of the British Board of Trade, issued as a Parliamentary White Paper on May 12, and received by mail last v. eek. The inquiries of the committee . were directed mainly to ascertaining the power exercised. by the American Beef Trust in England. The firms said to constitute the United States Beef Trust are Armour and C 0.,, Swift and Co., the Morris Beef Company, and the Hammond Beef Company, and the allegation made was that,.though apparently competitors, they were in tact acting in combination with one another, and tliav ! tho object of the combination was to i obtain control of the United Kingdom market for beef. -It was further allege-.' that the combination had already obtained a. very largo control over {he markets in London and the South of England, that its influence is considerablo in the Midlands, and that though its power is much less in the North of England and Scotland, and very small in Ireland, it is nevertheless rapidly i growing even in those places. It was also stated that periodical meetings of representatives of tho companies which constitute tho trust take place in London, at which decisions are takjn as to the amount of supplies to be put upon the various'market3 and the prices which are to be obtained for the various qualities of beef. The pharp rise in -the price of beef which took place totvardsthe middle of 1908 was alleged to have been due to the manoeuvres of the trust. Other allegations were that in various places throughout the country tho trust had opened wholesale, and in some- cases retail, shops in the neighbourhood of other dealers in beef, and by selling at unduly lov. prices hail either driven its competitors out of the market, compelled them to sell out to individual members of the combination, or at least brought them under control.

Part of the machinery employed by the trust is said to be a "black list " in which are inserted the names of all those who have incurred its displeasure, and traders whose names appear on this list aro said in bo unable to obtain supplies from any of the United States firms. With the object of more effectually carrying out their operations, the trust .firms have divided up the country into districts, which are allotted to one or more of the firms, as circumstances may dictate, so that in no district shall there bo any excuse for competition between the local agents of the various firms. Finally, just as in the United States, the great power of the trust is said to lie in its command of the means of transportation, and in the extensive system of railway rebates which it was formerly able to obtain, so also, the trust companies are stated to have secured for themselves all the available space on the steamers engaged in carrying cattle from the United States to Great Britain, so that practically no independent shipper can import cattle without permission from the trust. The trust is believed to have obtained special terms and advantages from some of the British railway companies, and has tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain similar concessions from others. The committee found it no easy matter to make any close estimate of the extent of the trade carried on by the trust, but stated that the firms control the whole of the supply of chilled beef from the United States, which amounted to rather more than two-fifths of the total imports of chilled and frozen beef in the three years 1905-7, and to one quarter of those imports in 1908; and they also admittedly own a; large proportion of the cattle imported on the hoof, and have some control over the whole or nearly the whole of it. The committee decided that while the four companies were not carried on as a single undertaking, a measure of combination does exist. The committee describe the companies as Ccirrying on their business in cooperation rather than in competition, and this co-operation appears to be for tho purpose more of advancing their own interests than of improving the trade of others. In the Smithfiekl Market, the Swift Beef Company has six shops, Armour and Co. four shops, the Morris Beef Company three shops, the Hammond Beef Company three shops, and another American company three shops, while another concern with five shops is carried on in very close business connection with the trust. The committee comes to the conclusion that the combination which exists between the four United States companies engaged in the beef trade in the United Kingdom is not at present sufficiently powerful to bo a serious danger to the beef trade as a whole. About three-fifths of the total supply of beef and veal comes from home-grown beasts, and of the remainder a large and increasing proportion comes from' Argentina and Australasia. In the summer of 1907, Swift and Co. bought out one of the largest Argentine companies—the La Plata—and still more recently another—the La Blanea. Tho committee was creditably informed that this latter purchase was made by the National Packing Company, and that the supplies sent to Great Britain were consigned to the Hammond Beef Company., which divides them for sale between the four members of the trust, a fact which throws further light upon their relations to each other. It seems certain, als.o, that other negotiations, having for their object the acquisition of existing works in Argentina by United States firms, are proceeding. There have also been inquiries by representatives of United States firms in Australia and New Zealand. In the light of the facts disclosed by this report, the "Mercantile Gazette" considers it to be within tht) limits of possibility that the United States firms will acquire very, considerable interests in Argentina, and perhaps elsewhere. If this should be j tha case it is not improbable that the i methods of combination which have been adopted so effectively in the United States might be extended, at any rate y to Argentina. The committee was of opinion that there was no immediate danger of the trust securing the control and exercising a determining influence upon beef prices in Smithfield and the other markets of the Kingdom, and if this opinion is correct it makes the'outlook much less discouraging than it would appear to be from the alarmist view taken by the "Melbourne Age."