396 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



large feeder, and also a member of the ^Vlarket Committee of the 

 American National Live Stock Association, and he has had a 

 great deal to do with the investigation of the Federal Trade 

 Commission just recently made of the packers of this country. 

 Mr. Burke will tell you about some of these things at this time. 



WORK OF THE MARKET COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN 

 NATIONAL LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATION. 



By E. L. Burke. 



Gentlemen of the Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association: I was per- 

 mitted to address your association on the express stipulation by your 

 secretary that I should have a very carefully prepared paper on the work 

 of the market committee. I readily assented, because I was very anxious 

 to have a chance to talk to you, but not having any time, I didn't prepare 

 a paper, and as a stockman who has been engaged in feeding cattle and 

 hogs for the last thirty years in the neighboring state of Nebraska, and 

 as a man who speaks your language, thinks your thoughts and has every- 

 thing he holds in life in common with just such men as you are, it is my 

 opinion that I can win your sympathy, and possibly your support, by hav- 

 ing a very plain, homely talk, just as one stockman would talk to another. 



I had the privilege of attending a very large meeting of stockmen in 

 Denver last week — the annual meeting of the American National Live 

 Stock Association. At that meeting there were representative men from 

 all over the western part of the United States. The American National 

 Live Stock Association has not a very large membership east of the Mis- 

 souri river, but is thoroly representative as far as the great west and 

 southwest are concerned. I wish you could have been there. We had 

 some very representative men there from the east. Secretary Houston 

 was there; William E. Culver; Senator Kendrick, who has introduced 

 what is known as the Kendrick bill in the senate. These men talked to 

 the western stockmen of the things we were most interested in. The 

 principal thing discussed was the question of packer legislation, and I 

 shall hope to interest you on that subject. 



Before I go into the details of the legislation, I wish to review very 

 hurriedly the work of the Market Committee of the American National 

 Live Stock Association during the last three years. At the meeting at 

 El Paso, three years ago, the Market Committee was appointed, and the 

 purpose of the committee was to bring out facts in regard to the condi- 

 tions at the. market — monopolistic conditions, as we thought at that time 

 existed, and were growing steadily worse. 



You will remember that 1914 and 1915 were pretty uphill years in 

 the cattle-feeding business, and conditions had reached such a point that 

 there was a great discontent, a great feeling of unrest, and that some- 

 thing ought to be done. The market committee was the instrument se- 

 lected at that time to investigate the facts, and after the facts were 



