The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-25
SOUTH ST. PAUL ST0CKYARDS.
THERE IS NO WATERED STOCK
AND COMPANY HAS MADE NO
MONEY.
HOW THE CATTLE ARE HANDLED.
Receipts and Disbursements of the
Company for 1S95-Year Later
Began With Shortage.

| ed to look into the matter of forage
charges to shippers at the stockyards
near the Twin Cities held another meet
ing last night, and listened to answers
made by Gen. Mark D. Flower, presi-
dent and general manager Of the ST.
Paul Union Stockyards company, TO
questions put to him by members of
the committee.
Gen. Flower went into an explanation
of the yards and the stock market in
general. The capacity of the yards was
1000 hogs, 1000 cattle and 5000 sheep
per day, and last year there were han
! died 330,0 hogs, 10000 sheep and $4,000
cattle. He explained that nothing but
! a rental was received from sheep own
ers, as few were sold on the market at
South ST. Paul.
Getting down to the matter of
charges, the witness spoke of taxing
shippers and quoted 81 per hundred
pounds for hay fed to cattle in transit,
while yardage charge of rs cents per
head for cattle and cents for hogs
was laid against stock sold for killing
| here. This yardage included weighing
The whole stock yards plant, includ-
ing everything, was capitalized for ST.
100000, Of which $1,OO0,0OO was stock
and the balance bonds which earned
per cent. None of the stock was wat
cred. The company he said, never had
made money. 1t was true several divi-
dends had been declared, but were the
| direct result of the sale of lands origin
ally acquired, and which were disposed
of during boom times. The stock and
bonds, he reiterated, represented paid
| up capital; the bonds were worth, he
thought, 80, and the stock perhaps 80.
The buildings, etc, outside of the pack
ing houses themselves, represented an
| amount approximating $4,000.
Gen. Flower went into the matter of
| the commission men and the need for
their presence at the stockyards Con-
Meeting railroad lines, where shipping
| business originated, exacted the prom
Use Of the freight payment from the
Chicago Great Western road going into
| the yards. This last named road made
| the same eXactfon from the stockyards
company, which In turn placed the six
commission men located there under
| bonds in the sum each of 5000 to pay
| the freight on cattle received at least
twice week Shippers could consign
! stock to themselves quite as well as
| to the commission men, if they desired,
| If only they complied with the require
ments named. The advantage to ship
! pcrS in dealing with the commission
| men lay in the latters' familiarity with
| the market conditions which resulted
| in securing better prices for the ami
mails. Gen. Flower made the statement
| that last year about half of the $4,000
| cattle handled were transit cattle He
| further said that in charging stock
! shippers 81 per bushel for corn and
oats and 500 a ton for hay, his COM
pany was simply following the custom
of almost every other stock market in
| this section of the country. Part of
the proposition which confronted the
| gentlemen who had organized the
stockyards company was the question
of paying interest on the money in
vested and do it legitimately. He
thought when the investment and the
great running expense was considered.
the members of the committee would
agree that it was not fair to isolate
this single feature and say it was out
Of proportion. He created some amuse-
ment at this point by explaining that,
anyway, the point had not been
brought out that, if this was q high
rate, it was the buyer and not the
| shipper who stood the brunt of it. The
| hogs were shipped in, for instance, and
left in the yards until sold. When sold.
the shipper dumped in for their con-
sumption perhaps $50 or 200 pounds Of
corn to the hungry swine, and turned
on the water butt in the troughs until
the porkers had probably Tapped up 100
pounds more of aqua pura. Then they
were, in this satisfied condition, hustled
off to the scales, weighed and delivered
to their new owner Gen. Flower told
this in all seriousness. He refused to
| consider seriously, however, the init
| nation that the stockyards company
had been selling shortweight bales Of
hay Said he:
Some Of those bales may be a bit
short; some Of them may be a little
over. We buy them as carefully as
possible, and sell them as web NY them,
for what we think they weigh I think
the members Of this committee can
hardly afford to put much stock in this
feature of the matter"
Supt. H. B. Carroll, of the stock
yards, was also present and supported
the testimony of his chief
Gen. Flower read from the printed
report the receipts and disbursements
for the year 1895, which showed that
the net earnings were $69,208.S3, but
added that year since then was be-
gun with shortage Of something like
$4,000. The figures submitted for 1895
are as follows:
Gross Receipts
VnrIo