The nonpartisan leader. [volume], April 12, 1920, Image 11

About The nonpartisan leader. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1915-1921

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
This was the testimony of William
B. Colver, member of the federal
trade commission, before the house
committee on agriculture, which is
considering the Kenyon-Anderson bill
for regulation of the meat packing in
dustry.
"I have a little table of percentages
here," said Mr. Colver to the commit
tee, "that never has been published
before.
"It was among the figures of calcu
lations submitted to the attorney gen
eral showing the percentages that ex
isted between these five large packing
concerns in 1902 and later."
They were:
Business in 1902
Per Cent
Swift 35.751
Armour 29.266
Morris 14.983
Cudahy 10.000
S. &. S. (Wilson) 10.000
Then Mr. Colver quoted the figures
for 1916 on.the total purchases of cat
tle, sheep and hogs, for the Big Five,
thus:
Figures Show Packer Agreement
Business Divided by Fixed Percentages for Last Fifteen
Years, Colver Testifies
Washington Bureau,
Nonpartisan Leader.
TTORNEY GENERAL
PALMER entered into
his agreement with the
big meat packers and
publicly announced that
he would not prosecute
them for violations of the anti-trust
laws after he had evidence that for the
14 years from 1902 to 1916 the per
centage of the whole livestock produc
tion of the country bought by each
one of the Big Five had not varied
more than 1% per cent.
Purchases in 1916
Per Cent
Swift 36.52
Armour 29.84
Morris 13.86
Cudahy 9.29
S. & S. (Wilson) 10.49
New York Farmer Has Winning Idea
'Penny Library Post" Gains Support as Practical Benefit
to Farmers' Families
Farmers were notified that they could
secure books from the Greenwood li
brary by paying 1 cent for postage.
HE "Penny Library Post"
movement is beginning
to be agitated through
out the country through
the efforts of a New
York state farmer, M.
W. Spencer of Greenwood, N. Y. Since
1910 his chief aim in life has been to
secure a 1-cent postage rate on books
between the farm and the nearest vil
lage, seeking thus to stimulate the
circulation of books in the country and
place the farmer substantially on a
par with the city dweller, who is al
ways in easy reach of a free library.
Farmer Spencer has won some not
able converts, among them the Amer
ican Library association, the National
Grange, the National Agricultural
society, the president of the Carnegie
board and the United States commis
sioner of education. To get these con
verts and to arouse general interest
in the movement, Mr. Spencer has
traveled many hundreds of miles at
his own expense. "Unfortunately,"
he says, "my effort to get a practical
local rate for library books "over rural
delivery routes does not relieve me of
the necessity of supporting my fam
ily, so I can not do all I would like to
do."
Mr. Spencer's plan has been tried
out at Greenwood, a fund being col
lected sufficient to meet the difference
between the postage charged by the
government and the 1-cent rate.
"That shows," commented Colver,
"the variation from 1902 to 1916 was
0.77 per cent in the case of Swift, 0.58
per cent in the case of Armour, 1.12
per cent in the case of Morris, and
0.22 per cent in the case of the Cuda
hy-Wilson figures and that variation
is even smaller when you take in but
ter, eggs and poultry and add them to
the meat."
The total sales of the companies,
covering all their domestic and for
eign business in all commodities, were,
in 1916:
Sales in 1916
Per Cent
Swift 36.0
Armour 30.1
Morris 13.8
Cudahy 8.4
S. & S. (Wilson) 11.7
Here were thcfrve big meat packers,
running a race for 15 successive
years. They must have J^een racing,
competing, trying to get ahead of each
other, because they said so, at great
expense, in advertisements in every
newspaper in the country. And,
marvelously enough, during all these
fifteen years they were unable to
change their relative positions in the
race more than 1& per cent!
With this definite information of the
coincidence that they always took the
same share of the livestock of this
country, even though they were un
der a federal injunction against any
combination in restraint of trade, the
attorney general declared that he
would not prosecute them.
FIRST CORN PLANTER
It has been called to the attention
of the Leader that the photograph in
the March 22 issue with the article,
"From Crooked Stick to Modern
Plow," showed the first corn planter,
built by Robert H. Avery, from plans
that he drew while imprisoned in An
derson prison during the Civil war.
The response was marvelous. Books
were ordered by telephone and letter
and were returned promptly.
Not content with seeing how it
would work from the farmer's stand
point, Mr. Spencer took a further
step. He says:
"It has been a part of my work, as
the most serious student of this par
ticular problem in America, to drive
a rural delivery rig on a typical
route one full year. As to load I sub
mit the following: Total weight of
horse, rig, driver and cargo, 1,500
pounds weight of cargo of mail and
parcels alone (average), 50 pounds.
"I submit that this is a poor ratio
of service to equipment and that those
who fear that we are going to over
burden the rural delivery if we get
a sensible rate for books need lose no
sleep over the matter."
In some parts of the East attempts
have been made to distribute books
to farmers by "book wagons," which
travel over a regular route. Mr.
Spencer points out that the daily trav
el of the rural delivery wagon—1,150,
000 miles—is many times greater
than that of all the book wagons since
the first one started and that it would
be foolish to establish new routes to
duplicate a service that is already in
effect.
PAGE ELEVEN
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