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Show H STEADIER HOG MARKETS PLANNED I Hog ; Producers and Packers Confer With Repre-. sentatives of the Food Administration and j Agricultural Department and Adopt j . .New Plan of Regulation. , tin accordance with the policy of the Food Administration since Its founda- j tUm to consult representative men In the agricultural Industry on occasions j of Importance to special branches of the Industry, on October 24 there was I convened In Washington a meeting of the Live Stock Subcommittee of the I Agricultural .Advisory Board and the special members representing the swine I Industry to consider the situation In the hog market. I The conference lasted for three days, and during this time met with the executive committee of the fifty packing firms participating in foreign orders for pork products and with the members of the Food Administration directing I foreign pork .purchases. I The conclusions of the conference were as follows: Livestock Subcommittee of the Agricultural Agri-cultural Advisory Board, together with special swine members and tha representatives of the packers, to Improve Im-prove the present unsatisfactory situation, situ-ation, which has unfortunately resulted result-ed because of the Injection of uncontrollable uncon-trollable factors- . We ask the producer -to co-operate with us in a most difficult Task. The members of the Conference were: , ' i.'ilu - Producers H. C. Stuart,. Elk Gar-den, Gar-den, Va. Chairman Agricultural Advisory Ad-visory Board; W. M. McFadden, Chicago, Chi-cago, III.; A Sykes, Ida Grove, la. John M. Evvard, Ames, la. ; J. H. Mer-cer, Mer-cer, Live Stock Commission for Kansas; Kan-sas; J. G. Brown, Monon, Ind.; E. C. Brown, President Chicago Livestock Exchange; N. H. Gentry, Sedalla, Mo. ; John Grattan Broomfleld, Colo.; Eugene Eu-gene Funk, Bloomlngton, 111.; Isaac Lincoln, Aberdeen, S.;D.; 0. W. Hunt, Logan, la. ; 0. E. Yancey, W. R. Dod-son. Dod-son. '. Food Administration Herbert Hoover, Hoo-ver, F. S. Snyder, Major E. L. Roy, G. H. Powell. Department of Agriculture Louis D. Hall, F. It. Marshall. " The packers present and others sharing In foreign orders were represented repre-sented by the elected packers' committee. commit-tee. Those represented were : Packers Armour & Co., Chicago, HI. ; Cudahy Packing Co., Chicago, 111. ; Morris & Co., Chicago, 111. ; Swift & Co., Chicago, 111. ; Wilson 4 Co., Chicago, Chica-go, 111.; John Agar Co., Chicago, III.; Armstrong Packing Co., Dallas, Tex.; Boyd Dunham & Co., Chicago, IlL ; Brennan Packing Co., Chicago, IlL; Cincinnati Abattoir Co.,' Cincinnati, 0.; Cleveland Provisions Co., Cleveland, Cleve-land, O. ; Cudahy Bros. Co., Cudahy, Wis. ; J. Dold Packing Co., Buffalo, N. T. ; Dunlevy Packing Co., Pittsburg, Pa. ; J. E. Decker & Sons. Mason City, la.; Evansvllle Packing Co., Evans-vllle, Evans-vllle, Ind. ; East Side Packing Co., East St Louis, 111.; Hammond Standlsh & Co., Detroit, Mich.; O. A Hormel A Co., Austin, Minn.; Home Packing Sc Ice Co., Terre Haute, Ind.; Independent Independ-ent Packing Co., Chicago, III. ; Indianapolis Indian-apolis Abattoir Co., Indianapolis, Ind.; International Provision Co., Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Interstate Packing Co., Winona, Minn. ; Iowa Packing Co., Des Moines, la.; Powers Begg Co.,' Jacksonville, 111.; Klngnn & Co., Indianapolis, Ind.; Krey Packing Co., St. Louis, Mo. ; Lake Erie Provision Co., Cleveland, O. ; Lay-ton Lay-ton Co., Milwaukee, Wis. ; Oscar Mayer & Bro., Sedgwick and Beethoven streets, Chicago, IlL; J. T. McMillan Co., St. Paul, Minn.; Miller & Hart, Chicago. III. ; J. Morrell & Co., Ottum-wa, Ottum-wa, la. ; Nuckolls Packing Co., Pueblo, Colo.; Ogden Packing and Provision Co., Ogden, Utah ; Ohio Provision Co.,' Cleveland, 0. ; Parker Webb & Co., Detroit, De-troit, Mich. ; Pittsburg Packing and Provision Co., Pittsburg, Pa.; Rath I Packing Co., Waterloo, la.; Roberts St Oake, Chicago, III. ; Rohe 4 Bros., New York City ; W. C. Routh & Co., Logans-port, Logans-port, Ind.; St Louis Ind. Packing Co., St Louis, Mo.; Sinclair & Co., T. M. Cedar Rapids, la.; Culllvan & Co., Detroit, De-troit, Mich. ; Theurer-Norton Provision Co., Cleveland, O. ; Wilson Provision Co., Peoria, 111.; Western Packing and Provision Co., Chicago, 111. ; Churles Wolff Packing Co., Topeka, Kan. I The entire .marketing situation has so changed since the September Joint conference as is necessitate an entire I alteration In tbe plans of price stabl-' stabl-' Uzation, The urrent' peace talk has j alarmed the holders tot corn, and there l has been a price decline of from 525 cents to 