SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 679 



"During the last two months one packing firm had two representa- 

 tives in one or the other of the Chinese ports through which supplies to 

 the belligerent armies in Manchuria have been passing; another at 

 Mukden, cheering our Russian friends with visions of ChiCc^go t)eef in 

 ship loads; still another in Japan, where the native supply of meats is 

 becoming exhausted — which is a fair representation of what all packing 

 firms are doing. 



"So much for Asia. In Africa there was one man going down the 

 west coast to Cape Town while another was coming up the eastern side 

 of the continent on his way back from the cape. 



"In Europe there were at one time six of their men headquarters in 

 Chicago; another man was in South America; two in Central America; 

 two traveling throughout the West Indies islands; one in Mexico and one 

 in Porto Rico. 



"In addition to these special representatives making foreign trips 

 the firm has local salaried representatives or agents in every market of 

 importance throughout the world. These trips are in themselves un- 

 un profitable. They involve a big expenditure in time and money. But 

 the packers seem to be alive to the necessity of providing a large outlet 

 abroad for the increasing supply of packing house products, and no doubt 

 hope to benefit in the future from their efforts now., 



"In the arraignment of the packers a great many sensational and 

 untruthful statements are now appearing in the public press. 



"For instance, in an article in the April number of Success, entitled 

 "The Private Car Abuses,' by Samuel Merwin, he makes the statement 

 that dead hogs are removed from the stock yards and rendered into lard, 

 and that tne packers are deliberately selling diseased meats, Inspection 

 having been discontinued. Any one with the slightest knowledge of this 

 line of business knows these statements are not founded on fact, every 

 animal being government inspected. 



"Mr. Merwin further states that this kind of product is forced upon 

 the people because the packers control the transportation of all perish- 

 able products. 



"I asked one of these writers of fiction why he did not write the truth, 

 and he coolly informed me that the truth did not pay because the people 

 wanted something sensational. 



"Let us exercise conservatism in our judgment of the packers as well 

 as in sheep feeding and we will be more happy and more prosperous for 

 it. 



