TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 527 



has been increasingly evident, as has been the sincerity and earnestness 

 of the various market reporters of the bureau for the reliability of their 

 information; access to their records has been freely granted, and all 

 requests for other information or assistance have been kindly received. 



Friendly and mutually helpful relations have been maintained with 

 the local market journal and with the different men who are engaged in 

 reporting the market for various city and agricultural journals, and con- 

 siderable information and any desired publicity have been secured thru 

 them. 



Relations with salesmen and buyers in the cattle alleys have become 

 progressively more friendly — due perhaps to a realization that the speaker 

 knew something about the industry, that his desire for information was 

 largely disinterested, that he was not a theorist with pet ideas to exploit 

 or a wild-eyed reformer who wanted to wipe out the present system to 

 set up one of his own, and that he could keep to himself information that 

 was given him in confidence. And while there still exists a more or less 

 archaic class of men who incline to the belief that the business is a pri- 

 vate one and that outsiders are entitled to only what they are inclined to 

 give in the matter of information, and who are still suspicious of anyone 

 not directly included within the charmed circle of the trade, happy to say 

 this is not the attitude of the younger and more progressive men who 

 are an increasing element on both the buying and selling side. 



Such relations as have been maintained with representatives of the 

 packing interests have been friendly and mutually appreciative, and while 

 the matter of getting a lot of desired information that was and is regarded 

 as highly desirable for the understanding of the whole situation as to 

 price making and price relationships has not yet been successfully com- 

 pleted, there are grounds for hoping that it eventually will be. Aside 

 from this matter, which will be discussed at some length later on, requests 

 for information have always been well received and readily complied with. 



With regard to how the plan of work has developed in practice, a 

 word might be said here. Some work has been done in the matter of com- 

 plaints and information, but not to anything like what was expected, and 

 this work has been only a very minor part of what has been done. This 

 has been due to considerable part to the rather unusual conditions that 

 have existed in the whole industry during the past months, which have 

 been of readjustment to new price levels in the general process of com- 

 modity deflation, and wiien live stock prices have been declining as they 

 have and involving such great losses to feeders above production costs, 

 minor complaints as to service or charges have tended to sink into insig- 

 nificance; in part, perhaps, also to the fact that feeders and shippers 

 generally have not been aware that such a service was available to them. 



As representing the Iowa live stock industry at various conferences, 

 meetings and hearings, there has been a very considerable opportunity 

 for such activity, for the past six months have been full of such events. 

 In fact, altho without any comparative figures to back it up, one is in- 

 clined to the statement that there has been more of this sort of thing 

 since last spring until the present time than during any similar period in 

 the history of the industry. These have been called by all sorts of or- 



