LIVE STOCK BKEEDEKS^ ASSOCIATION. 239 



years of war between all of these interests. The producers damn the 

 railways, and the railways damn the packers; the packers damn the com- 

 mission men, and they pass it on to the stock yard men; the railway men 

 damn the producers and all the rest because they do not get just what 

 they want. The commission man says that everyone is at fault except 

 himself. The simple truth is that packers take advantage and create a 

 monopoly and press the market up, and they do this to suit their own 

 convenience, and so it goes. It is absolutely chaotic. This is certainly 

 a disgrace to the twentieth century. The nineteenth , century has been 

 marked wonderfully by the creation and extension of the powers of the 

 corporations. They are beginning to see, however, that they can not 

 stand absolutely in defiance of the public will simply for the sole pur- 

 pose of making money. They are permitted to exist because of the serv- 

 ice they render to tlie public. The great packing houses are beginning 

 to see that they can not occupy this position of antagonism, and all along 

 the line there must be a change. 



Last February I was unexpectedly put upon a committee of cattle- 

 men from the West, chiefiy to represent tlie Shorthorn Breeders' Associa- 

 tion. We conferred with the leading railroad men in Chicago who op- 

 erated lines northwest and southwest. It was the first time the matter 

 had been presented in the way it was. We invited them to be present a 

 day at one of our meetings; we also invited the packinghouse men and 

 the live stoclv commission men, and I had the honor of presenting the case 

 in behalf of the committee, .and I told them the exact position and con- 

 dition of tilings. We Avanted to stand face to face with these men and 

 see whether or not they were not honest enough and sincere enough to 

 treat this matter upon the basis of mutual interest. We were all very 

 much interested and that little meeting was very successful, and led 

 to some very important results. We presented our grievances, which 

 were — 



First. Exorbitant charges in many cases; 



Second. Inefficient service, and, 



Third. The taking away of our contract rights. 



These things ai'e now adjusted as a result of that meeting. Many 

 other complaints were also adjusted. We did not propose to give up any 

 rights that we had; as a result of that meeting, and the results must be 

 more or less satisfactory, I attended a great manj' meetings In the East 

 and organized the Interstate tive Stock Growers' Association. We pro- 

 posed to have some one judge as to the reasonableness of the rights. 

 Mutual dependence was made manifest in every possible direction and 

 a movement was put on foot for the reorganization of the National Live 

 Stock Association. It has been in existence for a number of years. It 

 represents the great range associations and many cattle growers' associa- 

 tions of the States west of the Mississippi. We have not yet been able 

 to get in touch with the States east of the Mississippi so much as we 



