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Show i THE PACKERS AND THE CATTLE-f CATTLE-f MEN. I S By J. Ogden Armour. $ rho packers aro always In the mar- V ktt for cattle. Thoy havo largo 5 plunts. which If allowed to Ho idle I . do so at great loss. As long as they 6 W pay the top price always with an I eye to tho selling market for the product pro-duct on the other sldo of tho slaughter slaugh-ter house they get their cholco of tho cattle. But if buyers for tho largo packers should combine to depress prices, what would happen? The moment mo-ment prices wont to a point that promised prom-ised a little extra profit on tho slaughtered slaugh-tered product, tho buyer for small packers, for shipment and for speculation, specu-lation, would sweep tho market, and back prices would, go over tho heads of a badly rattled' "combine." Thero may bo an Impression that tho buying capacity of all except representatives re-presentatives of tho large packers is ' too limited to havo much effect on tho market. Tho best answer to that lies in tho ofllcial figures. In 1904, tho receipts re-ceipts of cattle at tho Chicago Union Stock Yards were 3,259,185 head; of these, 1,320,332 head were reshlpped to feeders, tho seaboard packers, to Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Indianapolis, other cities and to Europe. During the past year, 1905, receipts were 3,411,029 and tho shipments were 1,405,708. Thus more than 40 per cent of tho cattle received were bought for shipment. It is important to remember In this connection tho fact that thero is, not a slaughtering establishmetn In this country that is regularly run at its full capacity. See what this means so far as tho control of tho cattle market by , any "combine" is concerned. Tho in stant cattlo prices became depressed so that thero was an attractive mar- gin tho smaller packers and killers would jump in, get tho cattle and kill ' extensively. Thero aro hundreds of , these smaller houses which make a business of waiting upon tho turns of tho market for tho hour of opportunity, opportu-nity, killing at certain times two, three and four times as many cattlo I as thoy do when prices rulo above a certain low point. If tho packers could regulate tho cattlo market they would prefer to havo a steady market with an oven Inflow of cattle about' tho same number num-ber each day. Their profits depona upon tho rapid turning of tho money invested, upon shortening as much as possible tho period between tho mo-I mo-I ment when steers arrive and tho time when their beef Is sold. When their plants lie Idlo thoy lose. Every manufacturer's man-ufacturer's aim is to keep his plant in oven and continuous operation. Right hero It should be remembered that tho largo packer must have, every day, a certain amount of high-grado high-grado cattle. Tho only way ho can get this is to go into tho market when it opens. If lie were to hang f back ho would get left on this Impor- ativo material; iio would got only tho "tail ends." His only protection In this particular is to buy early. Tho sort of buying methods attributed to "trust buyers" would leave him in the lurch on this score. t An Important chapter In any com- J prehonslvo history of tho development i of tho cattlo business would bo tho 1 chapter on cattlo loan companies, r These companies assisted to develop 4 and stimulate and make a business of cattlo raising in a measure difficult to overeultmate. Among tho first ono of those was tho Omaha Cattlo Loan t company, organized nine years ago by Thomas B. McPherson. Tho pack- ' ers backed it with their money and credit as they backed others at i Omaha, Kansas City, St. Joseph and I Chicago for selfish reasons, of course. Theso loan companies, managed man-aged by men who know cattlo, made a specialty of loaning money on cat- j tie and thus put lifo Into tho Industry. Indus-try. Beforo their time, cattle-raising on a largo scale was practically closed to tho man of small capital. Tho local banks, whoro thero wero banks, woro too weak to take tho risk; but with tho cattlo loan companies in business tho capable cattlemen wero ablo to go into tho business on a largo scale. These companies helped develop tho growing of higher grado stock. An idea of tho importanco of this foaturo may bo gathered from tho fact that tho Omaha concern loaned $10,000,000 annually almost entirely on ranch and feeder cattlo. True, theso companies aro all out of business now put out by two causes. Enforcement of tho no-fenco law by tho United States government has made loaning on largo herds extra hazardous. Then tho prosperity oi the west, to which tho cattlo business, stimulated by tho cattle loan companies, com-panies, has contributed no small share, has filled tho local banks with money and has enabled the local banker to loan tho monoy on cattlo that used to come from theso cattlo loan companies. Now consider recent low prices. millions of acres surrounding him. if It was public land ho used It for nothing. noth-ing. If it was Indian reservation land ho rented It for a cent or a fraction frac-tion of a cent an aero a year. With a barbed wlro fence ho could lncloso what ho needed and go Into tho cattle cat-tle business on a largo scalo. A few years ago tho United States government began to enforce tho law against fencing theso lands. Tho range cattleman has not found and cannot find a substltuto for tho fenced rango of which ho has been dispossessed. dispos-sessed. Without fences his hords cannot bo kept together. This Increase In-crease In tho hazard of tho rango cattlo cat-tlo business has mado this class of cattlo a poorer loan risk. Loans havo been withdrawn, thus imposing an additional ad-ditional burden upon tho cattleman, Therefore, ho has bowed to tho Inevitable Inevi-table and has broken up his herds. Some of tho cattlo from rango hords so dlsporscd havo found a market among western feeders, but tho bulk of them havo come to market and FOURTEEN TRUTH havo been sent to tho slaughtor houses. Then, too, tho wonderful abundance of grass has helped to nothing and tho steers mado good beef. Sometimes thoy competed with cholco fed steers for tho export trade. Fewer ncres will produco a steer on a western farm, but acres, many or few, will represent much monoy $5 to $100 an ncro Invested In tho bare H land, and that will mean a costlier steer. .H Sheep prices nro now high very H high. Thero is n big