182 OLEOMAEGAKINE. 



but to foster, promote, and protect the interests of the live-stock trade in 

 all of its many branches. It is composed of local live-stock exchanges 

 located at the principal live-stock market centers of the United States, 

 and counts among- its members in the great corn belt and beef -produc- 

 ing sections the local exchanges located at Sioux City, Iowa; St. Paul, 

 Minn. ; Omaha, Nebr. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; East St. Louis, 111. ; St. Joseph, 

 Mo.; Fort Worth, Tex.; Chicago, 111.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Pittsburg, 

 Pa.; Louisville, Ky., and Milwaukee, Wis. 



Each of these local exchanges are composed of live-stock breeders, 

 raisers, feeders, shippers, sellers, slaughterers, buyers, bankers, and 

 commission merchants, and some of their employees, and have a rep- 

 resentation in the deliberations of the national exchange based on the 

 local membership roster, such representation being fixed at 1 repre- 

 sentative for every 25 members. It is the official mouthpiece of the 

 live-stock trade, and while it aims to protect, foster, and promote the 

 interests of the producer of livo stock on the one hand, it is equally 

 as zealous in its protection of the interests of the consumers of live- 

 stock products on the other. 



It is to this organization, The National Live Stock Exchange, that 

 all these interests look for advice, assistance, and relief or protection 

 on any general live-stock question of an interstate or international 

 character. 



The Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture for 

 the year 1899, page 818, gives the number of cattle in the United 

 States other than milch cows on January 1, 1900, as 27,610,054. From 

 this number I would deduct 1,610,054 head, which I believe to be a 

 fair estimate of that number which are bulls, which yield little or no 

 butter fat. This would leave 26,000,000 steer cattle, from which I 

 would deduct 12,000,000 head of young cattle, called in the parlance 

 of the trade " stockers and feeders," which would leave 14,000,000 

 head of fat cattle immediately affected and depreciated by this pro- 

 posed legislation. At the rate of $3.42 per head, provided the manu- 

 facture of butter ine is prohibited by legislation, this would entail a 

 loss on the producers of this country of $47, 880, 000. 



We adopt those figures from the manufacturer, because we simply 

 consider him as a manufacturer or as a creature of circumstances, as 

 it might be termed. He goes onto the market and buys what we term 

 the raw material the bullock and if he is enabled to manufacture out 

 of that bullock the different articles that we know to be in the bullock, 

 and make a healthful food for the people, he certainly should have a 

 right to do so, and if in doing so he can pay this $3.42 a head, the pro- 

 ducer receives the benefit. If he is not allowed to do it, he simply 

 goes onto the market and buys those cattle at about $3.42 a head less, 

 which is most assuredly a total loss to the producer. 



The National Live Stock Exchange has repeatedly and publicly 

 solicited Congress and other legislative bodies to cause a critical exam- 

 ination to be made through a committee of its own selection into the 

 methods employed and ingredients used in the manufacture of this 

 wholesome article of diet, with the request that, if after such informa- 

 tion is satisfactorily and officially obtained it shall appear to any such 

 committee that butterine is a legitimate article of commerce and a 

 wholesome article of diet, they shall in their report recommend that 

 no coloring restrictions or taxes be imposed, except such as shall 

 apply also to the manufacture and sale of its only competitor, butter, 



