PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 459 



ten markets that we ship to, and we have ten or a dozen within 

 the state and right over the border of the state. And if a local 

 buyer has a market within the state which is a better concentra- 

 tion point or a better market than the Chicago market or the 

 Omaha market or Kansas City and St. Joe market, we have been 

 trying to get the co-operative shipper — the majority of the Co- 

 operative Shippers' Association, to have this market as well as 

 the buyer. 



Another problem we are working on is the claim problem, as 

 Mr. Sykes has mentioned. We are trying to get help out there in 

 railroad claims and to get better car service. We have been en- 

 deavoring to help out in that as best we can. 



We don't want, as an association, to do work that some other 

 association is doing or is trying to carry out. We don't want to 

 overlap with the Meat Producers, or try to do their work. We 

 want to try to co-operate with them, but it seemed at our meet- 

 ing that there was some agency needed in the state to help 

 build up and strengthen the weaker associations over the state ; 

 and until some other association takes this work up, we think it 

 the duty of the Co-operative Shippers to do it. One deplorable 

 fact that confronts us, is the lack of harmony among the different 

 farm organizations. I believe we are spending too much time, 

 thought and energy, in fighting other organizations rather than 

 trying to co-operate with them; and if I have any message at all 

 for you today, it is this — that we try to co-operate more with the 

 other organizations and not try to do the work, or take it away 

 from them. There is always plenty of work for all of us to do. 

 I believe with our farmers, the greatest weakness is that we do 

 not co-operate enough one with another. 



President Sykes : I am going to introduce to you Mr. Knute 

 Espe, secretary of the Co-operative Iowa Shippers, who will talk 

 on the Co-operative Shippers' problems at this time. 



CO-OPERATION IN SHIPPING 

 BY KNUTE ESPE 



I have no startling things to tell you, and perhaps can not tell you a 

 lot of things that you don't already know — most of you. I will probably 

 tell you some things that you do know, you co-operative shippers, at 

 least, yet they are things that I think we need to be told about every 

 once in a while. It is just like the sermons on Sunday morning. Lots 

 of things we already know, but still they need to be told to us about 

 once a week, and lots of them ought to be told to us about every morn- 

 ing. You may not like to hear these things, but I will have to tell you. 



