MEAT-PACKER LEGISLATION HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON MEAT-PACKER LEGISLATION FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1920 0 ᏢᎪᎡᎢ 15 WASHINGTON MEAT-PACKER LEGISLATION. COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, The committee this day met, Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Mercer, are you ready to proceed? Mr. MERCER. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Please state whom you represent, Mr. Mercer. STATEMENT OF MR. J. H. MERCER, LIVE-STOCK COMMISSIONER AND SECRETARY OF THE KANSAS LIVE-STOCK ASSOCIATION, TOPEKA, KANS. Mr. MERCER. I am the live-stock commissioner of the State of Kansas and appear here as secretary of the Kansas Live-Stock Association, an organization of over 10,000 members of live stock farmers and producers. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, there is one thing that I should have liked to have some of my Chicago friends to have heard. In my opening statement I wish to qualify. Unfortunately I am not a college graduate, but I was born in the United States, spent 46 years of my life on a farm, breeding cattle and hogs and raising agricultural products and a family. I spent a good many years of my life on a small farm and did most of the work on the farm myself. Therefore, I trust that I will not be accused as being a follower of such characters as Lenin or Trotski or even such an American as the present mayor of Chicago. Should I make statements here which are at variance with the opinions of other men who have appeared before you and made statements, I will say that I am not much of a believer of men accusing other men of being unfair or unreasonable because they differ with me in opinion. I will take up very little of the committee's time, as I have appeared already before the Senaté committee, which is a matter of record, and given my views concerning what is termed "packer legislation." Well, there are several propositions that have been considered in this law, the packers, the stockyards, stock commission merchants, and the live stock traders. I am not a packer and know very little about his business. I feel this, that there has grown up in this country a great industry known as the packing industry. It has extended until it has reached to everywhere in the United States and |