WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1911. UNITED STATES SENATE, The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m. Present: Senators Penrose (chairman), Cullom, Lodge, McCumber, Smoot, Gallinger, Clark, Heyburn, La Follette, Bailey, Simmons, Williams, Kern, and Johnson of Maine. The committee proceeded to the consideration of the bill H. R. 4413, an act to place on the free list agricultural implements, cotton bagging, cotton ties, leather, boots and shoes, etc., and for other pur poses. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. The representatives of the Texas Cattle Association will be heard. STATEMENT OF E. C. LASATER, OF FALFURRIAS, TEX. The CHAIRMAN. Where do you reside? The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed. Mr. LASATER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have been in attendance upon your hearings for some days, and I desire to express my appreciation of the patience and consideration that you have shown to those offering testimony on these subjects. I appear here as one of the representatives of the Texas Cattle Raisers Association, in opposition to both these measures. What is said in opposition to one will be found applicable to both. I desire to submit to your committee the proposition that our country can not afford to turn over the production of its meat supply to any foreign country, for at least two good and sufficient reasons: 1. It is essential for the maintenance of the fertility of our farms that the numbers of live stock now carried upon them be increased, and the continued well-being of our Nation demands that our present fertility not only be maintained but that we restore our farms to their virgin productiveness. 2. A good class of live stock upon our farms has a tendency to make farm life more interesting and attractive to the young of both sexes, and to that extent will assist in stopping the movement of our people from the farm to urban pursuits. This is an achievement to be desired and is in the interest of every consumer of this country, be he manufacturer, middleman, or professional man. Addressing myself to the consideration of the first of these propositions, I desire to submit for your consideration a statement showing the cost of producing a 4-year-old steer in south and west Texas, and delivering the same upon the Fort Worth market. This steer would weigh about 1,200 pounds. The cost is as follows: Cost of producing a yearling steer in south and west Texas. Cost of producing yearling on basis of 100 per cent yearling crop. 13. 38 Loss on carrying 30 per cent of nonproductive cows... 4. 01 Total cost of yearling crop figured on basis of 70 per cent yearlings 17.39 Loss on one-half of heifer calves marketed as veals.. Average cost of yearling steer. 3.66 21.05 Cost of carrying a yearling steer to a 4-year-old steer and placing same upon Fort Worth market. Cost of carrying steer, per head, for three years at $11.38 per year.. Original cost of yearling steer_.. Total cost at ranch___. Freight and market charges per head_ Total cost on Fort Worth market-- 34. 14 13.00 1.80 21.05 69.99 4. 00 73.99 Now, it is a self-evident proposition that the cattle raisers of the country can not continue to produce beef at a loss for any great length of time. Data that have been submitted to this committee by Judge Cowan, attorney for the Texas Cattle Raisers' Association, in my opinion, conclusively show that if the two bills above mentioned, now before this Congress, become law the prices on cattle in this country would necessarily be reduced to a somewhat lower level than at present obtain. This will make permanent a lesser earning capacity to the farms of our country, consequent upon the elimination of a large per cent of the live stock now carried upon them and a corresponding reduction in fertility. In the production of live stock in our country we would have stagnation instead of expansion and enthusiasm. As a necessary consequence, we would have a deterioration in the quality of live stock produced. The conditions above recited would necessarily take from the attractiveness of farm life and continue the movement of the past three decades of our people from farm to urban pursuits, which, if persisted in, must lead to our deterioration as a people, caused by a lower standard of living, and the consequent elimination of our country as one of the world powers. To the widow and orphan it makes no difference whether the death of the husband and father was caused by a friend who did not know that the gun was loaded or whether the husband and father was murdered by the highwayman-the provider is dead. The press reports President Taft as saying, in part, to a bunch of Grangers, who are reported as coming out of the White House with tears coursing down their cheeks * * that if the country tries the Canadian reciprocity pact and finds it does not work the law can be repealed by a subsequent Congress. The country producer is now asking why our Representatives should be requested to make mistakes for the privilege of correcting them, and we are here protesting against the passage of these bills until you know that the