PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 451 



we extend a hearty welcome and express the desire that you will all take 

 an active interest in discussing the many problems that confront the live 

 stock industry, which in one way and another, will be brought out in this 

 meeting, and in this way lend your aid and assistance in the building up 

 of the greatest industry in the middle-west. 



I am glad to be able to state to you in the opening of this address, as 

 a sort of keynote or inspiration to you. that we have assembled under 

 more favorable financial conditions than prevailed one year ago. While 

 the farmers and stockmen have enjoyed better prices for their products 

 during the past year than they did during the period of deflation, yet they 

 are not by any stretch of the imagination out of the slough of despond- 

 ency, and over the hill to prosperity. There are yet many important 

 problems that must be tackled and solved before you can hope to again 

 enjoy the prosperity to which you are so justly entitled. 



The Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association, during the past year, 

 has moved along in a sort of regular way, nothing of a spectacular nature 

 having happened to place it especially in the limelight. At the same 

 time, it has been one of the busiest years for your officers, in assisting 

 to work out ways and means for relieving your financial distress and 

 improving the general situation. 



You will doubtless recall that at your last annual meeting, I went 

 into at some length the various phases of our live stock rate case in 

 which your organization was contending for a reduction in live stock 

 rates to the various markets. Soon after the adjournment of our last 

 annual meeting, an agreement or compromise was reached with the rail- 

 roads, by which they agreed to reduce all live stock rates where the rate 

 was 50 cents or less, 10 per cent, figuring on the basis of Iowa's annual 

 freight bill on live stock. This 10 per cent reduction means a saving 

 to Iowa live stock producers of over one million dollars annually, a snug 

 little sum indeed, and your association is justly entitled to due credit 

 for this saving to the live stock producers. 



During the past year, your president, as your representative, has 

 attended a number of important meetings and conferences, at which we 

 have to the best of our ability endeavored to voice your sentiments and 

 protect your interests. 



The week of January 30, I attended the annual .meeting of the Amer- 

 ican National Live Stock Association, at Colorado Springs, and as a mem- 

 ber of the committee on resolutions, assisted in formulating the policies 

 of the association for the coming year. 



The week of January 25, your secretary, H. A. Wallace, Vice-President 

 Gunn and myself attended the National Agricultural Conference at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, called by Secretary of Agriculture Wallace at the request 

 of the President. This was the first conference of its kind ever called by 

 a president of the United States to discuss and consider the needs of 

 agriculture from a national standpoint, and to work out ways and means 

 for the relief of the farmer. There were some five hundred delegates 

 in attendance, 339 of whom were farmers and persons representing vari- 

 ous farmers' and live stock organizations. 



A tentative program was arranged for in advance of the meeting, and 

 one delegate chosen from each section of the country, such as the corn 



