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About Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912 | View Entire Issue (May 10, 1912)
THE MAKERS OF THE LIVE STOCK MARKET At South Omaha is located Nebraska's greatest commercial insti tution, its live stock market. Though organized hut twenty-eight years ago, the Union Stock Yards Company has cared for more than 100,000,000 head of cattle, horses, hogs and sheep, which if loaded into cars and placed in one solid train would reach more than half way around the world or a distance equal to that from South Omaha to Yokohama, Japan, and back, and would require one-fourth the railroad mileage of the United States to furnish trackage for it. In the course of the year nearly fifty thousand farmers and shippers of the state of Nebraska are represented on the market through live stock they raised or fed. Though the South Omaha live stock market exercises a power ful influence toward the development of the state through the de mand which has been built up there for all classes of live stock, there are thousands of people who have a very vague idea of what constitutes the live stock market, some of them being among the farmers themselves. The impression that the live stock market is a great corporation or company arbitrarily controlling the market ing and slaughtering of cattle, hogs and sheep, is erroneous. The live stock market is made up of many different interests, but may be divided into three distinct factors, as follows: (1) The Stock Yards Company. This corporation provides the facilities and service for the accommodation of the live stock from the time the railroad delivers the shipment at the market until it passes into the possession of the packer, speculator or feeder buyer. At South Omaha the tock Yards Company owns the term inal facilities ; the chutes into which the stock is unloaded from the cars; the pens, sheds, barns and scales. It unloads and yards the stock into pens accessible to commission merchants to whom it may be consigned; it furnishes the feed for the stock and supplies the water and performs the service of feeding and operates the scales. All this service requires an army of employees, numbering from 500 to 700 men. The Yard Company does not speculate in live stock; it does not buy or sell any cattle, hogs, sheep or horses except for its own exclusive use in the performance of the service required in the regular transaction of business, and has no interest in the ship ments of stock received or forwarded at the yards further than to afford the best of service and accommodations so that the owner of the stock may be pleased and want to come again to the market and in this way build up a greater business. The revenue which contributes to the support of prosperity of the company is derived solely from charges which are made for the facilities and service pro vided for its patrons. In this connection it might be remarked that there are many items of expense which ordinarily would not be thought of by those not directly concerned. The cleaning of pens alone amounts in the course of a year to more than $50,000; water supply approximately $50,000; repairs $100,000; while 15,000 tons of coal are required to keep the machinery moving. In addition to above at South Omaha there has been expended annually for several years $250,000 to $300,000 to make the yards what they are today the most modern in the United States. , (2) The Live Stock Commission Merchants. These gentlemen, like the farmer and feeder, are in the business to make a decent living and strive to lay away something for days of possible ad versity. At present there are fifty firms of commission men in busi ness at the South Omaha market. The shipper consigns his stock to one of these firms, which he may favor from previous business acquaintance or association or through recommendation of a neigh bor" or friend. On arrival at the market a representative of the commission firm is on the look-out for the shipment and gives it his attention, sees that the animals are properly yarded, fed and watered at the right time with a view to a good "fill" which insures good weight over the stock yards scales. These commission firms employ expert salesmen and yardmen in sufficient number to handle their business. If the firm is one which does a large business it has a special salesman for the "cow stuff"; it has a special hog sales man and one or two assistants and likewise in the sheep department. Though the firm gets a certain commission for each car of stock sold, whether sold high or low, it is naturally to the interest of the firm to please the shipper, and the manager, who is usually the most active member of the firm, likes to have his shipper go away "satis fied" and therefore strives to make the best sale his ingenuity can devise. He sees that the "boys" sort the stuff up properly and get it over the scales on good season. He is always after the "high dollar" for his client for that brings him more business anon. As a rule the business at the live stock market is done quickly. Railroads aim to have the stuff loaded and handled in such trains as will reach the market sometime before 8 a. m., though of course there are ex ceptions to this through failure to maintain schedules because of stormy weather, accidents, etc., yet after all 75 per cent of the stock reaches the yards and is unloaded by the Stock Yards Company before 8 a. m., taking the year through. The market by rule closes at 3 p. m. Anything not sold by that time must be held over until the following day, but generally