gun is not loaded. Now, I would like to submit here some account sales made from my ranch on the Fort Worth market since December of last year and I would like to make this explanation in regard to them. The best market for our section, or, in fact, for any section of our country, is during the months of April, May, and June. As our vegetation is the earliest of any section in the United States, those are the markets that we naturally try to market our cattle on, but owing to unfavorable weather conditions I was forced to run part of my cattle in December, and am running them up until now. Also while, as is shown by that statement, the average cost for cottonseed cake, feeding cake on the range, as we term the manner of finishing, is $13; that is based on about a 10-year average. My cost this year has been about $21, owing to unfavorable conditions. Now, the average of these account sales will show about $5.35 on the market and about $11.40 pound weight on the steers. That will show a loss on about half of my steer crop, which has been marketed up to date, of $21.54 per head. Now, the market, as has been shown here, is about $1.50 to $2 per 100 lower than it was at the same time last year, and as I have admitted, conditions have been most unfavorable in our section the past season. Also, as a usual thing, our country is able to market its cattle on what we term the spring markets, which are the high markets; but on account of the unfavorable weather situation with us, conditions forced me to market somewhat earlier and before my stuff was fully ripened, and I was at a greater cost for concentrated foods than for an average season. But the statement that I submit there shows what may overtake us under unfavorable conditions. Estimate above given bases the return on the investment at rate of 8 per cent— that is the rate that is charged in our country for money-and I believe it would be unwise if the banking institutions of a country, or the money lender, can get more for their money than a man engaged in productive pursuits can get out of the business. Unless the producer is going to get at least banking rates, there is no incentive for him to undertake to produce. He had better become a money lender. In regard to the cost of production, I would like to submit a letter from Mr. F. S. Hastings, manager of Swenson Bros. The CHAIRMAN. What are you reading from? Mr. LASATER. It is headed "Investigation relative to wages and prices of commodities. Hearings held before the select committee of the Senate relative to wages and prices of commodities. Vol. 1." This hearing, as I understand, took place in March, 1910— last year. Now, I would like to submit this letter for the record, but I will only read a part of it to you gentlemen now. I will not take up your time by reading it all now. The letter is as follows, and was submitted to the committee by S. H. Cowan, attorney for our association: Mr. E. B. SPILLER, Secretary, Fort Worth Tex. STAMFORD, JONES COUNTY, TEX., DEAR SIR: I have your favor of March 23, and am sending carbon copy of this reply to Judge S. H. Cowan, Willard Hotel, Washington, D. C. My reply will cover the S. M. S. ranches only, as the Spur property has passed out of our hands, as far as its cattle interests are concerned. Answer to question No. 1: We have about 275,000 acres, and about 20,000 head of cattle, not comprehending the calf crop of 1910. Of this number about 13,000 head are cows, the balance grading down from two's to coming yearlings. Answer to question No. 2: We figure our ranch properties on a valuation of $5 for cattle purposes. They are, however, largely agricultural and would, if converted into farm lands, average at least $10 per acre. Most of them are, however, too remote from a railroad to contemplate for the present putting on the market for farm purposes. Answer to question No. 3: Cows, I should say, are worth, conservatively, $27 per head; 2-year-old heifers, $21; yearling heifers, $17; 2-year-old steers, $28; yearling steers, $20. Answer to question No. 4: The prices given above are probably $5 per head higher on cows, $4 per head higher on 2-year-old steers, $2 per head higher on yearling steers, and about $3 per head higher on the other stuff than three or four years ago. Answer to question No. 5: We estimate that our supplies are costing us about 20 per cent more than they have in the past. This, however, does not comprehend bacon, of which we really use very little except in the summer months. Answer to question No. 6: There has been very little change in the value of horses during the last two or three years. We call our cow ponies, conservatively, worth $50 per head, and it would cost us an average of $65 per head to go out and pick them up. Sixty Answer to question No. 7: We suppose that this refers to grass lands. five dollars per section has been the regular rental, and on small bodies this could be very materially increased this spring. In a general way 12 cents for large bodies may be called a fair figure. Question No. 8 we could not answer, as we have had no experience. Answer to question No. 9: The last fat cattle we had off of grass were heifer calves, marketed