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Show $17.50 Per Hundred for Hogs Agreed Upon at Wash in g ton Confe ren ce Livestock Bureau of Markets in . Salt Lake Receives Re-ceives Message Concerning Conclusions Reached at Meeting. ers a committee representing the forty-five to fifty packer participating participat-ing In foreign orders, together with the allied buyers, all under the chairmanship chairman-ship of the food administration, the foil owing" undertaking has been irlven by the park era in view of the irhder-takings irhder-takings on the part of the food administration admin-istration with regard to the coordinated coordi-nated purchases of pork. AGREEMENT MADE. "It Is agreed that the packers participating par-ticipating in these orders will under take not to purchase hogs for less than the following agreed mini mums for the month of November, 'that Is, a dally minimum of $17.60 pr 100 pounds on average packers' droves excluding throwouts, 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 throwouts. at less than lit-0 per 100 pounds, the average of packers' droves to be construed con-strued as the average of the total sales In the market of all bogs fnr a given day, all the above to be based on Chicago market prices. "We agree that a committee shall be appointed by the food administration To f neclf" Th i'Ofldr u.ieiBiluiis I" the various markets with a view to supervision super-vision and demonstration of the carrying carry-ing out of the above. The ability of I the packers to carry out this arrange-' arrange-' ment will depend on there being a I norma, marketing of hogs baaed upon 1 the proportionate Increase over the re-TeltVII re-TeltVII of 11UH yesi. The Int-Mass in productions appears to be a maximum of about IS per cent and we can handle such an Increase If the producers of hogs should, as they have In the past few weeks, prematurely market hogs st audi Increasing number over the above. COOPERATION REQUIRED. "It Is entirely beyond the ability of the packers to maintain these minimum! mini-mum! and therefore we must-have the cooperation of the producer himself to maintain these results. It Is a physical Impossibility for the capacity of the - ! A MINIMUM price of 117. M per hundred pounds for hogs, to be paid producers by packers, has been sjrreed upon In Washington, Washing-ton, rfol lowing a conference between the federal ,food administration and tbe livestock subcommittee of tha agricultural agricul-tural advisory board. The conference ended in Washing ton yesterday, and - today a lengthy telegram was received by trie livestock bureau of markets In Salt Lake Informing In-forming of the latest move In the pork and hog market. As the result of the peace talk and also the Influence, epidemic, the pork and hog market prices have been exceedingly ex-ceedingly unstable. Trices have been fluctuating because of the flooding of markets with hogs, and the entire market mar-ket situation haa so changed since the September joint conference aa to necessitate ne-cessitate an entire alteration In the plans of price stabilisation. CONCLUSION REACHED. The communication, which Is self es-ptanatory es-ptanatory and gives the outcome of the conference, follows: "The conference between the llve- Islesk saktasssslitee sf the agrlful?. turn! advisory board, inciuoing special spe-cial members representing the swine industry and of the food administration, administra-tion, held on October 2J to 26. has. after consideration of the present sit- uatlon of the pork and hog market, reached the following conclusions: j "The entire marketing situation haw, so changed since the .September Joint I conference as to necessitate an en- j tire alteration In the plana of price stabilisation. The current peace talk has alarmed the holders of corn and there haa been a price decline of from 2 to 40 cents per bushel. DECLINE AGGRAVATED. The fact that the accumulation nf low priced corn In the Argentine and Houth Africa would, upon the advent of peace and liberated shipping, become be-come available to the European market, mar-ket, haa created a great deal of apprehension ap-prehension on the part of com hold- packing houses tn handle a similar overflood of hogs and to find a market for the output the packers are anxious to cooperate with the producers In maintain a atablllaation of prica and to see that producers receive a fair price for their products, Slgned ) THOK. K. WtLSO.V. "Chairman Packers' Committee." The plan embodied above was adopted by the conference. The food 'administrator has appointed a committee commit-tee comprising Thomas E. Wilson, chairman of the packers' committee: Everett Brown, president of the Chicago Chi-cago livestock exchange; Major Boy i of the food administration and Louis D. Hall of the bureau of markets to undertake the supervision of the execution execu-tion of the plan In the various markets. Commission men are asked to cooperate cooper-ate In carrying out the plan embodied in the packers' agreement. It must be evident that offers of commission men to sell hogs below the minimum established estab-lished above ia not fair either to the producer or the participating packers. ers. This decline hss spread fear among swlngrowers that a similar reduction re-duction In the prices of hogs would naturally follow. Moreover, the lower range of corn prlcea would, If incorporated incor-porated In a II to 1 ratio, obviously obvious-ly result in a continuously falling price for live hogs. In view of these changed conditions, many' swine producers anticipated an-ticipated lower prices and aa a result rushed their hogs to market In large numbers, and this overshlpments has added to and aggravated the decline. "The Information of the department of agriculture indicates that the supply sup-ply of hogs has Increased about I per cent, while tha highest unofficial estimate esti-mate does not exceed Is per cent Increased In-creased production over last year. On the other hand, tha Arrival of hogs during the last three weeks In the seven great markets has been 17 per cent more than laat year during the corresponding period, demonstrating the unusually heavy marketing of the available supply In the face of tha exceaalva receipts. BREAK IN PRICES. SUPPORT PROMISED. 