152 FARMERS' UNION AND FEDERATION 



"They prorate the funds used in debauching congressional com- 

 mittees and other governmental agencies on the same basis. While 

 many were aware that these things were being done by the packers, 

 these facts have never been brought to the knowledge of the whole 

 people, as it has been done by the public hearings of the Federal Trades 

 Commission in the investigation conducted by Francis J. Heney. 



"If the packers are the beneficent agencies that their advertising 

 asserts, why should they have made the fight that they did make to 

 prevent the facts from being made public by a national governmental 

 agency? Why should they have broken their agreement of December 

 6, 1916, made by them with the Market Committee of the American 

 Live Stock Association, to wit : 



"To withdraw their opposition to an investigation by the Federal 

 Trades Commission, of the packing industry. Subsequent to the agree- 

 ment with the Market Commission, they defeated the efforts of the 

 producers to have a resolution passed by Congress appropriating funds 

 with which to make the investigation. The appropriation was secured 

 only after President Wilson had ordered the Federal Trades Commis- 

 sion to make the investigation and in spite of the continued opposition 

 of the packers. 



"The last of July, 1917, Mr. Hoover stated to me that : 'The Chi- 

 cago packers had not only a national reputation, but an international 

 reputation that smelt to heaven. I would not invite one of the large 

 packers to a seat at my council table.' 



"Within thirty days from the time of making this statement, the 

 packers and their allied interests were in charge of the Food Adminis- 

 tration. Within four months, Mr. Hoover's appointees were telling 

 the producers that, 'The high cost of living did not permit them to 

 make a profit on this year's finished live stock ; that they must remem- 

 ber the consumer and make up their minds to patriotically practico 

 self-denial.' 



"Under the terms of the packers' license, as made by the Food 

 Administration, the packers are permitted to have a profit on capital 

 owned of from thirteen to nineteen per cent. It is true that the pack- 

 ers may be foregoing some measure of their accustomed profit, but the 

 producer is unable to realize how the rate of profit mentioned calls for 

 any practice of self-denial on the part of the packer. You cannot har- 

 monize with the rattlesnake. It is either kill or be killed. 



"Recent occurrences have proven that the packers and their allies, 

 the house of Morgan, the Rockefellers, are actuated by the same prin- 

 ciples that move the Hohenzollcrns and Ilapsburgs of Europe ; the one 



