PART VII 



Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association 

 Seventeenth Annual Meeting 



DES MOINES, IOWA 

 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1920 



Morning Session 



President Sykes : Gentlemen of the convention, the time has 

 arrived for the calling to order of our seventeenth annual meeting, 

 and we welcome you here with us. We will now open our proceed- 

 ings by invocation, to be offered by Dr. W. P. McCormick, of the 

 United Presbyterian Church, of Cottage Grove Avenue. 



Prayer by Dr. McCormick, of United Presbyterian Church. 



President Sykes then delivered his address, as follows : 



PRESIDENTS ANNUAL ADDRESS 



To the Friends and Members of the Corn Bait Meat Producers' Associa- 

 tion: You have assembled in this, your seventeenth annual gathering for 

 the purpose of considering the vital problems which now imperil the 

 very existence of agriculture and live stock production. 



Since your last annual meeting, some ten months ago, the business of 

 agriculture and live stock production in the corn belt has been and is now 

 passing thru the most crucial period in its history. It has been singed 

 and scorched, beaten, bruised and maltreated, but it still survives and re- 

 mains the most vital and essential of all industries. In this short period 

 of time, corn has sold for over $2 per bushel in the Chicago market, and 

 has now declined to 70 cents; wheat declined from $3.25 to $1.50, and 

 oats from $1.25 to 50 cents per bushel. Live hogs have radiated in price 

 between $9 and $18 per hundredweight, and cattle have percolated be- 

 tween $4 and $19, and so on. We might continue our enumeration, but 

 it is useless and unnecessary, as all are familiar with the facts and the 

 staggering blows that have been dealt our industry by a combination of 

 forces which have succeeded in completely unstabilizing and demoralizing 

 our markets. 



