Evening star., 1938-04-29
VO|DED RATESLA|D
TO c. 0.P. REGIME
Wallace Says Error Court
Cited Was 8 Years Old
and Corrected Since,

The Kansas City stock yard rates,
which the Supreme Court ruled out
Monday on the ground they were set
according to procedure which was
fatally defective" were fixed ac-
cording to a practice which was de-
veloped by administrations previous
to the New Deal Secretary of Agri-
culture Wallace explained yesterday.
Mr.. Wallace himself since has changed
that practice and put into effect an
entirely different set of Kansas CITY
rates.
In radio talk during the National
Farm and Home Hour over the Ma
tional Broadcasting Co. network from
here Mr.. Wallace said the error of
omission" Failure Of the Government
to advise Kansas City commission
men Of the commission rates the Gov
eminent intended to FIX was COM
mitted by the Agriculture Depart
ment's solicitor in the previous ad-
ministration, who held over for a
couple Of weeks and resigned March
20, 1898.
In reviewing the background of the
case, which involved the method of
setting commission rates for handling
farmers live stock. according to the
power granted the Department Of
Agriculture under the Packers and
Stock Yards Act Of 1921, the Secre-
tary said:
Case Is 8 Years Old.
1T will interest farmers to know
that the Kansas City rate case dragged
along for eight years before it was
finally decided. Proceedings were
started by the preceding Secretary Of
Agriculture on April 7, $780, The
question was whether the commission
men were charging the farmers too
much for selling their live stock.
Hearings dragged along until No
vember 16, 1882. No decision had
yet been reached when I became
Secretary Of Agriculture. 1t was some
time between November l6 1882, and
March "a. 1888, that the Department
Of Agriculture failed to give the Kan
sas City commission men the notifi-
cation OF the nature of the proposed
order.
The commission men, OF course
believed that If they had had such
proposed order in their hands they
would have had something more def
mite to shoot at when they came in
to present their arguments before the
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture on
March "a, 1888.
Farmers Lost s500,000.
The new Assistant Secretary Of
Agriculture did not, of course, know
at that time that the practice OF the
previous Secretary of Agriculture
would meet the displeasure of the
Supreme Court. 1t was not until some
time later that he and the rest of
us began to think more definitely
about such matters"
Mr.. Wallace signed the order June
IA, 1888. 1t called for rates lower
than the old rates, but since the rates
were at once protested in court, they
never meant anything, and accord
ingly live stock farmers lost s500,000,
the Secretary said. He changed the
rate-flxing procedure September IA,
1886, and last September the Kansas
City commission men asked the de-
partment to fix rates lower than those
in force but slightly higher than the
rates in the outlawed order.
These new rates, which became
effective November /, 1897, In our
opinion, are reasonable so far as the
interests Of both the shipper and the
commission men are concerned and
are lower than were the rates under
consideration in this case" Mr.. Wal
lace said.