I j THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [394 



In matters pertaining to transportation facilities, where 

 concerted action is necessary, the exchange also plays an 

 important part. On holidays the railroads endeavor to 

 secure the sentiment of the exchange as to whether or not 

 dealers desire to deliver goods. Recently, at the suggestion 

 of the Interstate Commerce Commission that the railroads 

 develop new sources of revenue, one of them being charges 

 for terminal services, the trade was notified that butter and 

 eggs had to be removed from the docks within 48 hours 

 after the arrival of the shipment instead of 72 hours as 

 theretofore. The changes proposed by the railroads would 

 affect the New York Produce Exchange, whose members 

 are principally dealers in grain and flour; and the matter 

 was by them taken up with the Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission. The New York Mercantile Exchange also ap- 

 pointed a committee to attend the hearings of the Commis- 

 sion and protest against the proposed changes. 1 



Other regulations emanating from the organized market 

 are in the nature of protection for its members whose in- 

 terests are common and opposed to the interests of another 

 class with whom they must deal. An example of this kind 

 of regulation is fixing the rate of commission by the mem- 

 bers of the Los Angeles Produce Exchange in 1903. The 

 establishment of the quotation committee for the purpose 

 of determining prices is of the same nature. While the 

 opposition between the trading class and the producing 

 class may at times be a conscious effort to control prices in 

 favor of the group making them, it is perhaps more fre- 

 quently the result of a biased feeling or the prevailing sen- 

 timent of the class as to what is a correct price. 



In 1896, the Elgin Board of Trade created a quotation 

 committe of five members charged with the duty of making 



1 New York Produce Review and American Creamery, March 3, 1915. 



