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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1908)
Fhe Omaha unday Bee PART VII. SOUTH OMAHA SECTIOII PACE8 1 TO 8. bsertbs rr THE OMAHA DEC Best West VOL. XXXVI 1 1 NO. 15. OMA1IA, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 27, 1908. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. SOUTH OMAHA GREAT MEAT PACKING INDUSTRY CENTER Where Many Millions of Dollars Are Annually Paid to the Live Stock Raisers of Quivera's Kingdom 1 , p.. . - f ' 4 k , A.4l.a.Mav,A.-. rfC.4V J I " - - 0 I i 7 GENERAL VIEW OP THE UNION STOCK YARDS AT SOUTH OMAHA, WITH THE PACKING HOUSES IN THE BACKOROUNIX WHEN the wealth of Omaha It computed conservatively It Is found that South Omaha produces one-fifth or more of It and, property values Considered, about the same proportion must be credited to the city on the ' , south. ' w' Mutual interests of the two cities In their manufacturing indus tries, public utilities and railroads bind them closer together than even some suburbs of Omaha are bound to the parent city. They are literally bound with "hoops of steel," since the railroads make little or no distinction in their yards, and when an industry locates '"In Omaha" it makes no difference whether It is on trackage within the 'limits of the cfty on the south or in Omaha proper. But South Omaha is a separate corporation, maintaining its own city government, which is somewhat different from the government of Omaha, and this individuality Sonth Omaha guards jealously. ' With the mention of the packing industry Omaha points with pride to the rapidly growing city, the big smokestacks and buildings which proclaim South Omaha's push and 'Industry. On the other band. South Omaha leans up against Omaha for the entertatnment of the throngs of people who dally visit the home of the packing indus try.' Everyone hurries up to Omaha for hotel accommodations, to do a part of their trading, to attend the ball games, the theaters and to be entertained. Although South Omaha has its excellent social circle, and men of ability in every line, Omaha has been the mothering place of all these, and a condition in South Omaha prevails whlh would not exist it the two cities were twenty oniles apart. When the dream of a western market for the live stock grown In the TransmlBSOurl country first dawned in the mind of W.. A. Paxton and his numerous 'energetic contemporaries, the present location seemed a long way removed; but now the' two cities are heart to heart. Twenty-five years have been sufficient to wipe out all the in tervening space. Twenty-five years ago a western market was a dream and Stouth Omaha was a tangle of very rough hills on the banks of the Mis souri. The site of the present buildings and stacks, with the evi dence of their thrift about them, was a cornfield. In the early spring of 1884 a party of men, Alex H. Swan, John A. Crelghton, Thomas Swobe, W. A. Paxton, P. E. Her, J. A. Mc Shane and Frank Murphy, rode out of Omaha four miles to the south along the line of the Union Pacific right-of-way and selected the best spot they could find, a field level enough to be farmed among a tan gle of wild hollows filled with underbrush. Here the engineers staked out, according to a plan, the cattle and hog yards and marked the site of two small packing houses. Railroad yards were planned in what was considered generous proportion even by the most san guine promoters of the enterprise. ' In the summer of that year the company, planning a packing plant, broke ground for the first building. In August the yards were opened, cattle and hogs in moderate numbers begau to arrive. 'The Union Stock Yards company, Limited, was a reality; but so small that the' older markets could scracely be brought to recognize it in any way. They called It a water trough, or at best, a feed station. I The loyalty of the western cattlemen, who wanted a nearer mar ket, assisted the new enterprise quite as much as the- enthusiasm of the promoters. Cattle were shipped until they could not be used and had to be reloaded for markets farther east. This did not dis hearten the western ranchers, but they cheerfully accepted the incon venience for the sake of assisting. This desire for a market was soon recognised. . O. H. Hammond, one of the few big packers of those days, first leased the small plant which had been constructed by the Union Stock Yards company in 1884 and later bought, and greatly enlarged its capacity. Bhlpplng to Omaha increased greatly from the day the Hammond house opened Us doors. Fowler Bros., one of the old powers in the packing business, followed close behind the Hammond company and bought the