Arizona republican., 1916-01-16

high freight rates and the continuous h VI for more money on the part of every enterprise having to do with the cattle industry, make it impera- tive that the producers of cattle wake up and apply themselves to the task of attending to their own busi- tneSs rather than leave it to the of ficials of the various organizations with which they have to do business, as they have been leaving it in the past
 Testimony of an Expert MT A. E. de Ricqles, chairman of the executive committee of the Amercan Live Stock and Loan com pany, of the Union Stock Yards of Den CT, in a speech recently deliver. ed before the convention of the Iowa Corn Belt Meat Producers Associa- ! tion at Des Moines, Iowa, had this to say:
 The most serious thing that con- fronts the live stock men of the country at this time is the fact that the prices for finished cattle and fat hogs have rot keDt ur with the de- mand and have b,ea as low. if not lower, this year G915) than last year Q915)'
 Why Do Prices Fall? MT. de Rlcqles cuotcd figures to show thai while the receipts of cattle and Ecgs at the six principal mar ke.s--Clicaso Ka lsas City. Omaha, & Louis St Josejh and Sioux City, for the first ten rlonths of 1915 were slightly in excess of those for the | corr responding period of 1914. they were very mdta lower than the re- 1 ceipts for tie first ten months of 1 1915, 1e1. and :Gi1. At the same time the prIces of beef cattle and | hogs were infinitely lower in 1915 ! than the, were IF any of the pre- vious fcur years. and much lower than they were. even in 1914. For instance, taking the Chicago market as typical and as a basis, the average price paid for native beef steers during the first ten months of 1915 was sS.12 per hundredweight; 1 the average price paid for the core hdndredweight
 l Some COmpaTdtiVe FI9uTeS l Fat cows and leifers for the first ten months of 1915 broughr an aver age of s6.12 as against $6.69 for the corresponding period of 1914. Hogs | brought an average price of $119 in 1915. tie first ten months, as against sS.49 for the corresponding period of 1914.
 During the first ten months of 1915 the exportation of canned, fresh and picl:Ief, beef amounted to 313, Al 900 rounds as against 47,565.000 pounds shipped during the corresponding period of 1914, an increase of 2I2,- 176,000 pounds.
 Pork products in the form of bacon, hams and shoulders. lard, pickled pork and lard compounds, exported during the first ten months of 1915, amounted to 1,129,671 900 pounds as against 695, ,512, ,00O pounds exported during the corresponding period of the year before, an increase of 434,- 159. .O00 pounds, yet in the face of this enormous increase in the demand for
 material at slaughter-house doors decreased.
 With these. facts confronting them
 and in the fact of an absolutely
 world wide shortage of meat animals, live stock producers of the country
 who attend the Fl Paso convention will try and discover why their fat
 cows. steers and hogs delivered at the
 slaughter houses are being sold on a
 falling rather than a rising market
 They will insist on some eXplana
 tion as to why their raw material
 has not responded in price, in view of
 the greatly increased demand. To !, quote MT. de Ricqles again:
 Packers Are Blamed
 investigation has shown that the
 packers who have been buying these
 live cattle and hogs and distributing
 the same as finished product have
 been making unusual earnings. It
 has also been shown that they prac-
 tically control the matter of price
 making, through their absolute own
 ership of the various markets. Pro-
 ducers believe that a monopoly in
 buying of meat animals exists at
 these markets and that it is because
 of this monopoly that prices for live
 stock of all kinds have not responded
 to the demand
 : Live stock men who give these
 questions serious consideration are alarmed. because they fear that this monopoly will continue it's power. to the serious injury of the producer,
 and that if proper methods are not immediately employed to control the situG tion and get it strengthened out before it goes too far they will find
 themselves in 9 position similar to found themselves. The producers of live stock realize that it is of the greatest importance to them that the Il packers prosper, but they have rights
 which have been lost sight of and | that it is time that the packing house interests be brought to a realizing sense that the scherle O. l control is wrong and thdt they are
 hna led for trouble if -a.y do not r.nn,tt'v correct the aoIsts |! at l rX:sf
 The big question to be discussed at
 the Fl Paso convention is that of live
 stock marketing. and from the quota :
 tions given above it is very evident l that the producers will attend in l force with a view toward creating public sentiment in their favor | WOMEN's LEADER ILL |