Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-02-15
GOVERNMENT AID
IN MARKETING OF
farm PRODUCTS
Representatives of Depart
ment of Agriculture Give
Addresses at the State
Farm Conference.

The farm markets conference, In ses-
sion in the hall of representatives in
the state. house annex, was addressed
today by C. f. Bassett, c. w. Moomaw
and w. H. Kerr, representatives of the
department of agriculture, who out
lined plans for the solving of the mar
ket problems of the northwest
At the conference yesterday the first
subject discussed was the federal re-
serve act, and E. c. Pfaffle. of Merid'
ian, was introduced as the farmer
banker who needed no apologies for
the fact that he is a banker and was
asked to explain the workings of the
federal reserve act and the difficulties
of taking advantage of it in the Boise
valley.
MIR. Pfaffle explained the purposes
of the act as being only to provide
short time loans in times of special
need, as in crop moving time. He said
that it was not its purpose to provide
money for permanent improvements or
investments, as for buildings or for
breeding stock. but rather to provide
funds for the man who has hay or
grain he wishes to feed and must bor-
row money to buy feeder stock to con-
sumo the crop Feeders will have their
animals ready for market within six
months and the loans can be can
celed when the animals are marketed.
Before adjournment of the afternoon
session a permanent organization was
effected. w. G.. Scholtz director of
farm markets, was elected president,
and F.. p. French, of New Plymouth,
secretary.
Market Problems Discussed.
At the evening session the subject
of livestock marketing was discussed.
d. H. Detchon, editor of the Western
Farmers Review, led the discussion by
reading from some OF the bulletins of
the American National Livestock asso-
citation of Denver and commenting on
them. He said that there is nothing
criminally wrong with the marketing
operations Of the present system, but
that the large packers have greater
power over the market than is advis-
able and that movement is on foot by
the American National Livestock asso-
citation to make them relinquish con-
troll of the stock yards and to encour-
age the establishment OF Independent
or cooperative packing plants in the
He thought that independent packing
plants should be encouraged, but in es-
tablishing cooperative packing plants,
care should be taken to investigate
thoroughly before embarking on such
enterprises, as small plants could
probably not operate as cheaply as the
large plant that has developed the
market by by-products to the last item
of making even the hoofs of the small
est animals into glue and the hair into
brush bristles. He thought that there
was no excuse for the prices Of live
stock to have been as low as they were
in the last year, particularly the hog
prices. and some means of providing
against another such drop in prices
should be found.
The speaker thought that the inter-
ssts of the grower and those of the
packer are Numerically opposed. to
each other, as the buyer naturally will
buy as cheaply as he can and the
grower wants all he can get. He adj
vised that farmers should recognize
this condition and refuse to cooperate
with the buying interests in any way
and should not accept their member
ships in farmers organizations.
When asked il there is not a way to
eliminate the commission man and
deal direct with the buyer, Mr.. Detch-
on said that the commission man is an
expert on the value and market condi-
ton of the animals offered and is
worth the small fee charged for his
services. He said that the services of
commission men at livestock markets
cost the shipper only about three
fourths of one per cent of the price re-
ceived. There is some objection, how
ever. being made to having the cattle
loan company that is owned by the
packers finance the commission COM
pany, as the packer might by this
method exert an influence over the