BUREAU OF MARKETS. " 453 



the President's proclamation of June 18, 1918. Regulations for 

 stockyards, commission men and all others dealing in live and dead 

 stock in or in connection with stockyards were issued July 26, 1918. 



The Bureau of Markets has labored under the same difficulties 

 which recently have beset all civil branches of the United States 

 Government, in obtaining and retaining the services of competent 

 and qualified employees. Since war was declared it has lost ov0r 

 264 men who have entered the military service. Several hundred 

 employees have responded to the financial inducements offered by 

 commercial agencies and the newer branches of the Government 

 service not bound so closely as the older departments by statutory 

 restrictions regarding promotions. Still others have left on account 

 of the discouraging housing and transportation conditions encoun- 

 tered by persons residing in the city of Washington. These constant 

 changes in personnel have made the conduct of effective work ex- 

 tremely difficult. 



For the sake of convenience the work of the bureau is shown in 

 the following detailed report under three classifications: (1) Inves- 

 tigational and demonstrational, (2) service, and (3) regulatory. , ; 



INVESTIGATIONAL WORK. 



FOOD SUPPLY INVESTIGATIONS. 



This work was instituted pursuant to an appropriation of .S50,000 

 to be used during the fiscal year 1918 for an investigation covering 

 the "production, transportation, storage, preparation, marketing, 

 manufacturing, and distribution of agricultural food products, includ- 

 ing the extent, manner, and methods of any manipulation of .tjie 

 markets or control of the visible supply of such products, or any of 

 them, by any individuals, groups, combinations, or corporations,.'' 

 A letter from the President, dated February 7, 1917, directed the 

 Department of Agriculture to cooperate with the Federal Trade 

 Commission in investigating and reporting the facts relating to the 



f>roduction, ownership, manufacture, storage, and distribution of 

 oodstuffs and by-products, and in ascertaining the facts bearing on 

 alleged violations of the antitrust acts, etc. , 



Tnis agreement also provided that in so far as the live stock and 

 meat industries were concerned all investigations of manipulations 

 connected with the operation of public stockyards at centralized 

 markets and all investigations affecting the operations and manipula- 

 tions of packing companies should be conducted by the Federal 

 Trade Commission, the activities of the Department of Agriculture 

 ceasing at the time the live animals passed into the control of the 

 packing companies. ;-.,'■ 



Live stock and meats and the food-producing grains and theii* 

 products have been the most important commodities involved ii>, 

 these investigations, which are under the direction of Mr. C. S. Cole. 



Representatives of the liureau of Markets have obtained 880 

 itemized records of indivichial shipments of live stock, either by- 

 following the stock from farms and ranches to shij:)ping stations ai»dv 

 from shipping stations to markets or by taking data relative to actual 

 shipments from records w liich have been kept by farmers, live-stock 

 shippers, and managers of live-stock shipping associations. The 

 tabulations of these data show the shrinkage in transit and the cqst^ 



