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Show "5:Livestoclcl ,4;,SituationJ (UJA,iJMi(.iimV) ( Much of the pivsei,'. depression in the cattle market und. ubtedly is due to the fact tluit hide1: havo dropped to almost the lowe.it h vela in a great many yearn. Hido pile s now are not much higher than tin y were in tho serious depression which followed the world war and it is i ot overproduction overproduc-tion of leather or the fact that there is a larger number of hides available than usual. As a natter of fact, leather and hide .stocks are less than normalland still the market continues con-tinues to decline. Hides in I.os Angeles An-geles are now quoted at practically one-half the value a year ago. (Competition from so'istitutes is the reason for the presort serious condition. con-dition. I-nst year, for instance, manufacturers man-ufacturers of conrposi ion soles took away from leather tan ers an amount of business equivalent to the product of 750,000 hides. Coi -position soles, according to the shoe manufacturers, are less dressy and les comfortable than leather but can he made much cheaper. Despite the f.ict that American Amer-ican shoe manufacturers made 3,0-0,-000 more shoes in 192S than in 1027, the amount of sole lc: :her used was 15 per cent less. Foreign competition is also hitting American leather manufacturers more so than in many years, due to cheap foreign labor and what many in the trade deem totally inadequate tariff protection. An authority in the Los Angeles trade declares that the reduction in hide values during recent months is equivalent to 75c to ?1.00 per hundredweight hund-redweight loss to the packer on every ev-ery steer he buys. While many other packinghouse by-products from cattle are enjoying a good market, particularly particu-larly livers and hearts, the amount of money involved is not sufficient to by any means offset the lessened value of hides. Thus the meat packer must consider the lessened value of hides and fon-o the beef to carry practically practi-cally the full load when the meat 1) passed on to the consumer. Tho pressing problem ut this time seems to bo some means of making leather more popular. As long us hides uro virtually a drug on the market, tho pucker Is up against a very serious problem. The hide makes up about 6 and one-half per cent of tho total weight of a steer, so that it may easily be realized that the cattleman is vitally Interested in Id" problem. The automobile Industry, once a great user of leather, Is now using substitutes almost entirely. Wide use of tractors and trucks, both on the farm and in the city, has taken away another huge outlet for leather, for these mechanical horses do not use harnesses. Just at present many novelties are being made of leather in an effort to broaden tho marker for leather goods through the use of bright colors and they have also taken a lesson from the tutoiiKihile manufacturers, in that they nro producing new styles and new new designs each year, so that the fastidious traveler must buy new luggage more often in order to be in style. Perhaps this program may aid in developing a greater outlet for leather. Then too, the draft horse associations are now putting on a well directed campaign to again popularize pop-ularize the use of horses and mules on farms. Possibly, the leather people peo-ple may be able to regain part of tho lost harness goods market thru aiding in such a campaign. Many leaders in the trade feel that a higher tariff on foreign hides, leather and substitutes, will help to solve the problem. To this end, the cattlemen's organizations, hide tanners tan-ners and others are putting their case before congress. |