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get at it. There was only one avenue through which they could travel and: 

 that was through the American Farm Bureau Federation, with its arteries 

 running out into nearly every state in the Union and branches leading into 

 nearly every county in the different states. So the matter was put up to the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation. The executive committee of that asso- 

 ciation saw the importance of it. So they called a conference and decided 

 to appoint a committee of fifteen to go into this matter and see what could 

 be done. That committee of fifteen was appointed. On that committee were 

 members of state farm bureaus; they were men that were on the market, 

 like the late Mr. McKerrow, who was manager of the St. Paul commission 

 company that Mr. Montgomery will speak of this afternoon; they were range 

 men out of the west; they were men representing little farms in New 

 England. They got together and worked for ten months on this plan of the 

 producer marketing his own livestock. Last November this committee of 

 fifteen presented its report. Representatives from all the state farm bureaus 

 in the United States were invited to that conference, also representatives 

 from all the large livestock associations in the United States. For instance, 

 the Corn Belt Meat Producers Association, the Wyoming Wool Growers 

 Association, the Texas Cattle Growers' Association, the Colorado Livestock 

 Producers' Association and so on. There were about four hundred men there 

 representing all the different livestock interests from all over the United 

 States. They were from West Virginia on the east to California on the west, 

 Minnesota on the north to Texas on the south. 



It was some job to get up a plan that would fit all the different condi- 

 tions, a plan that would fit the man who markets perhaps a half dozen hogs 

 or three or four steers a year and the man out west who markets a whole 

 trainload of cattle at once, or a whole trainload of sheep. This thing was 

 threshed out there and on Armistice Day, the llth of November, the report 

 was adopted and they went to work immediately. 



PLAN OF ORGANIZATION. 



Now this great plan, which is a national plan, provides for this: The 

 organization of these shipping associations throughout the country; commis- 

 sion houses at the various market centers; a national livestock producers' 

 association with a board of directors which superintends this whole proposi- 

 tion. In order to get under way, the first national board was appointed by 

 the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the national board in turn 

 appoints the directors of the different terminal associations. In speaking 

 of terminal associations we mean the commission houses at the different 

 markets that are operated by the farmers, or I should say the producers, 

 because there are a great many ranchmen in the west that are big producers 

 but are not, strictly speaking, farmers. 



This national board of directors has control over the different terminal 

 associations, but they do not in any way interfere with the local manage- 

 ment of these concerns. They select these directors and it is placed in their 

 hands and it is up to them to make a success of each individual commission 

 association. They report to the national board and keep in touch with them. 

 The object of the national board is to give this thing a kind of general super- 

 vision, we might say, keep everything going harmoniously between all these 

 different boards, not only keep them all in harmony, but keep them all in 

 line with one general plan. 



Then another big job for the national association, and it is a great big 

 one and' is going to bring us wonderful results, is to look after the legislation, 

 both state and national, for the benefit of the producer. One problem that 

 confronts them now that must be looked after and must be solved is freight 

 rates that do not discriminate against the producer. 



Another thing is what we call "feeding en route." A miller can buy 

 wheat and ship it into some market, some manufacturing center like Chicago 

 or Minneapolis, manufacture that wheat into flour and ship it on east at one 

 rate, one through rate. Now, if they can do that there is no reason on earth 

 why a man should not buy cattle in Texas or Kansas City and fatten them 



