EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 391 



the allies. All the meats and pork that the allied armies or the allied 

 civilian population get have to be bought thru me, and you can't get an 

 export license to export meat, or freight space to take it over, unless it is 

 bought at a fixed price. I say that simply to emphasize that I have some 

 ability to make good what I say about pork, because pork is the big 

 export that the allies get from us — much greater than beef. You can see 

 right away what that is. The stuff will keep; it does not require refrig- 

 erating freight space as the beef does. 



When I am thru, I want you, if you will, to give me your ideas as to 

 that program of hogs and how it is working, whether or not it was silly, 

 and whether it is likely to take care of the situation. I am not trying to 

 get you to back it; the time is gone for that; I am trying to find out 

 whether it is wise or silly. 



Now, on beef I haven't had any such policy as that. We all know 

 the difficulty of any attempt to standardize beef. But it is absolutely 

 true that it doesn't do any good to fix minimums on pork and to help 

 the pork price if we are going to bust the Iowa farmers on the beef; 

 and it io absolutely essential, from the point of view of the Food Ad- 

 ministration, that the stock game go on successfully in Iowa. That does 

 not necessarily mean that every man who bought feeders at any price 

 won't show a loss, but it does mean that the industry shall go on, and so 

 far as I have power it is going to be exerted that it shall go on. Of 

 course the Food Administration wants every bit of hog meat that it can 

 possibly get — more meat on the begs, and more pigs- Of course it wants 

 beef for this year and for all the time. And without regard to this year, 

 I think it is pretty clear that any man who can stay in the beef game 

 will in the long run be the gainer. It is absolutely true that the European 

 stocks are very much decreased, and it is further true that England 

 today is deliberately adopting a policy of lessening her stocks so as to 

 feed her people grain direct. It is of course true that these markets vary, 

 speaking generally, according to the law of supply and demand, and the 

 people will eat more beef when it is low than when it is high, and there 

 is a limit to the amount that can be killed and put into storage; so no 

 man can make remarks that are very good to bank on as to what the 

 definite course of the market is going to be in dollars. I do think, tho, 

 that it is very clear that many of the beef men have been watching the 

 market pretty closely for a long while, and I also think that you have 

 a duty in time of war to go ahead and grow your cattle — not without 

 regard to the market price, but without attempting to catch the top. 

 I think a fellow' who is doing his entire job here would be growing and 

 feeding his cattle, using sense, keeping to the market as long as he 

 reasonably could, and sending them when they are right. Don't think 

 because I state those duties simply and clearly that I think they are 

 easy. As has been said here, it is perfectly clear that you have difficulties 

 with labor and feed; don't think I never heard of those. They are not 

 easy to cope with, and they have got to be coped with. I haven t talked 

 particularly about any question of patriotism here, because I doii't think 

 it is in the least necessary; I don t think that is the question at all. It 

 is pretty clear that the farmers of the United States did not begin the 



