564 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the great ignorance displayed by these men, and I want to again inform 

 you one and all that the second Cummins amendment to the Interstate 

 Commerce Act distinctly prohibits the carriers from limiting their lia- 

 bility by contract on shipments of ordinary live stock, and that you are 

 not required to either place a valuation upon your stock or to pay a 

 higher rate in order to insure full payment if lost or killed while in 

 transit. 



PRODUCERS' AND PACKERS' COMMITTEE. 



Another matter which I have reason to believe you are interested in, 

 was the organization last spring of the Producers' Committee of Fifteen, 

 to meet with a similar committee of the packers from time to time to try 

 to iron out, if possible, many of the differences and difficulties which 

 arise between the stock men and the packers. 



Instead of a joint committee with the packers being formed as was 

 first suggested and urged by the packers and some of the live stock rep- 

 resentatives, it was thought best by your officers and others to organize 

 a separate, independent committee representing the live stock interests 

 and to let the packers do the same. This plan was finally agreed to 

 and the producers' committee was organized in May and Mr. Wallace, 

 your secretary, was made chairman of the whole committee. I am not 

 so familiar with the work of these committees except that I was invited 

 to attend one of their meetings in Chicago in July and was very much 

 impressed with the frank and open discussions from both sides and the 

 business-like methods which each advanced to overcome many of the 

 difficulties and problems which confront the live stock industry, and I 

 have felt in my own mind that the July meeting held with the packers 

 had a great deal to do with the marked improvement made in the beef 

 cattle market soon after, and I feel more such meetings should be held 

 and that packers and stock men should get a better understanding of 

 each other's problems and when the markets are being pounded down 

 to a point that denotes ruin to the industry and bankruptcy to the stock 

 men that representatives of these interests should get together and make 

 an honest and determined effort to find out what can be done to im- 

 prove the situation and save the producers from such terrible losses 

 as they have sustained during the past six or eight months. 



I regret to chronicle the fact that according to the press reports thai 

 at a meeting held by the producers' committee in December it was voted 

 to disband and turn the work over to the American Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion. I most earnestly hope that the Federation will take up the work as 

 suggested by the producers' committee and that a strong and efficient 

 committee will be selected to work with the packers and correct many 

 of the very serious problems that at the present time seem to spell ruin 

 to the live stock industry. 



FEDERAL RAILROAD LEGISLATION. 



Other important work was done by your association in carefully look- 

 ing after railroad and other legislation during the past year. The first 

 of this was the valuable assistance rendered in the framing and passage 



