THE BEEF TRUST.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 589, 30 July 1913, Page 3

THE BEEF TRUST.

A corr-spond'-nt in America, writing to one of the Sydney daily papers, says:—The people of Australia do not realise the power cf the Meat Trust. It wil! be a miracle if this gigantic concern is prevented from getting a foothold in Australia. The United States Government has been prosecuting the combine almost in every State in the Union without securing to date a conviction', against their illegal methods of monopoly. The latest movement of the Board uf Agriculture is to prepare a Cold Storage Bill, preventing the holding of millions of pounds of foodstuffs in refrigerated chambers over a period of six months. It. is thought that this Bill will prevent the packers from keeping meats for an indefinite period in cold storage in order to manipulate prices the world over. The Bill will give discretionary power to the superintendent of the Health Department to allow an extra three or six months at ths most. While 1 believe this will be a temporary remedy, and will lower prices, eventually the trusts, with Australasia in their grip, will control the world's export, and high prices will rule to suit the packers' interests at the cost of the consumer and pastoralists. How such conditions can affect the pastoralist or sheep farmers can be easily explained. The trust acquired in its early stages practically every large interest in .U.S.A., io that the small m:m found it impossible to cornpate againit it, and finally threw in his lot with the combine. It has Didactically done the same in Argentine and three of its agents are now in Australia, and have been getting the best information with the object of controlling that end oc the world. The concensus of opinion on your side is that this is impossible. I venture to say from my three year's experience that nothing is impossble for the Meat Trust. It has millions at its back, and to absorb the big Queensland works and other Sydney meat concerns] could not present any difficulty. This would form the key of admission, and would control Flemingtcn Yards at Melbourne and Homebush, M.S. W. ; then the growers would be the lambs, as the price would be fixed by thin organisation, and they would have to take what was offered by the combine. I feel sure that the Australian people outside the meat trade do not realise the power of this combine; but. looking at the situation entirely with Australian eyes, I have a firm conviction that if the Trust gets a foothold in Australia or New Zealand, then in less than ten years, it will control not only the meat trade, but the entire food supplies, and spell ruin to every wool and cattle grower in the commonwealth.