Food and the Trusts.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 4, 26 January 1910, Page 8

Food and the Trusts.

From time to time the nations have been solemnly warned of the danger in store for them if they allow their supplies of food to fall into the hands of a few powerful monopolists; but so far the ominous predictions o-f economists and demagogues have produced Little effect. It is still open to any man or corporation rich or powerful enough to secure control of a country’s stock of meat or corn or coal, and by raising prices at his own discretion to wake profit out of the necessities of the general pirblie. In America, however, where the principle of commercial monopoly has been most effectively carried out, the vague apprehension of a “corner” in grain or some

other necessary of life, has from time to time given place to a definite grievance, and thus to a resolute determination to resist to the utter* most such an encroachment upon the rights of the people to a fair share in the means of living. And so by an easy process of development we reach the situation that has arisen in the Eastern States where the rise in the price of food has induced the consumers to combine in a boycott against the de* predations of the irresponsible eaptalists who are ruthlessly exploiting the needs of the poor. We need hardly labour to prove the generally acknowledged fact that the American meat supply is practically controlled by a few great houses—Armours, Swifts, Morris, the National Packing Company—and it is almost universally admitted in the United States that the great combine into which these firms have been organised has secured its impregnable position by illegitimate means. However, the knowledge .of the existence of a dishonest monopoly is not enough to arouse public resistance, so long the individual consumer does not feel the burden pressing too heavily on his own shoulders. But in America the Meat Trust seems to have made the mistake of allowing its greed to outrun its discretion; for there is no doubt that it has been steadily raising retail prices against the consumer for a long time past. Four years ago Mr. C. E. Russell, in his famous attack upon the Meat Trust, showed that while the cost of cattle had fallen, the price of meat had risen everywhere in the markets that the Trust controls. It takes some time for facts of this kind to impress themselves upon the public imagination; but the Americans appear to be realising at last that they are being systematically forced to pay extortionate prices for their food to swell the profits of a handful of plutocratic law-breakers. When once the nation fully grasps this truth, we may safely trust the courage and capacity of the Americans to find a way out of the difficulty. But the position of America in regard to the Meat Trust to-day may be our own to-morrow, and the experience of the United States should be enough! to persuade all democratic nations that; it is the duty of the State to protect; the people against any attempt on the part of monopolists to secure control over the sources of the food supply.