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AY 8, 1908
rado of the last century. They represent an
fcnormous increase and they are a fair index
of what has been brought upon the American
people by the great ' combination popularly
&ovn as the beef trust.
ADMINISTRATION'S ' CHANGE
"Right at this point, I desire to call atten
tion to the change which has come over the pol
icy of this administration in this regard. Be
ginning in 1902 there were evidences of a gigan
tic combination among great packers to raise
the price of their products and depress the price
of live stock. The complaint become so gen
eral that the administration was forced to take
notice and in May, 1902, caused a petition for
Injunction to be filed in Chicago to restrain the
packers from combining to restrain trade in vio
lation of the Sherman law. That case went to
trial, proof was introduced and the result was
the judge issued a permanent injunction re
straining these packers from pursuing the policy
which they had before pursued, which resulted
in buying live stock at their own price in the
great markets which they control, and then
selling their products at their own price in these
same markets which they also controlled. The
case was brought to the supreme court of the
United States and in 1905 the supreme court
sustained the decision of the lower court and
a permanent injunction was granted. Simultane
ously, however, other proceedings had been go
ing on. This house had voted the Martin reso
lution instructing the department of commerce
and labor to investigate the beef combine. Mr.
Garfield went to Chicago to make this investiga
tion. He promptly fell into the traps set for
him. He walked into the lion's den. He fell
into the hands of Mr. Dawes, who banked for
the packers, Mr. McRoberts and Mr. Louis
'Krauthoff, one of the most astute, accomplished
and smooth men of the combine.
"The history of the rise of this man, Louis
Krauthoff, reads almost like a romance. He be
gan life, T believe, out in Kansas City as the
son of a saloonkeeper and his first duties were
to clean out the saloon in which his father did
business. Today he lives in New York In apart
ments for which ho pays a rent of $60,000 a
year and his greatest achievement in life is hav
ing taken Mr. Garfield into camp, fooled him,
and put the government into the hands of the
packing house trust.
FOOLED MR. GARFIELD
"Mr. Garfield went to Chicago, and as I
said, fell into the hands of Mr. Dawes, Mr. Mc
Roberts and Mr. Krauthoff. They dined and
.wined and they gave him the information wanted
in making up the report published in 1905; in
formation, however, which the packers them
selves used when the attorney general brought
an indictment against them as criminally con
spirators in 1904.
"The Garfield report, which is very inter
esting reading and very favorable to the pack
ers, created amazement. This report had taken
the information that they chose to give and came
as a sort of an apology for the existence of the
combination protesting that the profits were rea
sonable only about ninety-nine cents for each
steer turned into packing house products.
"That was so preposterous that the country
was amazed and disgusted. Every man who
ever had anything to do with the packing inter
ests and every man who had observed the great
packing markets and the packing house pro
cedure knew that profits have been so enor
mous that they haVe made the packers million
aires in the span of a short lifetime. Modern
packing is only twenty-five years old, yet six
of the great packing concerns having a capital
of something like $100,000,000, practically all
ground out of the business, control not only the
live stock market of the United States, but to a
very large extent the cost of food to the Ameri
can people.
PROFITS ON A STEER
"It is not alone by controlling live stock
marketed at stock yards and controlling also
the sale of the products that these fortunes have
been made. I caused a friend of mine, well
posted in such matters, to make me a statement
of what became of a thousand pound steer at
the South Omaha live stock market. Such a
thousand pound steer will be purchased by the
packing house for about $64 today. It will
yield about 580 pounds of meat, now selling
at wholesale at ten cents a pound, or $58. The
tallow, call-fat, ruffle-fat and trimmings at six
cents a pound, the present market price, would
bo $6; the liver sixty cents; the heart a little
over ten cents; the tongue at forty-four cents J
the hide $5.50; the feet fifteen cents; the head
ten cents; the brains five cents; the bones ten
The Commoner.
cents; tripe thirty-five cents; blood fertilizer,
twenty-six arid two-fifths cents; casings, bungs,
middle and rounds at twenty-five cents; a total
of $72.10.
