Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1926-10-28
DIRECT SELLING VS..
THE PUBLIC MARKET.
By ]. s. Montgomery, General Mama
ger, Central Cooperative Com
mission Association.

The question of whether it is more
advantageous to the livestock producer
to ship his hogs to an open competi-
tive market for sale, or ship them
directly to some packing plant or
packer owned concentration yards
where the packer. fixes the price and
takes little to hogs and other live
stock without competition, is very
live question at the present time and
one which is worthy of the serious
consideration of livestock producers
throughout the country. 1t has be-
come such a live question that one of
the largest packing institutions of the
country has seen fit to flood the mails
with pamphlets and articles on this
subject for the past few months and
is is such an important question to
the livestock producer that it will
undoubtedly have the serious consid-
GRAFTON of Congress at the next regu-
lar session.
The sale of livestock on our large
competitive livestock markets is pre-
Dictated upon the proposition that all
interests will be best served if the
livestock is offered for sale in the
hands of competent statesmen, who
represent and protect the interests of
the producer, in such a manner that
such livestock can be purchased by
any packer or other buyer, large or
small, who may be the highest bidder
for that narfio11or Iiuocfnolx 70
particular day upon which it is Of
fered for sale on the market. On the
other hand, the shipment of livestock
directly to privately owned packing
plant or to a concentration point
which is owned by packing COM
pany, is predicated upon the PROPOSE
ton that the packer in question is an
unusually big hearted, public spirit
ed individual, who is not only willing
but anxious to pay the producer every
nickel which the products from such
livestock will yield when sold, less
the expense of handling said live
stock through the plant. Such meth
cd presupposes that the packer in
question is very unselfish individ-
ual, that he is more interested in the
interests of the producer than he is
in his own business, and that he does
not need the competition of other
packers to keep his operations up to
the highest point of efficiency. If
this be true then the fundamental
principles upon which our large COM
petitive markets are based are entire
ly wrong and erroneous and our sys-
tenn of having the producer repre-
scented on the terminal market by
commission statesmen is entirely
wrong and the livestock consigned to
the terminal markets should be con-
signed directly to the packer by the
producer with the understanding that
the packer will pay him whatever
he deems such livestock worth.
1t has been our observation, how
ever, that many of our customers,
even those who often make practice
of shipping livestock directly to the
packer, often feel that the packers
are very unfair in the bids which they
make upon their livestock which are
offered for sale on the competitive
market. We do not say this in criti-
cism of the packer, as we have al
ways assumed, and we believe right
fully SO, that the managers of all
of the large packing institutions were
business men who felt that it was
their obligation to so operate their
business as to make profit if pos
sible, for those who had money in