The Four Recommendations of the Federal Trade Commission Regarding the Meat Packing Industry
1: That the Government acquire through the Railroad Administration all rolling stock used for the transportation of meat animals and that such ownership be declared a government monopoly.
2: That the Government acquire through the Railroad Administration the principal and necessary stockyards of the country, to be treated as freight depots and to be operated under such conditions as will insure open, competitive markets, with uniform scale of charges for all services performed, and the acquisition or establishment of such additional yards from time to time as the future development of live stock production in the United States may require. This to include customary adjuncts of stockyards.
3: That the Government acquire through the Railroad Administration all privately owned refrigerator cars and all necessary equipment for their proper operation and that such ownership be declared a Government monopoly.
4: [That the Government] acquire such of the branch houses, cold-storage plants, and warehouses as are necessary to provide facilities for the competitive marketing and storage of food products in the principal centers of distribution and consumption. The same to be operated by the Government as public markets and storage places under such conditions as will afford an outlet for all manufacturers and handlers of food products on equal terms. Supplementing the marketing and storage facilities thus acquired the Federal Government establish, through the Railroad Administration, at the terminals of all principal points of distribution and consumption, central wholesale markets, and storage plants, with facilities open to all upon payment of just and fair charges.
“The Commission believes that those four suggestions strike so deeply at the root of the tree of monopoly that they constitute an adequate and simple solution of a problem the gravity of which will be unfolded to you in the pages which follow.”