"We have there, made up by a practical
man, the products of a steer converted into mod
ern packing house products, and the cost of kill
ing, dressing and chilling Is only thirty-five cents.
We have a $64 steer converted into $72.10
worth of products and yet Mr. Garfield has come
before the country with the claim that the profit
is only ninety-nine cents on each steer.
"I will be the last man to discredit the
packing industry. In my district, at South
Omaha, there has been built up the third largest
live stock center of the -7orld. Last year the
packing houses of that city butchered practically
800,000 cattle, 2,000,000 hogs and 1,000,000
sheep. I believe 10,000 men are employed in
that industry. I would like to see the industry
prosper. But I do believe that the time has
come when the people of the United States are
entitled to protection. I do believe the adminis
tration should renew the efforts which it aban
doned two years ago.
"Why this silence and indifference that fol
lowed that furore of Indignation when the immu
nity bath was given? Why was it that the ad
ministration, after bringing those men into court
and forcing them to admit that it was in posres
sion of evidence which might send them (o the
penitentiary, abandoned any further eff.it to
protect the people from their exaction? Has
it been because the price of live stock or pro
ducts has changed? Why, no, Mr. Chairman, not
changed for the better. In 19 00 when the ad
ministration abandoned these attempts, beef was
selling at wholesale at the packing houses at a
cent a pound less than it is selling now. The
cattle were practically the same price. Let
us glance at the figures of the last few months
of the last year to show the power of this
combine.
ADVANCE OF A YliAJl
"April 1, 1907, the Chicago price of cattle
was $6.60. April 18, this year, the Chicago
price of cattle is $7.45, an advanre of thirteen
per cent. That advance is justified. Cattle are
higher this year because of the scarcity, When
the panic struck this country in O lber,last it
became impossible for cattle feeders to borrow
money to feed their cattle. They bocame
alarmed, and did not feed them. The result is
a smaller quantity to market this year, and the
advance of thirteen per cent Is reasonable,
"But what has happened to the price of
provisions, to the product from these cattle?
Has that advanced thirteen per cent? Yes, Mr.
Chairman, according to the figures published
by Bradstreet's this month the price of beef at
wholesale, the whole carcass, sold at once, lias
advanced -twenty-nine per cent, as against an ad
vance In cattle of only thirteen per cent. Thus,
while all business interests are suffering, this
beef combine not only maintains but actually
raises its price to the wholesalers and that is
why the retailers are compelled to advance their
prices to householders.
"So I say there is no reason why this ad
ministration should for two years have aban
doned the American people to the grasp of the
beef trust.
"I know it Is not to prove a trust, but even
if we take Mr. Garfield's statement alone, we
find that in fourteen of the leading markets of
the United States these concerns pack and
slaughter ninety per cent of the cattle. We find
that one of these concerns, the National Pack
ing company, is owned by three others Armour,
Swift, and Morris. While it Is claimed that there
are six packing concerns that divide up the
earth and control these products, there are act
ually only five. It is reported on what seems
to be such reliable authority it is hard to doubt
it, that once every week representatives of these
packers get together I think it Is Thursday in
most markets and fix the price they will pay
during each day of the following week for the
cattle, sheep and hogs that go to market, and
the prices they will charge for provisions to
wholesalers and retailers, yet this government
does not make seemingly any effort to look into
this matter.
"I telephoned the bureau of corporations the
other day, asking whether there was any addi
tional information since the Garfield report was
issued, and was told substantially there was
nothing doing. Yet the bureau of corporations,
as Judge Humphrey said-, was created for the
purpose of giving information to congress, and
great appropriations are made every year for
maintaining it. We heard here a few days ago
a rather heated controversy between the gentle
man from New York (Mr. Sulzor) and the gen
tleman from Illinois (Mr. Mann) as to who
originated the bureau of corporations. It has
occurred to mo and to some others that If I
wore in danger of being held responsible for
its creation I would endeavor at once to disclaim
responsibility, judging by results."
