N.Z. LAMB IN AMERICA

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160731, 18 August 1920, Page 9

N.Z. LAMB IN AMERICA

RIVAL IMPORTERS AT LOGGERHEADS GLOBE NEWSPAPER AND ARMOU&S, A hitter controversy appears to be raging between the Globe newspaper, New York, and Armour and Co., arising out of the importation of New Zealand lamb. The Globe, it is asserted, is prepared to sell the lamb at a low rate of profit, whereas Armour and Co. are stated to be taking a wholesale profit of 12 or 13 cents a pound. Armour and Co., in reply to Globe attacks, stated that they had to charge the higher prices to make up for their losses in handling .domestic lamb. In other Words, Armour and Co. claimed that they were acting in the interests of the sheep raisers of America by keeping up prices. This “new pose,” as the Globe describes it, has brought the newspaper out into the open “with gloves off.” It gets after Armour and Co. with some past history of the big packers which is extremely interesting to New Zealand just now. In the findings of the Senate Committee, Mr McCann, who is responsible for the Globe side of the controversy, discovers an abundant supply of ammunition with which to assail “the big packers.” Here is an extract from his indictment:

“The Senate Committee on Agriculture,” he wrote, “is in possession of the proof that the deliberate' policy of the packers in different sections of the country, particularly in tho New England States, has been to put the price of mutton so low as to drive most sheep raisers out of business in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, etc. Tho evidence shows that the packers’ idea was not to permit sheep to be grown or raised in the vicinity of the large cities where they were selling refrigerated meat chilled in Chicago. The reason for this is so clear to R. D, McManus (attorney and publicity agent of the packers) that his audacity in asserting that Armours’ prices were high for tho purpose of saving American sheep producers from ruin will scarcely be surpassed during the summer season now on, or the dog days ahead. If the packers had not killed the sheepraising industry of the East the local sheep-grower would have sold his local sheep to local butchers for the local markets, and the packers would not have been able to compete by way of the long haul in refrigerator cars from Chicago. They had to"kill off the local industry in order to control the lamb and mutton market. If tins wasn’t ruinous to the sheep producer, and if it didn’t result in a shortage of lambs and wool in this country, it is because the Declaration of Independence was never signed, and there never was any such person as Paul Revere, despite all the patriotic folklore to the contrary.” Mr McCann’s parting shot is this; “I wonder what will happen to Armour and Co. for squeezing 100 per cent, profit out of New Zealand lambs after solemnly declaring that they do business at less than a penny per pound profit. In 1867 the number of sheep in New York State amounted to 5,350,000. In 1916 the number had dropped to 495,059, a decrease of 4,854,941. Why didn’t Armour and Co. prevent this ruin?”