'Mr.' Brown has undertaken on behalf of the commission men in the United States that they will loyally support the plan. It la believed by the conference that this new plan, based aa It Is upon a positive mlni-muni. mlni-muni. will bring better reeults to ths producer than average prices for the month. It does not limit top prices and should nsrrow the marglna neces- J ary to-country buyers In a more variable market. It la believed that the plan ahould work out close to $15. "Average awlne producers of the country will contribute to their own Interest by not flooding tha market, for it muat be evident that If an excessive ex-cessive overpercentage of hogs Is marketed mar-keted In any one month, price stabilisation stabili-sation and control cannot succeed, and It la certain that producers them-selves them-selves can contribute materially to the efforts of the conferences If they will do their marketing In as normal a way as possible. The whole situation situa-tion as existing at present demands a frank and explicit assurance from the. conferees represented namely, that every possible effort will be made to maintain a live ho a Drlce com men - "Some packers have not maintained the price agreed laat 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, Thereeult In any event has been a failure to malntainThe-October price basis determined upon by the September conference and undertaken by the pack era Another factor contributing con-tributing to the break In prices during the month has been the Influenxa epidemic. epi-demic. It hss sharply curtailed consumption con-sumption of pork products and temporarily tempo-rarily decreased the labor staff of the packers about 2ft per cent The exports ex-ports of 130,000.000 pounds ' of pork products for October, compared with about 62.000,000 pounds In October a year ago and the export orders place-able place-able by the food administration for November amount to 170.000,000, compared com-pared with tha lesser exports of 91.-000,00 91.-000,00 for November, 1917. Ths Increased In-creased demanda of the allies are continuing con-tinuing and are In themselves proof of the necessity for the large production produc-tion for which the food administration aaked. EXPORT DEMANDS. surate with swine production costs and reasonable selling values In exe- cut ion of the declared policy of the1 food administration to use every agency In Its control to secure Justice to the farmer. "The stabilisation methods adopted for November represent the best efforts ef-forts of the conference, concurred In by the food administration and the livestock subcommittee of the agricultural agri-cultural advisory board, together with special swine members and the representatives repre-sentatives of the packers. To improve the present unsatisfactory situation which haa unfortunately resulted because be-cause of the Injection of uncontrollable uncontrolla-ble factors, ws ask ths producer to cooperate co-operate with us In a most difficult task. CONFERENCE MEMBERS. "Members fo ths conference were Food Administrator H erbert Hoover. F S. Snyder. Major E- U Boy. U. 11. Powell, department of agriculture; Louts D. Halt, K R. Marshall, producers: pro-ducers: H. C. Stuart. Klk garden. Va.. chairman agricultural advisory board: W. M. McFadden, Chicago, 111.; A. Sykes. Ida grove, la.; John M. Kv-vard. Kv-vard. Ames, la.; J. H. Mercer, To-oeka, To-oeka, Kan.: J. O. Brown, Monon, Ind.; K. C. Brown, president Chicago Livestock Live-stock exchange; N. H. Gentry. Serial Se-rial ta. Mo ; John (J rat tan. Bloomfield, Colo.; Fugene Punk. Bloomlngton. 111.; Isaac Lincoln, Aberdeen. S. U; C. W. H unt, Loga n. la. : V. E. T a ncey . W R, Dodeon. packers; Thomaa K. Wilson. Wil-son. F. W. Wadell, O. F. 8wift Jr., Robert Malr, Arthur Meeker, J. A Haw ki neon, O. C Shepard. K. S ' Waterburv, L F. Freeman. - F. T. Fuller and T. W, Taliaferows Nash." "The Increase In export demands appears ap-pears to be smply sufficient to take up the Increase In hoc production, but unfavorable un-favorable market conditions existing In October afford no fair Index of the aggregate ag-gregate supply snd demand. It muat be evident that tha enormous shortage In fats In he central empires and neutral neu-tral countrlea would Immediately upon peace, results In additional demands for pork products which, on top of the heavy shipment to the allies, would tend materially to Increase the American Ameri-can exports In as much as no considerable consid-erable reservoir of supplies exists outside out-side of the United States. "It seems probable that the present prospective supplies would be Inadequate Inade-quate to meet this world's demand wtlh ths return to peace. So far as It Is possible to Interpret this act It appears that there should be even a stronger demand for pork products after the war and therefore any alarm of hog producers aa to the effect of peace Is unwarranted by the outlook In the light of these circumstances. CONFERENCE OPINION. lt Is the conclusion of the conference confer-ence that attempts to hold the price of hogs to the price of corn may work out to the disadvantage of pork producers pro-ducers It ia the conclusion that any Interpretation of the formula should be a broad gauged policy applied over a long period. It la the opinion of the conference that In substitution of the previous plana of stabilisation of the livestock subcommittee of the agricultural agricul-tural sdvlsory board together with the specially Invited swine representatives should accept the Invitation of the food, administration to Join with the administration ad-ministration and the packers In determining deter-mining the prices at which controlled export orders are to be placed. This will be regularly done. The Influence of these orders will be directed 'to the maintenance of the common object, namely, the stabilization of the price of live hogs so aa to secure as far as It la possible, fair returns to the producer pro-ducer and the insurance of an adequate future aupply. T hese f u re! gn or d ers a re p laced upon ths basis of cost of hogs to the packers. As the result of long negotiations negotia-tions between this body and h ack- |