Mr. Harrison: "Will tho gentloman not ad
mit that tho bureau of corporations must bo
very useful to tho administration around cam
paign time, when they want to shako tho plum
tree?"
Mr. Hitchcock: "Woll, I will say to tho
gentleman" (Hero tho hammer foil.)
Tho Chairman: "Tho time of tho gentleman
from Nebraska has expired."
NEW JERSEY CONVENTION
Tho democratic state convention for New -Jersey
mot at Trenton April 28. Tho Chicago
Record-Herald's report follows: "The demo
cratic state convention today refused to In-"
struct its delociitcs for the Denver convention
for William J. Bryan, and the delegation goes '
without instructions
Former United States Senator James Smith,
Jr., who is an nn Li-Bryan man, was in full con
trol of the convention, and succeeded by a largo
majority in defeating the aspirations of Robert
Davis, of Hudson County, and James E. Mar
tine, of Union County, tho latter a personal
friend of Bryan, who wanted to go to Denver
as dolegates at largo.
The delegates at large chosen are: Sen
ator John Hiuchcllffo, Passaic; Frank S. Kat
zenboch, Jr., Mercer; James Smith, Jr., Essex;
Howard Carrow, Camden.
Tho proposition to have tho delegates gov
erned by the unit rule was adopted by a viva
voce vote, those favoring the proposition being
largely in tho majority. This was interpreted
at the time as an anti-Bryan movement, as only
four of tho twenty district delegates wore known
to be Bryan men. These were tho four from
Hudson county, where Robert Davis had declared
for the Nobraskan.
Just before the convention adjourned and
after half the delegates had left the hall former
Congressman Allen Benny offered a resolution $
instructing tho delegates to Denver to vote forv
William J. Bryan's nomination for president.
Sonator Smith moved to table tho resolution
and this was done on a viva voce vote.
CONNECTICUT DEMOCRATS
Tho democratic state convention for Con- ,
necticut met at New Haven April 29. The "As-''
sociated Press report of the convention follow'!
"Not many minutes were needed to disposo. of
the business of the democratic state conven- '
tion today. Immediately prior to call to order
the committee on resolutions voted down a
resolution instructing the delegates for William
J. Bryan. When the convention was called to
order Temporary Chairman Comstock yielded
the gavel to former Governor Thomas M. Wal
ler. John J. Walsh, of Norwalk, a former state
committee chairman, and Alexander Troup, of
New Haven, one of Mr. Bryan's most intimate
friends, wero unanimously chosen delegates at
large.
The other delegates chosen are: Henry K
C. Ney, Farmlngton; Louis A. Fisk, Branford;.
Frank P. Fenton, Windham; Melbert B. Cary, .
Ridgfield; Henry J. McManus, Hartford; Thorn
as Noono, Vernon; William Kennedy, Naugau
tuck; Rollin U. Tyler, Haddam; Tyron Robert
son, Montville; Oscar Ross, Thompson; T. M.
Cullinane, Bridgeport; James L. Farley, of Tor
rington. The platform, which was adopted unani
mously, is as follows:
"We, the delegates of the democracy of tho
state of Connecticut, in convention assembled,
re-affirm our allegiance to those principles of
government enunciated and expounded by the
great democratic statesmen, Thomas Jefferson,
Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland and William
J. Bryan.
"We believe In a strict construction of the
constitution, the preservation of the Integrity
of the three departments of government, homo
rule and local self-government, and calling for
equitable revision of the tariff with special pri
vileges to none, and we assert that in this time
of commercial depression consequent upon
twelve yers of republican misrule, the best
welfare of aU the people can be secured only by,
returning to democratic principles."
"Tho vote by which the resolutions decided
against Bryan Instruction was 19 to 13.".
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