The statement made by Walter L. Rice, special assistant to the Attorney General, that New York City is the dumping ground for all diseased and sick poultry was reiterated yesterday by Theodore Tottis, expert witness for the United States Government in its criminal procedure charging the A.L,A. Schechter Poultry Corporation and the Schechter Live Poultry Market, Inc., with conspiring to violate the live poultry code.
Tottis, buyer for the Dexter Food Co., Inc., 1000 East Forty-ninth street, Bronx, also charged that demoralization of the New York Poultry Market is the cause of demoralization of poultry markets throughout the country. The witness declared emphatically that if market men are prohibited from selling diseased poultry, chicken shippers in other states will discontinue sending them to New York.
Questioned by Prosecutor Rice, Tottis asserted that since the code’s adoption in April, 1934, there has been a vast improvement in the industry. Recent shrinkage of the industry he attributed to “unfair competitive methods practiced in the industry.”
Another witness for the government was W. D. Termohlen, senior agricultural economist of the poultry unit of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. He testified that “it is necessary for members of a given industry to request a code of fair competition before it is given.” Defense Attorney Joseph Heller denied this.
Termohlen will be called to the stand this morning.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
