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About The Alliance herald. (Alliance, Box Butte County, Neb.) 1902-1922 | View Entire Issue (June 15, 1916)
14 JTJN1, 1916 u e Valuable to Stockmen (Continued from page 10) with a poor reputation for busings honesty and uprightness, have no chance whatever to become members and handle consignments of live stock from country producers. Think for a moment what it means to have an institution that In in a position to prevent dishonest men from entering the commission busi ness. Hut the Exchange not only insists that the men admitted to member shit' shall be Rood men but it also al.ua to keep them good. Good men HO!U' tirae go wrong, but if they go wrong in the live stock commission business they are confronted by strin gent rules which provide for a prompt Investigation and if guilty jui equally prompt expulsion and forfei ture of membership. Leave out all other things that the Exchange has ever done and it still should have the eternal gratitude of every patron of the big live stock markets for its work in raising I In standard of the live stock commis sion business to the highest plane in the business world. Recently press reports contained an account of the arrest of two men who had been operating fake prod uce commission houses in various large cities. They had solicited am! received hundreds of consignments of butter, eggs, poultry, fruit, etc., from farmers which they had sold, keeping the money themselves and returning the country shipper littb' or nothing. When the situation be came too warm for comfort in one city they moved to another. Such transactions are of almost daily oc currence in the business world, and the perpetrators of these frauds fre quently operate for years, managing their business so skillfully that the law cannot touch them, while tin country is swindled out of untold thousands of dollars and educated into a belief that all business men are crooks. Hut such a thing in im possible in the live stock commission business, thanks to the Live Stock Exchange. Right here it might be well to cor rect an Impression that prevails to a large extent in the country, namely, a belief that live stock commission men are under bond, and that the country shipper Is protected by such bond against loss. Thin Is true of very few markets. Commission men arc under bond to the stock yards company for the payment of freight and stock yards charges, but as a rule nothing more. The big protec tion the country has Is that afforded by the Live Stock Exchange In insist ing upon a high standard of business integrity among commission men. No commission man can weigh up stock to any person in his employ or to anyone not a bona fide purchaser. Here again the Exchange shows its value in protecting the country against unfair and questionable transactions. In the days before Its organization it was a very common occurrence for swindlers calling themselves commission men to weigh tip stock to a partner at less than the market price, the two of them selling the stock later on and dividing the profits. Such firms could cut com missions to a dollar a cur and still make money. But the Live Stock Exchange put all such fake firms out of business. If anyone doubts the possibility of such transactions let him Investigate the comniiFsion business in other lines where there is no Exchange with power to prevent them. A Wy ondng etockman recently sent a con signment of a certain commodity, not live stock, to a distant city to be sold on commission. He was surprised at the promptness with which the consignment was sold on a low mar ket. Later when he visited the city he found his consignment still in the hands of the commission man, who had not sold It at all, but simply turned it over to his own account on a low spot in the market and was holding it for the advance. In pre venting such transactions on the live stock market the Exchange demon strates its value every day. Save Time and Money Again, it is one of the greatest conveniences of the business world. It saves time, and time is money. In the old days before It came into existence every man went to market with his stock and fretted and f noted and worried while the stock was bc Ing sold, and while he was waiting for his money that might be a day or two in coming, and that sometimes did not come at all. Thanks to the Live Stock Exchange the business Is now on such a high plane that ship pers no longer consider it necessary to accompany stock to market, know ing to an absolute certainty that whether present or nbsent their stock will be sold to the highest bidder and that every penny revived for It will be returned, less cl arges, on the very day the sale i made. Is not service of that kind worth more than the service rendered by the old cut price commission houses that did business before there was a Live Stock Exchange? Again, the Live Stock Exchange stands as a protector of the rights of the country shipper. Its rules guarantee the right of the owner of stock to sell his own stock or buy stock independent of any commission firm. As a matter of fact, very few shippers care to sell their own stock, because of the difficulties under which a stranger labors In not know ing him. On the other hand, a good many shippers avail themselves of the right to buy stock to take back to the country without the aid of a commission man. The Exchange stands as the pro tector of the producer in still another way. It is a court of appeals to which any shipper who feels that he has been treated In an unfair or dis honest manner by any commission firm can apply for relief and can be absolutely