40 cents per bushel. The fact that the accumulations of low priced corn in the Argentine and South Afrl-I Afrl-I ca would, upon the advent of peace j and liberated shipping, become avail-l avail-l able to the European market has ere- ated a great deal of apprehension on the part of corn holders. This decline I has spread fear among swine growers that a similar reduction In the prices j of hogs would naturally follow. More-! More-! over, the lower range of corn prices J would, If Incorporated In a V3-to-l ra-j ra-j tlo, obviously result In a continuously I falling price for live hogs. In view j of these changed conditions many swine producers anticipated Iqwer I prices and as a result 'rushed their hogs to market in large numbers, and this overshlpment has added to and aggravated the decline, i The infoiiiiatlon of the Department of Agriculture Indicates that the supply sup-ply of hogs has Increased about 8 per cent, while the highest "unofficial estimate esti-mate does not exceed 15 per cent. Increased In-creased production over last year. On the other hand, the arrival of hogs during the last three weeks In the seven great markets has been 27 per cent, more than Inst year, during the corresponding period, demonstrating the unusually heavy marketing of the available supply. In the face of the excessive receipts some packers have not maintained the price agreed last month. On the other hand, many of the packers have paid over the price offered to them In an endeavor to maintain the agreed price. The result re-sult In any event has been a failure to maintain the October price basis determined upon at the September conference con-ference and undertaken by the packers. pack-ers. Another factor contributing to the break In prices during the month has been the Influenza epidemic; It has sharply curtailed consumption of pork products and temporarily decreased de-creased the labor staff of the packers producer and the Insurance of an adequate ade-quate future supply. , These foreign orders are placed upon the basis of cost of hogs to the packers. As the result of long negotiations be' ween this body and the Packers' Committee, representing the 45 to 50 packers participating in foreign orders, or-ders, together with the Allied buyers, all under the Chairmanship of the Food Administration, the following undertaking un-dertaking has been given by the packers: pack-ers: In view of the undertakings on the part of the Food Administration with tegard to the co-ordinated purchases of pork products, covered in the attached, at-tached, it Is agreed that the packers participating in these orders will undertake un-dertake not to purchase hogs for less than the following agreed mlnlmums for the month of November, that is a daily minimum of $17.50 per hundred pounds on average of packers' droves, excluding throw-outs. "Throw-outs" to be defined as pigs under 130 pounds, stags, boars, thin sows and skips. Further, that no hogs of any kind shall be bought, except throw-outs, throw-outs, at less than $16.50 per hundred pounds. The average of packers' droves to be construed as the average of the total sales In the market of all hogs for a given day. AH the above to be based on Chicago. We agree that a committee shall be apiKdiiii d by the Food Administration to t-lieik the dully operations In the various markets with a view to supervision super-vision and demonstration of the carrying carry-ing out of the above. The ability of the packers to carry out this arrangement will depend on there being a normal marketing of hogs based upon the proportionate Increase In-crease over the receipts of last year. The Increase In production appears to be a maximum of about 15 per cent and we can handle such an Increase. If the producers of hogs should, as they have In the past few weeks, prematurely pre-maturely market bogs In such Increasing Increas-ing numbers over the above it Is entirely en-tirely beyond the ability of, the packers pack-ers to maintain these mlnlmums, and therefore we must have the co-operation of the producer himself to maintain main-tain these results. It Is a physical Impossibility for the capacity of. the packing houses to hnndle a similar over-flood of hoes and to find a market about 25 per cent. The exports of 130.000,000 pounds Of pork products for October compared com-pared with ah-jut 52,0O0.0O) pounds In October a year ago. and the export 'orders plocenble by the Food Administration for November, amount to 170,0X),00 pounds as contrasted contrast-ed with the lesner exports of 08,000.000 for November, 1017. The Increased demands of the allies are continuing, and are In themselves