CHAPTER XXIII 



LIVE-STOCK AND MEAT INDUSTRY 



Introductory. By reason of the large capital invested, the 

 number of persons employed, and the value of the output, 

 the meat packing industry of the United States ranks high 

 among the great and fundamental industries of the country. 

 Since American cotton, wheat and meat play such an import- 

 ant role in clothing and feeding the world, the meat and 

 live-stock situation is one not merely of national but also of inter- 

 national concern. 



The shifting of live-stock production to the open lands of the 

 West and the concomitant growth of large centralized packing 

 houses are the two outstanding features of the meat question in 

 the United States. Five great packing house companies have 

 risen above all competitors to a prominent position. Since the 

 meat packing industry is one not protected by patents or monopoly, 

 privileges or exclusive franchises of any kind, but represents the 

 free play of competitive forces in American industrial evolu- 

 tion, the rise of five packing companies to a position of such 

 vast and far-reaching power presents in concrete form certain 

 unsolved economic and legal questions of public policy. Our 

 eighteenth century legal philosophy of competition among small 

 units does not square with our present-day economic facts of 

 large scale business of efficient competition eliminating the 

 weaker competitor. 



This chapter aims to present in larger outline the basic factors 

 involved, since the issue presented to the country by the meat 

 packing industry is one of public concern and one which needs 

 constructive rather than destructive criticism. 



The Live-stock Situation. The live-stock question andthemeat 

 packing question are, from the public standpoint, merely two 

 aspects of the one problem of furnishing to the public a continuing 

 supply of animal food at fair prices. The welfare of the live-stock 

 producers and the welfare of the packers are of public concern 

 merely as they influence the permanent and practical problem of 

 producing meat and distributing the same to the consumers, the 

 meat to be of the quality and quantity desired, at the time desired, 

 and at a fair price for each service rendered. 



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