OCR Text |
Show I ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY IN 1 PRODUCTION WILL DE FACTORS IN REHABILITATING FARMING President Thomas E. Wilson of American Meat Packers1 Institute Says These Must Be Coupled With Co-operation in Orderly Market of Raw Materials to Adjust Conditions I;' That fconomy find efficiency in pro "r'uctlon, coupled will) co-opt ration in .the orderly marketing Df raw mate-rials, mate-rials, under proper supervision, will 5 o much toward rchabllitning agricul Tl ire in this country was tho opinion KxpreBSSd h Thomas E. Wilson, pi -I Ulent of the In.-t it u'r oi nn rican Meat I'arkcr-, in ; n . dn he . re the As-jicultutral As-jicultutral conference at Washlrigtcffl. S In this address Mr Wilson said in lart : i "The packing industry received a 3 irge part of the brunt of r mi agricultural d prcsslon. Tta mi '3r who was unable to wcathel tho Aeriod ol deflation and restricted cred ts, marketed his livestock as his quickest and most .valuable a I Unfortunately he was often compelled com-pelled to include hi- hnejing Stock In the operation. Thousands of 3iead of livestock w re moved from 'Seeding pens before tho animals bad I ween properly finished. All kinds and classes of animals were thrown upon -The market without regard to the de-i de-i 'mand of the consuming public SYSTEM HAS BEEN LACKING, i "There has new i b n ;'.ny perma-I perma-I Stent, efficient system regulating the "flow of livestock to t',- market cen-Ters. cen-Ters. The producers, as a rule, do Hot attempt to distribute ihcir ship pients in accordance with ihe demand itf the consuminc public. Z "The packers are expected to absorb 2U that is sent to market at whatever time or in whatever quantity, to pay cash on the spot, and then find a quick market for all the products This necessarily nec-essarily adds many complications and -problems to the business, causes vio 4nt fluctuatious and has been the prolific pro-lific cause of mich dissatisfaction, The expansion and contraction of labor, equipment and financing necessary neces-sary lo handle business economically under such a system unavoidably pr: j duces many difficulties which can only be solved by close co-operation at (he producers in s'ablizini receipts will tend to stabjlite tallies. prm ht gluts and c'onsetquent wastes which will operate to the benefit of producer nn i Tsumer. alike. "tl-e n.Mhine; industry 7lll tdd$l gladly co-djjerato wl'h ail interests to the achievement ot this result. "When the maikef hegnn to fall It found Ihe packing industry with extra ordin.-.rily large stocks on hand, accu-mulated accu-mulated fr war purposes at top prices. DID NOT REDUCE OPERATIONS. "Th Decking industry did not reduce opei i Ions to a basis of part-time or rjal capacity as many other in dusMes did, but continued to handle all h live stock sent to market even though it meant a loss at the moment or pinch;'-. . "For more thn ttoo years tlivestoek values nave declined fearfully; liki-Isi liki-Isi 'he price of packing house prod dels When tho hog and pork ruarkot broke badly in the tall of lf)lfl one baching company lost $10,000,000 in six weeks because of the shrinkage in value to that extent of Its stocks on hand. Other packers suffered in proportion. pro-portion. "In attempting to gauge the effect of agricultural depression on the packing pack-ing industry, these facts should be noted . "1. Measured by the value of Its output, the packing industry Is the largest in the United States. "2. li Is ,-iiso one ol the most stable sta-ble from a financial viewpoint, and for that reason is normally successful in its operation at a rate of profit bo small as to be almost suicidal in any industry having less stability. LARGE LOSSES REPLACE PROFITS "The severe depression in agrlcul I'tral values has been a great factor n "1 Tremendously reducing the value of the output of the parkin Industry. "2. Upsetting stability by forcing livestock and packing houBe products j below tho general level of commodity values. "3. Turning a small rate of profit into a large loss. "Let us consider, as examples, the experiences of some of the largest packing companies a typical experience experi-ence during the brief period of one year. "In 192 one packing company sold 11,100,000,000 worth ot products at a net profit Of $5.170.:t82 ; in 1921 tl I same company sold only 9100,000,000 worth of products and suffered a m t loss of $7,000,000. "In 1!2, nnother company sold $900,000,000 worth of products and learned a net profit of f 5,319.975.1 1 thereon; In 1021. this same company sold onlv $GOO,Oii0.0OO worth of products prod-ucts and suffer d n loss of M1,OOO,0OO. "fa the 6a of both of the foregoh g companies' (he quantity of produSts sold ip 1921 was only a Utile less than the bhalitlty sold In 1920. "The p tclccr has undoubtedly done everything within his power to asai t agriculture hi tldlni over one of tho most critical periods In its history. The farmer has done much of his liquidation li-quidation tlirouph tho packer, and U packer has succeeded in getting this huge volume of production, surplt s mi, otherwise, over to the consumrr, though at a great loss. This was a st t-pendoUS t-pendoUS achievement. In view of tl 1 universal industrial depression existing. exist-ing. "Tho way is now e'eared for norm d on rations OU 'be new levels. Tho packer rrcogr'z's his ik pr-mlf n upon the producer as the source of h s raw material ami is air ious to aid n every PI Ibl ii to improve his ec nomic position. "Much can be. done by increasing the consumption of meat. Meat Is ot of the most Important element of ll diet, the most nutritious as well ; 1 the most healthful. But due to marv causes which might he corrected by iu-telligent iu-telligent co-operatiton, tlie consnmp-tion consnmp-tion of meat in this country has d elined more than 27 pounds per capi R during the past 2ft years. This means an annual lo?s oin potential consumption consump-tion based upon present population of nearly 3.O00, 000,000 pounds, equiv.i lent lo approximately -1 ,000.000 bead of cattle if translated into terms of beef, or more than 10,000,000 bogs If converted into pork products. CONSUMPTION WOULD HELP. "If the American people would only add to their diet one-half a pound of meat or its products once a week it would nn a long way toward restoring the parity between livestcok values and other basic commodities. It would add to the purchasing power of the farmer and lead to a general revival of industry. This additional demand would only bring consumption bach normal of 20 years ago. but think p the added stimulus it would give ! me liver.'cok markets if the deman enuld b thn.'t created for 4.000.000 ad ditioinil eltlc or 10.o00.000 l.ogo. |