I don't know how he could see to approve a situation of this kind. Now I have made many applications for tariffs, new tariffs. And I'm going to tell you: When we make that application my accountant, he makes a book of it. He don't make two sheets, he makes a book. Yes, it takes you a long time up in Washington to go look and see what you're going to do. But I have never yet got what I asked for. Usually they'll keep it up there 2 or 3 months, and they'll call you and say, “Well, if you'll cut off a dime off the cows, or a quarter off of the bulls, you can put it in effect next Monday." Now, put that in the record. I don't own the stockyard. I own part of it. But they elected me as president. And I try to do a pretty good job. What that stockyard's made we have plowed back into it. We haven't went south with it. Yes, we've got some stockholders, and they've got to have a little dividend. Yes. Two of them are widows. They're over 80 years old. And they're looking for that dividend check. And I try to do the best I can for them. Yes. Two of the other stockholders are heirs and adopted children of stockholders in the past that's passed the stock on down to them. They want a little dividend, too. Well, I'll tell you what I think that a lot of people has in mind, that if you're trying to save money for the stockyard, you're trying to save it for yourself. I'll tell you that since 1950 when I was elected as the president of the yard my salary has been less than $100 a month. And I think I do a pretty good job. Maybe I think I'm worth more than that. But I'm interested in plowing it back into the stockyard to make it a better stockyard and make a better market for the farmers and to give them better service. And that's what we have built our stockyard on. I don't believe that you should take the cattle business in the United States and leave it without controls. I think it's got to be controlled. And I think when you leave the thing wide open that some of them is going to have to make an application for a tariff and others don't have to, I'm wondering when one of them is going to sit down across the street from my stockyard and go into business. He won't have no trouble. If he can make a bond and he can buy that, he can make his own tariff every day, according to this bill. Yeah, every day he could set his own rate. But I couldn't do mine that way. It takes me 2 or 3 months to get a tariff. He could make it mighty hard on us for 2 or 3 months before we could adjust it. We have four commission companies. One of those companies sells less than 20,000 head a year. All right. He's a small one. Are you going to let him set a rate that's less than the rest of us? If you do, you're going to have them all carrying pistols. They ain't going to stand for it. No. He shouldn't be allowed. They should be the same. If you're going to control one stockyard in the State of Arkansas or in the United States, you've got to treat them all alike. And if you don't treat them all alike, it'll be a failure. I endorse fully what has been said by the man from Mississippi and the man from Misssouri. They're livestock men. They know what they're talking about. The man from Oklahoma City, he knows what he's talking about. He's been there a long time. I want to make it clear, I've got nothing to hide and if you've got any questions you want to ask me, just ask them. 22-929 O 784 Mr. HIGHTOWER. Thank you, Mr. Rodgers. We appreciate so much your testimony. Mr. Shaw, do you have anything you'd like to add? Mr. SHAW. Only that it would appear to me from what Mr. Rodgers has said, he wants everybody treated the same. He wants no discrimination. That's the purpose of the act in the first place. We have in this country certain statutes that were promulgated over a period of trial and error, including our antitrust, monopolistic, if you will, antidiscriminatory laws. Whether these are sufficient or not, I don't know. I haven't gone into it in detail. I do know they've been used very effectively before. I do know that there are loopholes in those laws. But in closing, I would like to say on my behalf and in Mr. Rodgers behalf, he appreciates, as do I, the opportunity to make these views known and to make these views a part of the record. Mr. HIGHTOWER. Thank you, Mr. Shaw. Mr. Thornton, do you have any questions? Mr. RODGERS. I may add to what I've already said, the small auction barn may think this is a big help to him. It's not. Because he's going to have competition. It may be in the horse lot, but that other fellow will be a small auction barn, and he will be able, under this law, to set his own rate, and he can set it every day if he wants to. Mr. HIGHTOWER. Mr. Thornton, do you have any questions? Mr. THORNTON. No. