Monroe City Democrat. (Monroe City, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1912-08-15
A SELLING CITY.
An incorporated City That Exists
Simply to Sell Live Stock.

National City, Illinois, is a city |
created for one sole purpose. 1t is
a selling city" for live stock. It's in
corporated because 1t was necessary |
to have a government to handle the |
1000 people who are at the st. Louis |
National stock yards and packing |
houses every week day and also pro-
vide police and fire protection for the
many million dollars worth OF prop
erty there, not to mention the hun.
dred and fifty million dollars worth
of live stock that is sent In there
every year to he sold.
The total area of National City is
six hundred acres. Half of this is oc-
cupied by the stock yards. They are
divided into cattle, sheep, hog, horse
and mule divisions. Each division is
handled independently of the rest as
far as the selling is concerned, but Is
part of the st. Louis National Stock
Yards system by which all receipts
are promptly unloaded, yarded, deliv-
cred to the selling pens, fed if re-
quired, weighed, driven to the ship
ping platforms If they are to be sent
away, or over the viaducts If to be
slaughtered locally.
The United States Government pro-
vides large staff of inspectors who
have an office in the st. Louis Live
Stock Exchange Building in the CEN
ter of the National Yards. All the
principal railroads which bring stock
to or carry it from the yards have
offices here and their agents are eX-.
perts in live stock traffic matters.
The Exchange itself, the St. Louis
National Stock Yards Company, and
the National Stock Yards National
Bank, have offices in the same build
ing and work in cooperation for the
entire live stock selling system that
eenters there-very much as the head
offices OF big department store OPP
crate for the benefit of each depart
ment in its general affairs and for the
! good OF the whole store. Billing, &C.
counting, weighing, paying for stock
as fast as 1t is sold, checking up
claims against railroads, deducting
animals that died in transit, cripples,
docked animals, keeping track Of re.
! ceipts from various sections, ETC., are
! all done, by the general offices, and
the presence Of the railroad agents to
help handle claims Is an important
thing. They try to facilitate settle
ments on an equitable basis, under
the new plan the majority of roads
have adopted of trying to be popular
by treating their customers as we'll az
they can.
And yet each firm that does bust
ness ON this market is independent OF
the rest, store in itself whore the
goods displayed each day are the bait
that attracts trade, Trade comes from
buyers, Just as 1t does in any store.
The buyers represent local butchers,
twenty-five or thirty st. Louis and
East st. Louis packing houses. and
other packers In Eastern cities who
prefer to buy at st. Louis on account
of its location saving time and money
in shipment and also because st.
Louis live stock has a high reputation
for quality.
Competition between these buyers
is what makes the prices high at ST.
Louis. Competition between commits.
sion firms Is what makes trade brisk
with them, each striving to attract in
creased receipts through superior
salesmanship. Thus the firms which
command the largest business are the
ones which have shown the best sales
manship, the same as in department
store the departments that do the
most business are the ones that are
most successful. In this selling city
of the stock yards the stores or firms
that sell live stock number between
thirty and forty and thus do an aver
age of about three per cent OF the
total business of the yards And this
is the basis they compute their sue
cess. Their ability to do more thar
" the average is their proof of goot
salesmanship. The firm that showed
the largest average for 1911 was the
National, doing over ten per cent o.
the total business at the Nationa
Yards and gaining over twenty-five
per cent in sales during the year. 1T
ability to attract consignments is SAX
to have been the greatest factor in III
growth. That is traceable to the abil
fly to make good sales, for the one II