PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 561 



before the loan can be finally acted upon, I believe you would agree with 

 me that it is remarkable that we got into action so quickly. And let me 

 say I'hat Iowa has received more War Finance money than any other state 

 in the Union except two — one being Minnesota, where a large loan was 

 made to a cooperative concern for the purchase of grain and the other 

 to a southern state where there was a similar large loan made for the 

 purchase of cotton. With the exception of those two large loans, Iowa 

 has had more War Finance money than any other state — something over 

 $9,000,000 to date, and one reason for that is this, you have had here in 

 Iowa an excellent sub-committee which has put in long hours passing upon 

 the loans that come up from the banks of the state. Now, the operations 

 of that War Finance Corporation are more helpful than one is disposed to 

 appreciate at first. Making that money available tends to relieve and does 

 relieve the immediate stress on the local banks all over the state — the 

 banks that take advantage of it — and that in turn relieves the situation 

 so far as the farmer borrower is concerned. 



In addition to these laws dealing with credit, congress passed two laws 

 of an unusual nature — one law bringing the packers, stock yards and com- 

 mission merchants under the supervision of the government, and the 

 other the law bringing the boards of trade or future exchanges under gov- 

 ernment supervision. These laws give more power to the supervising 

 agency than any laws ever have except when passed in time of war. They 

 make it possible for the supervising agency to go into the packing busi- 

 ness, for example, to the books of the packing company, and learn all 

 about what they are doing. They give power to the supervising agency 

 power to practically fix charges by the stock yards and by the live stock 

 commission merchants. The law dealing with future trading gives similar 

 powers over the operators on the boards of trade. There has been talk 

 here and there that those laws do not go far enough. One common ex- 

 pression with regard to the packer control law was that its teeth were 

 pulled before it became a law. I want to say to you, as the party who ia 

 responsible for administering those laws, that there is as much authority 

 there to begin with as I care to have lodged in my hands. We have got 

 the authority to go in and study the whole business, and that is the first 

 thing to do. We hear a lot of talk about the iniquitous practice by the 

 packers or the commission merchants or the board of trade operators, 

 but we are short on definite, reliable information concerning the opera- 

 tions of all of those agencies. We have now an opportunity to go in and 

 inform ourselves thoroughly as to just exactly what is going on, and that 

 is the first thing to be done, and then if we find that~some things are being 

 done which should not be done and which these laws do not reach, I think 

 it will be very easy to get such amendments as we should have to make 

 them fully effective. Both of those laws are being held up in part by ap- 

 peals to the court. They are be'ing attacked on the ground that they are 

 unconstitutional. Whether those attacks will be successful, of course, Is 

 something for the future. The theory of the attacks is that the operations 

 of the commission merchants are not of an interstate character, that they 

 are intrastate, and therefore congress has no power over them. Those 



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