The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-07-11

parently opened up. When I
came, / was informed by my
friend that he had sold the cat
tie, to whom I did not know.
That he had sold them at CTS
for the top end and 6.25 for the
poor end, I was, Of course, sur
prised at the sale, but as / had
consigned them to him did not
think at the time that I could
stop the sale. / investigated the
market, and found on that day
that the general run of prices for
the top end of my bunch was &C..
j then investigated to find out
where the cattle were and dis
covered my friend had sold them
to a speculator. In company with
Peter Knutson of Williston, N.
D., I then went to the speculat-
ors' yards and as he did not
know me, / looked over my own
cattle and asked him what he
would take for them. He said,
Il have just sold them to a par
ty in Iowa for &c." I said, 'that
is pretty good business. I just
got CTS for the same bunch. "
He said, "well, of course, I had
to mix them with other cattle
to bring the grade up" I ex-
amined the bunch and found that
every single steer in the pens
had the u bar brand on them.
I said, "you know you lie when
you say you had to mix the
bunch because you couldn't
brand them and have the brands
heal up on them within one
hour" I have not calculated to
the exact figure just how much
I lost on this transaction, but
approximately 100000 on the
bunch. I then discovered that
the speculators make a regular
business Of making the rounds
of the stockyards early on mar
ket days and buying up all the
cattle they can buy, taking them
over to their pens and re-selling
them on the same day. I pre-
sumo, while I don't know, that
I am not the only victim Of the
spectators who operate on the
South ST. Paul stock market.
Yours truly,
(Signed) u. L. Burdick.
Such was the condition at the
stockyards and such was the
condition that the Equity Ex-
change true to it's fighting his
tory, went into the field to COM
bat and which it has conquered
to a great extent. That the
Equity has been successful in
its fight is shown best in figures
that reveal that over SIS, 600, 900
worth of cattle, sheep and hogs
have been handled there. There
is not a record on the books of
a dollar lost through a bad ac-
count and a weekly increase is
shown with the ratio as high
some weeks as 100 per cent.
More than $4,000 pigs have been
shipped to Iowa, and the corn
belt through the Equity depart
ment and farmers who have
done business through the office
are testifying to their faith by
continuing to have the Equity
handle their cattle. These are
some Of the facts concerning the
South st. Paul office, also some
of the facts that will develop
from the Chicago agency to ac-
crue to the benefit Of farmers !:
iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wis
consin and Montana farmers
will buy and sell their cattle at
Chicago through a farmers or
ganization instead Of buying and
selling them through the old es-
tablished dealers and paying the
spectators profit on the same.
Pigs will be fed and shipped
from the South st. Paul ExS
change with no profit except to
the farmers themselves, as they
will own both commission houses
and divide their profits above
the actual expense Of operation,
with their customers. Iowa
farmers, especially, will be bene-
flied for they will be given stock
er and feeder cattle direct thru
the Equity Exchange. North
Dakota, not being q dairy state
and producing cattle Of q beef
type and not producing corn to
feed them, markets the best class
OF feeders on the South st. Paul
market that are marketed in the
Unitd States and these will be
handled through the Chicago de-
partment. The Chicago office