688 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



products of the farm that go to feed and clothe the human race, for each 

 article is controlled by a trust or corporation that radiates to the center 

 of the hub occupied so long by these billionaires and their interests as 

 it has been arranged for a long time that the meat trust and the packers 

 should control the producers of meats, that the cotton producer in the 

 south must deal with the cotton trust or the cotton exchange, the to- 

 bacco producer with the tobacco trust, the grain producer with the Board 

 of Trade and their allied interests, the producers of fruit with the dif- 

 ferent fruit exchanges or the fruit trust, and so on through all the natural 

 products of our farms. 



There seems to be a growing disposition in the minds of the American 

 people with the exception of the actual producers of cattle that the price 

 of all kinds of beef is too high, and the American people have been as- 

 sisted in the cultfvation of this belief by the packers so that they could 

 keep the price paid to the actual producers of cattle down to the actual 

 costs of production or in many instances below the cost of production, 

 that in maintaining the high price paid by the consumers of these meats 

 it permitted the packers and their interests to pocket more profits off the 

 industry, and although it seems to make little or no difference whether 

 the price of cattle on foot goes up or down, the price of these meats 

 to the consumer goes to a higher and higher level year after year, until 

 they have reached a price that the man of moderate means cannot afford 

 to use them, and meat has gone into the luxury class and their uses are 

 restricted. 



Any one who has given the production of cattle here in the grain belt 

 any thought or investigation knows that in the production of cattle dur- 

 ing the past few years, since meats reached the high level of prices, 

 there has been little or no profit to the man who has been trying to pro- 

 duce cattle for market. ■ In fact my observation and experience from a 

 life spent among cattle, is that over one-half of the meat sold for slaugh- 

 ter from the grain belt during the past five years to the packer has 

 been sold at a loss, yet we see the packers' estates grow larger and 

 larger each year as we are told by him that there is no market for 

 our beef. 



If the grower could get three-fourths of the price after the actual 

 expense of slaughter is taken out for his beef that is sold to the con- 

 sumer, under the present high prices it sure would be a profitable busi- 

 ness, and farmers would be seeking our purebred cattle to start in this 

 business, but under the system the producers of cattle are forced to 

 operate by the packer and his allied interests, all our profits go to build 

 up large estates for the packers and yet the producers of meats are 

 blamed for the high price of meats and a way was sought by the framers 

 of our last tariff act that would reduce the price of meats, but the re- 

 tailer who furnishes my family with meat, and who is a representative 

 of these packers and their interests, charges me the same old price he 

 did before the act was passed by Congress, while the price of beef Oin 

 foot has been lowered, and I am naturally interested to know where this 

 additjpxjal profit has gone since this tariff act was passed. 



