Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-11-27
ANOTHER LIVE STOCK MARKET.


ANOTHER LIVE STOCK MARKET.
We presume there are men In Chi
cago who scott at the idea of the city
by the lake ever losing its grip on the
stock growers Of the west. In fact
there are many II not a majority Of ih.
latter class who know no other mar
ket but Chicago and year after year
they deliver themselves up to the syn
dicate of buyers to be dealt with as
they see fit. But unerring signs of
the times point to proper division of
the immense trade in range beef that
Chicago has so long had and out OF
which her thrifty little coterie of buy
ers have coined fabulous fortunes. In
addition to Kansas City and Omaha
st. Paul is already in the field and
partially equipped for the battle, and
now comes deliberate but wealthy St.
Louis with thoroughly maturec
project to establish stock yards and II
live stock market at that point. The
goose that laid the golden egg for Chi
cago 10! these many years, has been
slaughtered by greed of those who prof
tied by il. The scaling down Of prices
on range beef has been ominously reg
uIar since 1882, until in this present
year of our Lord, Montana beef sold
in Chicago for but t-ifie more than
the hide was worth on the days mar.
ket quotations.. A decline 6f from
fifty to seventy.five per cent. In the
value of live beef, In the face II uni
formly high and steady market for the
dressed article, and the knowledge
that the offal is every year being more
handled has forced upon many stock
growers the unpleasant belief that
they have been for the past two or
three years investing capital and brain
force for the benefit of Chicago buyers.
They have learned, as tersely, but effec.
lively put by prominentscattle man
that "a train load of cattle is sold in
Chicago, as soon as the shipping bills
are made out In Montans." The little
farce that is rehesrsed with each ship
per on arrival at the stock yards in
Chicago, in which each of the syndi-
cate of buyers approach him Ia turn,
and make him an offer, the
first highest, and those following
grading down, has nothing to do with
the case. If he is an old shipper he
knows what II all means, and that he
will have to accept the first and best
offer. If he is new to the market he
may thiEk that by haggling he
may get better price, but he soon
learns by experience-and it comes
high, too-that he Is merely a figure
head, that the cattle are not his and
have not been since the day they were
billed to Chicago. Eventually they
pass to their rightful owner, TIE Chi.
cago syndicate, and the putative
owner receives whatever their gener-
osity may dictate, less the fixed charges
for hay, commissions, ETC., which are
~ robust on steer that nets $l2 as
they were three or four years ago
when an animal brought from $50 to
$50. 1t Is the consideration Of these
things that make live stock markets
at st. Paul and st. Louis possible, and
to which during the coming year
will be diverted large portion of the
Chicago trade; In fact all they can
1t is no doubt true that as
soon as they get an established trade,
the same policy may obtain among
the buyers In these new markets as
has been practiced in Chicago, but the
chances are that 1t will never again
attain the power it has welded in
Chicago, and that the future of the
live stock interest will be untram-
meled by any such binding conditions.
The st. Louis yards will be on q
scale commensurate with the business
they hope and expect to control, and
will embrace about 200 acres Of land
lying west Of the city and between the
tracks of the Missouri Pacific and the
1T. Louis Il San Francisco railroads.
Nature has equipped the site with all
the rudimentary elements necessary
for the purpose, and the improvements
will be of the best class, and the facil-
titles for handling stock OF all kinds,
and for the convenient transaction of
business will be am pie for all time.