San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-11

4 AuC Vi Inc live
stock market, livestock commission
Companies, by reason of their ex
changes and other methods of agree
ment, increased commission charges {
as high as 81 a car. The stockmer
gracefully accepted this additional tax
on their business so long as livestock
was selling on a high market and
profits were being realized. When de.
flation came 10 all business, the com.
mission firms, through their exchanges
and other methods, kept commission
charges high and refused to share in
the decline, disregarding and ignoring
all protests of stock raisers.
1.-The commission merchants also in.
augunted rules obnoxious to the ship
pers, making it penalty 20 buy a
meal for a shipper and for sending
paid telegram to a customer giving
market information. These charges
and rules were established apparently
without a hearing offered the shipper
and stocLSnen. They were forced to
accept them, and are virtually put
in the class of social lepers apd out
/ casts.
THE stock raisers, finding that
[ they had no redress and no methods
of having their rights or protests con-
sidered, decided to organize their own
| agency for the selling of their live
| stock at reasonable price and to
promote the general welfare of the
| live stock business. The conditions
brought about the organization of the
! Cattle Raisers and Producers Com
mission Company, non-profit or
ganization, engaged in tie live stock
commission business at the Fort
| Worth stocI yards. This company is
| prepared TO sell live stock for a rea-
sonable charge-$12 per car for cat
tie and IS per car for hogs, sheep
and goats, single deck and ST. double
| deck.
Has q Listing Bulletin.
This company also provides an
information bureau where live stock
for sale by, memb<s can be listed
without charge. 1t is the function of
| this bureau to bring buyers and SELL
'ers together on the range so that sales
may be made with the smallest posi-
bic expense of transportation, yard
| age, etc. This service is furnished
without cost TO either buyers or sell
ers and no commissions are charged
for bringing them together. In other
words, every stakeholder in the COM
pany gets a regular statement regard
| ing market conditions Mt all the lead
ing markets, and, in addition to this.
can list his cattle for sale in this
bulletin. This plan has several bene-
fits. 1t puts the producer in touch
| with all the buyers of cattle in the
| Southwest. who can come direct to
him. buy his cattle and ship them out
without the expense of sending the
cattle to market and shipping them
back. Cattle and sheep by being kept
| off the market are kept in better
shape and at the same time neither
buyer nor seller have to pay sales
commissions. yardage or feed bills in
the stock yards.
There is hidden asset in this
sort of transactions, too. The re-
ceipts of cattle will be automatically
cut down and if there is any demand
for cattle on the markets, the short
receipts created by selling on the
range will reflect in the prices
paid in the stock yards. This.
of course, is an asset hard to figure
bat / believe it will aid in getting
better prices for live stock of every
kind. Selling agencies Mt the central
lied live stock markets are essential.
but in past years the commission
firms have increased faster than the
volume of business warranted. A result
has been the constant pyrnmiding of
commission charges. Service rendered
| has not been the factor determining
| the amount of commission charged
hut rather the necessity that the
large army. constantly increasing.
| be paid sufficient to enable it to live
! according to the high standards to
which il is accustomed.
another disturbing factor TO
patrons of commission firms has been
the lack of any concerted attempt by
commission mem to make any funda-
mental changes in the methods of
handling the live stock producers
business. 1t is true. thev have done
some things, but haven't gone far
enough. The fact that the live stock
commission houses operating accord
ing to the plan Of the Cattle Raisers'
and Producers Commission Company
are owned and controlled by live stock
producers insures stockmen that their
most important business will be han
died as they would want it handled. 1t
is a requirement that the directors of
these commission houses be bona fide
producers of live stock. Such men
know what the stockmnn wants in
the way of service and he is as
sured that the directors are going to
see that the employees of the commits
sion associations render the service
wanted.
Is Not B0lsheyik Plan.
"The live stock producers know
what it means to own and control
the business of production. They know
you could not accomplish much if they
had nothing TO say with how many
hogs or cattle they were going to
feed or how they were to be fed. Car
ry this thought a step farther and
imagine what you can accomplish by
owning. controlling and directing the
commission firm that handles your
live stock at the market-the Cattle
Raisers' and Producers Commission
company.
"The taking over by the ranchman
and farmer of the activities connected
with the marketing of his live stock
does not offer anything new or boil
shevik in the plan usually followed
in distributing products. 1t is the
usual rather than the unusual for
manufacturers or rather producers OF
raw products to sell the output of
their own plants or mines. The farmer
may be classed as a manufacturer
and surely his being a producer of
raw products cannot be denied. We
appeal to the producer to take