56 AXI*rUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cease and desist from follo^Ying certain practices and methods which 

 appeared to be in violation of Title II of the act. Another case 

 involves the validity of the acquisition of the assets, business, and 

 good will of Morris & Co. by Armour & Co. It is the contention of 

 the department that this action will lessen competition in the pur- 

 chase of livestock and the sale of the products thereof, but the 

 respondents contend that such acquisition was an industrial and 

 economic necessity. This case is pending. 



Arbitration of livestock commission rates at six of the principal 

 markets was under way at the end of the fiscal year as a result of a 

 complaint by the leading livestock producers' organizations. Repre- 

 sentatives of the complainants and respondents agreed to submit the 

 whole question to arbitration, and two members of the staff of the 

 packers and stockyards administration were agreed upon as arbi- 

 trators. An exhaustive investigation was made by the department 

 to furnish the arbitrators with the necessarv information for an 

 impartial decision, and a preliminary report was made, the final 

 report coming after the end of the fiscal year. 



Cooperative shipping of livestock is generally regarded as an 

 established feature of livestock marketing, and while the cooperative 

 selling of livestock is comparatively a recent development, it has 

 become a substantial factor in the marketing process. With the 

 establishment of these cooperative agencies at some of the principal 

 markets there appeared to be a feeling on the part of some of the 

 old-line agencies that they were justified in fighting this form of com- 

 petition through the practice of boycotting. Whereupon the admin- 

 istration found it necessary to take action and bring about an under- 

 standing that open-market principles must prevail in every respect 

 at public markets. 



Other activities have been correction of reweighing charges at a 

 number of stockyards; the valuation of stockyards property as a 

 basis for study of rates and charges: the securing of better prices for 

 bruised, crippled, diseased, and dead animals, and for cattle reacting 

 to the tuberculin test; improvements in the handling of stock in load- 

 ing and unloading; and audits of the records of commission men at 

 23 principal markets and of the records of stockyard companies at 

 18 large markets. 