everything has changed hands before noon. There is no time for signing - contracts or options; business is done altogether on honor. A nod of the head or the crack of the whip may signify the consummation of a sale. "Weigh 'em up" is as good as a bond, when spoken by a representa tive of .a packing concern or a known' member of the trading fra ternity, and usually has a good "listen" to the man standing near who fed them out, the owner. In the majority of cases the shipper or owner gets down to the yards about 9 or 10 a. m., goes out and looks over his cattle, or other stock, goes back to his commission firm's office, gets his account sales, takes a dinner ticket, goes in to the big restaurant in the Exchange Building and eats a hearty din ner, goes back to the office tells the salesman good bye and starts for home with his money, or a draft on his home bank. In no busi ness in the country can the countryman market his products with quicker returns than at the live stock market as conducted today. These fifty commission firms at South Omaha sold during last year more than one hundred millions of dollars worth of live stock with out the loss of a dollar to any shipper. Such a record can not be beaten. The commission men have been tireless in their efforts to advance the market and through their keen interest in the welfare of their patrons have builded for South Omaha a reputation for honesty and fair dealing which has become a valuable asset to the market. They are a wide-awake lot of progressive business men who transact their business with honesty and facility. (3) To the Backer, however, more than to anv one i dn t.h credit for the development of the market for live stock. "Were it not for the packer the stock yards would still be feeding stations and the stockman would be in the position of the vegetable gardener who is forced to limit his output to the requirements of his im mediate locality. In times when production is much greater than the demand the packer equalizes the market against the time when con ditions may be reversed. As Mr. Armour so truly stated in a re cent article in the Breeder's Gazette, the packer "has economized expense of conversion, availed himself, of the inventive genius of the age to secure cost reduction devices, saved and given commer cial value to by-product that was waste under old methods and has done his full share in revolutionizing the industry. He has sought and created new outlets for his product, thereby adding to the scope of usefulness (of all meat animals) and increasing pro ductive opportunity for the growers. He pays cash every day for the cattle, hogs and sheep, he buys and carries the bag until the product is marketed". 1 The live stock market is a busy place where a single week's" business transactions reach into the millions of dollars. At South Omaha, for instance, the packers purchases of live stock for 1911 amounted to nearly one hundred millions of dollars, which does not include the sales to country buyers of one and one-half millions of feeder sheep and lambs, more than any other market in the United States handled, and nearly half million of feeder cattle which went into nearly every county of the corn belt. These are big figures, even to those accustomed to big figures; it is these figures which make Omaha stand fifteenth in bank clearances among the cities of the United tSates and ahead of cities double Omaha's population. It is South Omaha's output of packing house products which entitles Nebraska to any prominence in the manufacturing world; it is her live stock market that advertises Nebraska s re-. sources around the world. ; FLOODS ARE AGAIN THREATENING BETTER SYSTEM OF TELEGRAPHY IS DEMANDED. Mississippi River Again Rising and Threaten Trouble Rioting In Zlon City Church May Lift Ban. Washington. After several hours of discussion Intended to discover the needed reforms In the use of wireless telegraphy at sea, the senate commit tee Investigating the Titanic disaster has entered on the final stage of Its inquiry. The officers and crew of the sunken ship are now free to return to their homes in England. At the same time J. Bruce Ismay, managing direc tor of the International Mercantile Marine, will be quizzed searchlngly as to his ideas of regulations to make a repetition of the disaster impossible. Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the wireless telegraph; F. M. Sammls, chief engineer of the American Mar coni company; Wireless Operators Bride and Cottam, Hugh Woolner of England, a passenger, and Fourth Of ficer Boxhall of the Titanic have vir tually ail agreed that better regula tion of wireless communications at sea is essential. month. It is also made incumbent upon the paroled convict to write his opinion for the board on the magazine articles, and particularly to set out his own individual impressions there of. Further, a religious record is kept and the prisoner must report his church attendance and must certify that he has not visited any saloon, gambling hall or place of ill-repute each month during the parole. Zion City, 111. Rioting which may result seriously started Monday after noon after employes of an independent manufacturing concern attacked a group of 200 Zion men and women at a prayer meeting. Both men and wo men were beaten with clubs and black jacks and a number were Beriously in jured. ' The fight came as the climax of a week of trouble between employes of the independent concerns' which re cently have begun operations here and the church people formerly followers of John Alexander Dowie. bishops from