in Kansas City December 22. They weighed 303, sold for $5.50, and netted $14.80 per head, or a strong $3 per head higher than at a corresponding time the year before. We marketed last fall some 10,000 head of cattle, fat off of grass, averaging probably $2 per head increase over the preceding year. Answer to question No. 10: The short crop in cotton and forage stuffs increased both the price of roughness and concentrates very materially. The increase in roughness was probably 100 per cent, and in concentrates 25 to 40 per cent. I should say, on the average, that the cost of fattening an animal in Texas this year was at least 50 per cent higher than the preceding year. Answer to question No. 11: There are practically no losses with us from last year's drought, except that a good many of the earliest calves died; we should say perhaps 5 per cent. The balance of the year, however, was very favorable, and cattle have never wintered better than during the past winter. It must be remembered, however, that our ranches are ideally watered and are never overstocked. Answer to question No. 12: We produced about 65 per cent of calves last year, as against an ordinary 75 per cent. Answer to question No. 13: There has been practically no increase in wages. We maintain our men, however, and the increased cost of living therefore does not affect them, except as to wearing apparel, and they do not use enough of that to make any material difference. In a general way, however, it probably costs us 10 per cent as against former years. Answer to question No. 14: Practically everyone in the cattle business is only in it because their lands are too rough for agricultural purposes, or railroad development has not yet approached them near enough to warrant putting their lands on the market for farming purposes. No large ranch in the State of Texas has during the past 10 years paid more than 3 per cent interest on an average valuation of $3 land and cows at $20 per head. The increased values of the past year may possibly increase the investment to a basis of 6 per cent. Of course, this must be considered as covering a period of years, but except so far as a ranch owner may feel that a few years more will put a material increase in value on his property, there is no incentive to stay in the cattle business. Good agricultural lands anywhere within 10 to 15 miles of a railroad are worth to-day, on the average, $15 per acre-that is, for all smooth land. The general land terms are one-fifth down and the balance in six annual payments at 8 per cent. To illustrate the point, please take $3 in cash, the one-fifth advance money, and call it worth 6 per cent, or 18 cents per year; then take the $12, which bears 8 per cent interest, or 96 cents per year, and you have a total of $1.14 per acre income from land which at its best rental would give you 12 cents per acre, or we will say on a basis of $5 would pay you 6 per cent, or 30 cents, in the cattle business. This illustration will also answer question 15 in part-that is, explaining why there is a decrease in the cattle production. I may further illustrate this in our own problem of the Spur Ranch, where we have 438,000 acres. We have gone out of the cattle business entirely, concentrating our whole effort to the sale of that tract in small farms, rarely one larger than 160 acres. We have leased the lands for pasture purposes, but subject to encroachment as needed, for the sale of farm lands, and figure that in five years there will be practically no pasturage left. Answer to question No. 15: I estimate that there is not to exceed 60 per cent of the steer stuff of three years ago. The great runs of cattle to market have simply represented an overcharged river; that is, a great volume which does not indicate the supply. In our own business last year we marketed 15,000 head of the stuff, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have had 70 per cent calf drop. A great many large pasture men, with settlers in the pastures, have been practically forced out of business. The free ranges in New Mexico have been rendered unsafe on account of water rights being taken up by settlers. Under my own observation, four great herds have gone out of existence within the last two years. The evolution of the business means that eventually the rough tracts will be devoted to grazing, and, in the main, it will be with people who will raise a good deal of forage stuff, sufficient to take care of cattle during the winter months. The business will be reduced to small holdings, which can be carefully looked after, and one section will be made to carry several hundred cattle instead of its present limit of 60 head. This does not mean, however, such a great area, because the bulk of this country is smooth land; that is, at least 60 per cent of it is available for farming, and the class of farming which, while it will probably lead to an eventual large hog industry, will produce very few cattle. The average 160-acre farmer retains 40 acres for a pasture, and by the time he has cared for two work teams, a couple of saddle horses, and three or four milk cows he has reached the limit of his pasture. |