The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-21
M E N w o M E N
 A ND T H N c $.

On my way to Auburn on Monday , l got to spend the afternoon in Mont { gomery, and made my way out, to the union stock yards and then on the re- turn trip l also was able to spend sew eral hours in studying the plant and
 watching the cattle and hogs
 It was by no means my first inspec- i ton of the yards. but l always get pleasure out Of pottering around the , institution, for there is always some , thing of interest going OH. never tire l wandering un an down the runs and 1 can sit by the hour on the fence while
 noting the animals in the pens.
 
 Then there is always the human in i terests, for it's quite breezy thing to ! see the trafficking. The average cat
 tie man is active in his movements quick of eye, picturesque in dress and a past master in terse and expressive English. It's marvellous to see how surely they can cut out bunch of cat
 tie. There is rarely any question among the experts as to the grading.
 My friend. Harry Snow, the traffic manager, was to meet me at the train, but was confined to his bed I took the 1 scenic car route which leads out to the yards. There is nothing like 1t in Birmingham either as to circuitousness (unless it be Highland avenueJ or when | 1t comes to winding in and out and around among squalid streets. It is 1 be taken.
 1 have two good friends who are traffic managers of stock yards. They are both top notchers in their line, but l they are different in every way. Harry Snow of Montgomery is a blushing modest violet in the matter of dress alongside of Bill Burnett of Nashville i whose flaming red tie is known -amonG cattle men from the great lakes on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south and from the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west
 1 l first got to know Harry Snow at I the Demopols rooster sale. He and l the late Bruce Kennedy (and how I do miss old Bruce everytime l run down 1 to the capitolD were star performers in the ring for il was between them George and Clemenceau were landed | for Montgomery. Harry admitted that game chickens was out of his line, but he was game in backing up Bruce who was then secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.
 l The next time l got next to Harry was at thc annual meeting of the | Southern Cattlemen's association. it was in tha big sales of pure-bred stuff after the convention was over out at l the stock yards that I really saw l him at work. He is evidently a good ] executive and knows how to use his I friends for l hadn't been on the ground | long before I found myself working in the ring like one of the staff | 1 am not going to stop here to write sketch of the union stock yards Suffice it to say that it has been a pace maker in the south and its won i, derful strides has attracted the atten- 1 tion of the cattlemen all over the coun- 1 try and done much to make the people of Alabama know, that the state is not 1 only adapted to raising cattle. but that market for all it can raise is
 ready to absorb it at fair prices. Nineteen nineteen was record
 breaking year. but in spite of he ump in 1920 it was
 shown at the annual meeting held on 1 last week that the union stock yards
 at Montgomery had suffered a decline | of only 50 cars in the total number of cars of live stock handled in 1920 when I set against 1919. The number of hogs handled in 1920 showed decline of 55,55S head, while the cattle receipts increased 15,S94 head, and calf receipts were LAOS head in excess of 1919. An
 analysis of these figures and a knowl-
 edge of the conditions easily explains the loss in the hogs which were marketed.
 l
 President w. P. Kenn@st of Louis-
 vile, stopped off in Birmingham on
 his way to Montgomery to attend the
 stockholders meeting and with him
 Was Fay Murray, president Of the Live Stock exchange of Nashville, Tenn. I had an interview with these gentlemet whom l had met while attending the
 Fat Cattle show at Nashville. I learned
 in Montgomery that the stockholders
 were optimistic over the outlook TO,
 the union stock yards for 1921 in spite /, of the present slump in the hog and cattle market throughout the country. They left the meeting for Key West
 where they had engaged a seaplane for a flight to Havana, where they were to :! look ino the chance of making a mar
 ket in Cuba for the peanut-fed hog. l
 It is really remarkable how in few best equipped stock yards in the coun- try has been built in Montgomery. It enjoys the distinction of having all os | its pens under cover, while the floors are of cement In fact it's the latest thing in the way of stock yard archi- l lecture. for everything needed for the. expeditions handling of hogs and cat ! tie was carefully planned not merely 1, to meet the commercial needs but all of the government requirements After having seen many other yards in the south and west. was able to appre-