Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 521 



health and comfort of all. Today sixty-five per cent live in cities 

 and have thus augmented the army of consumers. A very force- 

 ful reason, this, as one of the principal causes of the high cost of 

 living — too many consumers, too few producers. If present con- 

 ditions remain, or the percentage of urban population is increased, 

 well may we reflect upon the theory of the fated Malthus, for what 

 in his day and generation only seemed the idle fancy of a dreamer 

 may yet be within the realms of probability. 



The tendency of every interest dependent upon the live stock 

 industry is to take just a little more toll each year. The rates for 

 transportation have been materially increased, and the charges for 

 commission service have been advanced at our principal markets, 

 and in each instance the shipper has received nothing in return by 

 way of better train service or greater skill from the commission man. 

 Another injustice imposed upon the shipper is the practice adopted 

 at some of our markets of taxing each car lot a certain fee in order 

 to create a fund for future indemnity in case of loss by fire. It 

 seems to me that the regular charges ought to be ample to cover 

 every element of risk and that yard companies ought to be made to 

 bear the same measure of responsibility that transportation com- 

 panies are made to assume under the law in the care and handling 

 of live stock. 



If we accept these unreasonable advances without protest, it is 

 not a matter of little consequence if additional burdens are added 

 to our load. Concerted action and persistent effort will discourage 

 these unfair advances, but individual opposition counts for naught. 

 Had it not been for the fierce fight made by the various live stock 

 and agricultural associations of the country, aided by a loyal agri- 

 cultural press, in opposition to the recently proposed farmers' fee 

 list bill, does any one imagine that we would not today be meeting 

 the products of the world with the surplus from our farms and feed 

 lots? 



The idea of a tariff upon agricultural products and live stock in 

 the past has been more or less fiction, for in all these years we 

 have had a surplus, and in finding a market for it we also found that 

 we must sell on a level with the surplus products of all the world. 

 But today we are beginning to realize that conditions have changed, 

 consumption more nearly equals production, and the home market 

 is the most accessible and remunerative. Reduced to a cash basis, 

 it is estimated that 94 per cent of the American mines, the farms 

 and the factories are consumed at home, hence it would seem that 



