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to an old line firm got ten cents more for his. But they never told us how 

 they took that off somewhere else. It came off of somebody, because the 

 packers are just as friendly to us as they are to the old line fellows; if 

 anything, a little more so, because they are trying to encourage us. The 

 packers are trying to wipe out as much of this profit that stands in between 

 the producer and consumer as possible. In other words, the packer is 

 human. He wants to be the only fellow in between there. He can make 

 more, he can pay us more and get it to the consumer cheaper by cutting out 

 a lot of these unnecessary middlemen. This thing would not have been 

 brought on, probably, or at least it would not have come on so soon if it 

 had not been the fault of commission men. In Chicago there are 101 com- 

 mission companies, 87 of them regularly established commission companies, 

 and the others are regular commission men, doing business through these 

 other offices. In St. Louis we have altogether about 50 companies doing the 

 business that 12 or 15 companies could handle and handle properly. Now, 

 then, these companies have all got to be taken care of. We farmers have 

 been feeding them. It is about time for us to take hold of that matter and 

 do a little of this selling ourselves and cut out a lot of the fellows that are 

 not needed. Let them go out and earn a living and do something that will 

 do somebody some good, instead of us feeding them all the time. Did I 

 answer your question? 

 Q. Yes, sir. 



AN EXAMPLE OF PROPAGANDA. 



Mr. MILLER: There was quite an article that appeared in the Globe- 

 Democrat some weeks ago in regard to some shipper in Missouri sending 

 hogs to a commission firm, and the following Monday or so they were put 

 on the market and brought two dollars more. Now, we fellows who are 

 living out in the State know that that is propaganda, but that is mighty 

 good stuff for these fellows to ring in occasionally. I would like to give 

 you an opportunity to defend against something like that. Now we know 

 there is something back of it; we know that. 



Mr. FULKERSON: I would be very glad to explain this, and it will 

 give you an idea of about how solid this propaganda is how much is behind 

 this propaganda that is put out. In the first place, there are two co-operative 

 commission associations in St. Louis now doing business. The other 

 co-operative commission company there is organized on an entirely different 

 plan from what ours is. There are things in their system of organizing that 

 don't appeal to us in the least; that we don't agree with. There are probably 

 things in ours that do not appeal to them and they do not agree with. But 

 we are not fighting each other, for the reason that the live stock commission 

 companies down there would be tickled to death to get us fellows to fighting 

 each other. It would be just nuts for them. They would not want anything 

 better. We are just a little bit too smart to get into anything of that kind. 

 After we get them whipped then we might, just for exercise, brush each 

 other up; but right now we are not doing that kind of business. We are not 

 knocking each other. As I say, there are these two different associations 

 there, both of them co-operative. This propaganda that was gotten out was 

 against this other company and not against us. For the reason that when 

 that was pulled off we were just starting, and the people down there were 

 centering their fire at this other company, because they were making them 

 a lot of trouble. They started in about the middle of November and they 

 had gotten pretty well to the top. They did not pay any attention to us, 

 because we did not make a big start. As I say, the first day we did not do 

 anything. When this propaganda was pulled off we were not considered 

 worth noticing, therefore it was shot into this other commission company. 

 We had nothing whatever to do with it. It isn't really our fight, but it was 

 propaganda pure and simple, and it was pulled in just this way: In the 

 first place, if those hogs were sold on Friday and then gotten back and sold 

 on Monday, wouldn't it take some salesman to sort up all of that sausage 

 and get it back into the original hogs and sell it over again? That shows 



