TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 525 



TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1920. 

 Afternoon Session. 



The President: Now, gentlemen, without any further ceremony 

 we are going to get right down to business, as the time is passing 

 swiftly and we have a lot on for this afternoon, and without any 

 remarks I am going to introduce Mr. Harlan, our Chicago repre- 

 sentative, who will make his report and show you what he has been 

 working on in Chicago in the interest of the feeders and live stock 

 producers of the country. Mr. Harlan. 



REPORT OF THE CHICAGO OFFICE 



By C. L. Harlan. 



The opening of an office at the Union Stock Yards, Chicago, was the 

 result of an agreement reached between the Corn Belt Meat Producers' 

 Association and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation after the annual meet- 

 ing of the Corn Belt Association last February, by which the two organiza- 

 tions agreed to employ a live stock marketing agent who should devote 

 himself to the interests of the live stock producers of Iowa. The speaker 

 was employed as such agent and started work the first of last March. 

 At that time there was no decision as to what the work should be or 

 along what lines it should be undertaken. However, as the greater part 

 of the Iowa live stock supply finds a market at the Chicago stock yards, 

 and as that market is to a very considerable extent the one at which live 

 stock prices are made, it was thought that it might be well to have a rep- 

 resentative on that market to represent the interests of Iowa producers 

 and to study the methods and practices by which live stock is disposed 

 of at this great marketing center. 



The speaker went to Chicago and spent a month looking over the 

 situation at the market to study the question as to whether it might be 

 worth while to open an office there and to devote his time to the first- 

 hand study of the live stock marketing situation. He interviewed a num- 

 ber of leading representatives of the various interests that make up the 

 market, spent some time watching the actual workings of the market, 

 and concluded that it would be worth while. This conclusion was reported 

 to the directing heads of the two organizations and the decision was 

 made that the office should be opened. 



It was decided that the plan of work should be something as follows: 

 That the office or bureau should be available to Iowa shippers for the 

 purpose of making, investigations of all complaints as to treatment of 

 stock or of shippers en route or at the market and to endeavor to get 

 conditions responsible for such complaints modified or remedied; also to 



