THE BEEF TRUST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2559, 21 July 1909, Page 5

THE BEEF TRUST.

ENORMOUS ISSUE OF NEW CAPITAL. CHICAGO PACKERS’ OPERATIONS. Unitet* Press Association —copyright (Received July 20, 10 p.m.) LONDON, July 20. The “Telegraph’s” New York correspondent states that the meat packers of Chicago recently issued £11,300,000 sterling of new securities with the view of controlling the world’s market in beef and hides. Swift’s Company is spending £340,000 of its two million sterling of new- capital in purchasing out the Lablaca Company in the Argentine. Schwarz, Schild, and Sulzberger failed to secure the Frigorifico Argentine Company. ARGENTINE OWNERS AND YANKEE WOOERS. A “Daily Mail” cablegram recently stated that the Chicago Beef Trust was considering whether it should buy the Argentine meat concerns at their price or crush them by direct competition. The cablegram added that the Trust was making inquiries in Australia and New Zealand with a view to controlling Australasian .supplies. “May become a danger, but not just yet.” This is the spirit of the somewhat non-committal report on the American Beef Trust made by the Departmental Committee of the Board of Trade, which was appointed, under the chairmanship of Lord Robert Cecil, to inquire how far and in what manner the general supply, distribution, and price of meat of the United Kingdom are controlled or affected by a combination of firms or companies. The committee reports that a combination of the Hammond, Armour, Swift . and Morris companies of Chicago is not a serious danger at present, but that those firms appear to be endeavoring to acquire controlling interests in Argentina; also inquiries are being made by United States firms- in Australia and New Zealand. The estancieros of Argentina are opposing the United States’ invasion, fearing that the price of their cattle will be effected in the absence of competitive buying, but the Argentine railways converging on Buenos Ayres are not unfavorable to that invasion. A combination, though not likely to arise in the near future, if it succeeds, may exercise a determining influence on beef prices at Smithfield, and largely affect • prices in Great Britain.

Evidence that United States firms control the Canadian live cattle trade is, in the committee’s opinion, too vague to allow of a definite opinion.