Dr. MOHLER. The National Live Stock and Meat Board is constantly assisting in extending to producers, consumers, and the trade the findings in production, processing, and cooking procedure. Meat cutting demonstrations, advertising campaigns, distributing recipe books, exhibits, radio programs, are some of the means by which they aid in disseminating information about the value of meat in the diet. It has been especially useful in reaching the meat retailers which form, of course, an important link between better production methods and more satisfactory selection and cooking of meat by consumers. It has sponsored the cause of cooperative meat research in the United States in many ways. What the Board asks is that the producers agree to pay one half the cost through that commission charge you mention to be collected by the commission firms and turned over to the Meat Board, and that the packers to pay the other half. At the beginning the stockmen paid 10 cents per car and the packers paid 10 cents. It was then increased to 15 cents a car each and now each pays 25 cents a car. If the stockman objects, then, so far as he is concerned, it cannot be collected any longer. Mr. THURSTON. Why should the burden be placed on him to make the objection in order to get it back? Dr. MOHLER. Because it originated with the stockmen themselves as represented by their organizations and they are sharing indirectly in the benefits of this national program of meat promotion. Mr. THURSTON. If you would send out a questionnaire to the men shipping livestock, in my judgment, you would find that 9 out of 10 do not want to pay that charge. Dr. MOHLER. That may be. Mr. THURSTON. Do you fix or supervise the prices charged for grain at these central markets? Dr. MOHLER. Yes, sir; but that can be done legally only after a hearing has shown the facts. Mr. THURSTON. I personally know of many cases where livestock shippers have been obliged to pay from 200 to 400 percent above the corn and grain prices charged in the same city, and I wonder if you could set out a table showing the average price charged for corn per bushel and hay per ton, at Chicago, Omaha, and some other central markets in the Upper Mississippi Valley, and also showing what is the average charge for grain and hay in those markets. I would want a table opposite that showing the selling price of those commodities on the same dates in the same places. In other words, I want a statement showing what the farmer is selling those commodities for at the same time on the open market in Chicago and other central markets, and what the stockyards are charging for those commodities on the same dates. I would like to have that for 3 or 4 places covering the last 4 or 5 years. Dr. MOHLER. Yes, sir; I will do that. You will find something along that line in last year's hearings. Last summer the price of corn was down as low as 50 cents per bushel in some of the stockyards. We did that by simply indicating that their prices were too high. We have no legal authority to fix the prices until we have held hearings; we cannot do it without hearings through any legal method. Since corn began to go up, they immediately went back to 90 cents, $1, and $1.10 per bushel. Of course, the farmer knows what corn is worth on the farm, and he also knows what a large increase he pays for it at the yards. (The information referred to above is as follows:) MEAT INSPECTION Mr. SANDLIN. We have an item for meat inspection: For additional expenses in carrying out the provisions of the Meat Inspection Act of June 30, 1906 (U.S.C., title 21, sec. 95), as amended by the act of March 4. 1907 (U.S.C., title 21, secs. 71-94), and as extended to equine meat by the act of July 24, 1919 (U.S.C., title 21, sec. 96), including the purchase of tags, labels, stamps, and certificates printed in course of manufacture, $1,828,823. Dr. MOHLER. The following statement is submitted: Appropriation: 1932. 1933. 1934 Estimated obligations, 1934_ Budget estimate, 1935-- Increase, Budget 1935, compared with estimated obligations, 1934__ The reduction of $245,767 in the 1935 estimate of $4,828,823 below the appropriation of $5,074,590 for 1934 consists of: The purpose of the meat-inspection service is to detect, eliminate, and dispose of carcasses and meat-food products found to be diseased, unwholesome, or otherwise unfit for human food; to see that meat and meat-food products for human consumption are prepared in a cleanly manner; to guard against the use of harmful dyes, chemicals, and other deleterious substances; to prevent the use of false or misleading names or statements on labels; and to supervise the interstate transportation, exportation, and importation of meat and meatfood products. GENERAL STATEMENT OF MEAT-INSPECTION SERVICE Dr. MOHLER. The results obtained in the meat-inspection service during the fiscal year 1933 included a proficient examination as to the health of over seventy-five and one quarter million animals and expert inspection extending throughout all phases of converting these animals into meat and product at a cost of 7 cents for each animal slaughtered. The personnel consisted of 2,436 inspectors and experts in sanitation and in the handling and inspection of meats and the ingredients and equipment used in the preparation of meat and meat-food products. This service was conducted in 770 establishments engaged in interstate and foreign commerce in 262 cities and towns throughout the country, where more than 75,300,000 food animals were inspected alive and also at the time of slaughter. Through these inspections over 249,600 animals and carcasses, together with 857,993 parts of carcasses, were condemned on account 1 Includes $3,000,000 permanent annual appropriation. 