proof of the necessity for the large production for which the Food Administration Admin-istration asked. The Increase In export ex-port demands appears to be amply sufflclent to take up the Increase In hog production, but unfavorable market mar-ket conditions existing In October afford af-ford no fair Index of the aggregate supply and demand. It must be evident that the enormous enor-mous shortage In fats In the Central Empires and neutral countries would Immediately upon peace result In additional ad-ditional demands for pork products which, on top of the heavy shipments to the Allies, would tend materially to Increase the American exports, Inasmuch In-asmuch as no considerable reservoir of supplies exists outside of the United States. It seems probable that the present prospective supplies would be Inadequate to meet this world demand with the return to peace. So far as It is possible to Interpret this fact. It appears ap-pears that there should be even a stronper demand for pork products after the war, and therefore any alarm of hog producers as to the effect of peace Is unwarranted by the outlook. In the light of these circumstances It Is the conclusion of the Conference that attempts to hold the price of hoes to the price of corn may work out to the disadvantage of pork producers. It Is the conclusion that any Interpretation Interpre-tation of the formula should be a broad gauged policy applied over a long period. It Is the opinion of the conference that In substitution of the previous plans of stabilization the Live Stock Subcommittee of the Agricultural Agri-cultural Advisory Board, together with the specially Invited swine representatives, representa-tives, Kliould accept the Invitation of the Food Administration to Join with the Administration and the packers In determining the prices at which controlled con-trolled export orders are to be placed. This will be regularly done. The Influence In-fluence of these orders will be directed to the maintenance of the common ob-t.-ct tiamcly, the stabilization of the .idee of live hogs so as to secure as fur ii U uhs.bl fair returus to the i for the output. The packers are anxious anx-ious to co-operate with the producers In maintaining a stabl'lzntlon of price and to see that producers receive a fair price for their products. (Signed) TFIOS. R. WN.SON. Chairman Puckers' Committee. The plan embodied above was adopted adopt-ed by the conference. The Food Administrator has appointed appoint-ed a committee, comprising Mr. Thomas E. Wilson, chairman of the Packers' Pack-ers' Committee; Mr. Everett Brown, president of the Chicago Livestock Exchange; Ex-change; Major Itoy of the Food Administration. Ad-ministration. Mr. Iiuls D. Hall of the Bureau of Markets, to undertake the supervision of the execution of the plan In the various markets. Commission Commis-sion men are asked to co-operate In carrying out the plan embodied in the packers' agreement. It must be evident evi-dent that offers by commission men to sell hogs below the minimum established estab-lished above Is not fair, either to the producer or the participating packers. Mr. Brown has undertaken on behalf of -the commission men In the United States that they will loyally suport the plan. t Is believed by the conference that this new plnn, based as It Is upon a positive minimum bnsls, will bring better bet-ter results to the producer than average aver-age prices for the month. It does not limit top prices and should narrow the margins necessary to country buyers buy-ers In more variable markets. It Is believed thnt the plan should work out close to $19 average. Swine producers of the country will contribute to their own Interest by not flooding the market, for It must be evident thnt If an excessive over percentage per-centage of hogs Is marketed In any one month price stabilization and control con-trol cannot succeed, and It Is certain thnt producers themselves can contribute contri-bute materially to the efforts of tho conferences If they will do their marketing mark-eting In as normal a way as possible. The whole sltuutlon as existing st present demands n frank and explicit assurance from the conferees represented repre-sented namely, that every possible effort will be made to mulntaln a live hog price commensurate with swine production costs and reasonable selling sell-ing values In execution of the declared policy of the Food Administration to use every agency In Its control to secure Justice to the farmer. The stabilization methods adopted for November represent the best efforts ef-forts of the conference, concurred In by the Food AdiuluUtr-Uou uiid tb |