“For a little while. My ambition was setting in another direction. I
had been studying the methods then used for moving the vast and growing
food products of the West, such as grain and cattle, and I believed
that I could improve them and make money. The idea and the field
interested me and I decided to enter it.
“Well, my standing was good, and I raised the money and bought what was
then the largest elevator in Milwaukee. This put me in contact with the
movement of grain. At that time John Plankinton had been established
in Milwaukee a number of years, and, in partnership with Frederick
Layton, had built up a good pork-packing concern. I bought in with
those gentlemen, and so came in contact with the work I liked. One
of my brothers, Herman, had established himself in Chicago some time
before in the grain-commission business. I got him to turn that over to
the care of another brother, Joseph, so that he might go to New York as
a member of the new firm, of which I was a partner. It was important
that the Milwaukee and Chicago houses should be able to ship to a house
of their own in New York—that is, to themselves. Risks were avoided in
this way, and we were certain of obtaining all that the ever-changing
markets could offer us.”
“When did you begin to build up your Chicago interests?”
“They were really begun, before the war, by my brother Herman. When he
went to New York for us we began adding a small packing-house to the
Chicago commission branch. It gradually grew with the growth of the
West.”
“Is there any one thing that accounts for the immense growth of the
packing industry here?” I asked.
“System and the growth of the West did it. Things were changing at
startling rates in those days. The West was growing fast. Its great
areas of production offered good profits to men who would handle and
ship the products. Railway lines were reaching out in new directions or
increasing their capacities and lowering their rates of transportation.
These changes and the growth of the country made the creation of a
food-gathering and delivering system necessary. Other things helped.
At that time (1863) a great many could see that the war was going to
terminate favorably for the Union. Farming operations had been enlarged
by the war demand and war prices. The State banking system had been
done away with, and we had a uniform currency, available everywhere,
so that exchanges between the East and the West had become greatly
simplified. Nothing more was needed than a steady watchfulness of the
markets by competent men in continuous telegraphic communication with
each other, and who knew the legitimate demand and supply, in order to
sell all products quickly and with profit.”