Arizona republican., 1915-04-05
Address of President H. A. Jastro on the Eve of His Retirement from Head of American National Liv.a Stock Association

of so much importance to the live stock industry was the address oe President H. A. Jastro of the Ameri can National Live Stock Association before the convention at San Fran cisco on the eve of his retirement, that it is here presented in full:
 This is the second time the Ameri can National Live Stock Association has held it's annual convention in pleased that you are meeting here this year because of the great Pana- ma Pacific exposition. for I am sure that the benefits and pleasure you will derive from visiting the expo sition will more than compensate you for your trip to the coast.
 The present is an eventful epoch in the worlds history. Most of the civilized nations are at war. We should be grateful that our country is at peace, and thankful that the disastrous effects of this war have not more seriously disturbed our commercial and industrial life.
 The war has demonstrated how interwoven is the international com mercial fabric, and how every civi- lized nation is, in a greater or less degree, dependent on the supplies. the markets. and the credit of other countries.
 When the war began, our public UaS 1a6 x,if pictic phesies as to the benefits to be de- lived by this country from an in- creased demand for our products of all kinds, at highly remunerati'e prices, and from the capturing of markets not heretofore enjoyed by us; that, in fact, We would supply most of the world with food-stuffs, and at the same time be its banker and manufacturer. These predictions of our unchallenged commercial sup remacy will, fear, not be realized. Temporarily We may increase our ex- ports, but in the end we must buy from other countries approximately as much as We sell abroad, in order to maintain a proper trade equilibri- um. Live stock is selling on all the markets in this country on a lower level of prices than prevailed previous to the war. notwithstandirg g the fact that receipts at all market points and the total slaughter have been less than the average of cor respHding periods of recent years.
 On account of the war, our ex- ports of canned meats have increased
 
 our exports of meat products for 1914 were less than in 1913, and for the last six months of 1914 were but little different from those of the same months in 1913. Possibly our exports of meat products to the Eu- ropean continent would increase if the difficulties and uncertainties of ocean transportation were removed Dealers hesitate to ship for fear of seizure, delay, and possible total loss Largely for this reason, our exports of meats to Europe have materially decreased, and the trade is at a standstill
 It has been frequently stated that after the war is ended the countries engaged will be practically denudcd of meatfood animals and meat-fooj products, and that consequently there will be an immense foreign demand for our meat products. That state ment assumes that the consumers abroad will have the purchasing power to buy our meat produces after the close of the war. On tha contrary I believe their ability tC buy our meat products will be smaller than before the war.
 Another result of the war has been the temporary lessening of i'm portation of meat from Argentina Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand no meat has been shipped here since the war began, owing to the actior of their governments. In any event only a small amount could have been shipped here, because of higf prices prevailing there Possibly af ter the war is ended the United States may receive a greater amount of meat products from those surplus countries. on account of the lack O buying power of other consuming nations
 According to the report of the de partment of commerce the total valu, ucts during 1914 was $36,023,510: tn, imports of meat-food animals, most ly feeder cattle from Mexico alt Canada for furthere finishing, wer valued at $20.31S.391; a total of s5c. 342.904, or less than per cent O the value of at wholesale of ou domestic consumption of meat prod ucts. The total value of our ex ports of meat flood products durini 1914 amounted to $12S,2S2 ,034; o about s per cent of the value a wholesale of our domestic meat con sumption. The value of our ex ports of meat-food animals amount ed to only $990,406. Our import consisted largely of beef. with som mutton; while hog products repre- sented the bulk of our exports.
 The foreign demand for our meat does not now exert so important an permanent an influence on prices a in former years when our exports O meat food animals and meat foo products amounted to 25 per cent c our production. and no foreig meats were imported.
 The volume of our production C meat products, and our capacity { consume them are now far greste factors in price making than our i'm ,~~~~~s~~~~>s~~~~~~.~~~ 0AR01 0