NINETEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 397 



brought out, to suggest proper remedies. The mission of the marlcet com- 

 mittee has been stated — I noticed in the papers yesterday — by one of the 

 leading packers, at Washington, who was on the stand yesterday, in con- 

 nection with the hearings on the Simms or Kendrick bill. He said the 

 mission of the market committee is to bring about higher prices for the 

 producers. Now, our dastardly purpose having been discovered by the 

 packers, I shall have to admit that is one of the purposes of the Market 

 Committee. But the gentleman from Chicago failed to enlighten the 

 committee down there as to another object of the Market Committee, and 

 that is to simultaneously increase the price for the producer and, on the 

 other hand, to reduce the price for the consumer. We hope to do that 

 by eliminating unfair and uneconomical prices which prevail in the mar- 

 keting distribution in live stock and live stock products. 



When we started in three years ago, the instrument that appeared to 

 us most available for bringing out the facts was the Federal Trade Com- 

 mission. It so happened, just about that time, the Borland resolution was 

 introduced, providing for an investigation by the Federal Trade Commis- 

 sion. We fell in with that scheme, and did our best to get congress to 

 authorize that investigation. It is a long story, and we were confronted 

 by a stone-wall resistance on the part of the packers, and while we worked 

 faithfully with every means at our command to bring about that investi- 

 gation, before congress, we were unable to secure it, but finally the same 

 thing was accomplished by the President himself, ordering the investiga- 

 tion by the Federal Trade Commission, in February, 1917, a little over a 

 year after we commenced work. 



I might say that the history of that Borland resolution in congress 

 is very interesting. It would pay you to read it and know the facts in 

 regard to it. Congress and the judiciary committee were influenced in 

 all kinds of ways. I understood the chairman of the committee, and also 

 the chairman of the house committee, after the Borland resolution was 

 finally defeated, danced a horn-pipe in front of the speaker's chair. 



We got the investigation because we had a President who thought one 

 was needed, and the result of that investigation, extending over a year, 

 and three months, you probably are more or less familiar with. It was 

 given out last July, I think, in the summary of the report of the Federal 

 Trade Commission. But, to go back a little, during the year 1918, and 

 reviewing the activities of the Market Committee: In April, 1917, as you 

 remember, the war intervened, and the activities of the Market Commit- 

 tee were very much complicated. Our problems were involved in the 

 great war problems of the nation. As you know, live stock still continues 

 to be a part of the war problems of the country. 



As soon as the war broke out, and the food control act was passed, 

 we did our best to secure some regulatory measures in connection with 

 the packers, and as a result the packers were put under a federal license, 

 and have been under federal license ever since. Of course, that federal 

 license, as it was drawn, has not been altogether satisfactory. The ad- 

 ministration of a license, as you know, is over half of the battle. The 

 license may be ever so good, if it is not administered properly it does not 