2 Includes $2,550,000, the balance warranted to the Department by the Treasury, under instructions from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, of the $3,000,000 permanent annual appropriation. The reduction, 15 percent of the appropriation, was made under authority conferred upon the Director of the Bureau of the Budget by sec. 5 (c) of the Treasury-Post Office Appropriation Act for 1934, of Mar. 3, 1933, to reduce specific annual appropriations during the fiscal year 1934 by savings estimated to be effected by secs. 5 and 7 of said act. 3 A decrease in working funds of $1,464 will be met by a reduction in rent because of moving from rented quarters into a Federal building. of 50 diseases or other conditions and were removed from the food supply. Following the initial inspections of animals and their carcasses, reinspections were conducted throughout all of the various processes of preparing, curing, canning, and packing to insure sanitary conditions, equipment, and methods, and for the detection of products which had become unfit subsequent to previous inspection. Unfit meat and products were condemned and destroyed for food purposes and those passed for food were designated by officially approved marks and labels. The total reinspections were represented by more than 8,257,037,000 pounds of product, and upon these reinspections more than 5,147,600 pounds were condemned and destroyed on account of being tainted, sour, rancid, or otherwise unwholesome. The laboratory work constituted a very important factor in the protection of health and prevention of false labeling. This work at seven separate laboratories covered the examination and analyses of more than 40,600 samples of meat and products, water supplies, salts, spices, and other ingredients, for the detection and exclusion of unwholesome substance. Other important activities of the service include the supervision of the destruction of condemned animals and meat; the limitation of water and cereal in sausage to prevent adulteration; the cooking, refrigerating, or curing of pork to destroy trichinae which cannot be discerned by any practical method of inspection; the pasteurization of dairy products used in the preparation of oleomargarine to eliminate dangerous organisms; the approval of many thousands of master labels to insure that no false name or statement appears on any meat or container; and the supervision of meat transportation throughout the devious channels of commerce as contemplated by law. Special reinspections were made of 70,385,609 pounds of meat for the Navy and other Government organizations, 2,192,633 pounds of which were rejected. A total of over 774,319,000 pounds of meat and meat-food products was certified for export. Some 37,245,900 pounds of foreign meat were inspected and passed for entry into the United States and 110,583 pounds were condemned and destroyed or refused entry because there was insufficient evidence of wholesomeness. The service covered about 70 percent of the meat and meat-food products produced in this country at a cost of 1 cent for each 30 pounds of dressed meat and lard produced. ERADICATION OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH AND OTHER CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF ANIMALS Mr. SANDLIN. The next item is: In case of an emergency arising out of the existence of foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, contagious pleuropneumonia, or other contagious or infectious disease of animals, which, in the opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture, threatens the livestock industry of the country, he may expend, in the city of Washington or elsewhere, any unexpended balances of appropriations heretofore made for this purpose in the arrest and eradication of any such disease, including the payment of claims growing out of past and future purchases and destruction, in cooperation with the States, of animals affected by or exposed to, or of materials contaminated by or exposed to, any such disease, wherever found and irrespective of ownership, under like or substantially similar circumstances, when such owner has complied with all lawful quarantine regulations: Provided, That the payment for animals hereafter purchased may be |