FOOD MONOPOLY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 284, 27 August 1919, Page 8

FOOD MONOPOLY

HOW TO FIGHT THE TRUSTS * AND THE PROFITEER (By Mt. C. A. M'Curdy, K.C., M.P., .Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food <and Chairman of the Committee on Trusts, in the "Daily Mail.") The recent report of the Federal Trade Commissioner of the United States of America on the meat-packing industry states that at tho.present time five great corporations, Armour and Co., Swift and Co., Morris and Co., Wileon and Co., and the Cudahy Packing Company, with their five hundred subsidiary controlled, affiliated concerns, now control not only the American meat industry but ako the principal substitutes for meat, such as eggs, cheese, and vegetable oil products, and are rapidly extending. their power over every kind of foodstuff. Their business interests appear to be by no means confined to the United States of America. They have arrangements with foreign corporations and interests, in foreign countries, inclilding Great Britain, and it is interesting to Jearn that it was in London that "The Big Five" completed their agreements for an international meat pool in 1914. In the view of the American Federal Trade Commission the power of tho Big Five has been, and is being, used to "restrict live-stock markets, restrict international eupplies of food, and to profiteer." Whether this indictment be true or not, and it is, I understand, by no means admitted by the Trust, no one can doubt that the existence of a. monopolistic control of i foodstuffs by a ring of this description is fraught with danger to the consumer in this country. Nor is it e.W to suggest any remedy that can be really effective in the absence of concerted action on the part of tho United States Government and the Government of this country. For mnny 'years the people of this country have become accustomed to a supply of cheap foreign meat, which has enabled large classes of people to have meat as part of their usual diet, which 'forty years ago only the richer classes wero able to obtain. To the extent to whioh that foreign supply is controlled by an American Trust, the consumer in tlii3 country must either pay the' price demanded or go without. One method of protecting the British consumer would be to stimulate home and dominions production, and to take stepe to .ensure that the large supplies of meat which are produced in the British dominions shall be kept outside the control of the lueat ring, and brought to tho people' of this country without first having to contribute to the profits of the trust. Maximum Profits/All tho Way. In considering how best to protect tho consumer it is important to realise that •the effect of foreign food trusts in raising prices does not end when the foreign meat is landed in this country. Whenever there is a shortage of any food commodity, whether due to natural causes suiVas the failure of crops, or to artificial causes such as tho restriction of output, the result is that maximum profits «re made at evory stage of the process of distribution from the producer, through the wholesaler to the merchant and the retail shop, until the ultimate price to the consumer Iβ out of all proportion to the increase of price obtained by the producer. From the evidence kid hefore "the Committee.on Trusts it was very apparent that tho restriction of output, either general or partial, either continuous or temporary, is an almost invariable factor in tho operations of trade combinations having for their object tho maintenance or enhancement of prices. We cannot prevent a foreign Trust from re- , striding output or controlling prices on their eide of the Atlantic in the caso of foreign food, but it may be possible to check profiteering from, tho moment any commodity reaches these shores, and we oughl. not to be deterred by dislike of the word "control" from taking any steps that are open to us. There was >:ertaiitly a period—in the eighteenth centniy—when British industry was entirely free from control; that yrxs a period of sweated labour, child labour, and insanitary factory conditions. Industry has long learned to tolerate control of the most drastio character imposed in the interests of the employee. If by the growth of trade combinations and monopolies, which has proceeded with alarmin? rapidity through these years of war, the consumer is henceforth to 'be deprived of, such protection as really free trade and genuine competition gave, he is entitled to demand that monopolised and syndicated industries ehall be henceforth controlled by the State in the interests of the consumer ag well «s in the interests of the employee. Profiteering is just as detrimental to the well-being of the community as insanitary factories or excessive hours of labour. If profiteering is ever to be effectively checked, the first etep must be to let the public know the facts. The public ought at all.times to know whether they are 'being swindled or not The Committee on Trusts, over which I recently presided, recommended that permanent machinery should be created by the Government for that purpose. The first weapon against the profiteer is the public exposure of the fact that he is profiteering and the proper investigation of cost 3 and prices by. a machinery such as the Federal Trade Commission provides in the United States of America. Wo want a crixninnl investigation department to expose profiteering -when it is prov/d io exist, and if tho existing laws are inadequate to cope with it, . Parliament must find new remedies. ■