430 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



by reason of being in a trust, commit this and other crimes 

 against our trust laws, and every commission man knows I am 

 telling the truth. 



I now call your attention to another fact which was over- 

 whelmingly proven in the case I am referring to, namely, that 

 the three great packing houses which control the market are 

 engaged in a deliberate conspiracy to put the "speculators," as 

 they call them, or, as they should be named, the cattle dealers 

 at the Kansas City market, out of business. These cattle 

 dealers simply buy and sell cattle at the stockyards just as mer- 

 chants buy and sell goods, and it is a crime to attempt to crush 

 them, as the packers beyond question are now attempting to 

 do. It was shown in the case I am now referring to that on a 

 given day these three great packing houses I have referred to 

 all gave instructions to their buyers to buy no calves from 

 "speculators." You can readily see the purpose of this. If 

 they could put the independent buyer of calves out of business 

 they would then be able to come in direct contact with the 

 farmer and buy his calves at their own price. Here we see the 

 gist and wickedness of the beef trust. Everybody knows that 

 after they had bought the calves of the farmer at their own 

 price they would then sell veal just as high as ever, for in doing 

 this they would simply make more money, and rapacity knows 

 no bounds with the modern packing houses. A packer died in 

 Chicago a few weeks ago who had made, it was said, $50,000,000. 

 Now what farmer has made $50,000,000? We have, it is said, 

 now a large number of packers worth this or more who a few 

 years ago were worth nothing. 



What then ought the farmers to do? Beyond question 

 your watchword should be co-operation. You ought to get 

 together and demand your rights. If there is another great 

 body of workers in the Lkiited States who are not already organ- 

 ized to protect themselves I do not know it. In all ages of the 

 world the farmer has been the man most oppressed, but with 

 the intelligence now possessed by the farmers of the United 

 States there is no reason why this should continue. The 

 farmers ought to get together, not only for the purpose of re- 

 ceiving what they are justly entitled to in the great markets of 

 the world, and especially in the cattle markets in the United 

 States, but in Missouri they ought to combine to put men in the 

 State Legislature who will pass laws intended to secure justice 

 for the producer. Farmers do not stand by one another in this 



