AORICULTIKAU .MTKOI'IUATIOX lUU^ llCI. 497 



the Sorn'tary of Aj^nrulturo l>y rfuson «»f luivin^ hovn fourul nmh u|H*n 

 invcsti^ution un<l hnvini; )>«><-n |>oHt4'<i as hucIi markrU. In tlumo 



rmii'krts We luivr foiimj hy thr roijistrat inn n; ' 'i 



(It'altT.s and l.OOO nnirkct a^<*n<it's. Slost of ilir i. ....... , .. 



cominission men. atui thr nnirkct a^rncics. inrhntniL; the < 



men. aro suhjort to n'<jiiirrnn»nt« that Ao not appfv to tlir • 



business. 'Plic nnirk(>t ajjrncios mr u class of > . 



ncss nrintipally on the connnix-^ion hasis, and .. 



file with the Se<Totary of A^ricnlluro tlicir schc<luh's of rati 



and sucli iidcs and regulations as they ohsc'rvo in carrying on ificir 



husiiu'ss. 



In a hroatl way. it may bo said that thev are subject to the Hnine 

 sort of jurisdiction as the raih'oa<is ar(> suliject to under the inter- 

 state coininerce art with respect t<t their practices. That is to sav, 

 with fespe<'t to their j>ractices. they must be nondiscrimirnitorv and 

 reasonal)h>. and with respect to their nites, they nuist also be non- 

 discriminatory and reasonable. The Department of Ajn'if'ilture 

 does not nnike the rates in the bc<;inninj;. They file the rates and 

 publish them, and they are subject to investiijation. e\j>larnition, 

 arul modilication. as the facts fnay re<juire. The same thnj<; is true 

 of the stockyard companies as well as of the market aj;encies. In 

 order to deal with the physical asj)ccts of the marketinj; of live 

 stock, as we found them at the st<K-kyards, we have supervi.sors at 

 20 of the cities where there are stockyards. Those supervisors are 

 resident in those markets, but from time to time, bv assij^nment 

 or special instructions, they '^<i to other yards for the purpose of 

 deahn*; either with s[)ccial <jucsti(>ns that nniy arise, or for the {)ur- 

 pose of remainintij in the markets for a lon<ier time in order to become 

 thorouf^hly acf|uainted with the conditions an<l to see that the 

 various agencies subject to our jurisdiction thoroughly understan<l 

 what we are expecting of tlioni uixlcr the packers and stockyards 

 act. We have so thoroughly organized the supervisor force that 

 during the month of October all except seven or eight of the public 

 stockyard markets of the country were visited by su|)ervisors. In 

 atldition to the stockyard comj)anies and market agents and dealers 

 operating at the stockyards, we have, of course, the packers, who 

 operate l)oth within and without the yards. 



So far as their operations in the yards are concerned, they arc 

 dealt with in the same way as other operations in the yards are dealt 

 with. Then we have certain other operations that must be dealt 

 with si)ecially, such, for example, as you will note from reading the 

 annual report and that supplemental report. For instanci', there is 

 the question of discrimination in butter fat prices, which arose during 

 this year, several complaints having been made ajjjainst one or two 

 large packers upon the ground that in their buying operations at 

 country points they had discriminated between country points and 

 had also been guilty of unfair competition. Such matters as that 

 require special investigation. So far wc have found the complaints 

 to l)e unfounded. In one particular case that I have in mind the 

 man that made the complaint was found to be the man who starte«l 

 all the trouble. He started a rate cutting.-war and did some improper 

 advertising, and the packers simply met the comnetition. Other 

 aspects of the packer work, other than those special matters. c«>me 

 up from time to time, more particularly the matter of studying their 