other small plant. They at once built a big plant and called it the Anglo-American Provision company. Later It was again enlarged and took the name of the Omaha Pack ing company. It was opened in November, 1886. The receipt of 447,019 bead of live stock in 1886 amply Justified the erection of the two plants. Thomas J. Llpton, one of the greatest provision dealers of Eng land, established a plant for the production of export bacon during the same year. It was a partial failure, because In those days the farmers refused to sell their light hogs. The plant was bought and enlarged to a general packing business by the Armour-Cudahy Pack ing company. Later this plant became the Cudahy Packing company, which has since conducted the business. 1 Swift and Company came the next year, 1887, and have since conducted a steadily increasing business. Ten years laer, Armour & Co.'s plant, the largest in South Omaha, was erected. Three years ago the Omaha Packing company purchased the Hammond property, which had for many years bet-a idle, and at present it is completely repaired and remodeled and one of the most compact and convenient of the packing houses. A summary of the receipts and shipments for twenty-four years Is also of interest, rhowlng what percentage of the total shipment of live stock finds Its way into the dressed meat department of the packing industry: a comparative statement. The first table shows the total receipts by years since the opening of the yards. The second shows the ship ments' of stock on the hoof. TOT AI KII0XXPT8 OT STOCK TOB 84 TUBS. Xorsas a TEAM Osttla. Xogs. KlNp. Mul.- 18b4 88,603 3,888 6,693 . 489 lfe88 11S.983 159 624 19,484 8,027 1886 148,616 447,019 41390 8,999 18(47 83f,377 1,066,684 79,488 3,344 18SS 365,983 1,863,647 178,138 6,871 1689 473,094 1,884,891 168,517 7,650 1890 615,337 1,708,783 163,873 6,069 1891 eOl.OOa 1,637,387 169,865 8,761 1898 766,069 1,613,384 188,688 14,113 1893 858,456 1406,451 868,873 18,84a . 1894 881,618 1,938,677 943,946 8,894 1898 686,103 1,186,788 804.870 7,077 1896 688,678 1,816,370 368,005 9,347 i 1897 810,949 1,610,981 687,160 6,678 1898 818,944 8,101,387 1,086,136 10,398 1899 837,663 8,816,488 1,086,319 34,866 1900 B88,804 8,800,986 1,876 776 69,645 , 1901. 1 818,003 . 8,414.068 1.314.841 . 36,391 ' 1908 1.010,815 8,847.488 1,748,539 48,079 1903 1,071,177 8,831 067 1-863,763 68,889 1904 944,198 8,899,687 1,764,365 46,845 1905 1,088,398 8,893,956 1,970,509 45,488 1906 . ........ 1,079,373 8,393,661 8,165,118 48,869 19OT J... ..'.. lllSBJlS 8,853,658 8.038,777 44,080 T0tU .18,638,160 39,005,918 18,967,356 607,898 TOT All BHXPMEirTS OT STOCK I"0 84 TSASS. Horata TEAKS. Cattla. Hogs. Shaap. Mulaa. 184 ..... 83.45S 708 8.U09 "418 1885.'!!.,.,... M.S44 75,813 8,316 1,608 1886 ! .!.! . . ". 74 617 186,999 19,146 . " 1 804 : 188T ! !!!!... 166,875 164,874 - 69,468 1,835 lBb! 818 283 319,096 188,718 .4,094. isa! . 886,757 176.818 98,558 6,850 ylS ! 889 E67 . 888 763 90,681 . 4,660 iSii .. 869,673 aaa,860 87,aaa t.isi 1898 !!!!!!!!!. v 867,468 383.M87 83,800 18,009 lo'. 0,sb9 3o3,64U 96,879 9,118 I lfc4 W4U,M6 404Jl 114,161 6,111 Ittao to,v4 14,iy DUD 1896 841.SS4 Yx.OO 1411,444 4,6iJ 19 bbo,l5 6,Uvl 800,01 8,4aJ lowt bua,l4 " 1,044 tu,ivi V,o48 IbkV fcU,V4 Uo,8 i4u,ai4 30,lsl 1U ,ntf b,a6 Imm 44 e,o4a luvl UobuO lu,JUl irtfc.,01 i4,od 1908 364,683 169,708 883,250 39,959 19ud 301,Jol 60,809 fa98,199 61,L0j 1904 800,770 aiO.Vb 4o,78J laoS 314,1(73 17U.8J8 1 01o,7S4 43,878 1906 303,348 170,663 1,176,043 39,968 1907 361,bOU lli,S77 1,084,997 44,61 Totals 6,811,863 4,030,813 8,973,746 459,333 The difference between the receipts and the shipments is obvi ously the number of animals slaughtered in Omaha. Since the pack ing houses were established in South Omaha, 10,426,287 cattle, 35, 985,605 hogs and 9,993,610 sheep have been consumed in the pro duction of meat products. To accomplish this enormous conversion of live stock Into food products the labor of from 5.000 to 6,000 men has been constantly required. This class of labor has gone far to make up the character istic citizens of South Omaha. These men come from twenty-seven different countries, speaking as many languages and more dialects. The Bohemians, the Poles and the Irish predominate of the foreign members of a population of 35,000. The city of South Omaha Is coincident with the establishment of the Union Stock Yards company. It did not spring into existence as a village until October 21, 1886, over two years after the establish ment of the yards. In the meantime, however, many people built residences and established small stores on lower N street. Devel opment In this direction was rapid from the start. On