PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS ADMINISTRATION. 575 



bringing about some equitable disposition of the matter which 

 would be fair to all parties and which would at the same time 

 retain for the Secretary -of Agriculture full authority to carry out 

 the purposes of the packers and stockyards act. These matters were 

 pending at the close of the fiscal year, with prospects of satis- 

 factory adjustment through the means of a plan by which the special 

 weighing charge would be discontinued and the stockyards company 

 would pay the salaries of the State weighers wlio woidd continue to 

 weigh live stock, but with full recognition by the State of the au- 

 thority of the Packers and Stockyards Administration over the 

 subject matter involved, pending the final determination by the 

 Supreme Court of the Ignited States, on appeal from the decision 

 in the Federal court, of the question of conflict of jurisdiction. 



AUDITS AND REPORTS. 



For the period of two months, November and December, 1921, and 

 quarterly thereafter reports are being obtained from commission 

 men in the various markets as to their earnings and expenses accord- 

 ing to a simple classification designed to keep the Packers and Stock- 

 yards Administration in touch with the financial condition of the 

 commission men, in order that it may observe variations bearing upon 

 the question of reasonableness of rates and charges and other ques- 

 tions, and be in a position to deal intelligently with the necessity for 

 special investigations in particular markets from time to time. These 

 reports include certain items of special interest, such as the expense 

 of advertising the business. It is found in this connection that a 

 comparatively small percentage of the total number of commission 

 men in the country keep adequate accounts, and therefore it has 

 become apparent that the Packers and Stockyards Administration 

 must devote study to proper accounting systems for commission men. 



In order to throw light on controversies that had arisen as to the 

 facts of the commission business, and in anticipation of the necessity 

 for making future determinations as to the reasonableness of the 

 rates exacted by commission men in various markets an audit of 

 the books of coinmission men was arranged for with certain repre- 

 sentatives of the exchanges and started in St. Paul. Omaha. Fort 

 Worth. Pittsburgh, Pa., and l*ortland, Oreg.. these five markets being 

 selected with a view to the representation of distinctly different 

 marketing conditions in widely separated parts of the country. This 

 audit included the tabulation from the account sales of the comniis- 

 sion men for 1921 of all of the items of expenditure in connection 

 with the sjile of the live stock and of the information relating to the 

 kinds and weights of live stock marketed and the classes of buyers. 

 This work had not been completed at the close of the fiscal year, up 

 to which time no formal complaints against commission rates had 

 been filed, but indications had been received that .such complaints 

 would be filed during the next fiscal year. The work of auditing the 

 accounts of the commission men in the various markets was planned 

 so as to be coordinated with the work of the Bureau of Markets and 

 Crop Estimates in ascertaining the costs of marketing live stock, with 

 a view ultimatelv to enabling the Department of Agriculture to state 

 the costs all the wav through from the producer to the consumer. 

 In addition to these planned audits, there have been certain inci- 