sure of a prompt and thorough hearing. If his complaint consists of charges of uncommercial or dishonest conduct against any commission firm, that firm will be placed under Investigation and if found guilty of wrongdoing will be punished according to the gravity of the offense, the punishment ranging from fines to expulsion from the Ex change ,and from the live stock com mission business. Lf the charges against the firm are in the nature of a dispute or misunderstanding the Exchange will arbitrate it. Again, the Exchange protects the producer by protecting his stock. The rules provide severe penalties for the rough or Inhuman handling of stock in the yards, thereby preventing damage and consequent loss. Still another point stockmen well remember when the country was over-run with professional solicitors, many of them without interest in the business aside from a monthly salary, and some of them with little or no actual experience on the market. Ev en the most careful and conscientious men under such conditions could hardly avoid misleading the country at times, even when their intentions were the best. Shippers were con stantly suffering disappointment on coming to market to find that condi- L. E. Roberts & Co. Live Stock Commission Merchants A Pair of Cattle Salesmen It. K. Roberts and Jim Burns. A Big pair that can Beat a royal flush and never deal from the Bottom. Their cards lay on the table, face up. You can search their sleeves for an honest show down. Without Bluster or Bunk, but with long years of experience they out play them just Bright, Business Barter. BE WISE AND SHIP TO THEM They can Boost your Bank Balance, let them sell your cattle for you and win. OUR PAST IS OUR GUARANTEE We do not Bum nights in way of entertainment, to Be called good fel lows, for fear we may sell cattle next day for Bum prices. Bumming is Bad Business and is not worth $12.00 per car to you. South Omaha, 229 Exchange Bldg., Union Stock Yards tlons were not what they had under- ' stood them to be. The Exchange, has met the difficulty by raising the standard for solicitors. It has made them responsible and amenable to discipline for uncommercial conduct by insisting that they shall be mem bers of a firm or regular salesmen. At some markets they also insist that solicitors shall spend at least half their time in the yards so as to be in formed on market conditions when they go out on the road. The Exchange Is not only a Stock Exchange, but a Live Stock Exchange with the emphasis on the Live. It is alive and wide awake every busi ness day of the year. Its offloers are live mea who keep pace with all the advances in the live stock world. Employe Men of High Ability The Exchanges at the different points employ for secretaries high salaried men of proven ability and experts in all live stock matters, es pecially experts in live stock trans portation rules and rates. Right here Is a point that must not be overlook ed. The Live Stock Exchanges at all the big markets never cease to work for better railroad transportation service and for better rates. To re late what has been accomplished along this one line alone would take far more time than Is at present available. But everyone knows that millions of dollars are being saved to 'the live stock producers of the coun try through the wiping out of dis criminations, through reduced rates, through the prevention of advances proposed by the railroads, and through better train service. Case after case has been taken before the Interstate Commerce commission and won in spite of bitter opposition on the part of the railroads. The value of the Live Stock Ex change has been, by no means, com pletely set forth, but time is limited and we must strike a balance. Her we have it: On the debtor side there is only one single entry it is charged against the Exchange that it main tains fixed commissions that can be neither raised nor lowered by any in dividual. Summary of What It Doe On the other side of the ledger we have a long string of credits. The Exchange is credited with: 1. Millions saved producers on the dockage of hogs. 2. Millions saved producers through better railroad rates and service. 3. Millions saved producers through enforcement of honest meth ods and prevention of fraud. It is also credited with: Preventing favoritism. Meeting the solicitor evil. Improving market conditions. Enforcing prompt payment for stock sold. Raising the standard of business integrity. Keeping the crooks out of the com mission business. Fixing the same commissions for all men, big or little. Giving every stockman the right to buy or sell his own stock. Acting as a court of appeals for every shipper who feels aggrieved. Enforcing the careful handling of stock, thus saving shippers' loss. Preventing questionable transac tions by punishing the transgressors. This by no means exhausts the long list of items on the credit side of the ledger, but it is enough the Exchange is proven by its own acts to be indispensable to live stock pro ducers and its value is limited only by the value of the live stock industry. E51 Changed His Mind. When my youngest son was about three years old he said he wanted to save his pennies to buy a little sister, and one day he came running in all excited and said: "Oh. mother, I saw something I would like much better than a sister. Please let me buy it." When I looked out of the window to i see what called his attention 1 saw I the little monkey of an organ grinder, i Cleveland Leader. fk m ' XJ m r regammjr me matter:- , ..... mmmmm.m9mwmmmnm Vj Because of the evervaultlng price of print paper many west- I III II UFljTlllTaf