TWENTY- FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 615 



next annual meeting of the Corn Belt Aleat Producers' Associa- 

 tion be held jointly with the Iowa State Federation of Co-oper- 

 ative Shippers. The report was unanimously adopted. 



The discussion of the proposed co-operative association was 

 then resumed. Article 3, with regard to membership, was 

 adopted; also Article 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, except that the proposal 

 that two directors shall be appointed by the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation was stricken out. Article 10 was adopted. 



In considering Article 11, it was decided that fees should be 

 based on the number of cattle fed, and the section was changed 

 to read that the membership should be on the basis of S3. 50 per 

 car for the cattle fed. 



A prolonged discussion resulted after the reading of Paragraph 

 C, under Section 1, Article 12, at the conclusion of which the sec- 

 tion was changed to read that *'the association shall, under the 

 discretion of the board of directors, maintain an agent at one or 

 more of the feeder markets, who can assist the members of this 

 organization to purchase their cattle and furnish them such in- 

 formation as might be of benefit to those who are purchasing 

 cattle." 



During the course of the discussion, Mr. Stafford, of the Chi- 

 cago Live Stock Exchange, and Mr. Kay Wood, also of the Chi- 

 cago exchange, participated at times. Speaking to the general 

 idea, Mr. Wood said : 



"I want to say that the Chicago Live Stock Exchange and the 

 National Live Stock Exchange, which is an association with some 

 of the same officers, have been working very intently upon the 

 proposition to explain and get at the secret of these very violent 

 fluctuations that have been taking place in the market from day 

 to day, and from week to week, and we haven't been able to un- 

 derstand why one week the price of cattle should be at a certain 

 figure and within a day or two it w^ould fall two dollars a hun- 

 dred ; and we haven't been able to understand why after that fall 

 took place it should go up two dollars a hundred. 



"Now, we have been trying to get at that, and have gone into 

 conferences with the packers, and asked them to explain to us 

 why it was that we had to undergo such violent fluctuations, and 

 they have thrown up their hands and said, *We will throw open 

 our books and show you our figures and show you the heads and 

 show you everything we have. We can not regulate this thing ; 

 it is up to the producers.' And, gentlemen, T believe it is up to the 

 producers, or certainly in large part. 