the date men tioned a village organization was effected. E. P. Savage, who was later lieutenant governor and succeeded Charles Dietrich as governor when the latter was elected senator, was chairman of the first vil lage board. This board consisted of C. M. Hunt, W. O. Sloane, I. Breyton and T. J. Sliter. Dan O'Connell was village clerk, John R. Grlce, attorney, and M. J. DeGraff, treasurer. In 1887 the village had grown to such proportions that It was reorganized as a city of the second class. E. P. Savage was elected mayor; E. K. Wells, clerk; C. M. Huntr treasurer, and J. R. Grlce, attorney. The first city council was composed of John N. Burke, Dan Rafferty, Thomas Geary, F. M. Smith, Bruno Strathman and Dave Lusher. Tho year following the class was again raised and the city was granted the dignity accorded to cities above 5.000 population. At this election W. G. Sloane was elected mayor; Thomas Geary, treas urer; Thomas Hoctor, clerk;' E. H. , Dowd, attorney, and George Ruther, police Judge. The following men have in succession been mayors of South Omaha: E. P. Savage, W. G. Sloane, C. P. Miller, O. E. Walker, Ed Johnston, Thomas H. Ensor, A. R. Kelly, Frank Koutsky, Thomas Hoctor and the present incumbent, Frank Koutsky, re-elected after an interim of two years. Every one of these names will recall to the people of South Omaha many incidents of the time of each. The succession to the city treasurershlp has been M. J. DeGraff, C. M. Hunt, Thomas Geary, Thomas Hoctor, F. A. Broadwell, Frank Koutsky, E. L. Ubwe and C. A. Melcher. While these facts of the city's history have assumed their place, the city itself has reached a population of 35,000, and Is clamoring for more liberal charter privileges under the state laws. The ex penditures for its government have reached the sum of $218,000 annually. Besides this the public Improvements have been at an ex penditure of nearly $1,500,000. The bonded indebtedness at the close of the last fiscal year is estimated at $1,329,488. Several hundred thousand dollars' of the city's obligations have become due in the last five years and have been paid. The special bonded in debtedness is $41,045. Some Idea of the proportions of the city of South Omaha may be gleaned from the following table showing the actual valuation for taxation purposes since 1903. This indicates a steady growth of about $1,000,000 each year. Taar. Valuation. Taar. 1903- 4 817.633,186.71 1906-7 1904-6 18,733,888.38 1907-8 1906-6 81,189,003.00 1908-8 Valuation. ,...891,986,100.63 , ... 88,066,837.34 .... 83,636,190.64 Of the final figure, $23,636,190.84, some idea of the valuation of the packing industry and of the public service corporation may be gathered from their assessments, which are as follows: tTnton Stock Tarda eompany Cudabjr Packing company Omaha Paokin; oompany O. K. Hanunoad Packing- company... Axmoa Si Oo B wlft and Company Omaha watar company Omaha XUaotrio tight and Powar Omaha a C. B. St. By. Co Omaha Ctaa oompany Xabraaka Talaphona oompany Total BallroaOa (atata aaaaaamant) . . JaSaUroads (prlvato llsaa) .8 4.800,000 1,879,976 644,600 460,000 ., 1,896,500 . 1,161,400 748,000 175,000 600,000 160 OOO 160,000 .$10,768,376 . 1,663,950 81,540 Total 9 1,686,490 . The valuation placed on tho city's homes and the private prop- , erty of individuals is therefore only a little more than $10,000,000. This is tho report of the tax commissioner and may be read as low enoughs To accommodate the business involved in corporations of such magnitude, South Omaha has four national banks; the Union Stock Yards National, the South Omaha National, the Packers National and the Live Stock National. In the four banks $10,000,000 Is deposited. The first one established was the Union Stock Yards bank and the others in the order named. ' The packing plants, the Union Stock yards and the banks be long particularly to South Omaha. All the publio service corpora tions are Omaha institutions. South Omaha depends on Omaha for water, light, power, gas and street railway service. Further, South Omaha has no hotels which may compare jor compete with Omaha. The theaters are small. The city lately erected a good city hall at an expense of $75,000. It boasts a strictly modern and new city Jail. It has one large ele vator, an alfalfa food products mill, a malting plant and a brewery. One hundred small retail stores and markets supply the city's needs. To chronicle the works of the Individuals who have figured prominently in the affairs of South Omaha would be to produce vol umes of interesting history. All of the men who have been promi nent enough to be remembered have been constant In their faith to the city and untiring in labors in its behalf. For this reason the city has always been mounting to a higher level, with none of the usual ups and downs of the ordinary city. Billions on Deposit in the Mud Banks of America &XCZZPTS. Cattla 18.638,160 Botra 39 0)5,918 & i,7,3a SKXPMZaTTS. Cattla 8,91163 Botra 4,080,313 8acp Ms 3,. 