LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 183 



Rah ! Rah ! Rah ! oh, yes sir — we'll look into the Beef Trust — we'll 

 crack it to the railroads, and we'll do any other old thing that the 

 people demand. Publicity is the doctrine. It will pull bad things 

 down, and it will help good things up. My advke to farmers is, when 

 you see a great evil, something that's robbing you, just begin to yell, 

 and get your neighbors to yell, and get everybody to yell, and don't 

 stop yelling until Uncle Sam asks, "what's the matter?" Then tell him 

 the trouble, and tell him to move double quick. 



According to my doctrine, the states ought to take over the stock- 

 yards, and manage and control them in the interest of the people as a 

 w^hole. Let laws b'e enacted and enforced which will give absolute 

 protection to the buyers and sellers in that market. And let the peo- 

 ple in tlie towns and the country kill their own stock as far as possible. 

 I was glad when I learned that right here in Columbia some enter- 

 prising men were putting in an independent packing plant. Now you 

 watch the packers run meat into this town at less than cost and try to 

 crush out this enterprise. If I were running a butcher-shop in this 

 town and the packers oflfered me meat on the hook at the price of 

 beef on the hoof, I would tell them to go to — wherever my religion 

 would allow me to say. 



The packers violate the law every day. They agree daily on the 

 price they will pay and the price at which they will sell. Supply and 

 demand operate, of course, but the packers can push the price up or 

 down just as they wish. Now this is no theory, and there is no guess- 

 ing about it. I have seen them do it, and any other man who has 

 bought and sold around where they do business has seen it. But 

 what are w^e going to do about it? I'm too young to announce any 

 radical remedies, but I will venture this much. If the farmer in par- 

 ticular and the public in general will inform themselves of the live 

 stock situation, and the dead stock situation, there will be something 

 doing. But the public — oh! The public — they step over evils six 

 feet high and never see anything until it bumps them in the head. 

 Every man is trying to feather his own nest, with mighty little 

 thought of the public good. Men become satisfied in their spheres of 

 activity, forgetting that there are buzzards above them just waiting 

 for a chance at their carcass. When we see the black shadows about 

 us it is a good time to stop and take a shot at the beasts above. The 

 man who keeps his nose constantly to the grindstone may sharpen 

 his nose, but he will end up with a disfigured face. They used to 

 make a heap of fun of the horse-back farmer, but I find that I can see 

 more upon the top of a horse than I can on the ground. It's a good 



