Evening star., 1924-11-25
HOG RA|SERSF|GHT
I FOR 0RH|GHERPROF|T
Score Method of Buyers in
Waiting for Lower Prices
in Chicago.
BY" j. c. ROYLE.


Special Dispatch to The star.
NEW YORK. November 25.-Since
election industry Of all kinds has
not hesitated. to guard jealously
against Government regulation of
business. The removal OF fear THAT
there might be adverse railroad leg
islation or regulation shot railroad
stocks skyward. Now some farmers
Unexpectedly have leaped lightly into
the arena and. through some Of their
spokesmen, demand that the Govern
ment, including the Secretary of Ag-
riculture. keeps its hands of the live
stock market. This movement indi-
Gates again the truth of the old
adage that it all depends on whose
OK is gored.
War Declared Over Hogs.
The Secretary of Agriculture has
filed complaint charging Armour
Co. of Illinois, Armour & Co. of Della
ware, the North American Provision
Company. and Swift & Co., with "un-
fair and unjustly discriminatory
action in refusing to buy hogs from
spectators. The packers have not
even filed their answers to this COM
plaint and are sedulously saying
nothing whatever for publication,
but their customers who raise the
hogs are by no means silent.
The complaint simply means that
when spectators expect, the runs or
hogs at a certain market to be light
on subsequent days they buy up ami
mails on heavy days and hold them
over to take advantage Of better
prices. The farmers admit that in
the past the speculator has been OF a
certain value in cattle and hog mar
keting. but they see in him now a
competitor rather than an ally. That
Is, they feel that he is buying from
them on days when prices are low
and then snatching the market from
them on days when prices are high.
Points Now at Issue.
Therefore. their spokesmen ask
Can a packer be compelled to buy
prefers to buy of another class? If
a buyer may be convicted of unfair
trade practice because he buys where
he pleases. what volume OF buying
from spectators will relieve him of
| that charge? Has any Official the
right to say to a packer he must buy
! certain minimum proportion of his
hogs from speculators or a certain
| maximum proportion from comission
mem"
Naturally, the packers are bound
ing them pay more than they ought
for their droves. 1t has been the
custom of the big packers to clean
up" the market daily. That means
that they buy greater proportion
OF animals than their immediate needs
dictate. This is not a philanthropic
policy. 1t is dictated by the desire
that the growers of live stock should
feel that they are always sure of SELL
ing their animals when they ship
them and will not have to hold them
over at additional cost for feed ii
they do not choose to do so.
Pork Trade Hampered.
If the growers feel that. the pack
ers estimate they will be assured of
enough animals daily to keep their
plants running on economical produc-
tion schedules. 1t is obvious that the
packers can have no love for clean
ing up" the market on a high priced
day instead Of low-priced one,
which growers say spectators force
them to do. --
1t is probable. however. that these
reasons Will take secondary place
in the answers Of the packers when
the latter finally break their silence.
Other reasons which may be more
extensively stressed is that warmed
over hogs" as the holdovers are
called. are not as good as those
just in from the farms, and that hogs
held over in the yards are in far
more danger of bruhins and injury
than are those which 60 from the
trains TO the slaughter pens
These latter reasons have been en-
phasized by the action Of the live
stock market in the last few days.
The pork trade has been hampered
by the poor quality of hogs The
packing houses declare that the ami
mails do not dress out properly and
are profitable neither to the. farmer
nor the packer. Solid flesh is what
the packers want. The old theory
that everything about hog is util-
lied in a modern plant has been
exploded. About 80 per cent of the
carcass is water. The packer OBJ
jects to paying for additional water
or unsound flesh.