The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-24
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

what kind of a local market we had. but the grade of stuff which was of- fered for sale.
 have been agreeably surprised in finding the amount of cattle which is killed here, but I have been disap- pointed to discover that large per cent of the best killing cattle comes from out of the state. though quite bit of good grades are home grown.
 Now, the packers and the butchers are public spirited men who would very much prefer to keep the money in Alabama, and so are the men who run the stockyayds; but all of them have to be governed by the conditions existing in the cattle industry, and the truth of the business is that while much improvement is seen in the breeds in | the state. as yet not enough fat steers are produced to supply the demands. |
 1 have almost daily watched the pens ! both at the packing houses and in the yards, and have been rewarded by see- ! ing some top stuff Alabama raised. but all too frequently when I run across fine bunch of cattle I find out | that it was shipped in from Tennessee or some other state. This state of things will continue for some time, for | in spite of the campaign for pure bred cattle, alasl too many of the cattle | raisers are content with the scrub va- riety.
 In spite of Louisville, Nashville, | Memphis, Chattanooga. and the other markets outside of Alahana, and look ing the situation squarely in the face with the great lead which Montgomery ! has taken, and the beginning at Selma l am constrained to believe after a rather careful examination into the matter that there is great chance as well as a need for greatly increased | stockyard facilities in Birmingham. I have talked freely with the pack ers the stockyard men and the butch CTS, and they are all agreed that there is an opening here for a much wider 1 market and that something ought to
 
 be done to wake up capital to the fact that there awaits a good return on money properly spent in the erection of stockyards here, too, on a scale suf- i fieiently large to compete with the cities above named.
 
 If the thing could be projected on sufficiently large scale 1t would not only add riches to the city and develop a much needed industry. but it would give a great impetus to the cattle in- dustry throughout the state. The buy CTS here freely admit that as things are at present Birmingham is not as good market for "toppers" as some other cities. This comes from the fact that at present few carloads satis- fies the market. and then there are not enough buyers for this class of stuff.
 I have had many talks with my friends, Jack Phillips of the Birmfng- nam Packing, Company, and Rube Lewis of the Alabama Packing Com pany, and both have not only freely answered my many very pointed ques- tons but have taken much trouble to show me how they handle the business, it's limitations and it's possibilities. am sure that both men have been anxious to give me inside information about the handicaps of Birmingham as competing market with some of it's sister cities.
 But found out that while Birming- ham was at a disadvantage with cen ters like Chicago and St. Louis and Kansas City when it came to "top" stuff. it really offered a good mar ket for grazers, feeders, springers, medium cows, cutters. canners, heavy and light bulls. In fact when it comes to the lower grades it affords about as good selling place as can be found, and for this reason a great deal of average Alabama cattle is sold here; but not near so much as could and should be if better facilities were in stalled for the buying and handling of the live stock business.
 Up to date I have not gone into the manner in which dressed stuff is ham dled here by the big packers, like Ar mour, Swift Cudahy. Morris, Wilson. and others or to what extent any of them are in the market for live stock | or just the manner in which they op- crate. though incidentally I have run across one of the buyers for one of the big four while he was buying in the yards the cattle toSbe killed by one of the local packing houses. I hope to get line on all this later.
 
 The thing I have been doing was to try and find out just what chance a shipper of cattle to Birmingham would have to realize a proper return on his shipments I undertook the investiga- ton for on several occasions when put on speaking tours for the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce marketing com mittee I was told, by my personal friends that they had quit shipping any cattle to Birmingham. These men, ] however. were engaged in producing top stuff.
 Possibly another thing entered into their reason for shipping to the St l Louis market for it is well known that | there is Missouri banking concern | which makes a business of soliciting | of Alabama. and of course this is a tie | which binds the producers to the west l ern market: but down below all this l stands out the rock bottom fact that 1; few of the breeders of pure bred stuff l are willing to take chance on the l Birmingham market until there are | more bidders here
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