384 LIVE-STOCK AND MEAT INDUSTRY 



"The most satisfactory single index of the proportion of the meat 

 industry controlled by the Big Five," says the Report, "is the fact 

 that they kill, in round figures, 70 per cent of the live stock slaugh- 

 tered by all packers and butchers engaged in interstate commerce." 

 No exact figures could be given for the per cent of all slaughtering 

 done by these packers, since there are thousands of butchers who 

 kill for the local village or city trade, in addition to the slaughter- 

 ing done on the farms by hundreds of thousands of farmers. 



(2) Combination Among Packers. The Commission found 

 that in the purchase of live stock, there was a remarkable uniformit}^ 

 from year to year in the percentages purchased by each of the big 

 packers, and concluded that this was circumstantial evidence of a 

 combination. However, since the same uniformity exists among 

 the small packers in the purchase of their requirements, and in 

 many other industries, this evidence of combination is not con- 

 vincing. No evidence was found that there was any "combina- 

 tion" among the big packers in fixing prices paid for live stock or 

 fixing prices received for dressed meats, or that large profits were 

 made on the volume of business done. 



The conclusions reached by the Commission as to the auto- 

 cratic powers of the packers were stated in these words: 



"The great power of the five packers in the meat, by-product, and food 

 industries, the history of their growth, the ramifications of their control and 

 influence, their interrelations, and the corporate machinery through which 

 they work, are matters that command public attention. A fair consideration 

 of the course the five packers have followed and the position they have already 

 reached must lead to the conclusion that they threaten the freedom of the 

 market of the country's food industries and of the by-product industries linked 

 therewith. They constitute a force operating with increasing power in the 

 direction of monopoly of an important part of the country's necessities. An 

 approaching packer domination of all important foods in this country . . . 

 seems a certainty unless fundamental action is taken to prevent it." 



Remedies. The Trade Commission considered various remedies 

 for the situation which they found to exist, such as government 

 ownership of the packing houses, private ownership and operation 

 under federal license, and so on. The final "remedy" proposed by 

 the Commission was a simple one, containing these four provisions : 



(1) Government ownership of all cars used in transporting 

 meat animals. 



(2) Government ownership of the stockyards. 



(3) Government ownership of all privately owned refrigera- 

 tor cars. 



(4) Government ownership of the branch houses of the packers, 

 and of their cold storage plants and warehouses. 