46 To meet the demands of the increased shipments and the con venience of the several plants during these years, the Union Stock Yards company enlarged Us yards on every side until the estimated dally capacity is 30.000 cattle, 40,000 hogs and 60,000 sheep, besides accommodations for several thousand horses. Such a capacity has not yet been taxed, but in sheep and hogs it has been approached on e few dates. Ike growth, of the packing industry might best Indicated by NEW YORK, Sept. 26. Just why Amer icana have not begun to ' draw upon their reserve of $50,000,000,000 which Ilea on deposit in mudbanks Involves . study of the national temperament. t Fifty years ago the peat fuel propaganda was started in this country with the publication of a widely circulated pamphlet by George H. Pollock of New York, who urged that in view of the rapid destruction of the North American forests and the high price of coal anthracite then retailed at $8 a- ton in New York the practically inexhaustible peat bogs should be drawn upon. Since then the enthusiasm of scientific and en gineering theorists on the subject has flared up on an average about every half decade. Just the other day a government publication called attention to the commercial possibility of gouging out a swamp or a mud puddle almost any where and pioduclng limitless quantities of methyl alcohol suitable for running automobiles. The usual line of valuable by-products could, of course, be predicted. During the coal strike of 1903 there was talk of digging warm comfort out of the cold swamps of the eastern and central portions of the country. That was the time when experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology proved the theoretical points that had been alleged frequently in favor of peat. About 1898-99 magazines and newspapers published articles descriptive of peat progress in Germany, Holland, Sweden and other countries of Europe. So It goes back through the memory of the years in which there was always an Edward Atkin son or a Thomas H. Leavltt to tell the American people how much they were missing by preferring to use coal at from $3 to $8 a ton when they might Just as well have briquettes of moulded or compressed mud that would be three-fifths as good at certainly less than half the cost. Between 1860 and 1875 forty-elx peat fuel companies are known to have started business. And the stubborn fact has always remained that Americans have not wanted something that is three-fifths as good even at one-third the cost. So long as there is coal, why monkey with mud? After the cream is gone then it will be time to dis cuss ways and means of utilizing the skimmed mlllr. That is the attitude which has kept the reserve of mud fuel, practically untouched in spite of half a century of agitation in favor of drawing immediately upon It to the saving of forests and coal mines. In Europe it is different. People have to economize in the land of northern Europe. Con sequently Holland scrapes annually out of its bogs about a million tons of vegetable mould, and in-' cldentally brings li to cultivation about 1,000 acres of new land, excellent for market gardening. Sweden makes each year a larger draft upon its quaking equivalent of 3,000,000,000 tons of steam coal. About 2,000,000 tons of peat is now consumed annually in Swedish industries. The Irish are considering ways and means of making a hole faster in the 33,972,000,000 tons of Inflammable turf add mud that cover about one ninth of the total surface of the Emerald Isle. The whole Industrial future of Ireland may He in the utilization of this hitherto neglected source of power. The Germans, with their many Inherited uses of the material and their continued experimenta tion, are drawing rapidly, but not wastefully, upon their comparatively limited supply. The various uses of peat multiply abroad, as Messrs. Bjorling and Glssing have noted exhaus tively in their recent book on "Peat." About 100 factories in Germany are each producing annually in excess of 100,000 tons of briquetted peat.' In Bavaria for some years locomotives have burned mud fuel. - , Producer gas from peat is employed' in many Swedish metallurgical works and elsewhere. In various quarters it has been found feasible to se cure not only gas suitable for fuel and illumina tion, but charcoal and such by-products as are familiar In gas