PACKERS' AGREEMENT

PACKERS' AGREEMENT. The federal government's investigation into the meatpacking industry begun in 1917 resulted in the exposure of monopoly and a variety of unfair practices within the industry. Public opinion forced the larger packers in 1920 to agree voluntarily with the government to sell all holdings in public stock-yards, stockyard railroads, cold storage warehouses, and terminals; dispose of their interests in all market newspapers; give up the selling of all products unrelated to the meat industry; abandon the use of all transportation facilities for the carrying of any but their own products; and submit to a federal injunction forbidding monopoly.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Colver, William B. "Federal Trade Commission and the Meat Packing Industry." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1919.

Ernest S. Osgood/C. W.

See also Antitrust Laws; Meatpacking; Monopoly.