ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 113 



has been such that they do not attempt to compete with the Chicago mar- 

 ket in price, even after the extra freight and commissions are added. 

 If our Iowa packers will buy their hogs on the Chicago market, less 

 the freight and other charges that are there added, they will have no 

 difficulty in securing all the hogs they can use. If they fail to do this, 

 as they have in the past, they must not get "sore" at the fanner. 



I have had occasion to visit the farmers in the localities surrounding 

 the different packing plants in the state, and have made careful inquiry 

 of them as to where they ship their hogs, and they invariably tell me 

 to Chicago; and when I have asked them why they do not patronize their 

 local packers, their reply is because they can't get the price. They tell 

 me they receive from 10 to 20 cents per hundred more for their hogs in 

 Chicago, and the dockage and fill is much more satisfactory. With these 

 conditions existing, is it any wonder that the farmers don't patronize the 

 Iowa packer? 



Now I have gone into this matter quite fully, so that the farmers 

 may have a better understanding of the controversy between the officers 

 of this association and the packers, and may be in a position to judge for 

 themselves as to who was in the right. We are all in sympathy with 

 the local packers 'and want to see them succeed and would be gratified 

 to see many more packing plants doing business in the state. But I 

 do not believe that such methods of abuse as have been resorted to by 

 the packers in this case will ever build up their business and make it 

 a success. If the Iowa packer can not successfully compete in price 

 with other markets, and allow the farmer to have as reasonable rates as 

 farmers in other states are given, they had better inquire into where the 

 difficulty is in the conduct of their business, for it is not with the 

 farmers; and they can not build up their business by berating and rid- 

 iculing the men who are protecting the farmers' interests. 



Now, in concluding, I want to call your attention to the future of your 

 association. You will recall that at your last meeting the future of the 

 association was not as bright as it might have been. We were behind 

 some $700 in our expenses, and many of the members were becoming 

 discouraged. At that meeting I made a strong plea for a united effort 

 to save your association from the disastrous fate that has befallen all 

 such farmers' associations in the past. And I believe we all went Home 

 with a determination to save the association and put it on a more per- 

 manent basis. And I am glad to be able to report to you that our efforts 

 have succeeded, and that your officers can now make a favorable report 

 on the condition of the organization, in view of the heavy expenses con- 

 nected with the recent hearings on the proposed advances in rates, and 

 this is due wholly to the change in the system of securing memberships, 

 and collecting funds for the work. Had we continued under the old sys- 

 tem it would have been impossible to have recovered ourselves. Now 

 we have made a start towards putting the association on a practical 

 business basis, and if the work is prosecuted as it should be, you can 

 have an organization that will be a power in the state inside of the 

 next two years. But this must be done by personal work among the 



