ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 3T5 



could just as well get the number of bushels of corn a man has so 

 that we could know justwhal we should get. The question merely Is 

 that we will know our own business and that is all. It is not a mat- 

 ter of trying to boost the high cost of living. It would stand us in 

 hand not to make these remarks public to get into the daily papers 

 because there is nothing that would inflame the public mind any 

 more than that but still it would be well for us to see what we can 

 do. The only excuse for the existence of this organization is what 

 we can do for the swine raisers of the state of Iowa. If this organi- 

 zation cannot do anything that will be for the benefit of the swine 

 raisers of Iowa it will naturally cease to exist. It has done things 

 from time to time and it is that that has made it live. If this 

 matter should be successful in Iowa it would naturally spread to 

 Illinois and Nebraska and they are both heavy hog raisers. If 

 three states would organize we would pretty near know what we 

 would get for our hogs. 



Dr. Hammer : If the railroads would say that it takes so much 

 to pay the running expenses and make six per cent on the invest- 

 ment there is not a judge in the country but what would say you 

 cannot lower it any more than that. That is what we want. Some- 

 thing that will protect us from doing business at a loss. The farm- 

 ers are willing to place it at a reasonable profit. There is no doubt 

 about that. If there was an organization at all it would not be 

 any skin deal. 



Mr. Cooper: I certainly admire the interest the two brother 

 breeders manifest in the welfare and future of the swine breeders. 

 No doubt they are advocating a good thing, but there are two sides 

 to be considered. You must take into consideration that hogs are 

 perishable property and supposing the entire swine producing sec- 

 tion of this nation would keep on producing hogs and swine dis- 

 eases would break out and the like of that, wouldn't we experience 

 a great loss? The packers are not nearly so many as the swine 

 breeders and are more closely organized and it seems to me that if 

 we set a certain price and force the packer to pay that price he will 

 simply put that price higher yet and place it on the consumer. I 

 am at any time ready to co-operate for the welfare of the breeders 

 at large, but for my part I think there is a great risk in an organi- 

 zation of that kind. 



Mr. McTavish: I don't want to take this floor all the time, but 

 I want to say that the brother doesn't get my idea. The idea is not 

 to set the price on hogs. That cannot be done because there are 



