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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1915)
TIIK OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: OCTOBEU 1015. Commission Men Servants of the Stock Raisers The live stock commission man la an Imrortnnt rart of the machinery that hardies t.ho enormous live stock busi ness of Couth Omaha from year to year. "Why can t I sell my stocit direct to the packers?" occasionally asks a nfw shipper who Ma not had much experience In the shipping of live atock. Tier la no reason why he cannot, if he wanta to take chances on getting raJ'ie out of hla atock. But where la the ehlpner from out In the state or In a neighboring state that knowa exactly what his load of cattle or hla drove of tioga ehould be worth on a given day? He may know what he would like to get for them. Put he doe not know what. In all probability, he will have to take for them on a given day on the market. If, Indeed, he dispose of thorn at ad. The commission man la the selling gent for these shippers. The commis sion man knowa the psychological mo ment to sell the stock. lie comes to hU office In the morning, leaps Into his boots, snatches up a half doaen telegrams from Chicago, Kansas City and other markets, learns how large a run of stock each of these mar- W. H. DtTDUCT, Mgr. A. IX. DtJDlXT. Men Dudley & Co. Live Stock Commission Merchants Rooms 235 and 237 New Exchange Building South Omaha. Nebraska Bell Pttone 183 So, Omaha). Both Phone- 902 Co. BTnfTB. Cstttle Yards So. 80.VI mht Phone So. Omah Bell go. 435. Kaiston & ronda (Incorporated) Live Stock Commission Merchants Union Stock Yards, South Omaha 8 One of the oldest, strongest and most reliable houses in the live stock business. I kcts has for the day. and hat the stock I Is quoted at there. I lie pops his eyes over the blackboard I In the lobby to ace how many rattle, hoK ami sheep there are In the Omaha I market for the day. j He makes a brief survey of the pro visions market, taking In the price of inrd and other provisions. He takea Into consideration th Immediate condition of the packing Industry. Its outlet fur Its products, the war condition and a. host of other world matters. Then and there he decides whether the packers are apt to be anxloua for hog and cattle today, or whether the market la apt to be draffgy. He knowa, too. whether at this particu lar season of the year packers are buy Ing light hoga for the hams and loins or whether at this season they are buying the fat pork for the purpose of packing lard. Then he looka over the doten or more loads of stock tl:at have bem consigned to him on this particular day. Hastily and silently in his mind he fixes a price for each load. He knowa his buyers. He knows whether the Cudahy buyer la look ing for thin hogs or fat hogs. He knows hether the Armour buyer la looking for lard or for half-grown pigs At thU sea son of the year. He knows how to ap proach him. Best of all, he knowa the payrhology of each buyer In the yards. Uki a good poker player, he knows when the buyer Is bluffing and when he la In dead earn est. When a buyer cornea to him at 11:15 O'clock and bids him 10 cents below what he thinks the market ought to be, and then rounds out his bid by "You can take that or keep your darn hoas," the com mission man muat exercise snap Judg ment. "Is he bluffing, or will he leave tne with these hogs on my handsT" asks the commission roan to himself. "It U nearly noon. The market Is about closed. It the buyers crawl back Into their shell, and I have this load of hogs on l.iy hands, my shipper will never forgive roe. He will look for another firm to handle hla bualneas next time." But he decides quickly. Mentally he runs over the whole situation nualn. He reviews the number of loads of slock In the yards. He decides like a flash that the buyer must have thin load In order to fill out the requisite number he la to buy for the day. "That fellow will pay me more for thla load, and I know it," he decides, and he turns hla back upon the buyer. Here is a double game of duff. It Is a good poker game. The buye- with true Napoleonio dignity, turns his back on the commission man. The commission man putt on an "I ahould worry" air, turns away from the buyer. Ah. but both are anxious. In a moment the buyer Is caught shooting a aly glance at the salesman. The salesman Is quick to notice it. He knows what it means. He knows the buyer is wonder ing whether he I about to yield. More than ever he is determined not to ylrll. It is 11:30 and the shipper Is pacing rent lessly In the yards, fearing the commis sion man will wait too long and will f'nl himself with the load on hla hands over night. Rilll the stubborn, wordless, psch'o battle goes on. The buyer strolls carelessly through he alley past the commission man and past this load of hogs. "I'll make It a quarter," he saya, ax he ew tehee past, never even slacking hla pace, "Split the difference -1th you and he done with It," snaps the commission man. "You're on," la tha final word from the buyer. The strain Is relieved. The gate la thrown open. The hogs are weighed, and in due time the check Is produced. The commission man has gained more than half hla point and the farmer, who an hour ago would have sold at a lower figure. Is dolOrhted with the extra tin or 1100 thla little psychic battle of bluff by the commission man has produced him. These are every dny battles of every commission