210 IOWA depart:\ient of agriculture 



the government very much revenue, and at present meats, grain and grain 

 products do not yield very much. However, we stand for principle. If 

 there be any benefit coming from the imposition of any kind of duties 

 (and you must concede that there is a benefit arising from an import duty 

 on articles which you produce in this country), we want that benefit or 

 favor distributed equitably. We don't Vv'ant the farmer to stand all the 

 burden and the manufacturer to reap all the benefits. Take the Mexican 

 cattle situation: the contracts covering those cattle provide that in the 

 event the duty is removed, the price to the seller in Mexico will be in- 

 creased by the amount of the duty. Therefore this country would not get 

 any cheaper cattle from Mexico; neither would they from Canada. You 

 would simply pay the present prevailing price, and the benefit would be 

 transferred from this country to Mexico or Canada. 



There is a great diversity of opinion as to whether the free importa- 

 tion of meats would have a very marked effect on live stock prices in 

 this country. Uncle Henry Wallace voiced a very general sentiment last 

 night when he said it would be disastrous to the live stock interests of 

 this country. I agree with him entirely in what he said, under normal 

 conditions. Possibly today, with extraordinary world conditions and 

 shortage all over the world, the effect of the free importation of meat 

 might not be so great as some would have us believe. Still the moment 

 conditions get back to normal, and you have all you want in this coun- 

 try and a little to export, and they bring in a few shiploads from South 

 America, it will have a pronounced effect on prices all over this country. 

 Now, congress ought not to legislate to meet the present abnormal condi- 

 tions; it ought to be broad and big enough to view the conditions that 

 may arise in the next two or three decades. Under the stimulus of the 

 present profitable prices, there is no doubt in my mind, and there should 

 not be in yours, that the live stock production of this country will rapidly 

 resume its former condition, when we had plenty for ourselves and some 

 for export. Of course we have plenty of hogs for export, and we export $100,- 

 000,000 worth of hog products annually. We raise about 80 per cent of 

 the corn crop of the world, and have vastly more hogs than any other 

 nation in the world. We will never cut much figure in the exportation of 

 sheep, because we can't compete with Australasia. 



There was a hearing in Washington on the matter of import duties on 

 agricultural products and live stock, known in tariff parlance as "Schedule 

 G." Our association arranged to be represented down there, and our 

 Mr. Cowan went there with the resolutions of our Phoenix meeting, and 

 presented them to this committee in the form of a brief, which I will be 

 very glad to send to anyone interested. It is a compendium of all useful 

 and interesting information on the question of live stock conditions in 

 this country and abroad, and the possible effect of the tariff. 



When I came through Kansas City on Monday, I stopped off to find out 

 the status of a suit which had been won against fourteen members of 

 the Traders' Exchange, involving the fate of the ill-fated Co-operative Com- 

 mission Company, with which I suppose a good many of you are famil- 

 iar. That judgment is now in the supreme court of Missouri; it has 

 been there for a couple of years. The judgment now amounts to close to 



