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Show n?JLitvestock. Los Ancelcs, September Hi, Stockmen are awaiting with much interest the final announcement of the signing of the code for the meat industry. It. appears that the code will be formally approved by the secretary of agriculture within the next few days. This will open the way for marketing agreements regarding re-garding the purcna.io of livestock and it is expected that provisions will be made which will permit many saving.sj within the industry. The code is revolutionary in many respects in that processors are not only permitted to organize for the purpose of cutting operating costs and establish prices but it is the essence of the agreement that this shall be done. It-is the avowed purpose pur-pose of the code to re-establish prices to stockmen on the basis of purchasing purchas-ing power during the prewar period, August, 1009, to August, 1014. That the code and subsequent marketing agreements will be beneficial bene-ficial to the livestock industry goes without question. The quicker tile code is put into effect, the sooner we may hope for improvement in livestock live-stock prices. One prominent cowman makes the statement that he believi;s that just as soon as it is known that the code has been signed, livestock market prices should show some immediate im-mediate improvement. Western growers are vitally concerned con-cerned in efforts to bring about immediate im-mediate relief to the industry. Catlte prices at this time are very low much lower than a year ago. There is a very narrow outlet for stockcr and feeder cattle, partly because of difficulty in financing purchases and partly because the cattle feeders have not had satisfactory experiences in the past two or three years. Feed prices are still high in relation to livestock prices. Coupled with this condition, range feed is the poore t in many years in most sections of th? western countiy so that producers are not in position to carry over normal numbers of livestock. While the signing of the code will no doubt help to clarify the atmosphere atmos-phere and install some additional confidence con-fidence into the minds of stockmen and feeders, the thing that appears to be most needed is broadened buying buy-ing power. President Roosevelt's attitude at-titude toward currency inflation or cedit inflation may have a great deal to do with providing buying power. Our much discussed surplus production produc-tion would not be very serious if we had anything like normal buying power. But wages are still low and there are still a great many people out of work. It is a good time to be cautious, yet there has been sufficient suffi-cient improvement in general business busi-ness conditions during the past few months to, warrant the belief that livestock markets are due for improvement. im-provement. o |