The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-15
A GREEDY MONOPOLY.
How the Kansas City Stockyards
Plumbers Kansas Shippers.
ENORMOUS PRICES ARE CHARGED

Legislation q Crying Need.
Everyone who has ever shipped stock
to Kansas City, knows why stoekyard's
lobby has come to Topeka to prevent any
legislation which will put any restriction
upon the stockyards company. They
don't want to be bothered. They are
getting along all right and why can't the
Kansas solons let them alone.
No matter if their system does hlch
thousands of dollars from Kansas stock
shippers every month. If the stock men
and farmers can stand it, what business
has the legislature to interfere? The
lobby is here to convince the legislature
of these facts and they are very anxious
that the lawmakers shall be convinced
and stop thinking about stockyards leg
islation.
One of the men who has patronized
the Kansas City stockyards for more than
twenty years is l. n. Town, who lives
at 623 Buchanan street. To JOURNAL
reporter Mr.. Town said:
81 have been shipper to the Kansas
City stock yards for 20 years, though L
believe that the present stock yards
company did not exist when first began
shipping.
"The charges for sending the different
kinds of stock through the yards are as
follows per head: Cattle, 25 cents; hogs,
10 cents; sheep, cents. | do not know
what is charged for horses This does
not seem very much, but on train load
of cattle it amounts to good round sum.
1t would cost for a train load of stock
cattle about 1925. Then there is no diff
ference in the charges if the animal is
worth So or 500"
"Are these all the charges?"
mo sir; that is only a small part of
them. The big expense is for feed. If
you feed your stock as you have to at
least once nearly every shipment you
can only buy the feed from the stock
yards company and their prices are for
I hay $50 a ton and for corn 81 a bushel
and these prices are the same the year
around without regard to the market
price. When l first shipped cattle
to the stock yards | was allowed to buy
my feed wherever [ wished. Then, too,
the charge for the yardage of cattle was
only 10 cents per head and if the cattle
were weighed there was a charge Of
cents more. Now, no one is allowed to
buy hay or grain except OF the stock
| yards company and the shipper has no
alternate but to pay the exorbitant
/ prices. l suppose that the only reason
/ the stock yards company can give for
the change is the reason the wolf gave
when he rolled the brook and then ate
up the lamb for doing so.
"Very often when the market is
crowded a shipper has to keep his cattle
/ in the yards two or three days and imag-
/ inc what his feed bill is on train load"
"Can you give an estimate of the gross
receipts of the stock yards company"
81 can make an approximate estimate
l should say from what l know of the
! business of the yards that the daily re-
ceipts are: For cattle, $4,000; hogs,
$1,000; sheep, $500; horses, $50; profit
on hay and grain. $500. This will make
So 6U0 as the daily receipts, aud l am
satisfied that these figures are not far
wrong. This leaves a daily net profit of
over $500.
81 was told by man at the yards who
was at one time a stakeholder in the
stock yards company that the original
| Investment was $4,000 or 1925, 000-I
do not remember which. He also said
that not dollar not earned by the yards
has since been invested, though the plant
is said to be now worth something like
$13,OOO,O00. The company has kept
down its apparent profit by continually
watering the stock, and still | under
stand that the stock is worth s.. 65 on the
dollar.
"rhe monopoly of this concern is abso-
lutte. You can not sell head of cattle
outside the stockyards, and the only way
| they can be avoided is to not stop in
Kansas City at all but go on to some
other market That is the only place in
Kansas City where stock can be unload
ed from the cars, and it is the only place
where the buyers come. Any one who
would attempt to compete with the COM
4 pany by esta blishing new yards would be
frozen out in a very short time. There
is nothing to do, apparently, but grin
and bear it.
Several years ago the Santa Fe rail-
road started to esta blish stockyards al
Argentine General Strong laid out a
large tract of ground, and the shippers
all along the line of the Santa Fe were
told that there would soon be competition
in the stockyards business and that things
would be better, but all at once the talk
about the new Santa Fe yards stopped
and the advance from 20 to % cents OF
yardage for cattle told US too plainly
that there was no longer hope.
within the past year man long con-
nected with the yards, told me thai
some of the Santa Fe officials at
that time got big block of the Union
yards stock.
"If 1 owned large interest in the
yards l would undoubtedly urge you to
believe the charges were very moderate
but being a shipper l think l could east
!
cases outrageous. For instance, can al
the present time buy load of hay or
smaller quantity outside the yards at the
rate of IS ton and have it delivered il
any part of Kansas City. The dealer
thinks that 10 or 20 per cent on his
money fair profit, but the yards charge
me $50 a ton even though it doe
not cost them as much a
the dealer and they only make profit OF
$50 per cent On corn they are at pres
ent content with a profit of 1875 per cent
though one year with another they aver
age profit of at least 200 per cent OF
both hay and corn. l think the charges
for yardage would be high at one hal
the present rate.
"Having as they have an absolute mo
nopoly they should be regulated by law
! and like other corporations. be alloMed z