man. These battls are going on in the cattle and sheep yarda as well as In the hog yards. The farmer raises his hogs, cattle and sheep, fattens them for months, brings them to the yarda, and then lights a fat rlsar while he watchea the commission man make a fight for the highest puaelhle price that can be obtained for the load Kor this service Uie commission man is paid a fee of from Is to fit a load, depending on the clasa of stock, the num ber of head, the number of ownera of a single load and other details of the rule. And the farmer, with very few excep tions, goes home feeling that the service was well worth the price. At present there are forty-nine com mission firms In the Exchange building In Houth Omaha, and all doing a prosper ous business. In round numbers these commission firms employ something like 1,000 persons as yard men, salesmen, of fice men and road men. Tha commission men are organised in what la known as the South Omaha Live Stock Exchange. There are certain rules of the exchange which earn commission man Is bound to obey. An exchange mem bership costs anywhere from U.0vu to S2.500. Strange as It might seem. Is Is never theless a faot, there la not a fixed price of admission. A membership means a prlvtlego to conduct a commission busi ness In the yards. When there Is great pressure from outsiders who seek to es tablish a commission bulsness, the mem bership market goes up. If 100 new pros pective firms should go to the exchange today and seek mebershlps to start busi ness, tho price of exchange membership would go up. 'Why notT Business would be good In the membership market. A few years ago memberships sold pretty regularly for tl.OOO. Later they leaped to Sl.MXl. and at times have been as high as 12.500. An Individual may sell his membership to another individual. Also he may cash In his membership on quilling business. It is worth market valuo for member ships at any time. For that very reason, memberships themselves have been an object of snee- ulstlon at times. There are men who j believe that the price of memberships v. Ill go up so fust in (he next few yenrs ' that they are willing now to pay a good premium on them to buy up a lot of them. Others, more conservative, be lieve that the price of them will strike g steadier level. The exchanse nmkes the rules of com mission rates. If the exchange says that commissions shall be 110 per ritrload on hogs, the roan who chai kcs either more or less is subject to a heavy fine In the exchange. The exchange prevents him from sell ing stock for less than that fee, because It would be thront-cuttlng competition, and it prevents him from charging more, because he would be overcharging the farmer and the shipper. The exchange at the present time has 146 members In the forty-tilne firms In the yards. Only members of the firm, talesmen and rond men are members. 1 The commission man has performed a definite function of far reaching re sults in building up the Houth Omaha market as one of the largest in the world. Why do farmers and dealers from ex actly twenty-elx states in the union ship stock to the South Omaha ysrdsT Why were there ,42,oi4 head of live stock ahlpped In and sold In those yards during last year? Why Is this the first feeder sheep mar ket In the world, the second fnt sheep market, and the first range horse mar ket in the world? It Is because the commission man has not sat with his feet on his office desk and waited for buslnnfia. It Is because the commission man has spent much of hla time In the great f lei 1 of these twenty-alx states soliciting busi ness and pointing out the advantages of selling on tho South Omnha market. It is because the commission firms hava their road men out all the time traveling tena of thousands of mlloa, by rail and by automobile, meeting the farmer irt his feed yard, the rancher on his range, and there telling him of the wonderful facilities of the Houth Omaha market. Figures do not lie. Here are the fig ures that show the amount of atock tho commission men sold for the farmers. I dealera and ranchers during the last year, to say nothing of the big run of stock they have had thus far thla season: Horses and Cattle. Hogs. Hhttcp. Mules. ... ie.nx 2.4'i 2xra 3,rr ... S7.607 844. 137 230. ij 8.4:"9 ... Tf..a stums a.ifi.u i:m ... Ui. W7 14.011 KH.ltSJ 1,7 ... Mi. 528 210.MU lM,4f,6 C!i ... f4.tM 2iw an.' K7.7S4 ... ,!70 201,514 m.f,M 16 ,.. 74, M0 r.,M Sfi..,ll2 l.a.M ,..13i.71P K.f: rG4,!lg 3.301 ....14.148 VH'iK &:tt.5 .H24 ... 7ii.2M 1!ifi.0i',fi 2U.r.2 2.KM ... 84.X34 2W.012 1.H.102 XXlh Mrnitha. January ... February .. Mi rob. April May June July August .... Kepiember Ortolmr ... November . UecemlHT . Total year ,.WS,817 2,2iis,& 8,113,3 30,fiM ARTiirn nciutT, rrewhtont. WM. Dt XN, P. I Fuller. Auctioneer. GEO, T. JOHES, HeTftry-Treasiirer. W. It. WALKER, Rale man. Capital Stock, $50,000 South Omaha .Horse & Mule Co. IJfCORPOKATKD 1011. 11 A. PROCTOR, General Manager Commission Salesmen HORSES and MULES AuctionEvcry Monday andTuesday Continuous Inspection on both English and French War Horses of All Classes and Highest Prices UNION STOCK YARDS SOUTH OMAHA, NEB. Long Distant Phone, 38S REFERENCE LIVE STOCK NA TtONAL BANK W. It LOCKE, P. M. CHA1TEL, A. Q. CHAIXIS, PIREKTrORS: W. O. 1IARTMAX, FRANK BXVDKR, ARTHUR PKRRY, CHRIS SCJH1NBTOCK. TTHtkb Hpnnie off . "OlcR Agio9 si mi el "Gold Top" Ooeip .' 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