foreign fields, who are said to constitute the largest assembly of church notables of their denomina tion ever held, are here to attend the twenty-fifth quadriennial general con ference of the Methodist Episcopal church. The conference will continue for a month and during its sessions many Important policies pertaining to the world are to be determined! ' State Treasurer George collected $532,000 in cash during the first three months of this year, and collected $457,000 the first three months of last year. Another Levee Carried Away. New Orleans. Another " serious break has occurred in the Mississippi river at Torras, La., on the west side of the swollen stream. Within two hours after the break occurred 300 New Parole Regulation. . New. regulations for prisoners pa roled from the state penitentiary have been adopted by the state prison board. Under the new provisions con victs must report the number of days they have been employed during the month, the number of days lost, rea son therefor, amounts earned during the month and how spent and the total amount of money saved and where it is being placed. Paroled con victs must also make a report as to the number and character of maga zines they have read, as well as the daily newspapers they have been in terested in or have taken during the Topeka, Kan. It costs an average of $8.50 to get married and $35 to obtain a divorce in Kansas. This was an nounced by persons who have gath ered statistics relative to the divorce evil and marriage laws of the state. , Washington. Representative Clay ton of Alabama, chairman of the judi ciary committee, has introduced a house joint resolution to provide an amendment to the constitution fixing the term of office of the president of the United States at six years and making him ineligible for a second term. New Home for Fremont K. Pa. Fremont Triumph lodge, Knights of Pythias, at a recent meeting voted to purchase the Women's Christian Temperance union temple at the cor ner of Military and Park avenues, and will put the property in shape for lodge purposes. Minneapolis, Minn. Eight hundred and fifty delegates, including twenty one bishops from domestic and seven Certificate of Publication. State of Nebraska- Office of Auditor of Public Accounts. Lincoln. Feb. 1. 1912. It Is hereby certified that the Bankers LMe insurance Company or Lincoln, in the state of Nebraska, has complied with ine insurance law of this state, appll cable to such companies and ist there. fore authorized to continue the business of life insurance in this state for the current year endine January 31st. 1913 Summary of report filed for the year eiiumK Jjecemper disc, 1911: Income. Premiums $1,030,623.12 All other sources 212,030.16 Total $1,242,553.28 uisDursements. Paid policy hold ers t 192,720.51 All other pay ments 274,580.23 Total t 467.300.74 Admitted assets. $4,909,422.34 Net reserve . . . . 1 3,527, 541. 90 Net policy claims 13,000.00 All other liabili ties 1.268.880.44 t4.809.422.34 Capital stock paid up lUO.UUV.W Surplus b e yond capital stock and other lia bilities $ 100,000.00 Total $4,909,422.34 Witness my hand and the seal of the Insurance department, the day and year first above written. SILAS R. BARTON. Auditor of Public Accounts. C. B. PIERCE, (Seal.) -Deputy. . THE NEBRASKA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS feet of the eighteen-foot embankment had been carried away. No lives are reported lost. A large 'orce of work men and material were immediately ordered to the scene and an effort made to check the crevasse. Unless it can be closed, which appears doubt ful, inestimable damage will be added to the already heavy tolls in property destruction. A permanent crevasse at Torras means the inundation of vast sugar cane lands along the bank for a distance of perhaps sixty miles. Floods Again Threatening. St. Louis. Flood conditions at this point became alarming again Monday, when the gauge registered 29.5 feet, a rise of 1.4 feet during the day and 2.7 feet in twenty-four hours. The pres ent stage is within half a foot of the danger mark. ' Heavy ' rains '- have swelled the rivers in this vicinity and every creek in St. Louis county la re ported out of its banks. . Cairo, 111. Residents of the Cairo drainage district to the north of the city, who returned to their homes last week, believing the danger to be past, have been forced to again abandon them by the steadily advancing waters which now stand three feet deep in the district. The breaks in the rail road levees which protect the. district have not been repaired since the rev cent high water and the rising Ohio and Mississippi are pouring their waters through huge crevasses in the walls. - - ' Men expect to find $15 Suits at this Store They have been finding them here for seven years -and these same men and their friends and their neighbors, are still coming here for their popular priced suits-- WHY I $15 Suits are Our Hobby , We started .the Popular Price Suit business in Lincoln. We've followed it continually striving to give our cus tomers the best possible value for their money. Men expect to get more for their money here, than else where and that they have not been disappointed is proven by the enormous popularity of our celebrated GLOTHCRAFT W SUITS at $15.00 The originators of popular priced clothingin Lincoln We are so absolutely positive of the superiority of our $15 suits tha we are willing you should go and see the other fellows first, then come and make the comparison. HAY CLOTIICaAFT H'j STORE fill rail WE SAVE YOU MONEY Ccr. lOth & O Sts. Lincoln. He!:?.