50 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



banking capital not only of Chicago but of other 

 financial centres of the West. They are members 

 of the directorate or are represented in practically 

 every bank of importance in Chicago. When the 

 packers are buying the banks are eager purchasers 

 of cattle paper. The discount rate is | per cent, 

 to 1| per cent, above that on other gilt-edged com- 

 mercial paper. Each morning the telegraph an- 

 nounces the prices Chicago is wiUing to pay for each 

 quahty of stock delivered on the track. The pack- 

 ers pay cash and the farmer is so weak financially 

 that he cannot resist; for the banks which accom- 

 modate the cattlemen are controlled by the packers 

 and see to it that the cattlemen sell when the pack- 

 ers desire. The cattle-raiser has borrowed money 

 from his bank to raise his stock. The banks in 

 turn are closely allied with the packers or are owned 

 by them. And the banks cariying the cattleman's 

 paper bring pressure on him to sell, ofttimes in the 

 season of the year when the price has been artifi- 

 cially lowered by the packers. The procedure is the 

 same as in the case of wheat. The packers fix a 

 low price when the cattleman has to sell and then 

 bring pressure upon him through the banks which 

 they control to compel him to sell on the packers' 

 terms. 



Thus the packing establishments rather than the 

 producers control the price of meat. And they seem 

 to establish the price at the point which will just 



