Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1889-05-02

Northwestern Live Stock Journal.

Northwestern Live Stock Journal
While We nave all deplored the con
dition of the cattle market, especially
the past two years. AMI not II few ci
rs have wondered as To the cause, We
seem to have almost wholly over
looked the fact that necessarily the
key to the situation is IN the hands ol
the producers. When just so many
cattle are sent forward, or II few head
less, than the market demand calls
for, then the price would be such a. to
remunerate the producers; when con
stant stream heavier than can he AL
vantageously handled and put into
immediate consumption goes to the
center, then prices must 90 down to n
scale below what has been actual cost
to the parties who raised the cattle.
This Is a recognized law oi trade in
every line ri business AMI ni every IN
dustry; but it seems ctIrlou-iy to have
been overlooked 10y the majority of
stoskmen. TO ignore 1t Is To make IA
ruinous miscalcplation. Ii one were
to say that market prices had held re
markably good, one would he ridi-
culed-but. all the same. such il the
fact. When II is considered that cat
tie have been sent forward in a never
abating Hood for months and years,
without regard to age, sex or previous
condition of starvation, he wonder
to the thoughtful must be that the
the extent that it should absolutely
refuse cattle at any price. But instead
of such evidence oi nausea, we see the
market taking at "A remarkably good
price, considering, scrawny yearlings
that are little more than hides and
bones, and taking them by the unt old
thousands. The strengt h OF the Amer
lean cattle market has never been even
GUESSED at 10y the widest imagination.
and could not he, until since the time
OF its weakness. No other market in
the world could have handled the end
less tide oi cattle, and under no oi her
system than that known at Chicago
and backed by unlimited capital could
it have been possible.
Many causes con>pired to send the
Hood of cattle to market. In 1883
the industry was in debt row oi tig
ures that If shown would he l,evond
comprehension, and when ''the times"
became slow liquidatio ion was an abso-
lutte. irrevocable or.ier-creditors and
stockholders demanded blood, aud it
went in Il stream that has not let up
to this day. Many heavy catt lemen
were compelled from various causes { q
surrender their ranges, and with the
decline in prices many others did so
voluntarily. Drouth in the upper Mis-
siSsippi region and orders to vacate
the Indian Territory worked their
effect. The oNer-production cry was
started and tanned into roar, doubt
less as a "bear" effect, by those inter
estei. And finally as prices staried
down the slide toward zero came a
stampede to unload and "A panic which
continues, and whicl, for at least the
past six months is without cause.
Every observan man who has seen
in the past decade the rise, the boom
and the sickening ilop in the business,
will bear out the assertion that 80
long as only fit cattle We're sent To
market prices We're good. And we who
were on the ranges can recall how il
seemed to us pity as Inc first consid-
erable shipments OF fat cows and two
year-old steers went out. That date
and the date OF the Hop tally Ia "A
nicely, and the condition became more
pronounced and pity grew sick and
yielded up the ghost as poor COWS and
young steers and heifers and yearlings
went without number. 80 fast a. un-
loading could proceed 1T has ever since
been the rule, and market reports have
not during the time been read by
cattle owners with gusto nor lordly
feeling.
Now, gentleman. the unloading has
been done. You have sacrificed mill
iOns-we mean millions-of she cattle
that are not now in existence to pro-
duce after their kind; i'm young steers
and calves you have sent "A heavy per
centage of the legitimate beef supply oi
1889 and 80, and made IA perceptible
dig into that oil 81. The market i
now in your hands u ) never before in
the history OF the business, and We
suggest, gentlemen, that you let up on