"BIG SIX" AND THEIR CAPITALIZATION 370 



machinery, and meat packing. Whether this instinct is now wise 

 or unwise, whether well founded or ill founded, is not a profitable 

 question to debate. The existence of such an instinct must be 

 taken for granted. The existence of this instinct explains the per- 

 sistent demand on the part of the people that the government "do 

 something" with this great economic problem. Granting that the 

 mere bigness of these various large-scale industrial corporations 

 gives them power, does it also give them autocratic power? And do 

 they use this big power so that society benefits thereby or so that 

 society suffers thereby? These are some of the politico-economic 

 questions underlying this phase of our nation's development. 



The meat packing industry has been subject to many investi- 

 gations, State and Federal. Out of this vast mass of material of 

 lawsuits, hearings, investigations, injunctions, regulations, and so 

 on, two investigations only will be reviewed here, since they bring 

 out the fundamental issues which must be faced and settled. 



The Garfield Report. The Report of the Commissioner of 

 Corporations in 1905, known as the Garfield Report, was made in 

 response to a Resolution passed by the House of Representatives 

 March 7, 1904. The Resolution stated the object of the investiga- 

 tion as follows : 



"Resolved, that the Secretary of Commerce and Labor be, and he is 

 hereby, requested to investigate the cause of the low prices of beef cattle in 

 the United States since July first, nineteen hundred and three, and the un- 

 usually large margins between the prices of beef cattle and the selling prices 

 of fresh beef, and whether the said conditions have resulted in whole or in 

 part from any contract, combination, in the form of a trust or otherwise, or 

 conspiracy, in restraint of commerce among the several States and Territories 

 or with foreign countries; also whether the said prices have been controlled 

 in whole or in part by any corporation, joint stock company, or corporate 

 combination engaged in commerce among the several States or with foreign 

 nations; and if so, to investigate the organizations, companies, and corporate 

 combinations, and to make early report of his findings according to law." 



Accordingly the report on "The Beef Industry" was the first 

 report issued by the new Bureau of Corporations in the movement 

 against the "Trusts" initiated by President Roosevelt. The chief 

 findings of this Report are as follows. 



(1) " Big Six " and Their Capitalization. By far the most 

 important concerns in the beef business were the following com- 

 panies, frequently designated in the trade as the "Big Six" 



Name Capitalization 



Armour & Company $20,000,000 , 



Armour Packing Company 7,500,000 



Swift & Company 35,000,000 



Morris & Company 3,000,000 



National Packing Company 15,000,000 



Scwarzschild & Sulzberger 4,373,400 



Cudahy Packing Company 7,500,000 



