A LARGE-SCALE BUSINESS 



373 



States (Figs. 74 and 75). One of the severest indictments brought 

 against the competitive regime by the Socialists is the wastes of 

 competition. The meat packing business, as now conducted by 

 the five large-scale packing concerns is a business which has gone 

 a long way towards eliminating the wastes incident to competition. 

 And in arriving at the point of " large-scale production," the meat 

 packing industry has challenged certain economic and legal 

 doctrines of the country. 



A Large-Scale Business. While there are many small slaugh- 

 tering establishments throughout the United States and an increas- 

 ing number of municipal abattoirs, yet the high position of size 



FIG. 76. Evolution of the packing industry. The first plant of a big Chicago packer. 



attained by five of the largest packers makes the packing industry 

 in reality a large-scale business (Figs. 76 and 77) . It is estimated 

 that five companies now kill 70 per cent of the live stock slaughtered 

 by all packers and butchers engaged in interstate commerce, which 

 amounts to forty per cent of the total meat supply of the country. 

 The largest single packer handles 15 per cent of the total meat 

 supply of the country. According to the federal government's 

 figures, there is only one packer, outside the five large ones, who 

 slaughters as much as one per cent of the interstate total of cattle, 

 and only nine who slaughter as much as one per cent of the inter- 

 state total of hogs. In other words, the 30 per cent of -the live stock 

 slaughtered by "small-scale business" concerns is slaughtered by a 

 large number of relatively very small concerns. Of course there 

 is a vast volume of cattle and hogs slaughtered by local butchers 