manufacture everywhere tar, il luminating oil, paraffin, benzol, ammonia, sulphur and all the rest. Methylated spirits have been evoked out of foreign bogs in salable quantities, and paper is a possibility, although the factory established in 1903 at Cel bridge, Ireland, for making wrapping paper from peat has not proved successful and has been dismantled, ' Peat is coked by electricity at Bergen, Norway and other places In the leading continental countries. Meantime American bogs; ihe deepest and widest in the world, not even excepting those of Ireland, some of them of a depth of eighty or ninety feet, continue to quake undisturbed. A good many peat fuel companies have been organ ized in the last few years. One with an ambitious prospectus was Incorporated In Massachusetts last spring. Some few of these companies are going concerns, but not many of them have gone in very deeply unless into the pockets of Investors. Reasons why this great fuel reserve of the United States, whose unknown value might as plausibly be set at $100,000,000,000 as at $50, 000,000,000, remains practically Intact after fifty years of agitation are partly psychological, partly mechanical. If the psychological cause were not uppermost Yankee Ingenuity might have solved the mechanical difficulties long ago. Americans are not ready to burn mud yet, not because the mud will not burn reasonably well. . Peat fuel at its best is just something that Is nearly as good, and the average American engi neer grumbles if he is not supplied with the best Peat fuel baa been used experimentally on railroad systems of the United States. An early experiment was In 1866, when briquetted mud was used on the old Western railway of Massa chusetts. It has been found to develop & good heat, and to make.no smoke, soot, dust or clink ers, but the engineers are accustomed to coal, the railroads are equipped for receiving and distribu ting coal and a complete standardization of opera ting practice has been made possible, the use of coal being universal. Three years ago a New England railroad com pany burned peat fuel for a time on some of its shifting and suburban locomotives. The locomo tives moved satisfactorily upon the Impulse of the unaccustomed fuel, but the engineers and firemen objected to the bulkiness of the big perforated cylinders of dried mud. There were various minor objections. A fuel, in short, which to sup plant coal would have to show Its superiority in practically every respect proved Inferior in so many respects that the railroad's superintendent of motive power, after a short trial, quickly re stored the standard fuel on all the locomtives. This New England railroad, operated at a dis tance from the Pennsylvania coal fields, might conceivably be run somewhat less expensively by burning up the swamps adjacent to its tracks. But It won't In all probability be so run until the price of coal becomes absolutely prohibitive. Even the minor Industrial usea of dried and compressed mud, such as are common in Europe, are hard to develop 1 nthis country, simply because ingenuity has not yet solved the problem of get ting the peat out in the American way. That means on a large scale, with labor-saving machin ery for every process and with an elaborate system of distribution, In countries where peasant labor can be em ployed to supplement the machine briquettes and other peat preparations in comparatively limited quantities can be produced cheaply with machin ery that is admittedly imperfect. But labor costs are such in the United States that until a prac tically perfect mechanical system has been devised coal will not have a formidable competitor in peat. The problem of an invention to revolutionize American industry by utilizing the riches of the swamps la In fact somewhat analogous to that of aerial navigation. There are all sorts of flying machines. Everybody knows that sooner or later a type will be produced that will really fly, In a commercial sense. Numerous processes and special types of ma chinery have been devised to put peat econom ically into the manufacturer's and householder's coal bin. Some of them are already good enough for European use. But the practically perfect system is yet to come. How to get peat out in commercial quantities from the wet, quaggy bog, to drive from it the very high percentage of moisture it contains with out in bo doing also driving away some of Its val uable chemical constituents which are chief fac tors in Us heat-producing value, and bow to pre pare it in a form such that conservative engineers and firemen will prefer it to the convenient lump of coal to which both they and their machinery (Continued on Page Two.).