demand for both H mutton nnd wool nnd tho supply docs not keep paco with it. Hog prices H havo averaged very high for a period H covering tho past four years. Now, H tho handling of hogs is almost as big H a part of tho packers' business as Is H tho killing of cattlo and tho sheep H department Is not much behind clthor, H of those branches. If all tho packers, H or any of them, woro In a combino to depress prices, why should thoy no- gleet sheep and hogs? To do this H would bo to fall far short of tho busl- ncss shrowdncss with which their en- H emics credit them. In tho last fow H years raisers of sheep and hogs liavo H universally mado great profits whllo H tho cattlemen havo suffered to a con- H siderablo extent and all bocauso of H natural conditions wholly beyond tho H A Quartette of Laugh makers in the big musical extravaganza, I "The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast. I Natural causes havo continued to hold cattlo prices down with tho break of 1903. Chief among theso causes has been tho breaking up of tho big western west-ern and northwestern rango herds consequent upon enforcement of tho no-fenco law by tho United States government. Since tho buffalo gavo way to tho steer on tho western plains in tho lato seventies, a considerable proportion of tho beef cattlo supply has come from tho western ranges. As tho packing pack-ing industry developed and, by making mak-ing an assured market, converted rango cattlo raising from an adventure adven-ture into a settled business, tho cattleman cattle-man learned that It was bettor to fenco tho ranges than to herd tho cattlo cat-tlo on tho open plains. All around him in Montana, Western Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and tho Dakotas wero millions of acres of grass land fit for nothing but cattlo grazing and fit for that only whoro water could be had. By acquiring ownership of a small tract surrounding surround-ing or adjacent to a water supply ho could practically control thousands or mako 1905 almost a record year in tho number of cattlo sent to market. Tho west, from Texas to Canada, has been literally a garden as to pasturage. Theso cattlo havo been a weight on tho market for tho past two years. During tho past season 380,000 head of rango cattlo havo been market ed in Chicago alono a larger number num-ber than was over received in this market during a similar period except ex-cept In 1894. At all tho market points for western cattlo tho receipts will total about three-quarters of a million head. Very many of tho big rango hords havo already been broken up. Noxt year will, I think, see fewer rango cattlo in the markot than this year, and tho year after still fewer. If ono wero in a prophetic mood ho might say that theso conditions will produco In a fow years much higher priced cattlo and consequently higher priced beef. Wo shall continue to raise beof cattlo in this country, but at greater expense. It has taken, on the rango, ten to twenty acres to produco a steor, but those acres cost practically control of tho packers. Tho cattlo business has been In a transitional condition tho subject of fundamental fundamen-tal changes which have thrown Im-menso Im-menso numbers of cattlo on tho markot mar-kot and forced a period of low prices.-This prices.-This is tho wholo story. Sober-minded men novor would cry "monopoly" in relation to tho .business .busi-ness of tho packers if they understood under-stood that business. Whllo tho meat Industry is probably tho largest in tho country, it is loss known than many of far less consequence. Its character charac-ter and magnitudo havo novor been comprehensively presented to tho public. A comprehensive and au-' thorltatlvo compendium of this industry indus-try Is to bo found nowhoro outsldo of government reports. Unfortunately for a clear understanding of many questions of public moment, theso reports re-ports aro not popular and widely read" litoraturo compared with tlm "best': sellers" of tho book stores. Tho last census figures aro now flvo years bid,' of course tho facts thoy express aro (Continued on page 10) . il The Paokers and tho Cattlemen. I (Continued from page 3) I still "now" to a majority of tho peo- I plo but becauso thoy are tho only I ofllclal figures extant they will bo I used to Illustrate points In this artl- I clo. The conditions they reflect still I holds in tho main. Any changes that I might bo mado in them would I strengthen rather than weaken tho I packers' case. I This alleged "Beef Trust" cannot bo I seriously regarded as monopolizing I tho dressed beef and packing Indus- I try In tho face of ofllclal government I figures, backed by tho investigation I recently mado under Mr. Garfield, I chief of tho bureau of corporations I of tho Department of Commerce. It I Is admitted now, oven by most of Its I critics, that tho so-called "Beef I Trust" handles less than fifty per I cont of tho beef and packing Industry I of tho country. This Is tho statement in Mr. Garfield's report, and, as will bo shown later, that tho industry holds this moiety of tho business only by tho advantage of foresight, superior organization and superior business methods. But these advantages ad-vantages aro not enough to glvo such a "comblno" a monopoly of the dressed beef and meat packing Industry. Indus-try. Tho industry Is too widely distributed, dis-tributed, is too deeply rooted in too many widely separated localities to bo monopolized. Without having analyzed tho figures in this express rolation, I feel safo in assorting that tho packing Industry holds a higher relative position as to valuo of pro- duct in more states and cities than ! any other Industry in tho country. ! There were, in 1900, 921 meat pack ing establishments in tho United States. This figure did not include establishments that slaughtered only; those were classified separately In tho I census reports of 1900; it included I only thoso that both slaughtered and performed tho other functions classed ! under tho head of packing and utill- j zatlon of by-products, and thoro wore ' 921 of them. I These packing houses wore dls- I trlbuted among forty-two of tho forty- I nine states and territories, and tho District of Columbia. All of these i states except nino had threo or more packing houses. In twenty-six of them tho Industry amounted, back in 1900, to moro than ono million dollars each annually. Saturday Evening Post. |