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just want to express my appreciation to Mr. Rodgers and Mr. Shaw for their good testimony. It's provided us with additional support for the idea that what's needed here is fairness and competition in order to avoid the necessity of treating as a monopoly businesses that are not truly monopolistic in today's world. I just want to thank you for that testimony. Mr. RODGERS. I may make this recommendation to the Commission. They say in this bill, in the instructions, that it takes a long time in Washington and a lot of help to approve a tariff. The reason for that is the stockyards don't know exactly what you want. Why doesn't the Department of Agriculture furnish a form for that? That would make it very simple for all of them. As I say, my auditor, he writes a book. And there ain't 2 pages in it, there's 40 pages. Mr. HIGHTOWER. Thank you very much, Mr. Rodgers. We do appreciate your testimony. I thank each of you for being here. I think it's been a very good hearing. We will adjourn the hearings at this time, and then the Livestock and Grains Subcommittee will have additional hearings on this bill and related measures at a time to be announced later in Washington. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure to be here with you. [Whereupon, at 2:30 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.] [The extraneous material submitted to the subcommittee follows:] MOUNTAIN HOME, ARK., January 17, 1978. Mr. RAY THORNTON, Washington, D.C. DEAR SIR: We are for the passage of H. R. 9482, a bill to limit the Packers and Livestock Administration from changing our tariff charges after many years of operation. I, along with my two sons, have operated the Mountain Home Livestock Auction, in Mountain Home, Arkansas since 1951. Our tariff charges are the same today, as they were when I started, our livestock are bringing about the same amount of money, making our income the same today as it was twentyseven years ago, even though our expenses, labor, electric bills, trucks and all supplies are many times higher. If this bill is not passed and our tariff is changed to the same as the large terminal markets, it will take about 3 of our income and many of the smaller markets will have to close, since the larger markets sell many times the animals we sell, they can operate much cheaper. This will hurt every livestock raiser, causing them to haul their animals a greater distance, with higher transportation costs and greater weight loss to their animals. If half of our smaller markets are forced to close, it will also take much of the competition out of our marketing system, this too will hurt the producers. Our livestock producers are well pleased with our livestock markets today. They would like for them to be left alone. Yours respectfully, T.E. DAFFRon. JOE DAFFRON. STOCKYARD RATE REGULATION TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 1978 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON LIVESTOCK AND GRAINS OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 1302, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. W. R. Poage (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Harkin, Hightower, Skelton, Jones of Tennessee, Sebelius, Thone, Hagedorn, and Coleman. Staff present: William A. Imhof, associate counsel; Christine Abram, clerk; E. Lee Musil and John C. Baize. Mr. POAGE. The subcommittee will come to order, please. The Subcommittee on Livestock and Grains meets this morning to discuss the bill, H.R. 9482, by Mr. Thornton and related bills relating to ratemaking practices imposed on country auction barns. The Chair is going to get this started, but I am going to have to go to a meeting of the full committee. Mr. Thornton is here, and we would like to have him make a statement, and then possibly we will turn it over to someone else. Mr. Thornton, we are pleased to have you. STATEMENT OF HON. RAY THORNTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARKANSAS Mr. THORNTON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. First, may I express my appreciation to you, sir, for scheduling this hearing today and also for scheduling the field hearing which was held in Forth Smith, Ark., at which we had a large number of witnesses appearing and testifying with regard to this proposed legislation. Briefly, Mr. Chairman, this legislation was designed to overcome a problem which developed when the circumstances surrounding the marketing of livestock changed from the time of the 1921 act. At that time, there were only a few giant sale barns located in places very distant from the producers. Because of the distances involved, it was often impossible for producers to travel with their livestock to the sale barns, and the only people present were the barn owners and the purchasers. Accordingly, the Congress recognized there was a need to make sure that monopolistic practices did not deprive the producer of a fair market price for his livestock. The Congress adopted legislation which (49) |