TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 567 



now being considered by the committee. This bill, I think, largely 

 meets the objections of the packers as it does away with the licensing 

 of the packers, does not interfere with the movement of their refriger- 

 ator cars and provides for the creation of a non-partisan commission ap- 

 pointed by the president which shall have supervision of the entire mar- 

 keting and slaughtering end of the live stock business. 



No sane live stock producer wishes to have legislation passed that 

 would in any way interfere with the fullest and freest legitimate opera- 

 tions of the stock yards and packing industries of the country. Neither 

 do we want to be everlastingly made the goat and be punished as we 

 have in the past for something we have not been responsible for, every 

 time the consuming public or some other solicitous body jumps out and 

 demands an investigation of the packers. And I am fully persuaded that 

 the men who are so tenaciously opposing sane and constructive legisla- 

 tion for the proper supervision and control of the marketing and slaugh- 

 tering of live stock are standing in their own light, and only postponing 

 the final day of reckoning, which is bound to come. 



The developments made at the Chicago and other markets under in- 

 vestigations of the Federal Bureau of Markets would lead us to the 

 conclusion that there ai-e at least some men engaged in the live stock 

 commission business who are not absolutely honest. And for this reason 

 we believe that government supervision over these utilities will not in 

 any way hamper the honest commission merchant, while it will at the 

 same time prevent those who are inclined to petty dishonesty from tak- 

 ing advantage of the situation and robbing the stockmen in various 

 ways, as they have in the past. Had it not been for the fact that the 

 government in 1918 as a war measure took over the stock yards and com- 

 mission merchants, none of this crooked work, which in some cases had 

 been carried on for years, would have been unearthed. 



After going into this whole matter carefully and considerately, I am 

 convinced in my own mind that the whole matter can only be settled 

 correctly by the enactment of proper legislation placing the marketing 

 and slaughtering end of the live-stock industry under proper govern- 

 ment supervision and control and that this control should be vested in 

 a non-partisan commission composed of business and live-stock men ap- 

 pointed by the president and confirmed by the senate, and until we get 

 such legislation we will be constantly vexed with these periodical de- 

 mands for investigations and legislation for controlling these interests 

 which in turn will bring on unsettled conditions in the live-stock business 

 and bad breaks In the market, which mean heavy losses to the live-stock 

 producers of the country. So I believe that we should urge upon congress 

 the necessity of speedy action in the passage of such legislation and get 

 this question settled once and for all. 



Another matter which I wish to call your attention to, is the policy 

 adopted by the Illinois Central Railroad of refusing to install new scales 

 at stock yards, where the old ones have become unserviceable, and of 

 selling the scales that are in good repair at the various yards to private 

 parties, is this practice invariably works a hardship and discrimination 

 against the Farmers' and the Co-operative Shipping Associations. 



